[6] He also writes occasionally for The Guardian, Corriere della Sera and Le Monde.

Eureka Street focuses on the lives of two Belfast friends, one Catholic and one Protestant, shortly before and after the IRA ceasefires in 1994.

[5] He is also the author of a non-fiction book about poverty, The Dispossessed (1992),[2] and has made television documentaries for the BBC.

His work has been described as 'strikingly original'[7] and as 'one of the most influential literary voices to emerge from Northern Ireland since the Troubles began [who has] challenged the understanding of contemporary Irishness'.

[8] In 2003, he was named by Granta magazine as one of 20 "Best of Young British Novelists", despite the fact that he has not published new work in English since 1996.