This is the story of an unlikely friendship.When priest and Sydneysider Tony Doherty emailed Melbourne-based writer and performer Ailsa Piper to say how much he had enjoyed her latest book, he was met with a swift reply from a similarly enquiring mind. Soon emails were flying back and forth and back again. They exchanged stories of their experiences as sweaty pilgrims and dissected dinner party menus. They shared their delight in Mary Oliver's poetry and wrestled with what it means to love and to grieve. This energetic exchange of words, questions, and ideas grew into an unexpected but treasured friendship. Collected here is that correspondence, brimming with empathy, humor, and a fierce curiosity about each other and the worlds, shoes, and histories that they inhabit. The Attachment is an intriguing, entertaining, and moving celebration of family, faith, connection, and even the correct time of day to enjoy rhubarb.

The Attachment: Letters From a Most Unlikely Friendship

Doherty, Tony

Piper, Ailsa

Parenting & Relationships

Allen& Unwin

A uniquely crafted memoir of the author's early childhood (1967-1972) as the third oldest in a working-class Catholic family in Derry, Ireland. Written with the authentic voice of a child, this snapshot of his young life portrays a family protecting itself from conflict, with CS gas coming in through the door and tracer bullets flying past the windows. Described as `a treasure', the book draws the reader into a child's world, his innocent view of the harsh reality of life and the horrifying events unfolding around him. The book is both humorous and moving as it paints a picture of a lost world of children running wild in play, unsupervised or worried over by adults.

This Man's Wee Boy

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Mercier Press

In this sequel to the This Man's Wee Boy, young Tony Doherty struggles to come to terms with the murder of his father, Paddy, on Bloody Sunday and the impact it has on his mother, Eileen, and his brothers and sisters. At nine years old, he knows a terrible wrong has been committed against his family but lacks the understanding or the means to do anything about it - yet. For his fractured family, life goes on, with Tony determined to preserve the memory of his father and the bond they shared, even as he becomes increasingly immersed in the violent conflict raging on Derry's streets. As the 1970s unfold his father's absence remains the backdrop to the teenage Tony's newfound friendships and relationships; an ever-present ache amidst the excitement of Sunday dances and first kisses. Then, at seventeen, Tony decides it's time to join the fight.

The Dead Beside Us: A Memoir of Growing up in Derry

Community & Culture

'As I grew older I often asked myself whether history has made me who I am, and will I, in turn, make history with that?'&nbsp; Tony Doherty has lived in the shadow of his father's execution on Bloody Sunday. At 18 he found himself facing long-term imprisonment, yet the soldier who shot his father was a free man. The Skelper and Me is no ordinary memoir. It is a triumph of working class resolve and resilience over the last bastion of Empire. Epitomising the old adage that 'if you didn't laugh you'd cry,' it sallies forth as a fascinating and compelling story of prison life, making a willing inmate of the reader, weaving a tapestry of the lives of his young cellmates, who never deserved such a life, but whose very existence played out, often hilariously, sometimes painfully, and at close quarter behind the steel door of Cell 5, Crumlin Road. Upon returning to a war-torn Derry in 1985, freedom had a more liberating effect on him and others than he had anticipated. As his family saw qualities in him that he hadn't realised, he began to pick up the pieces of his battered but unbroken home town, locked in bitter stalemate. At his father's cross on Creggan Hill, he promised to make right out of the wrong. The epic struggle that followed changed the course of history.

The Skelper and Me: A memoir of making history in Derry

Friendly Guide to the Mass

Religion & Spirituality

John Garratt Publishing

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Books by Doherty, Tony