How do you go about developing your craft as a writer and do you have any influences?
Regarding my influences, I am influenced by O’Casey and Friel.
The question of how I developed as a writer. Well, I feel I am always learning. I am trying to hone my skills as a writer. In this new script I have been learning how to make sure I keep the dialogue short and sharp.
I do read other playwrights, and I find that I am influenced by much of what I read. For example I was reading another playwright lately and I started to think that my new play, “Nancy Boy Shenanigans” could be produced using just one actor. There are 13 voices, 4 characters, but I think we could do it with one actor. I have actually worked with a young actor in Derry who knows my work instinctively and I think he could make the play work well.
Did you ever get any training regarding writing or editing?
No not really. I think it might be because I had been to see so many plays over the years, or because I worked a little with Mary Connors in Inishowen, or other playwrights and writers, that in some way I sort of knew what to do, but other than that I wasn’t trained in any serious sense.
Often when I am working with other people I do find that there are disagreements on the production process, and I find that the most important thing is to be confident in your work. You need to be able to say no to things that you don’t want to be part of the production and I have learned over time to be much more direct.
What ideas are you trying to investigate in your work?
I think there is a motif which runs through my work, and that theme is the universal theme regarding humanity, the connections between people. If you look at “Pits and Perverts” which, on the surface, is about the miners’ strike but really the underlying theme is the break-up of a relationship.

I try to be subtle. I try to incorporate subtle elements throughout my work. I don’t like to work on a polemical level. I think that is next to useless. I don’t want to batter an audience, or preach to the audience. I want the audience to be entertained and to be engaged with the characters.
In “Beyond the Barricades” there were a number of underlying themes, from ferment internationally, to the exploration of sexuality, to the idea of a search for a life filled with art and music, to the connection between family and friends, all under the umbrella of the emerging conflict at home. But regardless of those ideas and themes the audience must be entertained. The plays which I write must connect with people’s sense of universality.
Where to now?
My next play, “Nancy Boy Shenanigans” is almost ready to go and so I will be aiming to get that play ready for production. Beyond that, I just keep on writing. That is what brings me great joy, and from there, to see where it takes me.