Book - The Boy on the Shed by Paul Ferris

I started reading this at the same time as Spotlight on the Troubles documentary series started on BBC and the author's first-hand account eerily tallied with that.

His was a Catholic family of - I think - 5 siblings living on a protestant estate in Lisburn, just outside Belfast. You wouldn't know how close to the city they lived as the family rarely visited the place where the Troubles were centred.

He talks of his life in four themes: his mothers ill-health, the troubles, catholic and football. These four have been with him since childhood. He adored his mother and his parents adored each other. Wanting to keep his mother alive after her first heart attack became his obsession and if ever someone’s upbringing had a huge impact on his life, it was in this case. 

Ferris met his wife when she was just 14 and he was 15 and she immediately became a major part of his life. This felt like mother-replacement in case his mother died early. He needed them both while away having a few trials with English clubs including with Manchester United when really he preferred to be home keeping an on his mum. Eventually, encouraged by his parents, he left to sign for Newcastle. It was sometime after that Geraldine would follow him over and become his wife. 

You can easily divide the book into Northern Ireland and Newcastle and therefore his mum and her health and football and his own health.

I found myself throwing the book down in shock on occasion when reading graphic descriptions of how friends had been tortured before being killed. It’s not because I was ignorant of what went on, it’s because I want to be ignorant of the details. The description of realising his parents had been beaten up after being caught up in trouble after an evening in a pub is heartbreaking. Learning of his two brothers being held at gunpoint and told to stop seeing their protestant girlfriends is upsetting. The four of them soon fled to England. Not because we don’t know this went on, but because we do. And this book brings it home once again.

If felt like a relief when he moved to England and after a very lonely crying-himself-to-sleep kind of start - the sort you’d as you’d expect from a home-boy. He just wanted to look after his mum and his young girlfriend but he grew to love Newcastle. He stayed there even after his short-lived spell as a professional footballer, which was so sadly marked by constant injury, He never did see his potential although did play with his boyhood hero Kevin Keegan and the likes of Paul ‘’Gazza’ Gascoigne. As can be seen from the front cover of the book, he counts Alan Shearer as a friend.

The most tragic thing is that his injuries seem to be associated with carrying heavy goods during a part job in childhood. It is interesting to read about old-school football, where they ate badly and generally disregarded their health - all unthinkable now.

I’m fascinated by and learnt so much about growing up with the Troubles and then then the footballing side that began for him aged 8. He learnt to get past players because he needed to just get the ball as a youngster.

I knew way before him that he could no longer cling to being her footballer - his body couldn't take it. The footballing career was almost over before it had begun but he loved the sport and became a physio. He loved Newcastle too which would explain why he took the huge gamble of losing his third career (and family’s home) as a barrister after Shearer came calling to get him back into football.

I’ve read a fair few football books and this one, with its history lesson and the medical perspective is full of soul and therefore elevates above all of those.