“A Bridge to Nowhere”

This chapter takes as its focus Bernard MacLaverty’s exploration of ageing masculinities in his portrayal of the Northern Irish exile, Gerry Gilmore, in the novel Midwinter Break. It posits that MacLaverty employs narrative and structural devices and engages with key themes in Northern Irish literature, including trauma and liminality, to interrogate how decades after leaving his homeland, Gerry’s life is still very much defined by the legacy of the dominant masculinities he inculcated as a member of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland pre- and during the Troubles.