Ré Ó Laighléis

Ré Ó Laighléis was born and bred in Sallynoggin, Co. Dublin. He took his undergraduate degree in Sociology and Irish from the Univeristy of Galway (NUIG) and postgraduate degrees in Education from Coláiste Phádraig (DCU) and Boston College, Massachusetts. Over the years, he has taught at all three levels of the educational system. He continues to train prospective writers, both in Ireland and abroad, through MÓINÍN’s Creative Writing facility, An Scríobhlann, and under the auspices of various educational and cultural bodies. Over the past twenty years he has been appointed Writer-in-Residence by many literary and cultural divisions, including Mayo County Council’s Arts Department, the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ionad Cultúrtha Bhaile Bhúirne. Ó Laighléis left fulltime teaching in 1992 to devote himself to professional creative writing. Writing for both the adult and teenage reader, he is best known as a writer of novels and short stories. He is published in English and Italian, and is the biggerst selling contemporary writer in the Irish language. He has been awarded numerous Oireachtas literary awards in the various genres.