Yesterday Is Gone

A fast moving action thriller
55,000 words

Although the story begins in Ireland at the closing stages of WWII, most of the action takes place in 1971 at a time when the Vatican Bank was suspected of being heavily involved in money laundering, and with connections to the mafia. This is also about the time the IRA were becoming active in London.

Sean Fitzpatrick was born in County Kerry near the end of WWII the 7th son of a 7th daughter.
Tragically, his mother died at his birth and eventually his father, unable to cope with the extra child, agreed to another woman in a neighbouring village, who had lost her own baby the same day; to bring him up.
He was raised as Sean McCartney, and unaware of his true parentage.

In Chicago, Dan McCartney believed that he had fathered a son unaware that his own son had died shortly after birth.
Dan’s criminal activity has imprisoned him for a long term, and back home in Ireland on not hearing from him, he is assumed dead.
In his early teens, Sean’s surrogate mother becomes ill and when she subsequently dies, he discovers the whole truth of his parentage.
Left alone in the world he determines to find the brothers he did not know existed who have all moved to England.
Confused by his real identity he seeks the comfort, and stability of the Catholic Church.

As a newly ordained priest, in 1971 he becomes a curate in St. Patrick’s Church, in London’s Soho.
A twist of fate sees the new priest assisting the victim of a gangland mob shooting in central London. The victim turns out to be Dan McCartney; the man who for many years he believed to be his father.
Sean is left a legacy from him in the form a key to a locker containing a fortune in US$ notes, that has been embezzled from the Vatican Bank.

The young priest is given the responsibility as a papal envoy, to get the package to Rome under cover of Vatican Diplomatic diplomatic immunity.
The IRA who have just exploded a bomb in central London, become aware of the cash in transit and plan to grab the cash to boost their fighting funds for weapons, but their initial attempt is thwarted.
A nursing sister, Maria Rizzo, who Sean has met at a London hospital, assists him as he is unsure who can be trusted.
Being half-Italian she is in an ideal position to help him get out of the country to Italy and the Vatican.
Father Sean Fitzpatrick becomes romantically involved and his feelings are confused. They fall in love.
There are a numerous adventures and skirmishes involving the IRA and mafia as both organisations challenge for the package, including Sean escaping capture and a high-speed car chase through Switzerland into Italy. The IRA take Maria as a hostage as a ransom for the package of money.
Despite the efforts of the IRA and mafia, the package is eventually delivered to the Vatican.
Woven into the story is the growing relationship between the young priest and the nurse.
Sean is eventually reunited with his lost brothers when tragically one of them is killed in a car crash.
The story returns to its starting location in Ireland when he returns to conduct the funerals of Dan McCartney and his own brother Thomas and he meets the brothers he never knew.
There twist in events and at the conclusion, there is a final surprise.