Paul Drain

Enter the Lagan Paul Drain

Enter the Lagan Set amid recent reports of what would appear to be paranormal activity, strange noises rise up from below Belfast's former trouble-torn streets. Menacing noises which shake the city to its very foundations. Evocative noises which serve to remind the inhabitants of long forgotten legends and atrocities dating from the Great Famine to the Second World War. None of this interests our unsuspecting hero, Hugh Cullen, a mediocre amateur boxer who is more concerned with his immediate personal problems: unemployment and a heavily pregnant, teenage girlfriend with a missing alcoholic father. To make matters worse, his granny has just become involved with a new geriatric boyfriend, a sinister oriental gentleman, with links to a new Japanese fast food corporation that has been enticed into Northern Ireland in a bid to attract foreign investment and create employment. Nobody thinks to mention, though, that the Anti-Yacuza Measures in Japan have driven the Japanese Mob overseas in order to expand their empire. Where better than a modern, demilitarised, post-ceasefire Belfast, with its depleted new police force, for organised crime to flourish? When the savagely hacked remains of his girlfriend's father are discovered, Hugh soon finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue. As a West Belfast Catholic suspicious of the law, Hugh is left with no choice but to launch a one man stand against organised crime. Hugh calls constantly upon the intellect of his Cambridge-educated Protestant sidekick, to develop a strategy to vanquish these foreign villains. However, initially, they draw a blank... ... That is - until a doddering old priest from an ancient holy order, known as 'the Council of Elders, ' confounds the young Hugh Cullen with the ancient Irish folk legend Cuchalainn, and confides in him a dark satanic secret, dating back to the time of the Great Famine. Together, the dysfunctional duo discover what really lurks below the soft limestone and reclaimed land, on which today's city stands. In need of an army, Hugh enlists the help of the Antrim hurling team, the Belfast Giants ice hockey team and the city's gypsy community, to engage in open warfare with these Japanese gangsters, below the city streets. "Enter the Lagan" is the clash of oriental bamboo with Celtic ash. It is urban guerrilla riot tactics versus the deadly martial arts of the Samurai warrior. Which tradition will emerge victorious? And a healthy dose of drug-running, exorcism, slavery and romance keeps us entertained along the way.