In 1978, the bloody conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles, reached a boiling point. An enthralling work of history told with intelligence and urgency." -Kirkus Reviews, November 2023 Gripping, well-researched, authentic, and powerful... If you like biographies and legal thrillers, you must read this book." -Mark W. Hansen, The Los Angeles Daily Journal Hundreds of members of the Irish Republican Army determined to drive the hated … [Read more...]
Author Dan Lawton Reflects on the Inspiring Image of Peter Heathwood in his Recent History Release, ABOVE THE GROUND
Of the images found in ABOVE THE GROUND: A True Story of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the photograph that grabs me is of Peter Heathwood. He was the innocent landlord who was renting an apartment to Artt on the Antrim Road in Belfast. He got shot by Loyalist thugs who mistook him for Artt in 1979. He's been in a wheelchair ever since. In 2019, when he picked me up at the bus station so we could go to his house … [Read more...]
Author Dan Lawton Discusses the Universal Themes Present in ABOVE THE GROUND
I think Kevin Barry Artt's story is universal in its themes-An innocent caught up in a meat grinder, escape from oppression, David against Goliath. But, as an American, I had to learn the history from scratch to tell the story right. I grew up a white kid in suburban southern California, not a Black kid from South Central who had to worry about the LAPD. Police, courts, and laws were respected by everyone we knew. If there'd been a story … [Read more...]
Author Dan Lawton Hopes ABOVE THE GROUND Can Create Space for Important Conversations Amidst Divisive Times
When Kevin Barry Artt was born, his mother had to give birth to him in a convent in a small town, out of sight of people who would be scandalized that a baby had a Protestant dad and a Catholic mother. If he'd died some years ago, he might have been buried in a cemetery in Ballymurphy that is said to have an underground wall, invisible from the surface, that divides Catholic dead from Protestant dead. The bigotry and absurdity of it seem … [Read more...]
Author Dan Lawton Calls Kevin Barry Artt’s Journey a ‘Metaphor for Northern Ireland Itself’
That Artt's adoptive parents named him after a revered Irish patriot, Kevin Barry, suggests that he, too, is a patriot and a freedom fighter-which, really, he isn't. He was an accidental hero. He didn't seek out the violence and abuse that the British poured onto him. He stumbled into them by accident. He didn't ask for the legal abuse that U.S. prosecutors Mark Zanides and Sara Criscitelli, a couple of modern-day Javerts, later laid onto … [Read more...]
Gallery | ABOVE THE GROUND: A True Story of the Troubles in Northern Ireland by Dan Lawton
Dan Lawton's ABOVE THE GROUND: A True Story of The Troubles in Northern Ireland delves into the gripping realm of true crime, Irish history, prison escape, and the remarkable redemption of an unjustly accused man entangled in the complexities of an IRA murder. This photo gallery complements the absorbing account. … [Read more...]
Author Dan Lawton Ponders: “Who were really the good guys and the bad guys?”
As a kid, I found the Troubles hard to understand. The American media just didn't do a good job of explaining clearly who, exactly, were the opposing parties, and what things they wanted out of the war that was going on in Northern Ireland. At times, they made it seem like a religious war of sorts, which it wasn't. I read about Bobby Sands dying in 1981, in the U.S. media, which conferred a kind of stardom on him. But, to me, the coverage … [Read more...]
Meet Author Dan Lawton
I'm a writer and lawyer. My short fiction and columns have appeared in The Recorder, Los Angeles Daily Journal, The Pensive Quill, The Daily Transcript, and Sheepshead Review. ABOVE THE GROUND: A True Story of The Troubles in Northern Ireland is my first work of narrative nonfiction. I was born in Los Angeles and raised in Fullerton, California, along with my three younger brothers. I earned my undergraduate degree … [Read more...]
