Break, Break, Break

Hugh Gorman is returning to Ireland after a fifteen-year absence. In his mind, he is going ‘home,’ which strikes him as strange, given that he has been living in Australia for two-thirds of his life. Yet, ‘going home for him is not just about reliving childhood experiences and the pleasures of youth. It is also mixed up with feelings of guilt and anger.

On arrival, he quickly realizes that his brother Rory is at death’s door, and he decides to stay to help Joan, their sister, nurse him through his final days. It allows him to make some amends for his past neglect and relieve his feelings of guilt. During these weeks, Hugh also meets an old flame whose spouse, like his, has died. The old passion is re-ignited, and he is faced with the possibility of repeating his past ‘shameful’ action when he absconded to Australia. However, a long-kept secret is revealed to him that changes everything.

It is a story about someone who has lived in ‘exile’ all his life and has come home to a multitude of ghosts, both living and dead, and his attempts to put them to rest.