Michael Harding 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 stagedStrawboys(1987),Una Pooka(1989),Misogynist(1990),Hubert Murray’s Widow(1993) andSour Grapes(1997).The Tinker’s Cursewas nominated for Best New Play, at theIrish TimesIrish Theatre Awards 2007. His fiction includesPriest(1986) andThe Trouble with Sarah Gullion(1988). He writes a weekly column,‘Displaced in Mullingar’, for theIrish Timesand is a member of Aosdána.