Sel Whiteley : Writing

A Miracle of Music

A Miracle of Music

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


I I watchhim still, their Celt and comrade, standing on the stage, the light dulling like sunset, hisconcert in a tavern in the heart of Galway..
Holding Hands

Holding Hands

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


They start with the car. Some Red Hand crowd that brays for blood, clenches knuckles that crunch for lack of calcium and substance, they crawl do..
Heather and Bracken

Heather and Bracken

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


Too often this land has been ravaged by war. Five years ago, in heather jagged mountains, eight boys sat around a campfire, lit on a patch of oak..
'Something inside so Strong.'

\'Something inside so Strong.\'

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


Mothers drink amid the hazed laughter of coffee houses and tearooms as before. Yet never once forget lost sons, thousands and thousands tucked in..
Bare Knuckle Fighter

Bare Knuckle Fighter

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


- funny in a sense, my being drunk, his being drunker. I sat on his knotted carpet, listening to that recording of his song, ..at the turnstile.....
That High Class Couple

That High Class Couple

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


I squint my eyes against the morning as sun greens May grass. I try to imagine soldiers even in this suburb of clipped hedges and large houses, ..
Tuberculose

Tuberculose

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


This coat staves off more than just the cold night. He coughs all the bloodied phlegm from his lungs and life. He is alone, crying, despairing ..
You Don't

You Don't

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


Though you see your people teenagers slaughtered asterrorists numb to the scorch of lead in their flesh and despite the white flags and the Gene..
The Mauve Hills

The Mauve Hills

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


Six years old he stands the same height as the cello and still idealises his father their lead singer, who drunkenly reels between the instrument..
These Unreal Days

These Unreal Days

A Chapter by Sel Whiteley


Cultivated flowers of cultures far off and long gone have faces upturned to some yellow charge of sun. We eat at Belfast’s Botanic Gardens..