Current Projects

Festivals, Residencies, Visits and Conferences

These days my work is focused mostly on research and writing. I do continue to provide live visits to schools, libraries, arts centres, museums, and festivals. Much of my work is commissioned by schools and public libraries, or through Poetry Ireland’s Writers-in-Schools scheme, or via Authors Aloud. Please feel free to contact me at any time by email for further information.

CURRENT WORK AND EVENTS:

Living Legends, a creative writing project with young people, for Northern Ireland Youth Forum, Festival in a Van and Narrative 4 (April-July 2025)
School Visits. Storytelling sessions in various schools have been scheduled for the 2025-26 academic year in Ireland, London and Southeast England, France, Belgium and Italy
The Shape of the Story. Ongoing research and performance project exploring the stories and work of Seumas MacManus, Padraic Colum and Ella Young
Children’s Book Festival, Galway County Libraries, October 2025
Children’s Books Festival, Clare County Libraries, October 2025
Hallowe’en Stories for Fingal County Libraries, October 2025
October Plenty with the Lion’s Part Theatre Company, Fargo Village, Coventry. 26 October 2025
12 Night with the Lion’s part Theatre Company, Bankside. 4 Jan. 2026
Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, 16-17-18 Jan. 2026
IBBY Ireland. Board member; Awards and Honour Books Subcommittee;
Sailortown Stories–ongoing oral history project, gathering anecdotes, memories, stories, and histories of the Rotterdam Bar and Pat’s Bar, two important music venues in Belfast during the worst of the Troubles. Supported by a grant from Northern Ireland Arts Council

NEW PUBLICATIONS:

‘Getting the Art of Hearing: storytelling, literacy, literature, and cognition’: a chapter in Arts Education in Ireland, From Pedagogy to Practice (2025), edited by Dervil Jorden and Jane O’Hanlon, published by Intellect Discover. Coming out in November 2025
Review of Buried Treasures, The Power of Political Fairy Tales (2023) by Jack Zipes, (in Book 2.0 14:1 & 2, 2025)
‘Interview with Elizabeth Laird’ by Patrick Ryan (in Book 2.0, 12:2, 2023)
Review by Professor Michael Wilson (in Book 2.0, 12:2, 2023) of Story Listening and Experience in Early Childhood. Donna Schatt and Patrick Ryan