Writing in the line of fire
One of my all-time favourite war movies is ‘The Hurt Locker’, and when I first read about Cork author Michelle Dunne’s experiences serving overseas, the brilliant ‘cereal aisle’ scene came to mind.
For those who haven’t seen the film, the scene depicts a soldier who has returned home from Iraq and is trying to adjust to everyday life, where choosing a breakfast cereal can prove more difficult for him than disarming a bomb.
I simply had to ask Cobh native Michelle if she had ever had a similar moment after returning from her time in war-torn South Lebanon. She laughs and says: “Certainly in the weeks after coming home from overseas, ‘normal life’ does seem a bit surreal.
“Life in a UN camp couldn’t be more different to how we live here and I think it makes you realise just how much we take for granted.”
Michelle donned the famous blue helmet of the UN Peacekeepers at a young age and soon found herself immersed in a world she had never imagined – a world of ordinary people trying to live their lives beneath screaming tracer rounds and artillery bombardment.
She recalls one night in particular when she and her company found themselves in the line of fire and took several direct mortar hits to their camp.
“One struck the building that we were in, injuring two. I had to call a med-evac for two friends, but because we were still taking fire, I also had to tell them that it wasn’t safe for them come yet. The next day as we surveyed the extensive damage that had been done to our tiny camp, we found an unexploded mortar round just behind the accommodation block. Had that gone off, then this could be a very different story.”
Michelle says she survived by getting to know the local people and learning to laugh and joke about things that might otherwise have had her curled in a ball in the corner of a room.
“I made friends with a local woman and her young daughter who ran a shop in the village of Haddatha where we were based. I drank tea with them every time I went into their shop and we talked sometimes about their life and mine.
“The woman once told me how she wished her daughter could marry for love but acknowledged that it would not happen. The little girl went to a school that was riddled with bullet holes.”
Michelle tells me the woman’s daughter had an Irish accent having grown up around Irish soldiers, and that she’d cried when Michelle was preparing to leave.
“On my hall table at home, I have a photo of the two of us that was taken outside her school on Christmas day. You can’t get to know people like that, in those circumstances, and not be changed by it.”
Now, back in Cobh with husband Dominic and their daughter Emily, Michelle provides physiotherapy and staff training in nursing homes and hospitals all over Munster. She also writes books now, something she says she had never planned to do.
“I was always a bit of a storyteller though and once, while I was gabbing away, someone laughed and said, ‘You should write a book’. That was literally how the idea occurred to me,” she explains.
Michelle’s third book, psychological thriller ‘While Nobody is Watching’, is the first in which she draws from her military experiences.
The book tells the story of Irish army veteran Corporal Lindsey Ryan’s new career helping the troubled youth of Cork while also engaging in a very private battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“The idea for this book came a little bit out of the blue actually. I was scrolling through my phone one day when I came across a short clip about a US army veteran and his service dog. Minutes later Corporal Lindsey Ryan and her service dog Frank were coming to life on paper, and the rest of the story just sort of happened.”
Michelle says she loves the process of writing but warns that the publishing industry is “dog-eat-dog”, suggesting that anyone considering a literary career should have a back-up plan.
‘While Nobody Is Watching’ is published by Bad Press Ink (UK) and is available from any good bookshop or online booksellers. The follow-up book in the Lindsey Ryan series will be released later in 2021.