Patrick Brosnan

2021. I have been a member of Bray Lawn Bowling Club - in County Wicklow, Ireland – since the mid-teens and enjoy the game immensely. Originally there was only a short piece on the history page of the club's website – www.braybc.ie. This prompted me to volunteer to expand it to a more respectable size. Little did I know what I was getting myself into and, years later, ended up with an entire book on my hands!

2010. Oceanus Hibernicus is my first novel. The name is Latin, in case you don't know, for "Irish Sea", the body of water that separates Ireland from Britain. As an Irishman of "a certain age" and a refugee from the telecomms industry, I have turned to my interest in history and historical fiction. I wanted to write about a period that had been passed-over by other writers so I looked back through Irish history until I reached the Celtic pre-christian era, the age preceding the arrival of the great Welsh evangelist, St Patrick. Here I found a fascinating land of warring chiefdoms dominated by many gods and an intense druidic priesthood. Into this iron-age milieu I introduced a Roman veteran searching for his abducted wife and son – a cat among pigeons – and watched what strange events might unfold.