The telephone was dead. Helen held it to her ear for a long moment and could hear nothing. She checked the lead, made sure that it was still connected to the wall. It was. She ran upstairs to her father's room and switched on the light and checked the telephone there, but it too was dead. On the floor by the bed she saw her mother's slippers. She gasped at them, stalled.

The lights went out.

Horses is the story of a storm, and of grief and arson and revenge. A priest a doctor and a policeman, on a single wild night south of Dublin, struggle with the unpredictability of a teenage girl, and a man with no shoes.

An adaptation of Horses was broadcast over 5 episodes on  BBC 7 during March 2004. It was performed by Owen Roe and produced by Heather Brennon.

This beautifully taut tale conjures up the elemental, rural Ireland that, understandably, still haunts much of the country's sensibility and literature. The Independent.