The yard - Wilson John Haire

A fictional portrait of life in Northern Ireland in six acts, taking place over twenty years, 'The Yard' is a work of originality and deep feeling. Far from the headline-inducing simplicities of two warring traditions, the world created here is populated by characters who struggle with life's universal difficulties of survival, of growing up, of employment and unemployment. Spanning the early 1930s to the 1950s, this strongly realist work of fiction trembles on the edge of fantasy, broaching the themes of love, hunger, work and war in an unusually haunting and compelling way.