John Waters

Having started his career in 1981 with the Irish music journal Hot Press, John Waters later wrote in The Irish Times from 1990 to 2014. His first book, Jiving at the Crossroads (1991), about the cultural underbelly of Irish politics, became a massive best-seller. He went on to write and publish nine other books, including An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Ireland (Duckworth, 1997) and Was it for this? Why Ireland lost the plot (Transworld Ireland, 2012). He has written a number of plays for stage and radio and is also a songwriter. He has contributed to a wide range of journals throughout the world, including The Spectator, The Guardian, The Observer, L'Osservatore Romano, La Stampa, as well as many Irish newspapers and magazines. He currently writes for the American magazine of religion in the public square, First Things. He is a Permanent Research Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. His latest book, Give Us Back the Bad Roads, was published in October 2018.