A lifelong writer from Derry, Garbhán has worked across journalism, broadcasting and fiction. His work spans sharp political satire, crime capers, sports writing and community history.
Full biography
Garbhán Downey was born in Derry, Ireland in 1966 and took to writing at an early age, publishing regularly in the Rosemount primary school magazine.
His parents Gerry and Áine (d.2020) had met at the Cumann Gaelach at Queen’s University Belfast, so it was no surprise that Downey would study Irish at St Columb’s College. After A Levels, he travelled to University College Galway to read languages (French and Latin) and on his first day was sitting in the corner of class, minding his own business, when a most beautiful Monaghan girl, Una McNally, came in and sat down beside him, claiming she had “no book”. The book fell out of her bag on the way out of the room, but they got married anyway eleven years later. They have two children Fiachra (1998) and Bronagh (2003).
While at UCG, Downey became involved in student politics and, after graduating in 1987, became full-time SU deputy-president, moving to Dublin the following year to become deputy-president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). During this time, he also wrote regularly for the organisation’s newspaper USI News, for the international student magazine IUS News, and he produced and edited a comprehensive Student Welfare Manual, which was distributed to colleges across the country.
Downey then headed back north to take a Masters in Computing in Belfast, however, as soon as he graduated (1991), he reverted immediately to freelance journalism.
He got his first break courtesy of the Derry Journal, contributing music, radio, TV and current affairs columns. He also began scripting and broadcasting opinion pieces for BBC Radio Foyle. In 1992, he got a job as a staff reporter with the Londonderry Sentinel where he covered courts, councils, and football matches. During this period, he began doing “corr” work for the Irish News and eventually went full-time freelance with the paper, helping set up its North West edition. He also got to cover the 1994 World Cup for the IN. And his fans-eye columns from New York and Orlando were subsequently compiled into his first book Just One Big Party (Forum Books 1994).
In 1995, Downey joined BBC Radio Foyle as a full-time reporter, newsreader and presenter [Morning Programme, News at One, Sportsdesk, Look West]. And in 1998 he was recruited by BBC Belfast, to work as an Assistant News Editor. He did the daily commute of 150 miles for over a year, before returning to Derry where he worked as a senior producer in the Radio Foyle newsroom.
In 1998, Guildhall Press commissioned Downey and the historian Michael McGuinness to write a “people’s history” of Creggan, a mammoth task they completed in 2000. Creggan: More than a History sold out two print-runs and is one of the most sought-after local history books in the North.
In 2001, Downey left Radio Foyle to become editor of the Derry News. He had actually applied for a sabbatical from the BBC to finish the book of short stories that became Off Broadway, but when the offer to edit a newspaper arose, he couldn’t turn it down.
During his period as editor (2001-04), the Derry News won two Newspaper Society awards for Fastest Circulation Growth in the UK. Downey also found himself before the courts after he refused to hand over photographs of the Real IRA attacking an (unmanned) army spy-post, arguing that such a move could put his staff in danger.
While editing the paper, Downey was also a regular face on local TV and hosted a weekly edition of the politics programme ‘Agenda’ on Channel 9.
The lure of fiction writing was very strong, however, and Downey was to link up with Guildhall Press again in 2004 to produce The Private Diary of a Suspended MLA, a satire on the peace process. The Sunday Times described the book as the “best Northern Ireland political novel of the century”.
He began writing Off Broadway in 1995 and finally completed it in May 2005. Published by Guildhall Press, the book is a series of interwoven short stories that take a viciously funny look at the rise of crookery and roguery in Ireland since the ceasefires. Reviews of the book were very favourable, with the Irish News comparing the author to Dickens.
In 2007, Downey’s third fiction, Running Mates, was published by Blackstaff Press. The book centred on a tremendously corrupt race for the Irish presidency and was critically praised. It also led to Downey enjoying a three-week stint as an election pundit on TV3, with Ireland’s top comedian Brendan O’Carroll.
At this time, Downey helped establish the Northern Ireland literary review Verbal and edited the publication for its first six issues.
Several more critically-acclaimed works of fiction would follow including Yours Confidentially (2008), The American Envoy (2009 - also Ireland’s first eBook), War of the Blue Roses (2010), Across the Line (2012), Once Upon A Time in the North West (2015), The Christmas Present (2016) and The Rookie and The Thief (2021).
He also worked as a non-fiction writer and editor with Guildhall Press, editing award-winning histories such as City of Music: Derry’s Musical Heritage and Feast or Famine: A Culinary History of North West Ireland, before establishing his own publishing company, Colmcille Press, with the support of Ráth Mór Creggan Enterprises, in 2019.
He established the Derry University Group to campaign for an independent cross-border university for northwest Ireland in 2013 along with Diane Greer and his Ráth Mór colleagues Conal McFeely and Kevin Hippsley.
