Pleading The Belly

‘I could have no quarrel with the original jury’s verdict, or so Farrington told me anyway. Agent McNally was as dead as dead could be, and by my hand.’

Fiction 4th March 2026

Ostrich

Fiction Issue 23, Volume 2: Winter 2012

John O'Donnell

John O'Donnell's work has been published and broadcast in Ireland and abroad. Awards include the Irish National Poetry Prize, the New Irish Writing Awards for Poetry and Fiction, and in 2023 the RTE Francis McManus Short Story Award for his story ‘Mr Hoo’. He has published five poetry collections. His previous collection of short stories Almost the Same Blue (Doire Press) was nominated as one of the Debut Books of the Year in The Irish Times and was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. His debut novel, Second Skin, was one of the winners of the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2024. His new short story collection, Mr Hoo and other stories, is published this week by Doire Press.