Life is confusing for seventeen-year-old Billy. Like any good Protestant lad from Ulster, he believes in God...but questions why the Protestants and Catholics are killing each other in his name. Still a virgin, he likes the idea of sex-no worries there-but hasn't quite figured out whether he's more attracted to women or men.
It's as if he's been left sitting on the edge of the field, watching other people play the game of life. But all that changes when he travels abroad with a group from his local church.
In France, Billy meets Brendan-immediately blowing his confusion into all-out chaos. It's love at first sight, but it only gets complicated from there because Brendan is a twenty-seven-year-old Catholic, and he has a girlfriend. Nevertheless, free from the constraints of Northern Ireland, their friendship grows.
When the troubles that Billy thought couldn't touch them invade this newfound freedom, IRA terrorists force Brendan to smuggle cash into Switzerland by threatening his family back home.
A heartrending coming-of-age tale that tackles a host of big issues, Through the eyes of an Irish Lad is an honest reflection on the cost innocent people pay when society can't live in harmony or respect people's differences.
