A Poxy Bleedin’ Beauty Is Born

I interviewed Eoin Colfer a couple of weeks ago, during the course of which he mentioned a bagatelle called YEATS IS DEAD!, a comic crime novel put together by Joseph O’Connor in 2001 on behalf of Amnesty International which featured 15 of Ireland’s literary lights. To wit: Roddy Doyle, Conor McPherson, Gene Kerrigan, Gina Moxley, Marian Keyes, Anthony Cronin, Owen O’Neill, Hugo Hamilton, Joseph O’Connor, Tom Humphries, Pauline McLynn, Charlie O’Neill, Donal O’Kelly, Gerard Stembridge and Frank McCourt.
  Please don’t ask me why Colin Bateman wasn’t involved. I know nothing, other than that the blurb elves were wittering thusly:

YEATS IS DEAD! is an elaborate mystery centred around the search for something more valuable and precious than anything else in Ireland–an unpublished manuscript by James Joyce. A madcap chase ensues, spiced with the shenanigans of a spectacular array of characters: a sadistic sergeant with the unlikely name of Andy Andrews; a urinal paddy salesman; and the unforgettable Mrs. Bloom, a woman “who had tried everything but drew the line at honesty.” Gratuitously violent and completely hilarious, YEATS IS DEAD! is an out-of-control tale of lust and literature that packs big laughs and an even bigger body count.

  YEATS IS DEAD! was e-published in 2010, with Amnesty International still benefiting, so if you fancy yourself some Irish comic crime fiction and helping a good cause in the process, you could do a lot worse than clickety-click here …