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Above is a caption-enabled Instagram Live performance of my story “The Defamation Suit”. It starts about three minutes in where I stand up.

The story is inspired by countering SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) and widespread abuse of the laws by bad actors who use legal letters to wedge themselves into untouchable positions of power and force vulnerable artists and activists to take out loans to swell their coffers. I have been campaigning about this since 2011. This is a work of rage and redemption.

I took the risk of recording without sponsorship or name-recognition from any arts organisation, knowing that many people might not listen, because if I wait for audience and attention, I would never get it done. This is art to move the needle, and I’m very proud of my performance (plus a bit of bald rage near the end!)

I cannot perform in open mics and events because of the risk of low immunity and catching bugs when my body is processing large amounts of industrial toxins last used in World War I and I’m injecting myself with substances to stimulate my bone marrow into making up white blood cells. So this is a quick, easy way to communicate my art to show solidarity with all those in the arts and wider Irish polity who have been hurt by defamation abuse.

Circle of Life community garden, Salthill, Galway – from galwaytourism.ie

I private locked another blog post where I was processing literary world trauma. This is because while this is ongoing work for me, I want to change up the narrative a bit.

Continue reading “Connected”

I’ve just finished writing a scene in a new novel in progress I’m working on. It’s very early on, first draft energy, and…it’s disgusting. It’s probably the most revolting imagery I’ve ever put down on the page, and I’m loving every minute of it. This was just after submitting the novel about climate change, biodiversity shenanigans, the Irish Civil War, murder and political intrigue, I’ve been working on for three years to a publisher. And Channel, a literary magazine with an environmental bent, have just accepted a submission of mine based on a reworking of that novel’s final scene. It comes out in May.

I’ve been receiving treatment for a (curable) cancer diagnosis I received in January. I remember that day being told “We’ll sort this for you” by a sympathetic consultant, and then heading out into the city centre to collect my contributor’s copy of the Cork City Libraries Words 3 anthology which features my story “The Defamation Suit”. I think it would be fair to say I was a little stunned back then!

Now things have settled down, surgery done and dusted, I’m out of the office for a while, and I seem to have wandered into an extended flow state writing-wise. I discovered London Writers Salon and the novel I have just started is the one I will work on for the duration of chemotherapy. My treatment involves receiving a drug named the Red Devil which is based on the mustard gas they used in the trenches in WWI, so that ties in nicely with my previous work and I’m co-opting a bit of it for the current WIP too. There’s a lot of metaphorical and existential playing about I can do while navigating this disease. Also some decisions to be made about what subject matters are compatible with mandated fortnightly poisoning. I made a decision early on to avoid food or romance, and was surprised that rather than being a Horrific Experience, chemo appears to be largely bumbling along at 75 percent capacity and all that entails.

I’m going with “venom in, venom out” and I’m astonishing myself with what I’m putting down on the page. It’s so freeing. I’m working on part 2 of the crime series I started with the previous novel, now on submission, and it’s pure therapy. I thought my last fuck had flown out the window a while back, but cancer revealed a couple more lurking around and I set them free like radiant turquoise butterflies in the sun.

I always looked for the fair wind, but never found it. Now I feel the wind is at my back a little, and if the notorious Mr C is responsible for that, then I’m not ungrateful.

And a gentle reminder that I’m still having a fire sale of White Feathers paperback if you should be so moved to check it out. Mwah to all of you 🙂

I received a mail from my publisher last week letting me know that the paperback of White Feathers would shortly be out of print. I was asked it I wanted any of the remaining stock and I requested all 103 remaining copies. With the 10 I already had, that leaves me with 112 copies of the novel.

White Feathers may be out of print, but when it comes to events happening right now, it is by no means out of date. I believe its message of resistance against institutional warmongering and hysteria remains as relevant as ever.

(Also there are a lot of boxes in a relatively small space and I need to get the orders flowing to get them out of here!)

So, I have set up a little online shop to sell the remaining copies of the book for 5 euro each, excluding shipping costs, signed by yours truly. If you would like to buy a copy, please click the menu option “Shop” at the top right of the screen, or the icon of the book above the text. If you can think of a good organisation to donate copies to (it is already in libraries) drop me a message on the contact form and let me know. Likewise if any issues with ordering. Shipping to Ireland, UK, US, Europe and Australia.

Delighted that my interview with Geraldine from Be Cork Creative is now up! It was fun, frank and no-nonsense. I talk about

• the craft of writing historical fiction

• WWI bagpipe players on suicide missions

• being censored for LGBT content in translation

and more! Click on the below to play directly from Spotify, or go here for all podcast links.

I’m delighted to be featured in this short story and poetry collection compiled by Cork City Libraries and officially launched this afternoon. I had a kind librarian take this pic for me on 17th January when I collected my contributor’s copy. Regretfully I can’t make it today due to illness and recovery, but I will be there in spirit.

I want to talk a bit about my short story, “The Defamation Suit”. It’s an allegorical-style story that combines strong Biblical symbolism, semi-apocalyptic imagery and dreamlike sequences, all entwined with the grim reality of the toxic Catholic hangover that is the 2009 Defamation Act. This is currently under review in our Houses of Parliament and it honestly can’t be reformed soon enough.

“The Defamation Suit”, while highly stylised and allegorised, is at root autobiographical. It is an emotional processing and response to receiving a vexatious SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) early in 2020. It seeks to interweaves the decades of our history, of being colonised then re-colonising ourselves, the culture of shame, ultramontane power and silence, and how the old ghosts still rattle their chains through our brutal history of defamation violence. It depicts the sued person as the brutalised figure of a woman and brings up the horrible co-conspiracy of silence and internalised misogyny. I know this is a long-ass summary of a 2000-word story, but I honestly believe that it’s the most important piece I’ve ever written. It is activist literature, and for that I am proud of it. I hope it moves the needle.

I’ve read some of the other pieces and particularly enjoyed short stories and excerpts by Michelle Dunne, Mel O’Doherty and Cathy Sweeney, but there are many more excellent tales to enjoy.

Please if you have reason to pass your local library in Cork, have a look – or it can be bought in Waterstones and other local bookshops. I will add links as soon as available.

If you are looking for this post about online anon abuse by a prominent Irish writer, I’m afraid it has been taken down. The whole thing was becoming a bit drive-by and I want to refocus. Apologies! If you want to know what it’s about, please message me with some details about who you are, socials etc, as I have to be careful about responding. Many thanks.

I follow Listowel Writers Week. It is a very popular annual literary event in Ireland that attracts international attention and very good prizes. There has been some tension between the voluntary body and the Arts Council which has resulted in a new curator coming on board. That isn’t what I wish to highlight, though.

One of their latest social media postings highlights the opening of the annual short story, novel and playwriting competitions which writers from all over the world enter. Last year, in June, when the results were announced, the winner of the Eamon Keane full-length play award was named as Daniel Wade, who wrote Search and Rescue.

The only problem being that it seems reasonable to surmise, from the information at hand, that he did not write it alone.

Continue reading “PSA: Listowel Writers Week Competitions – Avoid For Now”

“I have looked the possibility of my own extinction in the eye” poet Kevin Higgins wrote recently. That possibility sadly, yesterday, became a fact. Kevin, a firebrand, an ally, someone unafraid to ruffle feathers, passed away after a long illness and confinement in hospital.

Continue reading “Kevin Higgins 1967 – 2023”