I Can See It Still tells a personal story of almost six decades of Mayo football
Mayo football across almost six decades, culminating in the historic All-Ireland success of 2026, and Liam Horan’s own experience of following the county through those years are at the heart of I Can See It Still, a new book by the Mayo author and journalist. Horan will launch the book at Mayo County Library in Castlebar on Friday, 16 October 2026 (7.45pm, all welcome).
Pre-review could turn a man’s head
There are advantages to not having published a book yet. For one thing, you can still change it. For another, apparently, people can already read it. I received a lovely email this week from somebody purporting to be from a book club in Limerick. The writer had discovered I Can See It Still and, it seems, had been profoundly affected by the experience.
Say I am a writer
A very well-known writer of my acquaintance once said that a key bridge for any writer to cross is to admit, to themselves and to the world, that they are a writer. A writer, when presented with an opportunity to out themselves, will often hesitate. They’ll say they do a bit of writing, or that they dabble, or that they turn their hand to it from time to time.
What the Saw Doctors teach writers about voice
The Saw Doctors were formed from the remnants of other bands in the mid-1980s, out of Tuam. Growing up just over the Mayo/Galway border in Ballinrobe, I felt like I had stumbled into the maternity ward for the birth of a new musical dimension.
Taking your work out across the Red River
There’s a popular line about writing: you do it for yourself. And it’s true, up to a point. It would be difficult to sustain the long hours and the figuring out merely on the faint promise of producing a bestseller.
From the body of the room to the front of it
I’m usually part of the body of the room at the monthly Open Mic in the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar, wondering, in a last-minute surge of self-doubt, if I should change what I’m planning to read. Last night, however, I was temporarily promoted from the ranks and installed at the front as the featured reader. It felt like being called up from the subs’ bench, but thankfully there was no major deficit to be rescued.
Róisín’s World Book Day 2026 promotion
Today is World Book Day - the parents of my young neighbour Róisín sent me these pictures before she left for St Joseph's Primary School, Ballinrobe, this morning.
My gradual truce with conflict
For a long time, the use of the word ‘conflict’ in writing advice bothered me. Stories tend to need conflict, we're told. Otherwise, they can wither and die.
Poetry and prose, close to home
For writers and readers in this part of the world (Co. Mayo, west of Ireland), the next few days offer two good reasons to leave the house and sit in a room with people of similar disposition.
Building a novel without knowing the shape of it
A novel – in my admittedly limited experience* – feels like it gets built as much as it gets written. When I start, there isn’t a grand design**. No finished sketch pinned up on the wall. There’s simply a sense that something could stand here - maybe a town, a character, a tension humming beneath the surface.
