Hand in the Till

Comic Irish writing at its best --Colin Quinn, comedian. The Troubles of Northern Ireland are history, and in the city of Derry, former foes Catholics and Protestants are living happily side by side. Or are they? Hardened mother of seven unruly thugs, Fionnuala Flood, gets more than she bargains for when she buys a case on the black market that contains not canned potatoes or turnips, but explosives. And a wilting branch of the defunct IRA will stop at nothing to get it back. Adding to Fionnuala's woes, her two oldest sons are in prison, her husband's hands are fondling more than frozen fish at the packing plant, and her lesbian daughter has just published a book exposing the family's attempts to get their claws into Auntie Ursula Barnett's lottery winnings the year before. Daughter Dymphna, unwed mother, has just been kicked out of her boyfriend's house, adding two more mouths to feed. And worst of all, daughter Siofra's middle school is hosting a multi-denominational talent contest, Fingers Across the Foyle, which is supposed to build harmony, but will pit the Catholic students against their Protestant rivals. Siofra wants to nab the grand prize, a trip to Belfast to meet her idol Miley Cyrus in concert. Fionnuala is having none of it. Will the Semtex explode or will sanity prevail? Throw in bottles of hallucinogenic absinthe, Ursula coming back to town for a showdown, and an old VCR tape that might change the world, and you have Hand In The Till, a darkly comic look at revenge, retribution and, perhaps, reconciliation."