The Place I Grew A Man

On December 31, 2009, in Short Stories, by Wilfried F. Voss

Even though this is an excerpt from my novel, this short story is complete in itself. The story describes a scene in an Irish pub in a Boston neighborhood where a young man with an Uilleann pipe plays a session of three songs. These songs remind the main character of The Bleeding Hills, Finnean Whelan, of his upbringing in Ireland, and my story describes three stages of his life.

Sunday Bloody Sunday – Beyond U2

On December 23, 2009, in It's all about music..., Political Comments, The Bleeding Hills, by Wilfried F. Voss

January 30th marks an anniversary in recent Irish history that most people living outside of Ireland and the Northern Provinces recognize only through a famous U2 song, Sunday Bloody Sunday. Unfortunately, the song is still misinterpreted as a “rebel song.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The band was aware of the controversial nature of Sunday Bloody Sunday, that its lyrics might be misinterpreted as sectarian, and possibly jeopardize their personal lives.

Sigerson Clifford (1913 – 1985)

On November 15, 2009, in The Bleeding Hills, by Wilfried F. Voss

Sigerson Clifford was an Irish poet and playwright. I took a line from his poem The Boys of Barr Na Sraide, the line that goes “And when the hills were bleeding and rifles were aflame…”, to use it as the title for my book “The Bleeding Hills”. The research for my also revealed that there is not a lot of information available that would describe the person Sigerson Clifford in more detail, and that is the reason I created a web site in the hope that people all over the world find it and possibly add more data.

A Writer's Lament

On October 30, 2009, in The Bleeding Hills, by Wilfried F. Voss

As a writer you cannot only expect praise for your work, but also criticism. That is just human nature. I have learned to live with criticism, and, knowing that I am not the ultimate source of all wisdom, I am willing to listen and learn as long as the criticism is constructive.

Robert Nairac – Supplement to previous entry

On June 6, 2009, in Nairac Investigation, Robert Nairac, The Bleeding Hills, Wilfried F. Voss, by Wilfried F. Voss

The research on Captain Robert Nairac continues and I have found some more, interesting references. One is a blog, where I, among a mind-boggling large number of blubberings, found one entry referring to Robert Nairac as being gay.

The search for a cover photo…

On March 4, 2009, in The Bleeding Hills, by Wilfried F. Voss

My research on the subject of Bloody Sunday began almost exactly to the day one year ago. At the time I had no definite vision of my work’s format, whether it would be a non-fiction account of historical facts or if I should package the events into a novel.

Here it comes – My first novel…

On March 4, 2009, in The Bleeding Hills, by Wilfried F. Voss

Bloody Sunday, which many people associate only with the famous U2 song, refers to the events in Derry (the name Londonderry is not acceptable for a good Irish Republican) in Northern Ireland on January 30, 1972, when twenty-six civil rights protesters were shot by the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment. Thirteen people, six of whom were only seventeen years old, died at the scene. Five of those wounded, were shot in the back.