I’ve just heard that an author I worked with at Mercier Press, Dermot Walsh passed away this week.

Dermot was a fascinating and interesting man who talked with passion about his subject, in this case the intriguing and bizarre murder of Nurse Catherine Cooper by Michael Manning in Limerick city in 1950s.

For me he encapsulated much of what it is to be an author of a book on a specific topic. He was like many of his peers, gripped by a subject and unable to let it go until he had dug as deeply into it as he could. The resulting book, Beneath Cannock’s Clock, is here and is well worth a read.

I’ve no doubt he will be missed terribly by those he leaves behind and I hope they can find some comfort in the days and months ahead.