The soft accents of Clones, Co Monaghan could be heard in Dublin this week when the school-friends and neighbours of Patrick McCabe gathered in Waterstone's to hear him read.
Gerry McMahon, who taught the writer in primary school, queued with his wife, Teresa, to get a copy of McCabe's latest novel, Call Me The Breeze, signed.
As a 10-year-old in his class he recalled the writer's "steady eyes looking up at me". He was "fairly composed and confident," he said, and his talent at that stage was obvious.
"He wrote an essay every week and I kept them . . . to read to other classes," he said. "Some of the stuff for a 10-year-old boy at that stage was unbelievable".
Poet Ted McCarthy, who introduced himself with tongue in cheek as "one of the Clones mafia", and Paul McCabe (no relation), also of Clones, were there to applaud the author, whose most famous work, The Butcher Boy, was made into a film, directed by Neil Jordan in 1997. Teacher Pat Deery who is "a wee bit older but not wiser" than McCabe, and his sister, Elizabeth Deery also made the trip from Co Monaghan.
McCabe's wife, painter Margot Quinn, and their daughters, Ellen (17) and Katie (16) were there too.
Writers from the west who attended the reading included Sligo-based Morag Prunty, whose last book was Poison Arrows, and Helen Falconer, of Killala, whose book Sky High was published in June. Clones solicitor Paddy Goodwin was in a band called The Buck Eejits with McCabe. Their sound, said Goodwin, was "like the Pogues on acid".
At the conclusion of the reading, McCabe told the gathering, it is "about a man with dreams of entering paradise and to his horror finds himself there".
Next stop for McCabe is a London reading this week, followed by a tour of the US in December.