Gerard Beirne is an Irish writer who has lived in Canada for more than ten years, and served as writer‐in‐residence at the University of New Brunswick for 2008/09. His collection of poems Digging My Own Grave (Dedalus Press, 1997) won second prize in the Patrick Kavanagh Award. His novel The Eskimo in the Net (Marion Boyars Publishers, 2003) was short listed for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. His story Sightings of Bono was adapted into a short film featuring Bono.