Day: October 1, 2025

Here are the synopses of the items currently held in Write-on’s Bottom Drawer — our active store of submitted manuscripts. From this collection, the weekly programme is carefully selected.

The In-Laws by Mary Hodson

It’s the summer of 1975, and our young Irish narrator is head over heels for a London lad with a Triumph Herald, a navy suit, and a love for Neil Diamond. What starts as a dreamy date to Jesus Christ Superstar takes an unexpected turn when he casually swings by his parents’ flat — with her in tow. No warning. No heads-up. Just a girl in towering platformsandals, suddenly face to face with a startled London mother and a bemused, pipe-smoking father. Cue the Royal Albert china, the dainty biscuits, and the kind of tea that could strip paint. In this hilarious, tender flashback, we watch a mortified girl try to make a good impression, a mother try to make sense of it all, and a quietly grinning boy who knew exactly what he was doing. A story about first love, first impressions, and that unforgettable first time you meet the people who might one day become… the in-laws.

The Incident by Geraldine Warren

Hannah Mullen is doing her best to hold it together. With a family christening looming and her husband’s political campaign in full swing, she’s expected to smile, show up, and behave. But something inside her is unravelling. There’s a sound no one else seems to hear — a low, insistent buzzing that builds with every new message, every photo, every reminder of what she’s lost. And then, one scorching Saturday morning, it all comes to a head. Set against the charged backdrop of a city in motion, The Incident is a taut, unsettling story about the moment everything changes — and the price of keeping up appearances when the world expects you to be fine.

The Weight of Small Things by Kathleen Brennan

Grief doesn’t always come crashing in — sometimes it lingers in the ordinary. A boiling kettle. The way someone washes fruit. A silence before a laugh. In this gentle, precise meditation, absence is felt through ritual, memory, and the quiet rituals that survive a loss. A poem about what remains — and how, slowly, almost imperceptibly, something like peace begins to grow.

Dementia by Gráinne Keogh

Delicate and poignant, this short poem captures a fleeting moment of lucid memory in the midst of cognitive decline. As the scent of honeysuckle and the hush of evening stir a sudden recollection of childhood, the narrator slips briefly into joy before being gently guided back to the present. Gráinne Keogh’s debut contribution is tender, restrained, and quietly powerful.

Le Chéile / Together by Poilin Brennan

Blending Irish and English, myth and modernity, this lyrical poem invites us to gather in deep listening — to trees, to bees, to firelight stories, and to each other. Pauline Brennan evokes a sense of shared memory and collective strength, rooted in community and the natural world. With echoes of the shanachí and whispers from the land, Le Chéile is a celebration of what can be heard — and healed — when we pause together.

Meáchan na Rudaí Beaga by Poilin Brennan

Ní thagann an brón i dtólamh — uaireanta, fanann sé sna gnáthrudaí. Coire ag fiuchadh. Torthaí á ní. Ciúnas sula dtosaíonn gáire. Léiríonn an dán cumhachtach seo an chaoi a maireann caillteanas ionainn, gan focal, gan radharc – ach fós, go láidir. Taispeántas álainn ar conas a fhásann suaimhneas – mall, mar chaonach ar chloch – gan torann, gan deifir, ach le cineáltas ciúin.

Chapter 3: The Boy in the Bed by Frank Fahy

The middle room is cleared, the bed arrives, and the weight begins its pull. In this quiet but unflinching chapter, we witness the first days of Christopher’s confinement — the installation of the traction device, the reactions of each family member, and the early signs of how life must now adjust. Told with restraint and precision, the chapter explores control, sacrifice, and endurance — not only in the child’s body, but in the family itself, as routines, roles, and hopes are quietly rearranged around the quiet, steady tug of the rope.

A Man’s World by James Conway

This short, impressionistic poem mixes painterly abstraction with a punch of working-man defiance. James Conway imagines a canvas pulsing with raw, elemental colours — cerebral greys, bruised reds, and deepest blues — overlaid with tools, sweat, and noise. A meditation on masculinity and creation, the poem reclaims the phrase “It’s a man’s world” not as a boast, but as a textured surface for thought, work, and expression.

Glencoe by Helena Clare

When Cordelia Hamilton — Cory to her friends — leaves North Carolina for the Scottish Highlands, she’s not looking for answers. Not really. But as soon as she arrives, the past begins to stir. A rowan sprig confiscated at passport control. A stranger who greets her by name. A family house untouched since the day her great-uncle died. And then — something in the road that only she can see. Haunted by questions her grandmother never answered, Cory is drawn deeper into the hills of Glencoe, into a curse older than anyone will admit, and into a legacy she was never meant to ignore. A story of kinship, memory, and the strange pull of inherited fate — Glencoe is both tender and uncanny, rooted in landscape and shadowed by the past.

Genre	Title	Author
Short Story	The In-Laws	Mary Hodson
Short Story	The Incident	Geraldine Warren
Poem	The Weight of Small Things	Kathleen Phelan
Poem	A Man’s World	James Conway
Poem	Dementia	Gráinne Keogh
Poem	Le Chéile/Together	Póilín Brennan
Novel Extract	Chapter 3: The Boy in the Bed	Frank Fahy
Novel Extract	Glencoe	Helena Clare
Website	The Story of Write-on (Living History &  Reflections from our Members)	All Members