jslarkin

JS Larkin, is a freelance writer and political analyst with inside knowledge of Irish republicanism. His expertise in the field provides an alternative understanding and insight into, mainly, Belfast republicanism, is based on his own experiences. A helpful asset towards his writing,

Larkin, was born into poverty in the front room of a damp-infested home in Belfast. A house alive with cockroaches and fleas, and saw the walls inside held together by decades of wallpaper. The window of the bedroom he shared was always condensated, and saw icicles hang from the frames throughout the winters, a sheet of ice covering the windowpane.

Like many boys the streets that were his playground soon became a battleground, and has fond memories of games shared with his childhood friends, some lost early in life, many to jail, and he treasures the friendships, camaraderie, and memories.

Larkin, has at various points in his life, worked as a butcher, a ragstore worker, and created moulds for the De Lorean gullwing car. He also worked in Miscarriages of Justice as a P/A, in a role that afforded him; through his involvement, dealings, and correspondence with journalists, the media, and politicians; an insight to mechanisms that have proven useful additions to him. He is a freelance writer and independent author who believes strongly in the traditions and culture he was reared in by his parents.

Larkin remembers those times when the streets were still lit by old gas lamps. Every shadow was a ghost, and the wail from the yard wall; the banshee crying as she combed her hair, and buried his head in the pillows to hide and drown out her sad crying sounds. He thinks a lot of those places where he played as a boy, and a bay of memories swept by the sea of his childhood and teenage years, ebb and flow onto the shore of his mind for all time.

Sometimes, he thinks, just maybe it really was the banshee crying for what was to visit the North of Ireland; the bombs and bullets, the sadness and madness, the badness and the deaths. Something, neither he or his friends ever expected, after all they were just kids.

Like any writer, Larkin is keen for people to read what he writes, and knowing the journey he was to undertake would have many Tardisian moments, igniting many emotional triggers; he believed it would be worth it. Therefore, it is his own experiences and knowledge, things that he witnessed – like death, that have been drawn upon to write the Coming of Age tale – The Unpatriot Game.