Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Wednesday, April 4, 2018

“Penthouse” - A Short Story by Madeleine D’Arcy, 2017







Irish Short Story Month VIII is being extended until April 31,2018.  I find a have a number of classic Irish stories as well as works by contemporary writers I wish to feature.

I first read a Short Story by Madeline D’Arcy during ISSM Two in March of 2012 and have followed her work closely since then.  ( Be sure and look at her Q and A session, linked above.). I’m delighted to feature her story “Penthouse” for ISSM VIII.

Much of my overview of Irish literature comes from Declan Kiberd’s work Inventing Ireland: The Literature of The Modern Nation.  Building on the Ideas of Edward Said and Franz Fanon, he places Irish literature in a post 
Colonial framework, seeing as the core theme of Irish literature the social consequences of the weak or missing Irish father.  This is traced to the legacy of colonialism.  I have seen this in several of D’Arcy’s works.


It was many years since Victor had flown into Cork and during that time a brand-new airport terminal had been built to replace the old one. 

“He remembered a time when he and the lads had come back from London like conquering heroes for an Irish tour, after their first big break and signing with a major label. Wrecked from all the drink, plus cocaine snorted hastily before the flight, they had hung around at the fireplace while the tour manager waited for their multiple pieces of luggage—bags of leads and microphones, drums in flight cases, guitars. At first the fireplace became the focus of their piss-taking; then, to the horror of most of the unwilling audience, they’d begun to wail a made-up version of ‘Come all ye maidens young and fair’ that was pure filth. Come and come again and take it in the mouth. Let me at that maidenhead. What a fucking laugh. They almost got arrested.”

As Victor waits for his son, who he has not seen for years, two scruffy looking lads recognize him from his Rock Star Days.



“Where the fuck were you?’ demanded a female voice from a distance. A magnificent, curvaceous young woman in biker jacket and jeans stood several yards away. Her raven-black hair was streaked with metallic blue, shaved above her ears and long at the back.”

She turns out to be the sister of one of the lads
and she sings in the band, now Victor is interested impressing  them.  A hilarious scene insues when he calls his agent back in London, trying to appear still famous. I will leave it untold.

His son, who he has not seen for many years, Victor never married the mother of his son, he did not even come back for her funeral is picking him up. The son has his own son, Victor did not even know he was a grandfather.  His son has a very good job at a high tech company.  He has booked a penthouse suite at The Elysium (pictured above) for his father.  It is the premier luxury building in Cork, a product of better days in Ireland. Victor lives in council housing in London so even though he is a bit hurt he is not staying with his son this takes him back to his old Rock Star days, when he and his band mates used to trash luxury suites.

The plot action in this story is really gripping and at times laugh outloud hilarious.   As I hope you can one day read this story I will just say The Jupiter Scumbags, with their sister, wind up back at the Elysium.  The sister and Victor have very different Ideas about how they see each other.

I have intentionally left much of the plot unspoiled.  Victor is very much your protypical weak Irish father, given heavily to drink and dreams of glory past.
The tension between Victor and his son is very well deveiped.


I greatly enjoyed this story.  I have another of D’Arcy’s stories planned for ISSM.



“Penthouse” is included in The Elysian: Creative Responses,

The Elysian: Creative Responses
Eds. Graham Allen & Billy Ramsell (2017)
Paperback, ISBN 978-0-9935803-4-5
The Elysian: Creative Responses brings together established and emergent writers from Cork’s vibrant literary scene. Poets, fiction writers and essayists direct their creative lens on what is now, at least vertically, Cork’s standout architectural edifice. The result is a fascinating glimpse into the imaginative culture of Cork over, and now in some ways, beyond, the period of the recent economic crisis.-  from New Binary Press 



  • Madeleine D'Arcy was born in Ireland and later spent thirteen years in the UK. She worked as a criminal legal aid solicitor and as a legal editor in London before returning to Cork City in 1999 with her husband and son. She began to write fiction in 2005.
    • Madeleine's début collection of short fiction, Waiting For The Bullet, (Doire Press, Ireland 2014) won the Edge Hill Reader's Choice Prize 2015 (U.K).
  • In 2010 she received a Hennessy X.O Literary Award for First Fiction as well as the overall Hennessy X.O Literary Award for New Irish Writer.
  • Her work has been shortlisted and commended in many other competitions.
  • Publication credits include: Sunday Tribune; Made in Heaven and Other Short Stories; Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails (Stinging Fly Press); Irish Examiner; Necessary Fiction; Irish Independent; Irish Times; The Penny Dreadful; Long Story Short; Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts; Short Story (University of Brownsville Texas, Vols. 20.2, 21.2); Unbraiding the Short Story (Ed. Maurice A Lee); Surge: New Writing From Ireland (O’Brien Press, November 2014) and Quarryman (UCC/Bradshaw Books, 2014) and Headstuff.org (10 July 2105). New stories are forthcoming in The Elysian Anthology, and Edge Hill Press Anthology 2016. Her work has also featured on RTE Radio programmes Arena and Sunday Miscellany.
  • Madeleine was a scholarship student on the inaugural MA in Creative Writing in UCC from 2013-2014 (First Class Honours)
  • She ran Proby's Quay Writers' Workshop from 2009-2011.  She facilitated workshops at West Cork Literary Festival 2014 and Doolin Writers' Weekend 2015. She currently teaches Intensive Fiction workshops once a month in Cork.  She is currently writing a novel.


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