Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deepest felt and heartiest gratitude to the following colourful and miscellaneous ‘characters’, living or dead, real and surreal, without whom this light-hearted little jig would not have been written. Your relentless and never-ending neuroses, foibles and musical and thespian deficiencies (and/or the opposite); your countless idiosyncratic nuances and leanings towards lunacy have quite literally been the inspiration behind every word. Please be assured however that no offence is or was ever intended. It’s all made up you see. So the harsh views that may from time to time be perpetrated upon you by some or other of the protagonists within these pages …well it’s a work of fiction OK? So not true!
A raised glass to you all so I say! You’re good sports so you are, to be sure, to be sure. But if you do find the time to read it (those of you that are still alive that is) and are insulted for whatever reason; well I’ve decided to ’cover’ myself. Just, you know, in case of libel and all that. To be ‘on the safe side’ as they say!
So yeah. You know who you are. God bless you all!
Johnny Rotten, Paul McCartney, Brother ‘Bubble’ Anthony, Shirley Bassey, Margaret Thatcher, Jesus Christ, Mary Magdelene, McGyver, Ferdinand Magellan, Steven Spielberg, Pythagoras, Lou Ferrigno, Don Juan, Sting, John Mills, Timothy Dalton, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Hermann Hesse, Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Debbie Harry, Soft Cell, China Crisis, Ian McCullough, Fiction Factory, Go West, John Merrick, David Mamet, A Flock of Seagulls, Philip Larkin, Medusa, Perseus, Kajagoogoo, Roald Dahl, William Shakespeare, Judie Tzuke, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Michael Collins, Eamon De Valera, Carl Lewis, The Spartans, Presbyterians, James Williamson, Enid Blyton, Mary Whitehouse, Barbara Cartland, James Joyce, David Butler, Kate Bush, DH Lawrence, Elvis Presley, Alexander Pope, The Thompson Twins, Bruce Springsteen, Victoria Principal, Richard Gere, God, St. Peter, Herge, Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Al Pacino, David Evans, Derek Rowen, John Wayne, Aztec Camera, The Human League, Howard Jones, Tony Hadley, Hugh O’Brien, Yazoo, Mick Duffy, Nick Lowe, David Bowie, Blondie, Talking Heads, David Byrne, Simple Minds, Alan Byrne, Kevin Rowland, Van Morrison, Peter Hook, David Gilmour, Joy Division, Paul Cummins, Blancmange, New Order, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Brian Dowling, John O’Neill, Robert Wadlow, Roxy Music, Peter Gabriel, Ricky McCabe, The Cure, Siousxie Sious, Madness, The Bee Gees, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Patrick O’Keeffe, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Robbie Ward, Altered Images, Sharon Griffin, Muck Savages, Ray Manzarek, The Who, Rory Gallagher, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Georges Bizet, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Bob Dylan, Adie McGennis, Carlos Santana, Caitriona Rice, David Livingstone, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Doisneau, Professor Moriarty, Kevin Quinn, Hues Corporation, ABBA, The entire workforce of the Irish Civil Service, Declan Mahon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Peter Carl Fabergé, Charles Dickens, Tom Waits, Eoin O’Byrne, Aslan, Big Country, Desmond Dekker, UB40, Darren Hughes, Richard Harris, Colm McGennis , Ben Kingsley, Richard Attenborough, Tomas McGiolla, Gerry Adams, Paul Moran, Patrick Kavanagh, Father Michael Cleary, Finbarr Coughlan, Christopher Hitchens, Bruce Grobbelaar, Matt Upton, Julianne O’Riordan, Pat Comerford, The Sex Pistols, Billy Connolly, Ann Mullen, Queen, Freddie Mercury, Michael Morrison, Stuart Adamson, Oscar Wilde, Martyn Mulhere, The Tuatha Dé Danann, Anthony Jordan, Vikings, The English, Oliver Cromwell, Dolores Keane, Paul Brady, Dublin bus drivers, Damocles, Dionysus, The Keystone Cops, Boney M, Mark Forman, Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Credence Clearwater Revival, Sheila Handelman, Bruce Springsteen, Otis Redding, Christy Moore, Steafan Hanvey, U2, Dave Fanning, RTE, Bertie Ahern, Zig and Zag, Shauna Quinn, Dustin the Turkey, Spinal Tap, Prince, Amelia Quinn O’Brien, Aphrodite, Sandro Botticelli, Hayzi Fantayzee, The Khwarazmians of Ancient Persia, Genghis Khan, Peter Frampton, Isaac Newton, Big Tom and the Mainliners, Frank Toner, Colin Farrell, Bamber Gascoigne, The Eagles, Salvador Dali, Mary Beth Dietrick, Bob Geldof, Stan Laurel, The Sultans of Ping, Dire Straits, Robert Forman, Paul Hewson, Eamon Dunphy, Noddy, Rita Hayworth, Julie Goodyear, The Coen brothers, Anton Chekhov, Jacqueline Quinn O’Brien, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Recruitment Consultants, Michael O’Leary, Dr Michael Smurfit, Percy Thrower, Ray Houghton, Annabel Grace Duffy, Tony Galvin, Kenny Sansom, Mick McCarthy, Kevin Moran, John Aldridge, Tony Adams, Peter Shilton, Humphrey Bogart, Nick Owen, Brian Clough, Oliver Nerney, Ian St. John, Stuart Bailie, Gary Lineker, Dave Lee, Bryan Robson, Peter Beardsley, Packie Bonner, Ronnie Whelan, Sean McDonagh, Karl Prenderville, Linford Christie, Philip Carney, Ted Lowe, Steve Davis, Niccolo Machiavelli, Sid Waddell, Douglas McArthur, Glenn Hoddle, Alex Higgins, Kevin Earley, Ken Doherty, Gerry Parkinson, The Smiths, T-Rex, Ruud Gullit, Kevin Dowling, ZZ Top, Focus, The Cure, Jethro Tull, Bernard Duffy, Allan Coyle, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple, The B52’s, Pink Floyd, Kansas, Boston, Echo and the Bunnymen, Rush, AC/DC, Japan, Thin Lizzy, Ram Jam, Dave and Barry from The Grove, Denis Mahony, Shergar, Barry O’Sullivan, The Provisional IRA, Roy Rogers, Trigger.
So the principal reason why I wrote ‘FreakShow’ relates simply enough to the passing of time. A case I suppose of ‘if you don’t do it now, you never will’. Why now though you might ask? At 46 and 45 when I began. Well it’s to do with bereavement if you must know. Sudden bereavement. Two close friends, less than a year apart. Robert and Sharon; gone too soon and missed daily.
So who to thank next? My wonderful mother, father, siblings, nieces and nephews for starters. And my beautiful and supportive wife. And my miracle of a daughter. And Yia Yia. Yia Yia BA no less. And my dear friends. All of you for your patience and kindliness. I hope you like it. Regardless of the seemingly endless barrage of expletives and profanities you’ll encounter at every turn. Be strong I say. Blot it out. They’re just noises after all generated by mere vocal chords. They could be anything. In Swahili they’re probably compliments.
And encouragers and detractors alike of course. Both inspire in equal measure.
Following on from that so and as a direct result of it even; my own personal vanity. Leading to (for you) quite insufferable vainglory and aloofness. I’ll probably erect an ivory tower to wallow in next whilst I deliberate moodily over that second ‘difficult’ novel.
Ahh well, ‘whatever’ as the kids say. To use the parlance of our times and all that (sic).
I wish to acknowledge once again my beautiful wife Amelia and wonderful daughter Annabel. Without their love and support I would never have been able to complete ’FreakShow’ and for that I am deeply appreciative. Now that my mid-life crisis has come to an end however, I promise you both that I will wholeheartedly immerse myself into the ‘rat race’ once more, with extraordinarily unrivalled vim and vigour.
Finally this book is dedicated to my brother Bernard who died in the year 2000. We miss him no less with every passing year.
John Duffy
September 2014