THE DEPORTEES

For the past few years, Roddy Doyle has been writing stories for "MetroEireann", a newspaper started by, and aimed at, immigrants to Ireland.Each of the stories took a new slant on the immigrant experience,something of increasing relevance and importance in today's Ireland. Thestories range from "Guess Who's Coming to the Dinner", where a father whoprides himself on his open-mindedness when his daughters talk about sex,is forced to confront his feelings when one of them brings home a blackfella, to a terrifying ghost story, "The Pram", in which a Polish nannygrows impatient with her charge's older sisters and decides - in a phraseshe has learnt - to 'scare them shitless'. Most of the stories are veryfunny - in "'57 per cent Irish" Ray Brady tries to devise a test ofIrishness by measuring reactions to Robbie Keane's goal against Germany inthe 2002 World Cup, Riverdance and "Danny Boy" - others deeply moving. Andbest of all, in the title story itself, Jimmy Rabbitte, the man who formedThe Commitments, decides it's time to find a new band, and this time noWhite Irish need apply. Multicultural to a fault, "The Deportees"specialise not in soul music this time, but the songs of Woody Guthrie.