The broadcaster reflects on losing his father, some brutal episodes at school, and RTÉ
Historian and broadcaster Myles Dungan. Photo: Mark Condren
For the most part, Myles Dungan is reliably sardonic and self-deprecating. The writing of his excellent new novel, The Red Branch, a historical espionage thriller about “Fenians who are at it again” in 19th-century San Francisco, sprung from “the joy of making shit up”.
His agent, Jonathan Williams, liked it enough to “become its midwife, bless his Welsh dragon red cotton socks”. Dungan’s previous, long-ago attempt at fiction, a co-written (with Jim Lusby) crime thriller called Snuff, he refers to as “my secret past”.