Storytellers: Number 5

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Storytellers: Number 5: Episode 2: McGovern

Number 5

Episode 2: McGovern

BBC Radio Ulster - Storytellers, Number 5, Episode 2: McGovern

It’s now the 60s and Rodney and Margaret are the new owners of Number 5.

Number 5’s previous owners Stella and Harry have moved to Australia. Rodney and Margaret are the new owners. Rodney drives trains and spends too much time in the box room.

In Glenn Patterson’s novel, Number 5 is a three-bedroom terrace house in suburban Belfast. From the 1950s to the present day, successive occupants fill the house with their troubles and joys. As fashions and tastes change according to each of Number 5’s owners, so the social fault lines of the city shift. Yet the presence of those who have gone before lingers on. 

It is now the 1960s, and Number 5s previous owners Stella and Harry have sold up and moved to Australia. The new owners, Rodney and Margaret are a quiet couple who aren’t great social mixers except for the annual Hogmanay at the home of Hungarian neighbour, Andras Hideg. 

Author: Glenn Patterson 
Patrick Fitzsymons reads Part 2 – McGOVERN 
Produced and abridged by Eoin O’Callaghan
Executive Editor: Andy Martin

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The story of a three-bedroom terrace house in suburban Belfast through the decades.

Glenn Patterson's story of a three-bedroom terrace house in suburban Belfast through the decades. Abridged by Eoin O’Callaghan.

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