Category: Writing Life

Book launch, Collaboration, Writing Life, Writing News

MANTLES: Encountering Brigid (Arlen House: 2021, Dublin)

Cover of Mantles: Encountering Brigid. Art work showing rolling hills in various shades of green, by Margo McNulty.

I’m delighted to announce that Mantles: Encountering Brigid (Arlen House: 2021, Dublin) is published! It is currently exclusively stocked by Maynooth Bookshop (shortlisted for Irish bookshop of the year in the Irish Book Awards, winner of the Leinster category) – buy it here.

Margo and I are delighted with the critical praise so far:

“….thoughtful, evocative…the book is a rich meditation on folklore, tradition and contemporary experience.” Lia Mills, author of Another Alice

“This book will inspire many others to search out and walk in Brigit’s footsteps.” Mary Condren, ThD. author of The Serpent and the Goddess, and National Director, Woman Spirit Ireland.

“The interweaving of artworks by Margo McNulty with the writings of Shauna Gilligan can only be compared with the overlapping plaited strands of Brigit the Goddess and Brigid the Saint.” Clodagh Doyle, Keeper, Irish Folklife Division, National Museum of Ireland, Country Life, Mayo.

We were delighted to partake in Samhain @ Sult in Kildare Town on Wednesday 24th November, the first public reading from Mantles. It was wonderful to read surrounded by such inspiring artwork by Sult Collective and to be accompanied by live music from James Blennerhassett. We hope to mark the publication with another event soon!

This publication forms the final part of the Creative Ireland funded collaboration between myself and artist Margo McNulty.

We are grateful to Alan Hayes at Arlen House, our publishers, and Kildare County Council and Roscommon County Council, our funders.

On Reading, Writers Read, Writing Life

After Writing – Reading

As always, after an intense spell of writing, I like to return to reading.

Reading for leisure, for pleasure, for the act of reading itself.

Reading to no agenda other than to follow word after word, sentence after sentence so that I might be surprised by a discovery, a nudge, a startling fact, a sense of sadness – or that in some way wonder might pass through me.

And so, my current reading:

  • This is Ear Hustle by Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods. I’ve been listening to the Podcast. The book is even more thought-provoking.
  • A Slanting of the Sun by Donal Ryan. I’m late to these stories but am taking my time with them.
  • Wunderland by Caitríona Lally. With thanks to New Island books. Looking forward to diving in.
  • Bewilderment by Richard Powers. On the 2021 Booker Short List. I’d love if it won! (Results out next week). This is a slow and wonderful read with philosophical questioning throughout. One of the most tender evocations of father-son relationship I’ve ever read. I’m almost finished this beauty.

Photograph of four books: This is Ear Hustle (non-fiction)/ A Slanting of the Sun (short stories)/ Wunderland (novel)/ Bewilderment (novel)
Film, Past Writers Interviews, Writer Interview, Writers Chat, Writing Life, Writing News

Where Would You Like The Bullet – Aidan Higgins Doc on RTE

A few years ago I was delighted to take part in Neil Donnelly’s documentary on Irish writer Aidan Higgins edited by Seamus Callagy. The documentary premiered in the Irish Film Institute and this week aired on RTE. If you didn’t catch it, watch it here on playback. (I appear briefly in Part Three discussing Dog Days with other Kildare writers)

For more background and information about this documentary take a read of my 2019 Writers Chat with Neil.

Seamus Callagy writes for RTE about his experience on the documentary.

Watching the documentary has prompted me to return and re-read the extensive and expansive prose of Higgins and to explore Alannah Hopkin’s A Very Strange Man: A Memoir of Aidan Higgins.

Image of Dog Days: A Sequel to Donkey’s Years by Aidan Higgins