ISBN: 978-0983977568
Printed: Paperback, 198 pages, 6″ x 9″
Publisher: Copperhill Media
Copyright: © 2012 by Garrad Gawler

It all changed for Charles Cunningham, a Physics teacher at the local College of Technology in the County Derry town of Maddenstown, on a June afternoon in 1973 when a bomb exploded in his neighborhood. Up to that day, he had kept himself aloof from the troubles in Ulster, but his feelings would change within the next few hours after the blast. He was angry and sickened at the wanton murder of his great-aunt and of the other victims, and he was ashamed of his ignorance of first-aid techniques and of his revulsion at the smell of blood and roasted flesh. Here he was, an able-bodied man in his mid-twenties, selfishly following his own desires while a war was going on around him, and he was relying on others to defend him. Consequently, he answers an advertisement by the UDR, the Ulster Defence Regiment, where he receives military training, and serving part-time absorbs a great deal of his leisure activities. However, he can’t help feeling that the UDR’s mission of protecting the Protestant population might not be enough for him in the long run. Charles wants to become more pro-active, not only to bring the Republican perpetrators to justice, but to invalidate them and, if necessary, to kill them. In the time to come, he will experience the consequences of his decisions, and how his involvement complicates matters with family and friends, Protestants and Catholics alike, to an unexpected degree.

With “The Londonderry Air – Testament of an Ulster Gunman” Garrad Gawler describes in minute detail and with an astonishing level of authenticity not only the inner workings of the Ulster Defence Regiment, but also the activities of underground paramilitary groups of regular citizens who planned and carried out the assassination of suspected Republican terrorists in their neighborhood. “The Londonderry Air” is one of the very few novels devoted to the Protestant view of what became known as the “Irish Troubles,” but it does so without the purpose of a political statement, but rather describing the life of an angry Protestant civilian through the testament of an Ulster gunman.

About the Author

Garrad Gawler was raised in the protestant/unionist community of County Londonderry in the 1950s.  His family emigrated when he was eleven.  He returned to Ireland and worked in the north and south, off and on, before he served five years in the Royal Air Force as a data analyst.  He was accepted as a mature student by the University of Ulster in Coleraine where he trained to be a teacher.

In the mid 1970s he participated in the aftermath clear-up of a car-bomb which killed six people in Coleraine.  That evening he applied to join the part-time Ulster Defence Regiment with which he served for most of a year.  He resigned from the UDR after becoming engaged to a fellow student who came from the Roman Catholic/nationalist community.  After graduation Garrad and his wife moved to England where he taught mathematics and she taught science in London and the southern counties of England for 35 years.

Garrad passes his retirement writing about military history, dealing in militaria and wasting his money on horse racing.  For exercise he does what he is told in his garden and in his allotment.  He has three graduate daughters who regularly clean him out at poker.

Ordering Information

THE LONDONDERRY AIR

Testament of an Ulster Gunman
A Novel by Garrad Gawler 

The Londonderry Air is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon Kindle (US), Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Kindle (UK), Barnes & Noble, smashwords.com, and any other good bookstore.

For more information on Garrad Gawler and to read an excerpt of “The Londonderry Air,” please see the author’s section on this website.