Short Stories from the North: Martin Doyle, Declan Meade & Tara McEvoy

Ireland is home to some of the world’s greatest storytellers – but what makes stories from the North distinct from those from the South?

Join us for a lively debate on the past, present and future of the Northern Irish short story, exploring literary style, Irish identity and humour.

Our expert panellists – including Irish Times Books Editor Martin Doyle, writer and editor Tara McEvoy, and Declan Meade, founding editor and publisher of The Stinging Fly – will discuss all-time greats such as Brian Moore and exciting new voices like Liadan Ní Chuinn.   

Martin Doyle is Books Editor of The Irish Times. He is the author of Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Own Place (Merrion Press, 2023) which was shortlisted for Irish Nonfiction Book of the Year. He has essays in The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices, edited by Paul McVeigh (Unbound, 2021) and A Handbook of the Northern Ireland Troubles and Peace Process, edited by Laura McAtackney and Máirtín Ó Catháin (Routledge, 2023).  He edited A History of The Irish Post in 2000 to mark the newspaper’s 30th anniversary. He was also an extra in Father Ted.

Declan Meade is founding editor and publisher of The Stinging Fly magazine and has been been editing and publishing books for The Stinging Fly Press since 2005, most recently the anthology Dublin, Written In Our Hearts and the short-story collection Every One Still Here by Liadan Ní Chuinn. 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of The Stinging Fly Press.

Tara McEvoy completed a PhD in English Literature at Queen's University Belfast in 2020 and was subsequently a Ciaran Carson Writing and the City Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Creative Writing. She also held the role of O'Donnell Fellow in Irish Studies at the University of Melboune. She currently lives in London, and works for Faber & Faber.