Acclaimed songwriter Brendan Graham’s third novel– ‘The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night’– a novel of the Irish who fought on both sides of the American Civil War, and of the women who bound up their wounds, has just been published by HarperCollins in paperback.

Since Brendan, at almost fifty years of age, was made redundant in 1993, he has enjoyed remarkable success as both songwriter and novelist.

In 1994, his song ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’ stormed to victory in the Eurovision Song Contest by one of the biggest winning margins in the Contest’s fifty-year history.

Typically, he refused to be budged by RTE on how the song should be presented– “no bells, bugles or belly-dancers”, instead opting for “a conversation in a kitchen”, the song performed acoustically by Paul Harrington on piano and Charlie McGettigan on guitar.

In a poll of ‘Late, Late Show’ viewers prior to this year’s Eurovision, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids’, resoundingly swept home as the viewers’ all-time favourite of Ireland’s Eurovision entries.

It is this apparent knack for telling a good story, that makes his novels such compelling reading. His first novel, ‘The Whitest Flower’, became a number 2 bestseller in Christmas week 1998, the most competitive book-selling week of the year. “I was in New York,” Brendan told ‘NewsFour’, “I didn’t realise it until I came back home after Christmas. It was the best present I could get. I was happy at no. 2, because Maeve Binchy was at No.1 and Maeve’s untoppable!”

‘The Whitest Flower’ went on to sell over two hundred thousand copies, is still selling and along with his second book ‘The Element of Fire’ is listed as support fiction for the new Leaving Certificate History Course.

“I’m really pleased at that. They’re not ‘history books’– just stories about people and how the events of the times might have affected them– but obviously if they can excite the interest of young readers towards learning more, then that’s a good thing,” he says.

Of ‘The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night’, the ‘Irish News’ heads up its review with the banner, “Brendan’s Saved the Best for Last” and goes on to say “What I like about these books is certainly the drama of the storyline and the historical facts, while the development of the characters is such that you miss them sorely when you finish the last page. This is a story on so many levels, many twists and turns, beauty and horror– but the book is dominated by Ellen and her determination to reunite her family. The chapters are short, the book is easy to read and hard to put down. You don’t need to read the earlier books but you probably will after reading ‘The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night’.”

Gifted both literally and lyrically Brendan’s composition ‘You Raise Me Up’ has become a phenomenon the world over in modern popular music. To date, over 130 artistes have recorded ‘You Raise Me Up’. It is one of Oprah’s favourite songs; it is skated to by Olympic Gold medallist figure skaters.

It’s at Superbowl, the Commonwealth Games and Croke Park. It’s at New Year’s Eve on Times Square and Fourth of July rallies and the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. It is sung at every second graduation in the USA, and this year was one of only six songs selected for The World’s Largest Concert, where an estimated 6 million children around the world sang it.

Used as the basis for sermons in churches of every denomination, it is also used by trauma recovery groups, Third World hunger campaigns, anti-bullying programmes and sung equally at weddings as it is at funerals.

Keeping his eye on the ball and keeping both his literary and musical ventures active can be a struggle, admits Brendan. “It’s a juggle sometimes to meet conflicting deadlines– but then each day has twenty-four hours, not eight. And it can be confusing in the market place. For example if I have a new book out and Westlife are no.1 in Britain, with ‘You Raise Me Up’– what do you think people want to interview me about? Half the country will then ask me ‘did you ever write another book after the first one?’ While, when the book gets a bit of light, the other half will ask ‘are you still at the ould songs?’

“I love the use of the word ‘at’– it seems to signify scratching, or gnawing at them, and without much success, like an itch or a bone. But of course that’s exactly what you do– you scratch at the song until the itch of it is gone and you gnaw at it until only the lean bone of the song is left.

“Novels are a different beast– they claw at you until you finish them. Songs are butterflies, they have their brief, intense moment, their brightest day and then you let them off. A novel is a monkey on your back, a claw in your gut, your darkest night.”

Brendan Graham’s novel ‘The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night’ is now published in paperback by Harper Collins Publishers and is available nationwide.