To mark his 70th birthday, Michael took a holiday in Spain, walking a short part of the Camino de Santiago in the early summer of 2024. But as he set off on this pilgrimage, Harding wasn’t alone. Accompanying him was his father, who passed away when Michael was just twenty-two. A man who was distant and aloof, but who had a profound effect on the writer’s life. Join Michael as he reads from his memoir I Loved Him from the Day he Died and tells his stories in his own inimitable way.
Michael Harding is a writer, podcaster and commentator. He was born in Cavan in 1953 and has received both the Stewart Parker Award and an RTÉ Arts Show/Bank of Ireland Award for his theatre work. The Abbey Theatre has staged Strawboys (1987), Una Pooka (1989), Misogynist (1990), Hubert Murray’s Widow (1993) and Sour Grapes (1997). The Tinker’s Curse was nominated for Best New Play, at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2007. His fiction includes Priest (1986) and The Trouble with Sarah Gullion (1988). He has written an acclaimed series of memoirs, starting with Staring at Lakes (2013) to his most recent I loved Him From the Day He Died (2024) He writes a column for the Irish Times alongside commentary on numerous documentary programmes and has featured in film and theatre, including a recent short film, Where the Old Man Lives. He is a member of Aosdána and lives with his wife, the artist Cathy Carmen, near Lough Allen in County Leitrim.