Tell us about your new book, The Red Branch, partly inspired by your time as a Fulbright scholar in Berkeley, California
It’s the story of a young undercover Irish detective, Robert Emmet Orpen, who is sent to San Francisco to prevent dynamite coming from that city for use in the Fenian bombing of London in the 1880s. His cover is blown on page one. He’s rescued by the San Francisco Police Department and becomes involved in two murder investigations.
It was launched by Tom Dunne, fellow broadcaster and a former pupil. What sort of pupil was he? What sort of teacher were you?
Tom was so good that when I read his first essay (he was 14) I accused him of getting his big sister to write it. Tom seems to think I was an okay teacher, so I’ll take that.
A sequel is already in the works?
It’s called The Blue Ribbon, same two narrators and with the action divided between San Francisco and London.
Your next nonfiction title, The Plot Against Ireland: The Forger, Spies, Tories, Conmen and Terrorists who conspired against Irish Home Rule (Head of Zeus, September 2026), also features Irish-born members of the British security forces, Robert Anderson and Nicholas Gosselin.
Both were at the nexus of several covert operations designed to discredit Irish constitutional nationalism in the late 1880s and see off home rule.
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You’ve presented The History Show on RTÉ Radio One since 2010 and have written more than a dozen books on Irish and American history (including Four Killings, Conspiracy: Irish Political Trials, Irish Voices from the Great War, How the Irish Won the West and Land Is All that Matters). What is the fascination with the past?
I’ve been infected with the history bug since I was knee-high to a footstool and my grandmother told me stories about my McKenna and Clinton relatives (her brothers and cousins) who were in the IRA during the War of Independence, and of her brother-in-law who was killed on the Somme in the first World War.
I’m really an atheist. I just didn’t want to be a Catholic atheist
Tell us about the books you are most proud of?
Irish Voices from the Great War played a small part (though far behind the likes of Kevin Myers and Tom Burke) in “rehabilitating” the lost generation of Irish Great War veterans. Four Killings was a very personal project, written to leave a verifiable record (for my own children and grandchildren) of my grandmother’s stories.
You’ve also dabbled in comic fiction (The White House) and crime fiction (Snuff, with Jim Lusby, author of the excellent Making the Cut)
The White House (self-published) is about an entirely fictional 45th US president (President Trout) whose Irish golf course is being inundated by the sea. He wants Ireland to build a wall, and he wants the Irish to pay for it! Snuff, which Jim and I wrote a thousand years ago, got him started on a successful fiction career and set me on an entirely different, nonfictional path (until now).
Who is your favourite historian, and which are your favourite history book and historical novel?
A Roy Foster/Diarmaid Ferriter tie; Imperial San Francisco by Gray Brechin; Puckoon by Spike Milligan.
You are programme director of the Hinterland Festival of Literature and Arts Kells. Tell us about this year’s highlights
I’m a small part of an incredible team of unpaid professionals (NOT amateurs) who have miraculously managed to get us to Hinterland #14 in 2026. Among those present next June will be BBC journalist Kirsty Wark, Larry Lamb (from Gavin and Stacey), Katriona O’Sullivan (Poor), Michael Harding and Fintan O’Toole.
You’re a Church of Ireland convert. Was that a theological decision or to do with marriage?
I’m really an atheist. I just didn’t want to be a Catholic atheist after some unpleasant experiences as a kid.
Which projects are you working on?
In addition to the next Head of Zeus book, I’m working on a project for Gill, which is a follow-up to The Great Irish History Book (2022), and I’m researching William Mulholland and Michael Maurice O’Shaughnessy, the two Irish-born water engineers who “created” modern California.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
I had a few mojitos in Hemingway’s favourite watering holes in Havana and Key West.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
Don’t wait for inspiration.
Who do you admire most?
My tenacious, talented and fearless wife.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
I would legislate to bring David Bowie back to life.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
Book: Mick Herron’s Clown Town. Film: One Battle After Another. Podcast: Transatlantic with Damien Shiels and Fin Dwyer.
Which public event affected you most?
Watching game five of the 2014 World Series (San Francisco Giants 5, Kansas City Royals 0) from the bleachers.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
The highlands of Lesotho.
Your most treasured possession?
My health.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
A copy of Catch-22 signed by Joseph Heller.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Terry Pratchett, John le Carré, Nerys Williams, Mick Herron, PG Wodehouse, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Manchán, Groucho and Spike.
The best and worst things about where you live?
Best: Great neighbours and the Hinterland Festival committee.
Worst: Tricolours festooning the roundabouts on the edges of town. Intimidation, not patriotism. Very unneighbourly.
What is your favourite quotation?
“Time wounds all heels.” (Groucho)
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Another tie, between Elizabeth Bennet, Jackson Lamb and Sam Vimes.
A book to make me laugh?
Anything by Terry Pratchett.
A book that might move me to tears?
The Art of the Deal.
The Red Branch is published by Etruscan Press
