The Fiddle

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Brendan Ryan, an Irishman, is now twenty two. At four he and his elder brother are placed in the infamous Glin Industrial School following parental separation. This is the story of what happened inbetween and what happens next.

After thirty traumatic months they are rescued by their mother and moved to Keighley in England’s industrial north. Brendan, a gifted thief, has an inclination towards mathematics.

As a boy the main influences on his life are Chipry, the lativian landlord and Robert Frost’s ‘two-roads’ poem. At seventeen whilst apprenticed to an instrument maker he steals five valuable violins.

In the late sixties he gains a place at London University and rubs shoulders with the likes of Penrose, Bondi and the phenomenon Hawking. In his first semester he sets himself the task of stealing £50,000 from the millionaire Chas Earl.

Thus far - he has achieved little. His claim to fame?
He’s taken Stephen Hawking to the toilet

About the Author

Joe Ward was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1949 into a desperately poor rural family. When he was four years old he and an elder brother spent three years in the infamous Glin Industrial School (mentioned in Pat McCourt’s book “Angela’s Ashes”).

Mother and four children escaped to England in 1956. Joe did not waste the opportunity given him. By the time he was twenty two he had obtained a first class honours degree in Mathematics at London University.

Three years later he completed his PhD specializing in General Relativity. He is now a University Teacher at Loughborough University, England. He is the author or joint author of four texts and numerous scientific papers.