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THE SATURDAY INTERVIEW - PATRICK MCCABE:His latest novel recently completed, Patrick McCabe is focusing on the brave and antic Flat Lake arts festival, on his home soil of Clones, which he helped pioneer

THE MONAGHAN MAN comes out of nowhere, silently sliding a hand through the wrought-iron bars and announcing his presence with a gentle nudge in the small of your spine. When you turn around, there is Patrick McCabe, neat and mischievous, standing all alone and framed by the indifferent grandeur of St Mel’s Cathedral. “Never leave your back open in Longford,” he advises warmly. “That’s the way they like to get you.”