I scrolled through the posts while trying to work out how many times I’d pissed onto that chimney. My cheap booze-laced urine softly sculpting those long-neglected bricks.

Best-selling author Jan Carson talks to Caoilinn Hughes about her new book 'Few and Far Between'

Four years previously, he left Ireland for Nova Scotia, and now he and his wife were living in his childhood home in north Kildare.

For my part I said nothing. Maintained a kind of mum’s the word attitude, a hush-hush approach, kept it well tucked under my hat, smiling appropriately, cleaning the loo, doing the laundry, walking the dog.