Safe Return Doubtful

Irish Literature – Published June 2026

A writer travels from his home in London to attend literary festival in his native Dublin, but he arrives to mayhem in the city. There is barely any traffic, no private vehicles, just trams and ‘clickers’, a sort of moving sidewalk, now provide the transport. There is unrest amongst residents who are planning protests against the government; they are exploited economically and treated with disdain.

The writer is Bartholomew Port, or Mew, the narrative largely in the first person, Mew addressing his partner, maybe husband, Mootie, back in London.

His plans to attend the festival get interrupted by the protests.

There are shades of Ridgway at his best here, particularly in two early scenes, a meeting with a friend in a tearoom, and his arrival at his hotel room with two young porters. I am a great fan of The Spectacular and Hawthorn & Child.

As a whole, the book will take me some time to appreciate fully. It is a bleak view of an insurrectionist Dublin set in the near future, a story of love and loss. Though he is only ever referred to, and does not actually appear, the role played by Mootie is a key one, is he alive or dead, does he even exist..

And the significance of the element of fantasy at the very start, as Mew walks through a London park and exits directly into Dublin, is more relevant having finished the book.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5