About Me

My most recent performance piece was a new work, Beckett and Company, a literary presentation on Beckett and Joyce which was commissioned by Foxrock Area Community Enterprise and presented on October 28 2015 at The Gables, Foxrock, after a wine and tapas reception.

I devised Beckett and Company as a 60-minute presentation that alternates between readings and talk in which the friendship that developed between Samuel Beckett and James Joyce in Paris is the focal point. The Gables restaurant in Foxrock, birthplace of Samuel Beckett, provided a convivial setting for the event.This performance was the culmination of a second season of guided tours exploring Samuel Beckett’s Foxrock for the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Summer of Heritage programme.

As artistic director of Balloonatics Theatre Company, I am a performer, writer and teacher who specialises in contemporary and Irish literature, and, in particular, the works of James Joyce. I have twice won Edinburgh Festival awards for theatrical adaptations of Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. From a base in Dun Laoghaire, I have presented street theatre and readings from Joyce in Dublin on Bloomsday every year since 1988.

I am a strong advocate for site-specific literary events and in 2014 developed a series of walks based on Dublin writers with associations with the bohemian Baggot Street area of Dublin such as Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, and, more recently, Paul Durcan. I have also led a surreal walk in Sandycove based on Flann O’Brien. My Beckett walks have included a walk on Dun Laoghaire pier in 2011, and guided tours in Dublin and London in 2006, the centenary of Beckett's birth. For more information and archives on Balloonatics Theatre Company see: balloonatics.tumblr.com. See also Facebook Baggot Street Literary Walks.