![\"N\/A\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024b14a-614.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nWe present an extract from Experts in a Dying Field, the debut novel by journalist and author Patrick Freyne.<\/p>\n
The Heathens thought of themselves as ‘the 1000th best band of all time’. Then their tour van crashed, and one of their members died.<\/p>\n
Twenty years later, weird things are happening in Dublin, bringing the surviving members of the band together in ways none of them could have anticipated and lifting the lid on mysteries from their shared past.<\/p>\n
Rex Casey is visiting the High Times Tavern. There he is with his cowboy hat, biker jacket, aviator sunglasses and gleaming teeth \u2013 not the teeth he had the last time he was in the High Times Tavern \u2013 and he\u2019s greeting people like they\u2019re all old friends. Snoopy behind the bar tries to smile while keeping the scarred side of his face away from the camera.<\/p>\n
R\u00f3ise, the owner, comes over and greets Rex warmly \u2013 or as warmly as she can manage. Jimmy sits at the end of the bar scribbling on pieces of paper, as is his way. Other assorted barflies line up beside him.<\/p>\n
\u2018Rex,\u2019 says R\u00f3ise. \u2018Back from America.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018R\u00f3ise,” says Rex Casey as R\u00f3ise embraces him.<\/p>\n
\u2018Still here, Jimmy?\u2019 says Rex Casey fondly, over R\u00f3ise\u2019s shoulder to Jimmy.<\/p>\n
Snoopy doesn\u2019t much like the tone of this.<\/p>\n
\u2018Check out “hat prick”,\u2019 says Barfly number 1 to Barfly number 2, throwing his thumb in Rex\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n
\u2018Cut!\u2019 shouts Rex Casey\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n
\u2018That\u2019s my job,\u2019 says the director.<\/p>\n
Rex\u2019s manager \u2013 Cressida, of all things \u2013 glowers at him. The cameraman takes the camera off his shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u2018Who vetted these guys?\u2019 says Cressida to R\u00f3ise, gesturing towards the barflies.<\/p>\n
Snoopy knows that nobody vetted these guys. They were just the first four people to realize that the bar was unaccountably open on a Sunday morning. He suspects that Jimmy, the venue\u2019s living ghost, can feel a disturbance in the force whenever the front door is unlocked.<\/p>\n
\n
Listen: Patrick Freyne talks to Brendan O’Connor on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n
R\u00f3ise, normally in control, looks uncharacteristically chastened. \u2018I\u2019m so sorry, Rex,\u2019 she says, as though Rex were a visiting priest or a duchess, or indeed, the minor popstar he is, and not someone she once barred from the venue for stealing pints.<\/p>\n
\u2018That\u2019s okay, R\u00f3ise, we want authenticity,\u2019 says Rex, though he doesn\u2019t demur when his manager and some of the crew hustle Barfly number 1 out of the building.<\/p>\n
\u2018So what brings you back here, Rex,\u2019 murmurs Jimmy.<\/p>\n
\u2018You already asked that, Jimmy,\u2019 says Snoopy who, not knowing what else to do, is pretending to dry a glass for the tenth time. Jimmy has started to forget things.<\/p>\n
Snoopy is normally in bed at this time on a Sunday and doesn\u2019t want to be here. He stares at Rex and finds he can\u2019t quite believe what he is seeing. Reconciling the hungry scenester he once knew with a celebrity abstraction wasn\u2019t too hard. Reconciling the celebrity abstraction with this flesh and blood man \u2013 a flesh and blood man who wears sunglasses indoors \u2013 is something different.<\/p>\n
The crew are setting up to capture Rex Casey\u2019s big entrance again. The director has it in his head, now that he\u2019s seen it, that he wants to catch it all from a different angle. Rex is talking with R\u00f3ise about old times, though Snoopy, who remembers those old times, doesn\u2019t recognize all of the things they\u2019re talking about. He notices that Rex still covers his face with his hand when he talks \u2013 an old instinct to hide his bad teeth, his old teeth \u2013 and he softens a bit when he sees that.<\/p>\n
\u2018I knew from the first time you played here that you had a spark,\u2019 says R\u00f3ise.<\/p>\n
Snoopy knows that R\u00f3ise can\u2019t actually recall the first time Rex played here. Snoopy was the one running the open mic night by then. R\u00f3ise wasn\u2019t there. But Rex has mythologized that night in several major magazine interviews since then, so it has to be part of the documentary.<\/p>\n
\u2018Do you remember what you said to me?\u2019 says Rex.<\/p>\n
R\u00f3ise frowns, genuinely trying to remember this thing that never happened.<\/p>\n
\u2018You said to concentrate on my lower register.\u2019 Rex smiles at the thought \u2013 the idea that he would sing in anything but the rich baritone for which he is beloved. \u2018And from that day forward I did. It\u2019s kind of my trademark.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Oh, I do remember,\u2019 says R\u00f3ise, and Snoopy can see from her face that she\u2019s visualizing it in her head, something that never was. That\u2019s how many memories are formed, Snoopy guesses. He wonders how many of his own memories are suspect.<\/p>\n
Snoopy knows what he said to Rex, because it\u2019s what he said to most people who played the open mic night: \u2018Keep going. The next time will be better.\u2019 He stopped running those nights when he stopped believing that and started to feel himself drowning in other people\u2019s disappointment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Experts In A Dying Field is published by Penguin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We present an extract from Experts in a Dying Field, the debut novel by journalist and author Patrick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-562385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}