ABOUT
Neil Hegarty was born in 1970 in Derry, Northern Ireland. He studied English at Trinity College Dublin, where he wrote a Ph.D. in postcolonial literature. After leaving Trinity, Neil travelled and worked for a travel website before becoming a professional writer in 2002.
The Story of Ireland (BBC Books), written to accompany a forthcoming BBC-RTE television history of Ireland, is forthcoming in late 2010.
Neil’s essay ‘The Slob Lands’ appears in A Wilder Vein (Two Ravens Press, 2009). This anthology, edited by Linda Cracknell, explores the relationship between humanity and the wild places of Britain and Ireland; click on News to find out more.
Dublin: A View From the Ground (Piatkus, 2007) is an ambitious and sweeping history of the Irish capital from its foundation to the present day. Click on Press to read what the critics have said.
Waking Up In Dublin (Sanctuary, 2004) is an exploration of Dublin’s complex and vibrant music culture, encompassing everything from opera and jazz to the city’s indie and traditional music scenes. Click on Press to read some reviews.
Neil also writes short stories:
‘Oblique’ was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, 2009;
‘Destroying Angel’ appears in the Warwick Review (December 2008; read more about the Warwick Review here);
‘The Fall of Saigon’ was published in the Stinging Fly (Winter 2007-2008; read more about the Stinging Fly here);
‘A White Christmas for Momma’ appears in the Autumn/Winter 2005-6 edition of the same magazine.
Neil’s radio play The Story of Peggy Mountain, meanwhile, was shortlisted for the RTE PJ O’Connor Award.
Neil’s journalism and academic articles have appeared in a range of publications, including the Irish Times, Dubliner, Fortnight and Daily Telegraph.
‘A City Woven into its People’ appears in the Irish Times: click here to read this article online.
‘Dublin’s Classic Quarter’ and ‘History on Two Seas’ appear in the Daily Telegraph: click here and here to read these articles online.
‘A Lion, a Wardrobe, a Hormonal White Witch’ appears in Fortnight magazine.
‘Unruly Subjects: Sexuality, Science and Discipline in Eighteenth-Century Pacific Exploration’, appears in Marguerite Lincoln (ed.), Science and Exploration in the Pacific: European Voyages to the Southern Oceans. London: Boydell.
Neil has acted as consultant editor and contributor to several editions of the Time Out Guide to Dublin.
He was also writer and co-producer of Talamh an Eisc: The Irish in Newfoundland, for RTE Lyric FM radio.
Neil Hegarty is represented by Robin Wade at the Wade and Doherty Literary Agency.
