Misty peat bog in County Mayo – the kind of landscape that preserves secrets (and bodies) forever. Fog rolling over an Irish bog – dreary, atmospheric, and utterly Mayo. Storm clouds gathering over the vast peatlands of Mayo – welcome to my old backyard.
Those years in Kiltimagh left a mark. The relentless rain hammering tin roofs, the mud that sucked at your boots like it had a grudge, the locals with their sharp tongues and darker humour – it all festered in my brain until it demanded to be let out. And so in 2013 I started to write The Undertaker: a black comedy soaked in bog water, inspired by the town’s grim charm, its undertaker (a real character, though far less murderous in reality), and a cast of eccentrics that could only sprout from Irish soil. A quiet street in Kiltimagh – on a good day. Imagine it wetter. Main Street, Kiltimagh – flash flooding optional, rain mandatory. The book was finally finished in 2025!
But let’s be crystal clear, because lawyers and gobshites exist: this is fiction. Glorious, twisted bollocks. The names are made up, the violence (hitman sideline, exploding bucket bombs, paralysed gangsters, overinflated assets, hypocritical priests with side hustles) is pure invention from a fevered imagination – probably aided by too much Jameson and skunk one night. No resemblance to actual persons, living, dead, or bog-preserved. Kiltimagh is real and lovely in its soggy way, but everything that happens in these pages? Satire. Black comedy. Craic gone dark. An old Irish undertaker’s premises – the inspiration for Seamus’s crumbling parlour (minus the bodies in the freezer).
At the heart of it is Seamus “The Grim Ginger” O’Flaherty – a barrel-built, red-haired undertaker with an attitude the size of Croagh Patrick and a mouth that could strip paint. By day, he buries the dead with all the compassion of a hungover badger. By night… well, that’s where the made-up mayhem kicks in.
It’s filthy, twisted, and unapologetically Irish – think Father Ted meets Tarantino in a peat bog, with a soundtrack of lashing rain and pub farts. Bog bodies and dark tales – the vibe we’re channeling (but with more laughs and laxatives).
The Undertaker is slated for release sometime in 2026 from Indigo Ink Books. If you fancy a laugh that’s darker than a lock-in at closing time, keep an eye out. In the meantime, go to https://owencroft.com/owen-crofts-filthy-dispatches/ and sign up for updates, or grab a pint and imagine the mud.
Mind the bog,
Owen Croft
(Still regretting that spliff, probably)
The Knobfather out May 11th 2026