THE DEPORTEES

For the past few years Roddy Doyle has been writing stories for IMetro Eireann/I, a magazine started by, and aimed at, immigrants to Ireland. Each of the stories took a new slant on the immigrant experience, something of increasing relevance and importance in today's Ireland. The stories range from -~Guess Who's Coming to the Dinner', where a father who prides himself on his open-mindedness when his daughters talk about sex, is forced to confront his feelings when one of them brings home a black fella, to a terrifying ghost story, -~The Pram', in which a Polish nanny grows impatient with her charge's older sisters and decides -" in a phrase she has learnt -" to -~scare them shitless'. Most of the stories are very funny -" in -~57% Irish' Ray Brady tries to devise a test of Irishness by measuring reactions to Robbie Keane's goal against Germany in the 2002 World Cup, IRiverdance/I and -~Danny Boy' -" others deeply moving. And best of all, in the title story itself,Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who formed The Commitments, decides it's time to find a new band, and this time no White Irish need apply. Multicultural to a fault, The Deportees specialise not in soul music this time, but the songs of Woody Guthrie.