SpeakEasy brings award-winning debut novelist to Waterford

SpeakEasy will hold its final event of the year on Friday, November 20, when award-winning debut novelist Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin will read from her novel Ordinary Saints.

Ordinary Saints was published in 2025 by Manilla Press, but it was winning awards while still at an early stage of its development. The unpublished manuscript of the novel won the PFD Queer Fiction Prize and the Women's Prize Discoveries Award in 2022. 

Niamh lives in Edinburgh and her writing has appeared in The Irish Times, The New Statement, Gutter, Fierce Salvage Anthology and elsewhere.

Music on the night will come from Waterford singer-songwriter Lauren Cardiff. Lauren will be well-known to music fans who have attended the Theatre Vamps concert nights in Tramore and Waterford, but at SpeakEasy she will showcase her own songs.

The hugely popular open mic will also be a central feature on the night. Writers of all levels of experience are invited to read a poem or piece of short prose. The open mic attracts writers from all over the South East and from Dublin.

SpeakEasy receives sponsorship from the Arts Office, Waterford City and County Council. It also receives support from The Granville Hotel and Phil Grimes Pub. Entry is €5 on the door, cash only. All are welcome.

SpeakEasy takes place at 8pm in Phil Grimes Pub on Friday, November 20.