Four childhood friends from a tough North Belfast neighbourhood during the Troubles. While many of their contemporaries drifted into loyalist paramilitaries and from there to jail, the four friends aspired to better lives. They went their separate ways in adult life but pledged to get together for birthdays, no matter what.

Barry, who lives in London, joined the Royal Marines as a teenager, saw combat in the Falklands and South Armagh, is divorced and wealthy but has an inability to form a steady relationship. Colin did well, has been an accountant for thirty years, is married with two teenage daughters and lives in a middle-class suburb of the city. Doug also lives in Belfast, is married, and manages his own secondhand car dealership. Fred had been a promising football player until an injury ended his career. He and his English partner David live in Spain and intend to marry in Belfast due to extraordinary changes in a society where fundamentalists once marched under the banner, ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’.

Other troubles now afflict the four – the haunting legacy of conflict; the challenges of protecting one’s family; and just navigating life against a background radiation of angst, fear, insecurity and mortality.

The Birthday Boys grew side by side in their youth but despite time and distance never grew apart. Thompson tells the story of their enduring friendship with great skill, passion, humour and humanity.