Published in the Irish Independent, Saturday August 9, 2008 If you want to attend a show at the Belarus Free Theatre, first of all you have to find the mobile phone number of their manager. It’s not on the web. It’s not in the phone book. Just ask around until you get it.

A long time ago (the days before cheap flights), in a city far, far away (by road, at least), a young, earnest Irishman found a job paying £2.50 an hour, for a ten-to-twelve hour day, in a theatre. Actually, it wasn’t a theatre, but was an old, rambling building, that was pretending to be a… read more +

Published in the Irish Independent, March 2007 The US is kicking a dead horse in Iraq, the outcome of a misconceived adventure that was supposed to be about taming the wild. Their only hope for retaining some dignity is to bury the bodies and get out as quickly as possible. This could be what the… read more +

Published in the Sunday Tribune, July 27, 2008 Earlier this week, I got an email from a writer friend, Simon Doyle. He was writing a new play, he said. It was about the kidnapping of a South Korean film director and his ex-wife actress by North Korean spies in 1978, and their being “forced by… read more +

A shorter version of this was broadcast on RTE Radio One’s World Report on July 26 The charity’s office was clean and bare, with two pcs humming on office desks, and some generic charts on the wall. The administrator was apologetic. The director had had to leave for an urgent meeting in the capital, and… read more +

Hear a three-minute radio essay on drownings of migrants in the Mediterranean, as broadcast on RTE Radio One’s World Report on Saturday July 26. This report was made possible by a grant from the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund.

Published in Magill, June/July 2008 Sunday comes. There was talk of the weather turning, but it hasn’t. The wind blows cold and low, the Levante, south east across Spain, finding its way between the buildings and down the narrow streets of Tarifa, and blowing the kite surfers out to sea. We have promised ourselves an… read more +

Published in the Sunday Tribune She was a few months pregnant when the idea struck. “Let’s go to Spain.” For a holiday? “For a few months. In the spring. While it’s still cold here. While I’m on maternity leave.” “But what about my job?” I asked. And then I stopped. I don’t have a job…. read more +

The Richness of Change is a series of ten ultra-short films, documenting immigration into Ireland, that I directed. Each one-minute film tells the story of one person’s move to Ireland. The films were produced by Fomacs and were broadcast on RTE in April 2008. They were commissioned by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, and originally… read more +

From the opening scene of the young prince Hippolytus slumped in an armchair in front of the tv, masturbating into a sock, to Phaedra’s hips and heels, to ‘Tainted Love’ on the soundtrack, to the ritualised violence of the extraordinary closing scenes, it lurches between louche cool and a deeply moral sense of horror with relentless economy.