Winner of the Plaza Short Story Prize
News
Performed by Kieran Kelliher and Conor Montague
Would you kill for a friend? Would you kill your best friend? Do you have what it takes?
Former All-Star hurler, Martin ‘The Butcher’ Molloy, is defined by courage, weakened by loss, haunted by failure. The death of his wife, Sarah, after a prolonged battle with cancer forces confrontation with an old friend and inspires a journey through the murky recesses of grief in search of answers, forgiveness and a new beginning.
Counting Swans descends deep into the dark to retrieve slivers of light from within the despair of a broken hero. The challenges of love, friendship, courage and assisted dying are just some of the topics dwelt upon over the course of a dialogue that mixes tears with laughter, despondency with hope, and croquet with hurling.
‘Counting swans is a beautiful excavation of one man coming to terms with grief and his past. Montague understands these hard men, GAA lads who, given the chance, are actually full of self knowledge and emotion. Funny but tough, full of feeling but unsentimental. This is a beautifully judged piece. Highly recommended.’ – Eugene O’Brien
Conor Montague’s tightly crafted drama sets a benchmark in creating stimulating, almost filmic drama for the stage. – Paul Vale (The Stage, UK)
"Conor Montague is a fearless writer with an uncanny ability to take the reader further, faster. Fierce, poetic, innovative and often very funny. This collection has it all; the depths and the darkness, as well as images that ring clear as a bell and linger.
A brilliant body of work."
- Jess Kidd, author of The Night Ship (Canongate)
Writer, performer & workshop facilitator
About Conor
Conor Montague is an Irish writer working in London. He grew up by the wild Atlantic and is a graduate of the MA in Writing at the National University of Ireland, Galway
Prior to settling on a pen as his weapon of choice, Conor winged it as a nightclub manager, bin man, music promoter, builder, adventure travel guide, academic, bare-knuckle boxer, dive master, estate agent, marijuana grower, tutor coordinator, magazine editor, sports coach, security consultant, researcher, stand-up comic and DJ, spending time in East Africa, North Africa, Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, South America, the Caribbean, Australia, the US and mainland Europe.
Conor is co-director of London Writers Eclective and resident playwright at the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith.
Stage
Stage credits include: Who Needs Enemies (Town Hall Theatre, Galway 2010-2013);The Butcher Molloy, Galway Theatre Festival 2012/ICC Theatre, Hammersmith 2017); Cursed by Good Intentions (Vodafone Comedy Carnival, Galway 2017); Straight Outta Connemara, (ICC Theatre, Hammersmith 2018); Killing Donald (Highly Commended Lost Theatre One-Act Festival, Stockwell Playhouse, June 2019); Chasing Reindeer (shortlisted for the Druid Theatre New Writing Prize 2020 and Platform Presents Playwrights Prize 2021); The Chain (Inishbofin Arts Festival 2023)
"Conor Montague’s tightly crafted drama sets a benchmark in creating stimulating, almost filmic drama for the stage."
Paul Vale (The Stage)
Fiction
An award-winning author, Conor's fiction has been published in Shooter Literary Magazine, The Lonely Crowd, HOWL: New Irish Writing, Galway Stories (Doire Press), Noir by Noir West: Dark Tales from the West of Ireland (Arlen House), The Real Jazz Baby (Reflex) Beguiled by a Wild Thing (Reflex) A Girl's Guide to Fly Fishing (Reflex), Snow Crow (Ad Hoc Fiction), Sticks and Stones (Oxford Flash Fiction Prize) Survival: Award Winning Stories (Hammond House) and placed/shortlisted in numerous competitions, most recently with: Flash 500, Reflex Fiction, TSS 400 Flash Fiction Competition, Ad Hoc Fiction, London Independent Story Prize, The Writer’s Bureau Short Story Competition, Limnisa Short Story Competition, Bray Literary Festival Flash Fiction Competition, the Bridport Prize, The Fish Prize, Strands International Prize for Flash Fiction, The V.S. Pritchett Short Story Award, Hammond House International Literary Prize, The Stockholm Writers' Festival First Five Pages.
Conor's debut collection of short stories, Capital Vices, was published by Reflex Press in September 2023.
Screen
Screen writing credits include: Who Needs Enemies (Vagabond Productions 2013); Coronamona (Vagabond Productions 2020); Frog Symphony (Vagabond Productions 2021); Nothing to be Done (Galway Film Fleadh 2023).
Writing workshop facilitation, mentoring & editing
Facilitates weekly workshops in fiction, creative non-fiction and playwriting. Supports writers through 1:1 mentoring and story editing.