Retired journalist Michael O'Kane has launched his first ever book, 'Valentino McKelvie', at the age of 82.
RTE's Northern Editor Tommie Gorman was among the famous faces in attendance for the event at Mulligan's on Poolbeg Street.
The book is set in Michael's native Co Tyrone during the depression of the 1930s and leading up to and through World War 1.
At the centre of the story is a blind boy, Shemmy McKelvie, who grows into manhood with a prodigious talent to sexually fulfill love-starved women – married and single - in a secret love nest behind his green grocer’s shop.
His ‘Valentino’ exploits pulse through the pages, keeping pace with the capers among the landed gentry and a mill-owner who became increasingly dysfunctional following the arrival in the village of a nubile young English woman sent into exile by her parents because of her own previous sexual proclivity.
Thrown into the mix is a working class Catholic girl with the opportunity to become a heroine or villain and a handsome young Polish man sent to Ireland to avoid the holocaust that befell his native land at the hands of Hitler.
- Published by Drombeg Books ‘Valentino McKelvie’ is available to order at €14.99 direct from Amazon.co.uk.
