County Down author’s retreat in Tipperary becomes real‑life reflection of his fiction
County Down author and lecturer, Terry Hickland, discovers uncanny echoes of his novel during a short west of Ireland break.
When writer and college lecturer Terry Hickland and his wife travelled west for a brief holiday – an opportunity to unwind rather than research – he expected little more than nostalgia and gentle reflection.
What he encountered, however, was a sequence of striking real-life parallels that seemed to leap straight from the pages of his second novel, ‘The Piano Boat‘, set along the tranquil shores of Lough Derg in County Tipperary.
Hickland drew inspiration for The Piano Boat from holidays spent in the region when he was young, where narrow honeysuckle lined B‑roads slipped through timeless villages that today remain largely untouched by motorway infrastructure.
“Coming off the motorway into this countryside still feels like stepping back in time,” he reflected.
His novel tells the story of Ruairí, an anguished eleven-year-old trying to navigate grief, bullying and confusion.
In a moment of calm discovery, Ruairí encounters a Dutch barge moored on Coolbawn Quay on Lough Derg. Its owner, Briege, welcomes him aboard and through the gentle strains of piano music and tenderness, helps soothe his troubled heart.
“An actual real life encounter on a prvious short break set the novel’s foundation and Tipperary’s beautiful backdrop became the canvas,” said Terry Hickland.
He added: “Yet it was only during our holiday break that fiction and reality intertwined. At Dromineer Harbour, we came upon a long barge which was eerily similar to the one in his story belonigng to Briege the Dutchwoman. belonging to a Dutch woman. More astonishingly, it once housed a piano.
“It was as if my imagined world had revealed itself before me,” Terry said. “That discovery alone was extraordinary – but there was a lot more to come.”
“Another resonant echo emerged when local photographer Michael Molamphy revealed a near-identical real-life story to a subplot of the novel.
“It touched on a young cyclist, in a similar situation but persevering, who has risen to prominence on the Irish road-racing circuit much as the main character Ruairí in The Piano Boat had dreamed of in his athletic ambitions.
“This was another moment of profound serendipity,” Hickland remarks.
He added: “Michael Molamphy, a local photographer was generous enough to capture several photos of myself with the novel, The Piano Boat, beside the bridge in Ballinderry which is the fictional village where much of the novel’s emotional resonance unfolds.
“During our conversation, I asked where the old shop stood, and Michael indicated to a two story stone house opposite, saying ‘This was originally the grocers shop.’ “.
Terry explained that the journey continued with visits to the novel’s key landmarks – Coolbawn Quay, now a boutique retreat; Terryglass church and Terryglass National Primary School, which features prominently in the narrative; and various idyllic locations around Lough Derg.
Each place seemed to re-animate scenes from Hickland’s pages in the novel. “Standing in the silence of the church, I felt the book had been waiting for me to retell its story in person,” he recalled.
“Plans are now under way to explore whether The Piano Boat could underpin a new regional tourism attraction in the style of a homage to literary tourism exemplars such as The Quiet Man and Ballykissangel.”
Though his tale is local, it struck a chord with Michael Milamphy who admitted: “I’m not one for reading books, especially fiction – but I read The Piano Boat at a pace, right to the end, and what an ending!”
Terry Hickland may be dropping in to the renowned Dromineer Literary Festival this autumn, though he notes that the line-up may already be complete.
Reflecting on the journey, he said: “We set out expecting a quiet break, but what unfolded felt like a profound epiphany – real life awakening echoing fiction in the most unexpected of ways.”
Even their departure from Tipperary seemed to have an uncanny ring about it. “Our Sat Nav kept re-calculating us back to Ballinderry – a 30-mile journey, he laughed. “It truly felt like we weren’t meant to leave.”
A former transport business owner in Germany, Terry Hickland now lectures in Further Education in County Down. He is also the author of a German crime thriller, On Marian Place, and is working on its sequel, alongside several screenplays.
Terry said: “I have always loved inventing stories, and the telling of them. But I could never have imagined the extraordinary synchronicities that welcomed us on this journey to Tipperary and round Lough Derg.
“If ever one could describe a moment as defined by serendipity, this was it.”
You can get your copies on The Piano Boat from:
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or Amazon Books UK HERE
