About Me

I'm Barry, an Irish storyteller and children's author, and I've been in love with the old stories of Ireland my whole life. The folklore, the mythology, the way the Irish landscape seems to hold something ancient in it.

Dad brought me and my brothers to the mountains often as children and instilled in us a true sense of adventure from a young age. I didn't realise just how much I'd rely on that later in life.

We lost Dad suddenly when I was seventeen. He died in front of me, and in truth it took me a long time to recover. I suffered in silence for most of my twenties without telling anyone. But I made my way back to the mountains eventually, his mountains, and something in me finally began to breathe again.

The idea for The Lost Harp was born during a journey I made around Ireland in 2020, retracing a trip my dad had made along the Wild Atlantic Way in the 1980s. As I crossed Beenkeragh ridge to Carrauntoohil, I felt his presence there.

My debut children's book, The Lost Harp, was published in May 2025. It's the story of a giant who lives on top of Carrauntoohil (Ireland's highest mountain) who loses the most precious thing in his life during a storm, and has to learn that silence is not strength. It took five years to create in total. Every spare moment I could find. Every spare penny I owned went into it, to bring this dream to life.

I wrote it for my Dad. I wrote it for the seventeen year old who didn't know how to hold the loss. I wrote it for every person who has ever lost someone they love suddenly. I wrote it for every parent who wants their child to know they never have to carry that pain alone.

This is why I write.

For my Dad, the man who brought me to the mountains, and held my hand on the path to becoming the man I am today. Thank you.