The Cowboy

Photo © Gareth Wray

It was rumoured that the farmer who lived in the house with the twelve chimneys, had a set of medieval stocks in one of his rundown sheds, and that trespassers caught on his land doing anything at all, including just breathing, were bundled into his tractor and taken to be put in those stocks and dear knows what else. Boon often sat in the pub listening to such tales and watching them pass from one cigarette curl to another, as faces leaned in around tables then burst into glorious arrays of white teeth and laughter. 

The June edition of Long Story, Short Journal brings us to the crossroads of short stories and the Irish storytelling tradition. 'The Cowboy'  by Northern Irish author Jamie Guiney is a humorous piece following the exploits of a man whose reputation for pilfering the local farmer's fields may be catching up with him. Photo by Gareth Wray. CLICK HERE TO READ 'THE COWBOY'.