Watch out for a new short story compilation from award winning London Irish author and poet John O’Donoghue, who is well connected with the Ballinode area. John’s mother was Mary (nee Murphy), sister of Thomas Murphy who lived in Cappagh, Ballinode in the 50s/60s/70s, and his father was from the Kerry gaeltacht. John’s book “The king from over the water” recollects in fictional form the wonderful summers he had in Ballinode – “Ballydawn” in the book in the 60s and 70s. The cover of the novel also features a lovely old photo of Ballinode village. John is also the cofounder of Wild Geese Press, a publishing house based around the Irish diaspora. John O’Donoghue is the author of Brunch Poems (Waterloo Press, 2009); “Fools & Mad” (Waterloo Press, 2014); and “Sectioned: A Life Interrupted” (John Murray, 2009). Sectioned was awarded Mind Book of The Year 2010. His story “The Irish Short Story That Never Ends” won The Irish Post Creative Writing Competition in 2016. He was awarded a Brookleaze Grant by the Royal Society of Literature, also in 2016, to work on a novel about John Clare and Robert Lowell, both patients in the same asylum over 100 years apart. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton. There are some great stories, get reading!
