A Belfast Child

By: John Chambers

Narrated by: Patrick Moy

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

John Chambers was brought up on Belfast's notorious Loyalist Glencairn estate, during the height of the Troubles. From an early age he witnessed violence, hatred and horror as Northern Ireland tore itself apart in civil strife. Kneecapping, brutal murders and even public tarring-and-feathering were simply a fact of life for the children on the estate. He thought he knew which side he was on, but although raised as a Loyalist, he was hiding a troubling secret: that his disappeared mother - whom he'd always been told was dead - was a Roman Catholic, 'the enemy'.

In a memoir of rare power, John explores the dark heart of Northern Irish sectarianism in the '70s and '80s. With searing honesty and native Belfast wit, he describes the light and darkness of his unique childhood and his teenage journey through mod culture and ultra-Loyalism, before an escape from Belfast to London - where, still haunted by the shadow of his fractured family history - he began a turbulent and hedonistic adulthood.

A Belfast Child is a tale of divided loyalties, dark secrets and the scars left by hatred and violence on a proud city - but also a story of hope, healing and ultimate redemption for a family caught in the rising tide of the Troubles.

©2020 John Chambers (P)2020 Bonnier Publishing

Authentic Belfast in the 1970’s

An authentic story of a young boy growing up in west Belfast in the 1970’s (I was also there); but also one of his personal journey to adulthood and acceptance. I really enjoyed this book.
The narrator was very good, even though he did make one or two little slips (“h”) that only someone from N Ire would pick up.

Cracking story

John has definitely hit the nail on the head with this throw back to his youth in Belfast. Very accurate and amusing, can definitely relate with some of his accounts. Growing up in Ulster in the troubles well described.

As real as it gets.

Left Northern Ireland for the States at 19 with alot of the same emotions the author had. Read alot of books about back home but this book gives you the closest look into the mindset of a Protestant youth growing up in the troubles I have came across. Well Written and Narrated. Highly recommend.