Michael Harding


Michael Harding is an Irish writer.

Biography

Harding was born and raised in Cavan, Ireland. He currently lives in County Leitrim, very near Arigna. He is now a regular columnist with The Irish Times.
Harding went to St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, initially graduating as a lay graduate. He taught for two years in St. Patrick's College in Cavan Town, then worked as a social worker in a prison. He returned to Maynooth as a seminarian and was ordained in 1980, after which he went to work in a parish in Fermanagh.
He left the priesthood in 1985, then spent seventeen years practising Buddhism. He is married to the sculptor Cathy Carmen and they have a daughter Sophia.
He has published four novels: Priest, The Trouble With Sarah Gullion, Bird in the Snow and On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist. He became a member of Aosdána, the National Academy for Creative Artists, in 2000. He was Writer in Association with The Abbey Theatre in 1993, was short listed for the Irish Times Aer Lingus Literature Award in 1989, and was Writer in Residence at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1999.
Harding has received the following awards: