Hard Station: A story for Reading Rooms

Historical fiction set on Ireland's border between 1914 and 1922. 6000 words.

Hard Station was commissioned by 14-18 NOW and Reading Rooms to aid discussion of history and identity in Ireland along the border. Reading Rooms is a large organisation that runs hundreds of facilitated sessions per week in schools, community groups, housing estates, care homes, libraries and residential accommodation across Ireland and the UK. Hard Station has found many readers through the project and it has been used to facilitate discussions around the themes of the story.

As part of the story's purpose was to facilitate discussion I consciously structured it touch on major events of the period in question. The story is set between 1914 and 1922, looking at Ireland's independence movement, the First World War, women's suffrage, the Easter Rising and finally partition itself.

The story was also produced as a podcast as part of a project called The Art of Border Living, produced by Peter Curran's production company Foghorn. It was launched 14 November 2018 at Poetry Ireland, Dublin.

More about Reading Rooms: http://artscouncil-ni.org/news/reading-rooms

More about The Art of Border Living on the 14-18 NOW website: https://www.1418now.org.uk/commissions/art-border-living/