Ardal O'Hanlon writes his second novel
- Ardal O'Hanlon has written Brouhaha, a black comedy crime mystery set in a small Irish border town
- Published in May, the satire comes 24 years after his first novel and is available to order now
- "I've tried to write the sort of book I love to read - pacy, thrilling, edgy, insightful, funny and humane" he said
Ardal O'Hanlon has written his second novel, almost a quarter of a century after his debut.
The Father Ted star's new book, Brouhaha, will be published on 26th May by HarperCollins Ireland.
Described as "a mystery, a black comedy and a satire on Ireland's tangled politics of memory", the publisher added that Brouhaha "is an edgy, funny and fierce novel set in a small town on the Irish border during the transition to peace. And peace doesn't come easy in these parts. Dove Connolly's sudden death spreads panic among the Tullyanna townspeople and raises all sorts of ugly questions, reviving rumours and inviting unwelcome attention upon them."
The book comes 24 years after O'Hanlon's first book, The Talk Of The Town, about a frustrated 18-year-old working, drinking and fighting in Dublin, was published by Sceptre and spent more than six months on the bestseller charts.
"I'm absolutely delighted that my second novel, Brouhaha, is being published by Harper Collins" the comedian told publishing trade website The Bookseller.
"It's a crime fiction, a satire, an existentialist story set in the border region during a febrile period in recent Irish history. (Just like every other period in Irish history, then!) Growing up there, I've always been captivated by the language, deadpan character and dark humour of the people and the place. In trying to capture that, I've tried to write the sort of book I love to read - pacy, thrilling, edgy, insightful, funny and humane - and I really hope people enjoy it."
Delivering his latest book has been a real labour of love, O'Hanlon has previously said.
He originally tried "about five years after I wrote the first novel and really failed quite badly", he told stand-up Jarlath Regan on his Irishman Abroad podcast in 2020.
"That really rocked my confidence for a couple of years. I just binned it. It didn't work, it was unsalvageable ... I was lucky with my first novel I poured everything I had into it and it was very well received, generally, and it sold very well. The was very gratifying, very flattering and justified the huge effort that you make.
"You get delusions, of course, after that. You think 'I've done it once before, I'll be able to it again'. And the reality was I couldn't do it ... I didn't have a particularly good story to tell, I stopped and started too often because I was busy with other stuff; the tone went in different directions and I just lost my grip on it. I couldn't keep it all in my head, eventually I just had to abandon it.
"It's a terrible thing to have to do because I spent a lot of time on it; time I could have spent on other stuff; capitalising on my acting career and my stand-up. So I haven't attempted to do that again until about four years ago, shortly before I got the job on Death In Paradise [when I put together] a draft of a novel."
HarperCollins Ireland's Conor Nagle, who bought UK and Commonwealth rights to Brouhaha from O'Hanlon's management, Dawn Sedgwick, said: "Brouhaha eludes easy definition. It's ostensibly a novel about the unsolved disappearance of a young woman in a close-knit border town, but that hardly does justice to the breadth and scale of Ardal's vision.
"For all the obvious joy he takes in mining the oddities, blind spots and petty hypocrisies of everyday human interaction for their comic value, this is a story set in motion and animated by big ideas - about community, compassion, truth, not to mention the ideological conflicts that have shaped Irish society for well over a century. It's a supremely accomplished novel and one we couldn't be more excited to share with the world."
It has yet to be revealed whether O'Hanlon is reprising his guest role as cousin Eammon in the upcoming final series of Channel 4's hit sitcom Derry Girls. But he will be appearing on the podcast Talking Ted, about the iconic Father Ted, hosted by former guest stars Joe Rooney (who played Father Damo) and Patrick McDonnell (Eoin McLove).
The behind-the-scenes companion podcast also features chats with the sitcom's co-creator Arthur Mathews and stand-ups Michael Redmond and Pat Shortt, who played the boring Father Stone and unhinged Tom respectively.
Brouhaha is now available to pre-order.