The Other Mermaid

Billy O'Shea grew up at an airport on the west coast of Ireland.He studied at Trinity College Dublin and Mountjoy Jail, but dropped out of both before completing his education. He then briefly pursued a career as a sitcom saboteur with the Irish television station RTE before being washed out of the country in the great emigration wave of 1980.He landed in Denmark and struck out as a ballad singer at night, while living a double life as a student in the daytime.He was awarded a gold medal by the University of Copenhagen in 2000 and shook hands with Queen Margrethe. After that he refused to shake hands with anyone else ever again, for which reason he was denied Danish citizenship in 2022 and sought asylum in Svalbard, near the North Pole.He has written several novels, which have been translated into Finnish and Chinese, to the puzzlement of many. His work is not recommended for the sound of mind or adults above the age of 80.