A novel, In the wake of the Bagger, and a CD of short stories and songs, Lament for The Birds. In the Wake of the Bagger,was Jack Harte’s first novel commissioned as part of the local authorities’ public art series, Unravelling Developments. 

The story has two circular narratives, one set in the Nineteen Fifties, the other in the present day. It is a story set in childhood and told in a contemporary context. At once a social document and a meditation on change. The novel tells the story of the Dowd family who are uprooted from their home in Killeenduff, Co. Sligo, to re-settle as economic migrants in the Midlands, where the industrial development of the bogs is providing jobs and opportunities. The tension between an old traditional way of life and the first stirring of industrialization in rural Ireland is captured graphically. 

The CD, Lament for The Birds, is a compilation of stories and song that Jack Harte made with Sligo singer/musician Carmel Gunning it was produced and launched in 2004. Jack produced this CD as part of the commission. 

Meetings with residents and workshops with creative writing groups facilitated by Public Art Officer

Short story author and co-founder of Irish Writers’ Centre