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The Bureau
Lorraine would say afterwards that she was smitten straight off with Paddy Farrell. You could tell that he was occupying the room in a different way, he found the spaces that fitted him. She was the kind of girl the papers called vivacious, always a bit of dazzle to her.
Could she not see there was death about him? Could he not see there was death about her?
Paddy worked the border, a place of road closures, hijackings, sudden death. Everything bootleg and tawdry, nobody is saying that the law is paid off but it is. This is strange terrain, unsolid, ghosted through.
There's illicit cash coming across the border and Brendan's backstreet Bureau de Change is the place to launder it. Brendan knows the rogue lawyers, the nerve shot policemen, the alcoholic judges and he doesn't care about getting caught. For the Bureau crew getting caught is only the start of the game.
Paddy and his associates were a ragged band and honourless and their worth to themselves was measured in thievery and fraud. But Lorraine was not a girl to be treated lightly. She's cast as a minx, a criminal's moll but she's bought a shotgun. And she's bought a grave.
Could she not see there was death about him? Could he not see there was death about her?
Paddy worked the border, a place of road closures, hijackings, sudden death. Everything bootleg and tawdry, nobody is saying that the law is paid off but it is. This is strange terrain, unsolid, ghosted through.
There's illicit cash coming across the border and Brendan's backstreet Bureau de Change is the place to launder it. Brendan knows the rogue lawyers, the nerve shot policemen, the alcoholic judges and he doesn't care about getting caught. For the Bureau crew getting caught is only the start of the game.
Paddy and his associates were a ragged band and honourless and their worth to themselves was measured in thievery and fraud. But Lorraine was not a girl to be treated lightly. She's cast as a minx, a criminal's moll but she's bought a shotgun. And she's bought a grave.
260 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 27, 2025
49 people are currently reading
385 people want to read
About the author
Eoin McNamee
32 books65 followersMcNamee was awarded a Macaulay Fellowship for Irish Literature in 1990, after his 1989 novella The Last of Deeds (Raven Arts Press, Dublin), was shortlisted for the 1989 Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award for Irish Literature. The author currently lives in Ireland with his wife and two children, Owen and Kathleen.
He also writes as John Creed.
He also writes as John Creed.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 27, 2025
Ah, The Bureau, what a read. But c’mere, don’t be thinking you’ll get a straight line start to finish. McNamee’s not that kind of operator. He’s not telling you a story so much as pulling you into memories.
The inspiration? When McNamee found a letter Paddy Farrell wrote to his father, Brendan, from Cork Prison, it kicked off an almost autofiction soaked in crime, family, and betrayal. It sounds like something off the telly, but for McNamee, it was real life.
Welcome to Newry in the early 90s — hijackings, bootlegging, dirty cash flying across the border. Brendan, a struck-off lawyer, runs a bureau de change, a front, where the wrong sort wash their money and nobody asks questions.
Paddy Farrell’s the hard man everyone’s half afraid of: a shady drug smuggling border crime top boss. Lorraine’s the young one at his side, all dazzle and bad ideas. But don't be fooled; she’s very much aware of the ‘moll’ status. When the two of them end up dead by murder-suicide perpetrated by a seethingly jealous Lorraine, there’s gaping holes in the story.
And the place itself, the way McNamee writes Newry, you can nearly smell the diesel fumes and feel the violent threat. It’s a town stitched together with old grudges, cheap sentiment and everyday cruelty. People shake your hand with one fist and stab you with the other. Sure, there are allegiances, including some paramilitary, humming away, but ultimately, it’s every man for himself; money is their religion.
The Bureau isn’t about who killed who. It’s about how a place turns sour and how the people either turn with it or drown. No heroes. No clean endings. Just the muck and the folk who thought they could dance through it without getting their boots dirty. Spoiler: nobody gets out clean.
You can read The Bureau as a brilliant hardboiled crime novel if you like, but it’ll hit harder when you know Paddy and Lorraine were real. A lot of these players were. How much of The Bureau is fact? How much is fiction? McNamee weaves until you can’t see the join, and you wouldn’t want to.
The Bureau is a darkly atmospheric read that never lets up the pace. Highly recommend!
The inspiration? When McNamee found a letter Paddy Farrell wrote to his father, Brendan, from Cork Prison, it kicked off an almost autofiction soaked in crime, family, and betrayal. It sounds like something off the telly, but for McNamee, it was real life.
Welcome to Newry in the early 90s — hijackings, bootlegging, dirty cash flying across the border. Brendan, a struck-off lawyer, runs a bureau de change, a front, where the wrong sort wash their money and nobody asks questions.
Paddy Farrell’s the hard man everyone’s half afraid of: a shady drug smuggling border crime top boss. Lorraine’s the young one at his side, all dazzle and bad ideas. But don't be fooled; she’s very much aware of the ‘moll’ status. When the two of them end up dead by murder-suicide perpetrated by a seethingly jealous Lorraine, there’s gaping holes in the story.
And the place itself, the way McNamee writes Newry, you can nearly smell the diesel fumes and feel the violent threat. It’s a town stitched together with old grudges, cheap sentiment and everyday cruelty. People shake your hand with one fist and stab you with the other. Sure, there are allegiances, including some paramilitary, humming away, but ultimately, it’s every man for himself; money is their religion.
The Bureau isn’t about who killed who. It’s about how a place turns sour and how the people either turn with it or drown. No heroes. No clean endings. Just the muck and the folk who thought they could dance through it without getting their boots dirty. Spoiler: nobody gets out clean.
You can read The Bureau as a brilliant hardboiled crime novel if you like, but it’ll hit harder when you know Paddy and Lorraine were real. A lot of these players were. How much of The Bureau is fact? How much is fiction? McNamee weaves until you can’t see the join, and you wouldn’t want to.
The Bureau is a darkly atmospheric read that never lets up the pace. Highly recommend!
July 6, 2025
The Bureau is a thriller set in the border lands of Northern Ireland and the Republic during the troubles. It involves straight crime and paramilitaries. Although it’s a work of fiction, much of it is true. This piece in The Irish Times explains the background. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo... McNamee has essentially written a literary novel. He is a talented writer. But he has written a boring book that fails to keep the reader glued to the page, and craving to read more. The characters have little depth, and ultimately, you don’t really care what happens to them. This is all a bit puzzling, given that it is largely true, and it is a strange tale that few people could relate from direct experience. And yet somehow, McNamee manages to make it a bit dull. The three stars reflect his obvious writing talent rather than my enjoyment of the book. I hope that makes sense.
April 22, 2025
Gripping, page turner from start to finish
April 2, 2025
‘Some stories seem to tell themselves and other stories wish to remain untold.
It is uncertain which this is.’
The Bureau by Eoin McNamee published March 27th with Riverrun and is described as ‘a hair-raising story of kidnap, murder and fraud, set on the Irish borderlands.’
Were Paddy and Lorraine Ireland’s answer to Bonnie and Clyde? How much of The Bureau is fact? How much is fiction? After watching the recent Kneecap movie I was left asking similar questions.
In 1997 the bodies of Paddy Farrell and Lorraine Farrell were discovered in Lorraine’s family home in Drogheda, Co. Louth. A brutal scene awaited those who attended the scene. Were they cut down in a paramilitary execution or was it a murder-suicide? These were some of the questions I was left with after reading this staggering and intense book from Eoin McNamee.
You can choose to read The Bureau as an exciting crime novel with hard-boiled fictional crime characters or you can shiver all over and read it as autofiction, knowing that Paddy and Lorraine were very very real. Many of the players in this menacing tale are frighteningly true and Eoin McNamee brings his own very personal edge to the tale with the addition of factual elements and people, including a mock execution, there for us all to absorb.
“I see a reflection of myself standing at my own grave weeping”
Paddy Farrell, a cross-border crime boss, was a married man with children, but he was also a player. When his eyes were drawn to Lorraine Farrell, she had no hope. Lorraine Farrell shared the same surname as Paddy but that was it as far as any previous connection went and she soon became smitten by his attention and his ardour. She easily slotted in with his crew and was soon a familiar face during the week at the bars and venues he frequented. One of the premises he could often be found in was the Bureau de Change on Water Street in Newry owned by Brendan McNamee, father of the author of The Bureau, Eoin McNamee.
Brendan McNamee was a one-time highly successful lawyer who was debarred following allegations of fraud. Now a gambling, drinking man who knew too much and had definitely seen too much, he kept his counsel and served a different element of society. The corrupt knew where to find him. They knew that he could look after their money and that he could clear paths for them. Brendan McNamee was a highly intelligent man but he landed on the wrong side of the law, at times carelessly dragging his children into his nefarious activities.
When Eoin McNamee discovered a letter that Paddy Farrell had written to his father from Cork Prison he was inspired to put flesh on this story and write about a part of his life that sounds like a TV Mafia series, but it was his reality.
The Bureau provides a backdrop of a different Ireland when the North/South divide was very much evident. Cross-border activity was the playground of violent criminal gangs and anyone caught in the crossfire was cannon fodder. Dominic and Mary McGlinchey, Brendan ‘Speedy’ Fegan and many, many more feature in this tale that will leave you completely stumped for words.
“This is a strange terrain, unsolid, ghosted through”
Eoin McNamee said it took him over thirty years to put his thoughts together and to bring his story to light. It’s exceptionally difficult to get one’s head around the fact that much of what happens was his reality. The Bureau is a smashing tale, a phenomenal story inspired by so much truth.
It is quite difficult to fathom the lives of all those involved at that time and the inhospitable world that they inhabited. Lorraine and Paddy lived fast and dangerous and suffered the consequences but it is a strange twist of faith that Paddy Farrell’s death was not as a result of a deal gone wrong but a love affair that imploded.
Provoking a visceral reaction, Eoin McNamee’s The Bureau is a challenging, authentic and shocking read, both powerful and raw. This is one not to be missed!
It is uncertain which this is.’
The Bureau by Eoin McNamee published March 27th with Riverrun and is described as ‘a hair-raising story of kidnap, murder and fraud, set on the Irish borderlands.’
Were Paddy and Lorraine Ireland’s answer to Bonnie and Clyde? How much of The Bureau is fact? How much is fiction? After watching the recent Kneecap movie I was left asking similar questions.
In 1997 the bodies of Paddy Farrell and Lorraine Farrell were discovered in Lorraine’s family home in Drogheda, Co. Louth. A brutal scene awaited those who attended the scene. Were they cut down in a paramilitary execution or was it a murder-suicide? These were some of the questions I was left with after reading this staggering and intense book from Eoin McNamee.
You can choose to read The Bureau as an exciting crime novel with hard-boiled fictional crime characters or you can shiver all over and read it as autofiction, knowing that Paddy and Lorraine were very very real. Many of the players in this menacing tale are frighteningly true and Eoin McNamee brings his own very personal edge to the tale with the addition of factual elements and people, including a mock execution, there for us all to absorb.
“I see a reflection of myself standing at my own grave weeping”
Paddy Farrell, a cross-border crime boss, was a married man with children, but he was also a player. When his eyes were drawn to Lorraine Farrell, she had no hope. Lorraine Farrell shared the same surname as Paddy but that was it as far as any previous connection went and she soon became smitten by his attention and his ardour. She easily slotted in with his crew and was soon a familiar face during the week at the bars and venues he frequented. One of the premises he could often be found in was the Bureau de Change on Water Street in Newry owned by Brendan McNamee, father of the author of The Bureau, Eoin McNamee.
Brendan McNamee was a one-time highly successful lawyer who was debarred following allegations of fraud. Now a gambling, drinking man who knew too much and had definitely seen too much, he kept his counsel and served a different element of society. The corrupt knew where to find him. They knew that he could look after their money and that he could clear paths for them. Brendan McNamee was a highly intelligent man but he landed on the wrong side of the law, at times carelessly dragging his children into his nefarious activities.
When Eoin McNamee discovered a letter that Paddy Farrell had written to his father from Cork Prison he was inspired to put flesh on this story and write about a part of his life that sounds like a TV Mafia series, but it was his reality.
The Bureau provides a backdrop of a different Ireland when the North/South divide was very much evident. Cross-border activity was the playground of violent criminal gangs and anyone caught in the crossfire was cannon fodder. Dominic and Mary McGlinchey, Brendan ‘Speedy’ Fegan and many, many more feature in this tale that will leave you completely stumped for words.
“This is a strange terrain, unsolid, ghosted through”
Eoin McNamee said it took him over thirty years to put his thoughts together and to bring his story to light. It’s exceptionally difficult to get one’s head around the fact that much of what happens was his reality. The Bureau is a smashing tale, a phenomenal story inspired by so much truth.
It is quite difficult to fathom the lives of all those involved at that time and the inhospitable world that they inhabited. Lorraine and Paddy lived fast and dangerous and suffered the consequences but it is a strange twist of faith that Paddy Farrell’s death was not as a result of a deal gone wrong but a love affair that imploded.
Provoking a visceral reaction, Eoin McNamee’s The Bureau is a challenging, authentic and shocking read, both powerful and raw. This is one not to be missed!
June 19, 2025
I heard about The Bureau (2025) in the pages of Strong Words magazine who gave it a very positive review. My library had a copy on the shelves so I decided to give it a go.
Eoin McNamee's novel is a love story of sorts set in the murky world of the Irish borderlands during the Troubles. It's a place of money laundering, security checkpoints, executions, robberies and scams. Nobody is quite what they seem with ambiguity and tragedy being the defining characteristic of most of the characters.
I was expecting it to be more compelling and immersive however there is still plenty to appreciate in this original, unusual and oblique crime novel.
3/5
Lorraine would say afterwards that she was smitten straight off with Paddy Farrell. You could tell that he was occupying the room in a different way, he found the spaces that fitted him. She was the kind of girl the papers called vivacious, always a bit of dazzle to her.
Could she not see there was death about him? Could he not see there was death about her?
Paddy worked the border, a place of road closures, hijackings, sudden death. Everything bootleg and tawdry, nobody is saying that the law is paid off but it is. This is strange terrain, unsolid, ghosted through.
There's illicit cash coming across the border and Brendan's backstreet Bureau de Change is the place to launder it. Brendan knows the rogue lawyers, the nerve shot policemen, the alcoholic judges and he doesn't care about getting caught. For the Bureau crew getting caught is only the start of the game.
Paddy and his associates were a ragged band and honourless and their worth to themselves was measured in thievery and fraud. But Lorraine was not a girl to be treated lightly. She's cast as a minx, a criminal's moll but she's bought a shotgun. And she's bought a grave.
Eoin McNamee's novel is a love story of sorts set in the murky world of the Irish borderlands during the Troubles. It's a place of money laundering, security checkpoints, executions, robberies and scams. Nobody is quite what they seem with ambiguity and tragedy being the defining characteristic of most of the characters.
I was expecting it to be more compelling and immersive however there is still plenty to appreciate in this original, unusual and oblique crime novel.
3/5
Lorraine would say afterwards that she was smitten straight off with Paddy Farrell. You could tell that he was occupying the room in a different way, he found the spaces that fitted him. She was the kind of girl the papers called vivacious, always a bit of dazzle to her.
Could she not see there was death about him? Could he not see there was death about her?
Paddy worked the border, a place of road closures, hijackings, sudden death. Everything bootleg and tawdry, nobody is saying that the law is paid off but it is. This is strange terrain, unsolid, ghosted through.
There's illicit cash coming across the border and Brendan's backstreet Bureau de Change is the place to launder it. Brendan knows the rogue lawyers, the nerve shot policemen, the alcoholic judges and he doesn't care about getting caught. For the Bureau crew getting caught is only the start of the game.
Paddy and his associates were a ragged band and honourless and their worth to themselves was measured in thievery and fraud. But Lorraine was not a girl to be treated lightly. She's cast as a minx, a criminal's moll but she's bought a shotgun. And she's bought a grave.
May 28, 2025
A book about people on the border - between the north and south; between honesty and criminality; between love and hate; between loyalty and distrust; between reason and insanity - and its effects on their relationships and sense of self.
The main characters are doomed from the start in a near lawless land which is described by many as cowboy country. Lawlessness is a way of life for many as we focus on a number of gangsters and their molls whose lives revolve around a money laundering bureau de change.
This story centres on the actions leading to the final tragedy but there is little insight into their motivations or beliefs except in a rather superficial way. This is a story based on real events but the lines between truth and lies remain blurred. There is rumour and supposition but little else. People are murdered but their killers are shrouded in doubt and secrecy.
Given the place and time, it seems strange that the political background plays little part in the story. For example, one prominent character, Dominic McGlinchey was an IRA member and later became chief of staff of the INLA.
Still, a gripping and assured story which reminded at times of the work of Don Winslow, part documentary, part philosophical musings.
The main characters are doomed from the start in a near lawless land which is described by many as cowboy country. Lawlessness is a way of life for many as we focus on a number of gangsters and their molls whose lives revolve around a money laundering bureau de change.
This story centres on the actions leading to the final tragedy but there is little insight into their motivations or beliefs except in a rather superficial way. This is a story based on real events but the lines between truth and lies remain blurred. There is rumour and supposition but little else. People are murdered but their killers are shrouded in doubt and secrecy.
Given the place and time, it seems strange that the political background plays little part in the story. For example, one prominent character, Dominic McGlinchey was an IRA member and later became chief of staff of the INLA.
Still, a gripping and assured story which reminded at times of the work of Don Winslow, part documentary, part philosophical musings.
May 25, 2025
A fine book.
It begins with the murder suicide of an Irish couple living near the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
It’s a dark and gritty book about the goings on between two bit Irish gangsters versus the Guarda, the military and each other.
The main characters were basically born to fail but I couldn’t help but find them endearing although they were tragic losers that couldn’t see the folly of their criminality.
It begins with the murder suicide of an Irish couple living near the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
It’s a dark and gritty book about the goings on between two bit Irish gangsters versus the Guarda, the military and each other.
The main characters were basically born to fail but I couldn’t help but find them endearing although they were tragic losers that couldn’t see the folly of their criminality.
July 24, 2025
The border between Newry and Drogheda is the focus of the characters in the 1990s. The Border Fox is a real person portrayed in the book and it was at this point that I realised that the author had used real events and people in describing life through their eyes. Criminality, money laundering, false alibis and fractured relationships roll out over the spectre of the geographical topography as the characters move from place to place. An unusual read that leaves questions and gaps.
August 26, 2025
Influenced by a letter written between his father and one of the main characters, Eoin McNamee's prose is equal parts gritty and beautiful exploring the relationship between fact and fiction around the unstable, murky border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during the Troubles, centering one couple and their illicit dealings in money laundering, drug dealing and murder.
Missed a little something to warrant 5 stars but would still recommend.
Missed a little something to warrant 5 stars but would still recommend.
September 7, 2025
This is a really good book. It’s been a few years since I’ve read Eoin McNamee (The Blue Tango 2001 and Resurrection Man 2004) so was excited to hear of The Bureau’s release earlier this year. McNamee’s style is very distinctive, he seems to have invented a new language to write about the border. This book is all the more fascinating due to its family factual nature. A book in which there is always something happening, above and below the surface. Things move fast. Utterly enthralling. No hesitation in giving it five stars.
December 18, 2025
McNamee writes splendid noir prose -- imaginative, uncompromising and pure grit. The problem is his lean, hard style leaves no room for character development, and there are no characters that the reader can latch on to and root for. I found the timeline confusing, and the characters were so similar in temperament that I often had trouble understanding what was going on. The Bureau of wonderful sentences but a shaky story.
July 8, 2025
Quite a strange book. It reads like a novel but is, effectively, factual. The real 'star' of the book is probably 'the border' and the opportunity that presented for conmen, shady characters and killers to go about their business. A very gripping read, and hard to put down.
June 14, 2025
I wish I could give 2.5
June 16, 2025
Fact and fiction are a wee bit blurred in this compelling, dark novel
June 16, 2025
Excellent beautiful writing great research and humour
September 17, 2025
Superb! Gripping from the start, if I didn’t have work or kids I’d have read this in one go. The detail and accuracy in setting the scene is incredible. Gritty, raw and real - 10/10
January 4, 2026
2.5 ⭐ an almost parody style of gritty noir, surprised to find out it was based on a true story.
February 9, 2026
Haunting story. Told with beautiful lyricism. Really engaging read. It demands your attention, but definitely immerses you into the world.
February 10, 2026
Gripping, dark, cinematic. Made to be a film. Hard to believe it all happened
September 3, 2025
One of my most admired writers for a long time.
So bleak but so well written, even if the bleakness sometimes draws a smile in me, darkness and darkness is light.
So bleak but so well written, even if the bleakness sometimes draws a smile in me, darkness and darkness is light.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews