Nick Geoghegan
The youngest of three, Nick has always been interested in illustration. “I was always drawing. At the beginning, I’d copy the characters from my comic books, and when I was 7 or 8, I wrote stories…
Eimear Lawlor
As a child Eimear loved reading. “I read everything,” she says. “My three elder brothers were all into science, and I wanted to be a scientist, but it didn’t happen!” Studying in London, she met…
Louise Kennedy
An avid reader, devouring 3 or 4 books each week, Louise didn’t start writing until 2014. “My creativity was knocked out of me in secondary school,” she says. Louise worked at FAS, then moved to…
Alannah Hopkin on Aidan Higgins
I CAN’T REMEMBER WHEN I’VE READ SUCH A MOVING MEMOIR, OR ONE WRITTEN WITH SUCH RAW HONESTY. To read my review, of A Very Strange Man, New Island Books, published in Books Ireland Magazine,in April, 2021….
Lisa Harding
Around eight years ago Lisa Harding gave up acting. She had been a successful ingenue – playing Juliette in London, where she gained substantial roles in plays by Tennessee Williams. But later, the parts she was…
John Ware
John Ware has been passionately interested in history for his entire life. And, specifically, in the events of the First World War. As a child, he devoured war stories – both factual and from his comics,…
Eithne Shorthall
Eithne Shortall has always been driven. And although, growing up, she wanted to be an actress, or a poet, having decided, for practical purposes to study journalism, she’s never looked back. She went straight from Dublin…
Cork’s One City One Book.
I’m thrilled , and honoured to have been asked to Launch Cork’s One City One Book for 2021. Now in it’s 6th Year, this is a fabulous initiative, which encourages book loving Corkonians to read and…
Sue Divin
Sue wrote poetry as a teenager, and considered journalism, but instead studied European Studies. After taking an MA, she taught in secondary schools in Derry for seven years. “I loved teaching teenagers, but I…
Ciara Geraghty
The heroine in Ciara Geraghty’s latest novel prefers figures to people; order is essential to Marianne Cross. So when she loses her job, her house and her marriage, and has to return to her shambolic childhood…
John Patrick McHugh
John Patrick moved a lot as a young child, living in Tipperary, Mitchellstown, Mallow and Macroom before settling in Galway aged 12. “Achill was my concrete place,” he says, remembering time spent there with his grandparents….
Ericka Waller
An avid reader, Ericka devoured books from the library. “If I didn’t like the ending of a book, I would rewrite it,” she says. “I was good at rhyming poetry, and I wrote songs for…