The Lockdown Papers by John Dillon

ISBN 978-1-5272487-7-9 / 270 pp / 6” x 9” / €10.95 / Pub date: 03 March 2021

“A witty and well written book, which combines scholarship with acute observation ….” – John Bruton

“A delightful pot pourri, at times idiosyncratic but written with old-style elegance … “ – Maurice Manning

The Lockdown Papers is a miscellany of satire, reflection and analysis of Irish life over five decades from academic and columnist John Dillon.

When Ireland went into lockdown in March 2020, the author availed of the down time provided to compile a selection of his social and political essays, ranging from his first interview with Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta in 1963 to his take on the Greek financial crisis in 2012. Mainly taken from the pages of national newspapers for which he wrote over five decades, it also contains more philosophical reflections and personal essays that deliver a singular and often mischievous view of life that makes this compendium both thought provoking and amusing.

A plum read for anybody stuck in 2021’s extended Covid lockdown, the author looks back at former dark times in Ireland and gives the reader a fair few laughs along the way.  In it, you’ll read his irreverent thoughts on GUBU, the various Tribunals, the Right to Life, fatherly bishops and many more issues that fired Irish passions in the eighties and nineties.

This is John Dillon’s first book of social and political essays.