A Dublin childhood, decades of hidden addiction, and a hard-won recovery: a new memoir traces one man’s journey from a Dublin tenement to sobriety on Long Island
NEW YORK—September 16, 2026—Apateon Press today announced the publication of The Irish Telegram Boy: A Memoir by Thomas A. McCluskey. The book tells the story of a boy raised to believe he was, in his family’s words, a “good-for-nothing,” and the decades-long journey that led him to prove otherwise.
Born into poverty in a Dublin tenement in 1944, McCluskey grew up in a large, quarrelsome Irish Catholic household marked by an absent father, a mother unable to show him warmth, and the daily indignities of poverty. At sixteen, he emigrated alone to New York, hoping for a fresh start. Instead, the wounds of his childhood followed him through difficult jobs, a failed first marriage, a second marriage and fatherhood, and years of escalating alcoholism. The memoir opens at his lowest point, lying paralyzed at the bottom of his basement stairs after a night of drinking, his body failing from decades of heavy smoking and drinking, and a near-fatal accident the next day that finally convinced him something had to change.
“I spent most of my life believing I was the family screwup and trying to prove I wasn’t,” said McCluskey. “Writing this book meant going back into rooms I had spent decades trying to forget, like the tenement in Dublin and the basement on Long Island, but then, on to the church basements where I finally got sober. I want readers who are still fighting their own version of that fight to know it is possible to come out the other side.”
The Irish Telegram Boy moves from Dublin tenements to the streets of Queens, from a first marriage that collapses under the weight of drinking and financial strain to a second marriage and family life that mask a worsening addiction. Through therapy, Alcoholics Anonymous, and a hard-won faith, McCluskey confronts his past, breaks a cycle of generational pain, and finds what he calls his own voice. Told in plainspoken, scene-driven prose, the book sits in the tradition of the Irish-immigrant addiction-and-recovery memoir, with McCluskey’s sobriety and self-understanding as its destination.
“The Irish Telegram Boy is an unsparing, deeply human account of what it takes to break a cycle of addiction that runs through generations,” said Hugh Taylor, President of Apateon Press. “Thomas doesn’t spare himself in these pages, and that honesty is exactly what makes his recovery so believable and so earned.”
The Irish Telegram Boy: A Memoir (ISBN 979-8-9973388-2-4) is now available on Amazon.com.
About Thomas A. McCluskey
Thomas A. McCluskey was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1944 and emigrated to New York at the age of sixteen. He built a life and raised a family on Long Island while struggling for years with alcoholism before achieving lasting sobriety through therapy, Alcoholics Anonymous, and faith. The Irish Telegram Boy is his first book.
About Apateon Press
Apateon Press is an independent publishing company dedicated to bringing distinctive voices and compelling ideas to readers. The company publishes books designed to engage readers, challenge assumptions, and contribute to meaningful conversations.
For more information, visit https://apateonpress.com
Media Contact
Organization: Apateon Press
Contact Person: Hugh Taylor
Website: https://apateonpress.com
Email: Send Email
Country: United States
Release id: 49181
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