‘I don’t think I laughed and cried as much as I did during that week with Uncle Pat’

by Olivia Kerr Oner

'My Week with Uncle Pat' is the debut short novel of secondary school teacher Michael McDonnell.

"I think I wrote seven pages and then gave up. I was thinking, 'who am I trying to fool here?'" said the Dublin native, who now resides in Navan with his wife Caroline. "And then over the next year I was getting a nudge from above. Something was telling me to get going on this. So, I started to think about what happened during that week and eventually it became a book."

Michael recounts the true events that took place back in 2013, during the week his blind uncle came to stay with him from Birmingham. "I felt compelled to write it out. It was a funny week, mental, bizarre!"

According to Michael, Pat wasn't one to call ahead.

"He'd just arrive at your door!"

The book opens with Uncle Pat arriving the night before Michael's first day as a substitute physical education at St David's CBS in Dublin.

"I didn't want to let the school down but I also didn't want to let him down," he explains.

With the maddening events of that morning Michael was unable to make it to work and was forced to ring the principal explaining the situation.

"I was never asked back there again," he laughed. "I don't blame them; my blind uncle came over from England and I can't make it in today? It probably sounded bonkers!"

He added: "I wouldn't change it though. I got a chance to do a bit of writing, to put this together and that would never have happened if I had left Pat that day."

Aside from the humorous yet exasperating efforts of caring for his unannounced blind guest, Michael features some heartfelt moments too, as the reader witnesses the struggles of losing one's sight, and having to rely fully on the help and kindness of others.

"We fall over, we can see in front of us. We put our hands out. Picture yourself falling over and not knowing -- just the terror of it, where's the ground? That's what it was like for Uncle Pat."

Pat passed away in 2017, aged 83. However, the stories of Uncle Pat will live on with the sequel to the short novel. "It's nearly done," said Michael. "I just have to finish the final chapter." The sequel will centre on the infamous return of Uncle Pat two years later, but this time instead of a taximan, his arrival is ushered by two gardai. "You couldn't write some of this stuff!"

Michael went on to describe the snappy yet witty man.

"He did rub people up the wrong way because he would say whatever he thought. He was a very opinionated man. He'd go hell for leather!" he added. "But he was always generous, he was kind that way. I don't think a lot of people could see that because of his hard exterior."

The now 50 year-old had no previous writing experience but the unexpected visit from Uncle Pat just had to be put on paper.

"When I was young, he'd be sitting there in the kitchen with my father, he had a lot to say about everything. As a 19 year-old I found him interesting but I never dreamt that one day I'd write about him."

Inspired by his uncle's 'resilience and positive outlook on life', Michael has since been busy writing other books, one of which is called 'Miracles in the Classroom', a collection of stories from his past, including his time spent as a spiritual advisor in Mountjoy prison. During this period, he had promised an inmate he'd get him a Christmas present.

"I went into Easons to this huge fantasy fiction section and looking at all these books and I hadn't a clue what to get him. So, I said a little prayer asking for help and felt compelled to pick up this book."

After cycling to Mountjoy he dropped the book in. "I didn't see him again until February. He said: 'Michael, that book was part nine of a 10 part series and I only finished part eight, I nearly fell over backwards!'"