This weekend, Sunday Miscellany on RTE Radio 1, dips into their 2023 and 2024 archive from the Belfast Book Festival. Among the five chosen is my story ‘Queen of the South’.
The programme…
Café by Wendy Erskine
Where Are You From? by John Toal
Swift Boxes by Neil Hegarty
Postscript and The Map, two poems by Marie Howe
Queen of the South by Paul McVeigh
with music from Eimear McGeown, Donogh Hennessy, Jack Warnock, and Trú
You can also get my radio short story collection, I Hear You, out now.
Date Thursday 05 June 2025
Time 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Price £40 | £35 – for whole day – check out the rest of the events.
My event is this industry day is…
How does writing for radio differ from writing for the page, stage or screen? Discover how to write and pitch audio at this informative session with RTÉ radio producer and book editor Clíodhna Ní Anluain, BBC audio producer Michael Shannon and Belfast writer Paul McVeigh, author of I Hear You, a dazzling collection of stories written especially for BBC Radio 4.
CLIP • 15 MINS • 03 MAR • ARENA
Writer Paul McVeigh on his new collection of short stories, I Hear You.
“It’s been 10 years since Paul McVeigh’s debut novel The Good Sonhit bookshelves, its funny, touching tale of misfit schoolboy Mickey Donnelly’s determination to escape Troubles-plagued Ardoyne earning the author The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award.
Since then he has edited a trio of short story and written a hit play, Big Man, which won an Irish Times Theatre Award when it was staged at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre in 2022. Now he returns to print with I Hear You a collection of short stories which were originally commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio Four – he talks to RTÉ Arena above.
The collection includes a series of ten interlinked stories called The Circus which introduce a colourful selection of characters from the north Belfast streets, whose varied lives intersect thanks to a local talent competition. Their stories are told with McVeigh’s trademark warmth, wit and humour.”
I talked to RTE Arena about my debut collection of stories ‘I Hear You’
“A rare date for Julie and her husband Frankie turns sour when a toddler in the restaurant is let roam free, uncontrolled. Their own children are being minded by auntie Terry. On the way into Belfast city centre earlier, Julie and Frankie had passed near The Bray, where when she was a child her father had been shot dead for no reason at all.”
You can listen to my latest short story ‘The Bray’ read by this year’s Bafta-nominee, Roisin Gallagher.
The story was commissioned by Cliodhna Ni Anluain as part of the ‘Spoken Word’ series for RTE Radio 1 which includes Anne Enright, Lisa McInerney and Donal Ryan.
“We are delighted to announce Paul McVeigh’s debut short story collection, I Hear You, will be published in March 2025.
This collection of Belfast stories, each written for BBC Radio 4, includes the ten-part sequence: ‘The Circus’, set around Cliftonville Circus, where five roads meet in the north of the city.
The Circus is five minutes from the nationalist Troubles flashpoint of Ardoyne, where Paul grew up. It’s close to Holy Cross Girls’ School, where protests targeting primary school children drew international attention. The Circus is situated in the poorest part of the Belfast – it is also the most divided. Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion. The Circus explores where old Belfast clashes with the new around acceptance, change, class and diversity. But this is 2024 and a fresh energy exists.
Other stories include ‘Tickles’, a story about a man visiting his mother in a dementia ward where he finds he is the one who had forgotten important things; ‘Cuckoo’, about a man’s collapse and surgery – where he feels something more sinister has happened to him; and ‘Daddy Christmas’, where a gay man writes a letter to the son he never had.
Paul McVeigh said: “I’ve been working with BBC Radio 4 for the last ten years and it’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve learned so much about telling stories written to be heard. It’s also great to be back working with Salt again.”
Christopher Hamilton-Emery said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Paul again, this time on a stunning collection of radio-performed stories. With its humour, pathos and personal tragedies, Paul manages to find the emotional heart of each immersive drama, and puts us in the centre of modern Belfast with all of its contemporary complexity and painful legacies.”
I have 5 min memoir piece recorded for RTÉ One’s Sunday Miscellany a couple of weeks ago. You can listen to it here.
“I am in Dumfries.
‘It’s a smallish town,’ Martin says, as we walk to the pub, ‘its bid to be seen as a city, failed.’
‘Oh dear,’ I say.
I don’t tell him that I’d read the nickname of the city is the Queen of the South. I’ll save it for later as there’s an easy laugh to be had, and as it’s my first visit to his, we may have some awkward moments that need lightening….”
I hope you like it!
Date Sunday 09 June 2024
Time 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Price: Pay What You Decide – Recommended Price £12.50
Join us for a special Belfast edition of the iconic RTÉ Radio 1 programme, Sunday Miscellany.
Recorded live in The Cube at The Crescent, join us for a magical mix of spoken word and live music.
Sunday Miscellany has been a weekend institution of Irish Radio since 1968 and we are delighted to welcome the programme back to Belfast Book Festival.
This special edition will include new writing and readings of work from Lucy Caldwell, Jan Carson, John Toal, Paul McVeigh, Marie Howe, Maria McManus, Glenn Patterson and Emily Byers Ferrian, and music from Scott Flanigan and Trú vocal ensemble.
RTÉ Sunday Miscellany is produced by Sarah Binchy.
My 10 part short story series, ‘The Circus’, which aired on BBC Radio 4 this year and again on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle, has made the BBC’s top 10 recommendations. Lots of great stuff here to listen to… listen.
A former working men’s club in North Belfast called ‘The Circus’ has been refurbished and relaunched with an inaugural talent show – and a massive cash prize for the winner! – inspiring the locals to brush up on some old skills. The new owner, a successful London property developer, has promised to bring a bit of the West End to North Belfast. But can the area really change? Can the people?
Cliftonville Circus is where five roads meet in North Belfast. It is situated in the most deprived part of the city; it is also the most divided. Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion. ‘The Circus’ explores where old Belfast clashes with the new around acceptance, change, class and diversity.
Read by Leanne Devlin and Chris Robinson
Produced by Michael Shannon
Executive Editor Andy Martin
My ten-part short story series The Circus commissioned by, and aired on, BBC Radio 4, earlier this year, is being repeated on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle every Saturday. In five episodes, each one will combine two of the stories. I hope you enjoy.
A former working men’s club in North Belfast called ‘The Circus’ has been refurbished and relaunched with an inaugural talent show – and a massive cash prize for the winner! – inspiring the locals to brush up on some old skills. The new owner, a successful London property developer, has promised to bring a bit of the West End to North Belfast. But can the area really change? Can the people?
Cliftonville Circus is where five roads meet in North Belfast. It is situated in the most deprived part of the city; it is also the most divided. Each road leads to a different area – a different class – a different religion. ‘The Circus’ explores where old Belfast clashes with the new around acceptance, change, class and diversity.
Read by Ruby Campbell and Abigail McGibbon
Produced by Michael Shannon
Executive Editor Andy Martin
Paul McVeigh 