Patrick McCabe (born 27 March 1955) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

writer. Known for his mostly dark and violent novels set in contemporary—often small-town—Ireland, McCabe has been twice shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

, for '' The Butcher Boy'' (1992) and '' Breakfast on Pluto'' (1998), both of which have been made into films.

Biography

McCabe was born in

Clones, County Monaghan Clones ( ; , meaning 'meadow of Eois') is a small town in western County Monaghan, Ireland. The area is part of the Border Region, earmarked for economic development by the Irish Government due to its currently below-average economic situation. ...

. He resides in Clones with his artist wife Margot Quinn and two daughters, Katie and Ellen.

Literary career

McCabe's books include '' The Butcher Boy'' (

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

) and '' Breakfast on Pluto'' (

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

), both shortlisted for the

. He has written a children's book (''The Adventures of Shay Mouse'') and several of his radio plays have been broadcast by

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

and

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

. He wrote a collection of linked short stories, ''Mondo Desperado'', published in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. The play ''Frank Pig Says Hello'', which he adapted from ''The Butcher Boy'', was first performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1992 and of course his singles 'Swimming Pool' and 'Ballad of Audrey Dash' and residences at The Bridge Mall Inn and the Mallow Hotel. McCabe's 2001 novel ''Emerald Germs of Ireland'' is a black comedy featuring matricide. ''Winterwood'', was published in 2006, and went on to become the 2007 Hughes & Hughes/''Irish Independent'' Irish Novel of the Year. 2009 saw the publication of ''The Holy City''. ''The Stray Sod Country''—his most recent novel— was described as "Strangely elegiac, gloriously operatic and driven by Patrick McCabe's wild and savage imagination, the 'Stray Sod Country' is an eerie folk tale that chronicles the passing of a generation." The director and novelist

Neil Jordan Neil Patrick Jordan (born 25 February 1950) is an Irish film director, screenwriter, novelist and short-story writer. His first book, '' Night in Tunisia'', won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He won an Academy ...

has adapted both ''The Butcher Boy'' and ''Breakfast on Pluto'' into films. Zelig Theatre premiered the play ''Appointment in Limbo'', written by McCabe, in Galway's Town Hall Theatre in 2008. Cathal Cleary directed. McCabe and film director Kevin Allen are organisers of the Flatlake Festival a music festival held annually.

List of works

* '' The Adventures of Shay Mouse'' (1985) * ''

Music on Clinton Street Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspec ...

'' (1986) * '' Carn'' (1989) * '' The Butcher Boy'' (1992) * '' The Dead School'' (1995) * '' Breakfast on Pluto'' (1998) * '' Mondo Desperado'' (1999) * ''

Emerald Germs of Ireland ''Emerald Germs of Ireland'' (2001) is a black comedy novel by Irish writer Patrick McCabe. Each chapter is begun with an Irish folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that ev ...

'' (2001) * '' Call Me the Breeze'' (2003) * '' Winterwood'' (2006) * '' The Holy City'' (2009) * ''

The Stray Sod Country ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (2010) * ''Hello and Goodbye'' (2013) (contains two short novels: ''Hello Mr. Bones'' and ''Goodbye Mr. Rat'') * ''The Big Yaroo'' (2019) * ''Poguemahone'' (2022)

Notes

External links

*
King of Bog Gothic
''the Guardian'', 30 August 2003

Interview with McCabe and director

for '' Breakfast on Pluto'', January 2006.

The Patrick McCabe Papers at University of Notre Dame Rare Books and Special Collections. {{DEFAULTSORT:McCabe, Patrick 1955 births Living people Alumni of St Patrick's College, Dublin Irish children's writers 20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Irish dramatists and playwrights Irish male dramatists and playwrights Irish male short story writers People from Clones, County Monaghan 20th-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish male writers Irish male novelists 21st-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish short story writers 21st-century Irish short story writers 21st-century Irish male writers