There being no direct or near translation of the english-language computer term User, the community decided that contributors would be identified as “Niall”, honoring his life's work of sharing knowledge.
His book with Steve Mickler, The War on Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press (2006), pits a hard-left Derridean concept of democracy against what the authors argue are the "undemocratic" interests represented in the work of several prominent Australian media commentators (whom they refer to collectively as “Team Australia”), including Miranda Devine, Gerard Henderson, Janet Albrechtsen and Andrew Bolt.
[4] Contributors include Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, John Kinsella, DBC Pierre, and Lucy's own adopted sister, Judith.
[citation needed] His book, Pomo Oz: Fear and Loathing Downunder (2010), engages with (among other issues) debates surrounding secondary-school English teaching in Australia, while taking a deconstructive slant on the Bill Henson scandal, the Children Overboard Affair and The Chaser's prank motorcade at the 2007 APEC Australia summit in Sydney.
[8] Writing for The Times Literary Supplement, Anthony Elliot says of A Derrida Dictionary that it "ranges with considerable flair from Hegel to Geri Halliwell, fascism to Francis Fukuyama, the philosophy of consciousness to celebrity".
Kitty van Vuuren, writing in Media International Australia, says she was “unable to put the book down” and found it to be “lively, sardonic and entertaining”.
[18] By contrast, one of the figures whose work is critiqued in The War on Democracy, education journalist Luke Slattery, describes the book as "blood sport" and decries Lucy as "a parish priest in the much-diminished postmodern church".
[20] Lucy wrote liner notes for the re-issue of The Triffids album Calenture (2007)[21] and for the retrospective collection, Crossing Off the Miles, by Australian rock band Chad's Tree.
He occasionally wrote for The West Australian and On Line Opinion, and hosted the weekly music show The Comfort Zone on 720 ABC Perth.
[27] Niall Lucy, a heavy smoker, died at his home in Fremantle in June 2014, aged 57, 11 months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
[30] The international, peer-reviewed journal that Lucy founded and co-edited, Ctrl-Z: New Media Philosophy,[31] included the tribute piece "Who will have come to have read this?
[34] Lucy was presented with a posthumous Certificate of Recognition by the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for his contributions across 20 years to the English and Literature course and examination materials in Western Australia.
[35] In December 2014, a concert celebrating Lucy's life was also held with guest Australian musicians, including Martyn P. Casey (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman); Jill Birt, Alsy MacDonald and Rob McComb (The Triffids); James Baker (The Scientists, Beasts of Bourbon, Le Hoodoo Gurus); and Richard Lane (The Stems); amongst many others.