Mary Attenborough and Michael Gallagher on Writing Unbroken: Secrets Lies and Enduring Love
‘Our outside door came crashing in. Deafening thumps, steel banging on steel and shrill, piercing whistles filled the hallway. Faraway voices called out in the dark: “Armed police.”
Others, coming nearer, shouted orders: “Get down on the floor.”’
Mary
I was just getting on with life – living with Michael, my partner of eleven years, working as a computer programmer, and not long after publishing my first Engineering Maths book – when, in October 1996, everything changed abruptly.
The journey from 4:00 a.m. that morning, when armed police crashed through our door, is detailed in our memoir: Unbroken:Secrets Lies and Enduring Love. By 2000, miraculously, the ordeal was over. It was time to move on, to let go of pain and embrace freedom. We also had to make a living in one of the most remote parts of Ireland – the northwest corner of Donegal. Situated on the edge of the Atlantic and Europe, it was the only place we wanted to be. It wasn’t easy, but with my technical knowledge and Michael’s persistence, we eventually built a successful web development business.
Day-to-day life took priority for ten years before Michael could return to writing. His early promise had been interrupted by the armed officers of London’s Metropolitan Police. He had already written a fictionalised account of his descent into alcoholism on the streets of London, but now he began writing another fictionalised account – this time of his arrest and imprisonment, including my role in the campaign for his freedom.
In 2011, while in Bantry for the West Cork Literary Festival, I was toying with the idea of writing a Douglas Adams-style sci-fi comedy crime novel. It wasn’t serious yet – I was still too involved in our business – but it lingered in my mind. Michael was in a writing workshop, led by Gillian Slovo, whose memoir, Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, told of growing up without her parents, prominent South African Anti-Apartheid activists Joe Slovo and Ruth First. Gillian was impressed by Michael’s writing of our harrowing experiences, especially by the lie beneath the drama. It was a love story, possibly one of betrayal, and ultimately one of recovery. After the final session, Gillian turned to me and said, ‘You’re a writer too – why don’t you write the story together?’ I was surprised. I was a technical writer, true, but any creative ambition had been tentative.
It still took another ten years. In 2021 we finally decided to write our story together. Strangely, we still didn’t finish it then. We wrote up to the great reveal – the moment our relationship nearly broke – but couldn’t go further. It was too painful. It was largely with the cajoling and guidance of editors at Merrion Press that we were able to write the final three chapters: the resolution and the reconciliation – the true heart of our story.
Michael
Since childhood visits to my family’s home place in Gort an Choirce, Donegal, I’d been aware of my literary heritage. My grandmother’s uncle, Micí Mac Gabhann, wrote Rotha Mór an tSaoil, which appeared on the Irish school curriculum. Vaguely proud of this, I began creative writing classes in 1994. Of all the tutors, Charles Palliser, author of The Quincunx, stood out. After reading one of my short stories, he said that if I kept writing at that standard, I’d almost certainly be published.
I became hooked on the principle of ‘show, don’t tell.’ In my early interpretation, this meant no characters’ internal reflections – Mary would joke that my writing was thoughtless. But it trained me in a cinematic style: visual storytelling, strong characters, realistic dialogue. I wanted the reader to feel like they were watching a film.
In 1995 I began writing a first-person fictional account of an IRA fixer based in London. I read a passage aloud to Mary – unaware that MI5 bugs in our flat were recording us. Those words were later read back to me in an interview room in Scotland Yard, after my violent arrest in 1996. The Special Branch detectives claimed my story was autobiographical and used it to support circumstantial evidence linking me to the IRA’s mortar attack on Heathrow in 1994.
Reviewing legal evidence and working on my defence left little time for writing in prison – apart from replying to daily letters from Mary and supporters. After my transfer to Ireland in 1999, now in Portlaoise Prison, I submitted a story to the Listowel Writing in Prison competition and won first prize.
After release, most of my time was spent on our business. Around 2012 I began drafting a fictionalised version of our experiences. Then in 2021 we decided to tell the true story – a joint memoir. We joined the Irish Writers’ Centre and received mentoring from Neil Hegarty. My cinematic writing background helped craft a vivid style, and for the first time, we were free to include internal reflections, making the experience more immersive.
We structured the memoir with date and time headings, like diary entries. This helped avoid narration tricks like ‘three hours later’, which could disrupt the reader’s sense of immediacy. Mary wrote her sections in the present tense; I wrote in the recent past – as if it had just happened. This kept the tension and emotions alive.
The writing process wasn’t always smooth. We reviewed each other’s work and, while united in purpose, we did occasionally disagree. The first draft was 135,000 words. We had to cut it down to about 80,000. Mary was skilled at reducing word count with rewrites, but in the end, whole sections or even full chapters were cut. I still occasionally ask her, ‘What happened to that paragraph I liked so much?’
We’re delighted with Unbroken:Secrets Lies and Enduring Love. Much credit goes to the editors at Merrion Press for their expert guidance. We also love the cover – but hope readers won’t judge the book just by that. We believe it’s worth reading, and truly hope you will too.
(c) Mary Attenborough and Michael Gallagher
About Unbroken: Secrets Lies and Enduring Love
‘Our outside door came crashing in. Deafening thumps, steel banging on steel and shrill, piercing whistles filled the hallway. Faraway voices called out in the dark: “Armed police.” Others, coming nearer, shouted orders: “Get down on the floor.”’
On 28 October 1996 Glaswegian Michael Gallagher is arrested in an armed dawn raid on the London flat he shares with long-time partner, Mary Attenborough. Accused of playing a role in the IRA mortar attack on Heathrow Airport in March 1994, Michael proclaims his innocence. Mary meanwhile throws herself into the battle to free him and highlight what she sees as just another example of British ‘justice’ getting it wrong.
Told in the alternating voices of the two authors, the dramatic story unfolds with Michael struggling against the harsh conditions of incarceration, while Mary focuses on organising his legal defence, battling to stay positive in the face of soul-destroying setbacks and emotional hardships.
Yet behind it all lies a secret that could tear the couple apart. How can their love survive?
Order your copy of Unbroken: Secrets Lies and Enduring Love online here.
And see more Mee the Author Memoir articles on Writing.ie here.
