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Welcome!

I'm an author, editor, researcher, journalist and broadcaster. I do other mundane stuff like going to the shops, staying up too late, cooking curries, looking after two cats and being a tiresome husband who just won't put on his glasses when he is looking at something.
  
I was born in Dublin, Ireland (Walkinstown), in 1968. The (Walkinstown) is there because I just know when I'm dead and buried (or cremated - I'm struggling with that), someone on social media is going to argue that I was born in Crumlin or Drimnagh, Dublin. So, let's just get that sorted now.

I've been writing for more than forty years. That makes me feel old, but I've been a writer ever since I was ten years of age. There were other distractions along the way like Lego, engineering and planes, motor racing, and a desperate need to master the guitar or keyboard - all of which I could never find a full time job with.

I've published a good few books. I stopped counting after six and those books include several novels and non-fiction books. Some of you might know me from the ones I've published on the aspect of writing and the publishing industry, as well as multiple articles I've written for national and international magazines and news outlets.

Funny, no one remembers me for my novels and poetry. Sad. I must try harder!

A few shout-outs... I've written many informative and illuminating articles in print and online: Writers' Forum, Self-Publishing Magazine UK and Publetariat, about the changing and complex world of the publishing industry. Hey-ho, I was even featured in the Irish Times "The Irish players at the forefront of new publishing" in 2015. Maybe that's where it all went wrong!

 Seems like an eternity ago!

Almost forgot, ... in 2010, I published To Self-Publishing or Not to Self-Publish with Troubador Publishing UK, and I followed this book up with another guide, Choosing A Self-Publishing Provider, published by ALLi (The Alliance of Independent Authors).

I am the former editor and researcher at The Independent Publishing Magazine and editor and content strategist of TAUS Review, a publication for the global translation industry (great experience).

By 2019, I felt a reinvention and return to journalism was in order and I also had new projects to move onto. My primary focus is now on social media journalism, rather than print media.

I broadcast as an interviewer and researcher on Radio Espial covering various issues from missing persons, true crime, the media and aviation industries. You can also find me here on YouTube.

Though born in Ireland, I now live in the Netherlands. It's not an escape or holiday... it's my home, and has been for more than ten years. 

POPULAR POSTS

JO JO DULLARD CASE UPDATE: Recent Arrest & Searches

On the morning of November 11th, 2024, Gardai case investigators served an arrest warrant on a man aged 55 under suspicion of the murder of Jo Jo Dullard who disappeared 29 years ago. The man was detained for questioning at Kildare Garda Station under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. No charges have yet been brought forward and he is the first suspect to be arrested in the case. The Dullard family were made aware of the arrest shortly after 7 am this morning. (He was later released without charge the following day and a file is being prepared for the Irish DPP). Currently gardai are executing two separate search warrants on properties and land located at Ballyhook over the Kildare/Wicklow border. Early Tuesday afternoon, the 55-year-old-man, from a prominent Wicklow political family was released without charge. Gardai believe he was the last person to see Jo Jo Dullard alive and from very early on in the case investigation he was a person-of-interest befor...
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THE VANISHING OF MARY BOYLE

Mary Boyle (born 14 June 1970) was a six-year-old Irish girl who disappeared on the County Donegal-County Fermanagh border on 18th March 1977. To date, her disappearance is the longest missing child case in the Republic of Ireland. The investigation into her disappearance has been beset by allegations of political intervention and police incompetence. While arrests were made over many years, nobody has ever been charged in connection with her disappearance. Mary Boyle was last seen at 3:30 pm on 18 March 1977 near her grandparents' rural farm in Cashelard, near Ballyshannon, County Donegal. The family, including Mary's mother Ann, father Charlie, older brother Paddy, and twin sister Ann, had gone to Mary's maternal grandparents' house on St Patrick's Day from their home in Kincasslagh in The Rosses, further up the coast. They stayed at the grandparents home overnight into the day of her disappearance. In total, there were eleven people at the household gathering, si...
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Scissor Sisters: The Murder of Farah Swaleh Noor

Farah Swaleh Noor was 40 years old at the time of his death. He arrived in Ireland in December 1996, claiming to be a Somali called "Sheilila Salim" whose family had been killed in Mogadishu during the Somali Civil War. Subsequent investigations revealed that he was in fact a Kenyan. He was granted Irish citizenship in March 1999 because he had become the father of an Irish-born child. Noor had four previous convictions for offences including intoxication, threatening and abusive behaviour and assault. Noor had faced eight charges of disorder and assault, one involving a sexual assault in which a knife was found at the scene by gardaí. He was convicted on three occasions but never served time in jail. Noor lived in a number of areas in Dublin, including Dún Laoghaire and Firhouse, as well as the inner city before moving in with his then partner Kathleen Mulhall. Gardaí described him as being particularly violent towards women. On the 20th March, 2005 sisters Linda and Charl...
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