Writer · Performer · Filmmaker

PAUL O’REILLY lives with his wife and children in Co. Wexford, Ireland.

Stories

Longlisted for the 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the 2016 Edge Hill Short Story Prize, Paul’s debut short story collection The Girl Missing from the Window was published to critical acclaim by Doire Press.

“From Austen to Tolstoy to Maeve Binchy’s novels there is endless mileage for drama in the everyday world. Paul O’Reilly’s debut collection, ‘The Girl Missing from the Window’, grounds itself in this domestic space. His flair for drama is evident throughout the collection, with storylines full of intrigue, sex and death. In this collection O’Reilly embraces the sensational in domestic life. These are the kinds of stories that make for great gossip in small towns – the you-wouldn’t-believe-what-happened-to-so-and-so that is the bedrock of Irish storytelling. Maeve Binchy would be off the bus, following any of these characters home.“
– Irish Times

“Paul O’Reilly’s stories are lean, no wastage, no linguistic tricksiness. A young man dances with his mother as the Pogues play (and it has to be the Pogues) in a scene that is at once sweet and Freudian. A woman discovers her teenage daughter has become embroiled in a text bullying three-way, and the tale unfolds with the gut-churning speed of a suspense novel. A man has a last rendezvous with a roadside prostitute; another man prepares to watch his father die; yet another crawls through a sewer tunnel of grief to find redemption in the bosom of family.
    There’s no escape from the prevailing sense of tension. The title story’s stooge goes to Amsterdam for a match and ends up the butt of a stag-like prank, but it’s all too sad to be ironic. The protagonist of What’s Eating Him? is a sort of Jim Thompson drifter who appears to dodge a bullet in the final act, but you can’t be sure: O’Reilly cuts away at just the right moment and leaves us to complete the mystery in our minds. That takes confidence.
    ‘The Girl Missing From the Window’ does not attempt to forge poetry out of the everyday. The author refuses to photoshop reality with fancy language. He pushes all the unsavoury aspects of existence under your nose: the comedy and horror of mothers with Alzheimer’s and fathers hooked up to morphine pumps and swingers’ weekends gone horribly wrong — or horribly right. This is the way things are, these stories seem to say, and there’s a trapdoor under every footfall.”
– Peter Murphy, author of ‘John the Revelator’, ‘Shall We Gather at the River’

Paul’s stories have been shortlisted for the Hennessy First Fiction Award, the Seán O’Faoláin Prize, the Bristol Prize and twice for the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Prize. His work has been published in the Irish Independent, the Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, The Scaldy Detail, Natural Bridge (US), the Bristol Prize Anthology (UK), Ireland’s Own, online at NecessaryFiction.com (US), Writing.ie, TheJournal.ie and selected for The Lonely Voice series of readings at the Irish Writers’ Centre. In 2012 he was nominated by Natural Bridge (US) for a Pushcart Prize and in 2013 he received an honourable mention from Glimmertrain Press (US).

In 2018, Paul was awarded an Arts Council of Ireland English Literature Bursary and in 2019 was awarded a coveted mentorship (with Ferdia Mac Anna) as part of the Words Ireland National Mentoring Programme. In 2021, he was runner-up at the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair. In 2024, Paul completed the selective Curtis Brown Creative Six-Month Novel Writing Course.

Stage

In 2015, Paul was commissioned by Enniscorthy Drama Group to write a full-length stage play to be performed as part of the Co. Wexford Centenary Celebrations of the Enniscorthy 1916 Rising. Entitled A Night on the Hill, the premiere performances took place May 5th-8th 2016 in the historic Athenaeum Theatre – the HQ of the Rising in 1916 – in Paul’s home town of Enniscorthy. There were also matinee performances for local schools due to the historical significance of the play’s content and setting.

“Beautifully written, capturing all the nuances, dilemmas and inner traumas of the time, this piece of drama is written from everyone’s point of view or is, at least, sympathetic to all factions. As each of the characters’ stories expertly unfolds, we develop a tolerance for them that perhaps surprises us.”

In 2020, Paul’s second full-length stage play, Wild in the Country, was premiered by Enniscorthy Drama Group to acclaim with audiences.

“A homegrown gem”; “Hilarious!”; “Miss it at your peril”; “A quirky, dark comedy worth catching”; “We had a fantastic time tonight”; “A funny and fabulous new play”; “This is the best play I’ve seen in a long time.”

In 2023, Paul had two plays produced. Rattlesnakes was a one-act written in conjunction with a Creative Acting for Theatre course, utilising improvisation with the actors to help develop characters and story, and was facilitated by Fintan Kelly.

Later that year, Paul’s debut one-man play Mask was professionally produced to acclaim by Enniscorthy Theatre Company.

“In ‘Mask’, an original one-man play and the brainchild of Enniscorthy scribe, Paul O’Reilly, Buster the Clown takes centre stage, goes it alone, and single-handedly brings the house down. This is a clown that you can’t help but love, though he has a tragic back story so expertly relayed by actor, Fintan Kelly, that it will remain pecking at your mind long after the theatre hall empties. In fact, it will follow you home. Fans of ‘Mask’ writer O’Reilly’s work will be familiar with the short story collection ‘The Girl Missing From the Window’ (Doire Press) and will know that he doesn’t shy away from creating characters with disturbing flaws. It adds to his masterful storytelling, and he delivers endings that don’t disappoint.“

In 2024, Paul wrote and starred in his second Creative Acting for Theatre course play, produced by Enniscorthy Theatre Company on the All-Ireland One-Act Circuit, entitled Going Home.

In 2026, Paul’s third full-length ensemble play, Echoes of Daisy Bell, was premiered by Enniscorthy Theatre Company.

Screen

In 2012, his film script adaptation of the Claire Keegan short story Men and Women won the FilmOffaly/Filmbase Award and the completed film, directed by Ruth Meehan, produced by Ink and Light, was selected for the 2013 Galway Film Fleadh and Irish Film Festival London. In 2014 the film was shown on national TV as part of the RTÉ 2 Shortscreen series.

“Paul is an exciting writing talent who seems to have effortlessly crossed over from exquisite short-story writing to screenwriting. Of course it’s not effortless at all, but Paul has a quiet, unassuming way of being the hardest working, most prolific guy in the room. He is a fantastic collaborator and a joy to work with.“
– Ink and Light

In 2013, he wrote, produced and directed the documentary film Paddy Berry: The Singer, the Song and the Place to wide acclaim, excerpts broadcast on RTÉ.

“A really beautiful, considered and expressive film that goes a long way to showing what a wonderful man Paddy Berry is and how magical the songs and lore are of which he is not only a conduit, but a champion.“

Later that year, he produced and performed in the short monologue film Wobble, based on his story published in the Irish Times as part of a flash fiction series, with a revised version appearing in the Cáca Milis Cabaret anthology, Red Lamp Black Piano, introduced by Pat McCabe.

In 2014, he wrote, produced and directed his next documentary, Eamonn Wall: Your Rivers Have Trained You, later selected in the same year for the IndieCork Film Festival and the St Louis International Film Festival.

“An engaging and thought-provoking film. Through Eamonn Wall’s poetry and the images Paul O’Reilly has brought together so skillfully, I feel we’re not only informed and gratified, but also encouraged to think about the relationship of our own origins and early experiences to the selves we grow to become, about the ways our literal physical homes speak with our imagined interiorized homes, about the ways we carry our earliest selves and our earliest homes with us wherever we go. I think it’s just a smashing film.“

In recent years, Paul has filmed and edited several shorts for local drama courses.

Paul has completed several Film and TV screenwriting courses, masterclasses and workshops with Eilish Kent, Mary Kate O’Flanagan, Jimmy McGovern and Screen Training Ireland.

Songs

A Fleadh Cheoil winning Irish traditional singer, songwriter, lilter, and musician, Paul has produced and recorded on several albums, while also appearing on national radio, TV, with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and was a prominent member of The 1916 Song Project national concert tour. Paul is a registered member of IMRO and the Arts Council of Ireland, from whom he received a Deis award in 2008 for his acclaimed double album The Poet’s Dream.

“When one looks for heroes in our tradition, Art Sinnott and Paddy Berry are national treasures. They’ve carried the flame through good and bad, and both inspired and preserved for us the wealth of beauty that is our traditional music and songs. They did so out of a deep love of place, as well as the joy that this music brings. I am happy to say that with this CD the flame is in good hands. This is a Jewel, a record of our local history, lovingly performed with the sensitivity of those who understand naturally how this music should be treated. The singing is wonderful and the accompaniment tasteful and restrained as is Paul’s production, allowing the songs to tell their story and transport us to situations both moving, joyful, humorous, and stark. Some material never before recorded, as well as a brilliant new song from Paul which shows the depth of talent on show here. It is fitting that the tribute to Art Sinnott (who encouraged me to keep going on the uilleann pipes) should be sung by Paddy Berry, another hero of mine. It’s like a link with the unbreakable chain of friendship, respect for those who championed the music and a deep sense of passing on the torch, which is what traditional music is all about. Thank you Paul, Helen, Padraig Sinnott, Tom Murphy and Paddy Berry. The Poet’s Dream is simply beautiful. I’m sure Art Sinnott and MJ O’Reilly are very proud.“
– Brendan Wade, Cry Before Dawn

In 2026, Paul released two retrospective EPs entitled The New American, containing five previously unreleased compositions by Paul, and The Island of Australia.

Listen to Paul on Spotify.