For over 46 years the author has been having his letters published in The Irish Times.

Divorce referendums, morality and the law, religious glorification of violence, religion in schools, institutional child abuse, celibate clergy, “aggressive secularism”, abortion and the Repeal the Eighth campaign, religious oaths for public office; they’re all there, but particularly strong is the drive, made in a succinct, lucid and forceful voice, and carried consistently over so many years, for a secular society. The Reconstitution of Ireland charts Ireland’s journey from the depressing, stultifying country that had demonised Edna O’Brien, John McGahern, Brendan Behan, and had made a misery of the lives of so many, to the internationally respected, relatively liberal nation we have today. Who knows, the letters might even have had an effect, however small, on the process of enlightenment.

There are published letters and prose on Ireland in the European Union, the financial crisis, the bishop who set up an exorcism team, gun violence in the US, Donald Trump, Cystic Fibrosis, Ursula von der Leyen and the war in The Middle East, Irish neutrality, Ukraine, wine bottle corks, books, and so many other topics of abiding interest.

Seamus McKenna’s primary qualification is in Civil Engineering. He holds an MBA from Trinity College Dublin, and an MA in Creative Writing from Dublin City University (DCU)

He’s been a reader from the youngest age. In earlier years books such as Fear of Flying by Erica Jong, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Robinson by Muriel Spark, practically everything that Graham Greene ever wrote, John McGahern’s major works, The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, and Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh made lasting impressions.

His novel, The Maker’s Name, was published in 2024. He was thrilled when Kirkus Reviews recommended it to readers, saying, inter alia,: “McKenna skillfully weaves together a story of one family through several decades… This is an engaging, fast-paced story filled with treachery, backstabbing, and blind ambition … The narrative moves quickly and smoothly while managing to carefully construct the foundation for the brothers’ rivalry.”

He’s been having his letters and articles published in The Irish Times and other publications since 1978.

On 21st July 2024 he broadcast his short-form piece “Chickens, Hurling and a Famous Bootmaker” on RTE Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany (New writing for radio).

He lives in Maynooth with his long-suffering but supportive wife, Marilyn. They have a son and a daughter, two granddaughters and two grandsons.