Kirjahaku

With 33 criminal convictions against him, plus a further 33 cases either dropped or found not guilty, he has been remanded nine times including one charge of attempted murder when he was aged just 18. He became rapidly embroiled in a life of violence and was in and out of prison just as many times as he was in and out of hospital. His was a life dedicated to football violence in the shape of the Celtic Soccer Crew. O'Kane's memoirs are about the extraordianry struggle of a gang of football hooligans to survive, despite discovering an unexpected enemy the indomitable Celtic Support - a support that guarded its reputation and good name with a passion O'Kane hadn't reckoned with, even as a Celtic supporter himself. But out on the streets and causing mayhem, the Celtic Soccer Crew and that incredibly included their girlfriends - proved they were not taking shit from anyone. Now revealed for the first time are some of those outrageous antics for which the CSC firm are notorious. Combined with frankness and honesty, they give the reader a real insight into what turns a man into a career hooligan.

"John O'Kane, with his radiant sentences, has captured Venice's sun-drenched paradise, artists seeking new forms, surfers, lost ones who came looking for community. His sense of the environment, the creative ones & those close to madness is uncanny. An empathetic, humane sextet about the ghosts of Venice splendidly told." Harry E. Northup Poet, Love Poem to MPTF; actor, Taxi Driver BIOPublished 230 essays, articles, and stories in a variety of national venues. My books: Venice, CA: A City State of Mind; A People's Manifesto; Toward Election 2020: Cancel Culture, Censorship, and Class; The Unmaking of the President, 2020; A Venice Quintet; Jukebox Confessionals (contracted, forthcoming); An Accidental Jesus (contracted, forthcoming). Jukebox and Quintet are short story collections An Accidental Jesus is a novel. The others are literary and op-ed journalism. I publish/edit AMASS Magazine and teach writing at UCI.