A SOUTHSIDE barber has turned his nimble hands to the art of story telling by writing a book about the hundreds of interesting and amusing tales that his customers have told him over the years.
Peter Quinn (42), from Bohernabreena, has worked in Frankie’s barbershop in Rathfarnham for the last eight years but has been in the business since he was 17-years-of-age.
Over the years he has heard hundreds of stories and he decided to capture some of them in
‘Short Back and Sides: Tales from an Irish Barber Shop’ which lifts the veil on what is considered to be the last bastion of male preserve, where men can talk freely about the important things in life, like women and the weather.
Some of the stories are funny, some are interesting and some are eye opening, giving the reader a glimpse through the keyhole of life in a Dublin barber shop from day to day.
Peter explained:
“I have been working in the business for over 25 years now. I have heard some great stories and I would tell them to people in the pub at night. They always enjoyed them, so I ended up thinking it might be a good thing for a newspaper column. Eventually I decided I would send it to a publisher instead.
“Only yesterday a man in his mid 80s came in just to have a rest because he was walking through the village and he couldn’t continue. He started to tell us all about the war and that he remembers going down to collect his gas mask when he was 17. He was telling me that you always had to sleep with it by your bedside in case the German planes dropped gas.
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Peter said the book also contains a lot humorous stories, some of which are told at the expense of unsuspecting tourists.
“There is another funny story about an American tourist who came into a bar and saw the barman pouring a few pints of Guinness for the customers.
“He was watching this and asked if this was the famous Irish Guinness. The barman said it was and the tourist asked for one but without the cream, as he was lactose intolerant. He thought they were topping the pints off with cream.
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?¢ Short Back and Sides: Tales from an Irish Barber Shop is available in all good bookshops for
?¬6.99. It can also be purchased on www.amazon.com