John Waters
Irish newspaper columnist; author, Jiving at the Crossroads and Was It For This? Why Ireland Lost the Plot

John Waters, best known as a newspaper columnist and author, grew up in Castlerea in the west of Ireland. His first book, Jiving at the Crossroads (1991), about the cultural underbelly of Irish politics, became a massive bestseller and was reissued in 2012. His most recent published book is Was It For This? Why Ireland Lost the Plot (2012).

His other publications include Race of Angels (1994), a study of the roots of U2’s music in Irish history and culture. He has written two books about the religious and spiritual imagination of modern Ireland (such as it is), entitled Lapsed Agnostic and Beyond Consolation (On How We Became too Clever for God and Our Own Good), He is currently completing a third book in this series, provisionally entitled Men Without Chests as well as a second edition of his satirical Feckers series.

His award-winning plays include Long Black Coat (1994) and Easter Dues (1997). He is also a songwriter and secret musician. He has a daughter, Róisín and oscillates between Dublin and Lislary, County Sligo, more widely known as Yeats Country.

He is a permanent research fellow at the department of ethics and culture, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.

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