Slainte! The Athlone Job

Sláinte! The Athlone Job Ireland, 1986. The boom has yet to come, the work is scarce, and seven down-on-their-luck construction workers led by their foreman, Mike Stone, will take any job going. When they're hired to renovate a crumbling estate house-once a grand hotel on the outskirts of Athlone-they think their luck may have finally turned. But the old building holds more than rotting plaster and broken beams. As Andy Harpur, the crew's sharp-witted electrician, rewires the bar, he stumbles upon hidden recording devices-wires strung for eavesdropping, relics of some forgotten surveillance. Soon after, a stack of disturbing videotapes surfaces, depicting men under interrogation and torture. The more the crew digs, the more unsettling truths rise to the surface: a disused tunnel stretching into a nearby estate, a hostile heir demanding they vacate the gate lodge where two of the men are staying, and whispers of the hotel's former owner-an alleged Sinn Féin member with ties to the violent struggle unfolding in Northern Ireland. What began as a job to patch walls and replace fittings spirals into a labyrinth of secrets, betrayal, and buried history. Every pint in the local pub carries a rumour, every whispered conversation might be monitored, and every man in the crew begins to wonder whether they've stepped into something far more dangerous than a renovation. Sláinte! The Athlone Job is at once a gritty men's adventure, a darkly comic tale of survival, and a razor-edged political thriller. It captures the banter and camaraderie of working men bound together by hardship, even as the shadow of Ireland's Troubles looms over them. With danger at their heels and loyalty tested at every turn, Stone and his fellow labourers must rely on quick wit, stubborn resilience, and each other if they're to make it out alive. Fast-paced, irreverent, and rich with atmosphere, this novel plunges readers into the heart of 1980s Ireland-an Ireland haunted by economic despair, political conflict, and the unbreakable spirit of men who refuse to go quietly. Fans of adventure, intrigue, and gallows humour will raise a glass to Sláinte! The Athlone Job.