My updated memoir, All The Dead Voices, was launched last Friday, 1 August, in the courtyard of Glór na Móna, Ballymurphy, in front of an audience of about one hundred people. The event—part of Féile an Phobail—was chaired by veteran republican Liam Stone.

One of the stories I read was about an orderly in Crumlin Road jail, Brendan Short (featured photograph), who used to regale us remand prisoners by singing songs over the lunchtime lock-up, including ‘Nothing Compares 2U’. When I later told Sinead O’Connor the story she cried at the idea of Shorty being punished by prison officers for entertaining us and the following day she gave me a small statuette of a Madonna and Child in his memory, Shorty having been killed not long after his release. After I read from ‘Shorty’ I presented the statuette to his sister, Josephine.

The statuette Sinéad O’Connor presented to Danny Morrison in memory of Brendan Short

All The Dead Voices will be available to mainstream bookshops from Colourpoint Books but is available now from An Fhuiseog (the shop close to the Bobby Sands mural); An Ceathrú Póilí (Culturlann bookshop), Broadway, Falls Road; and the Sinn Féin bookshop, Parnell Square, Dublin.