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Arthur Mathews

Featured Author

Arthur Mathews was born in Meath in 1959. He co-created and wrote Father Ted and Big Train, and has also written for The Fast ShowHarry Enfield and Chums, and Brass Eye amongst many others. He co-wrote the stage musical I, Keano and the feature film Wide Open Spaces. With Matt Berry he has co-written the television shows Toast of London and Toast of Tinseltown (each a winner of The Rose d’Or) as well as Squeamish About and The Road To Brexit.

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Monthly selected book by our staff

Unbroken: Secrets, Lies and Enduring Love

18.99

Mary Attenborough & Michael Gallagher

In 1994, Mary Attenborough’s life is upended when her partner Michael Gallagher is arrested, accused of playing a role in the IRA mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. Unbroken is the gripping true story of a couple whose love endured under the most unthinkable circumstances.

Paperback

July 2025

Buy the eBook > ISBN: 9781785375606 Categories: ,

Description

‘Our outside door came crashing in. Deafening thumps, steel banging on steel and shrill, piercing whistles filled the hallway. Faraway voices called out in the dark: “Armed police.” Others, coming nearer, shouted orders: “Get down on the floor.”’

On 28 October 1996 Glaswegian Michael Gallagher is arrested in an armed dawn raid on the London flat he shares with long-time partner, Mary Attenborough. Accused of playing a role in the IRA mortar attack on Heathrow Airport in March 1994, Michael proclaims his innocence. Mary meanwhile throws herself into the battle to free him and highlight what she sees as just another example of British ‘justice’ getting it wrong.

Told in the alternating voices of the two authors, the dramatic story unfolds with Michael struggling against the harsh conditions of incarceration, while Mary focuses on organising his legal defence, battling to stay positive in the face of soul-destroying setbacks and emotional hardships.

Yet behind it all lies a secret that could tear the couple apart. How can their love survive?

Praise for Unbroken

‘Riveting’ – The Irish Times

About the Authors
Mary Attenborough is a mathematician, software engineer, former lecturer and author of two third-level engineering mathematics textbooks.

Michael Gallagher, a Glasgow-born former civil servant and day-at-a-time recovering alcoholic, enjoys walking, singing and playing freestyle football. The couple now live in north-west Donegal and, since 2000, have jointly run a web development business.

 

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