Ronan O’Shea is an Anglo-Irish author from London. His debut novel, Murphy Who Talks, was released by Indie Novella in October 2024.

Set during London’s 2018 heatwave, Murphy Who Talks explores Austerity, communication, British and Irish identity and misogyny within male friendships. Murphy works in a failing pub which provides him refuge from the world. However, when it is threatened with closure, he must find a way to save it and so decides to ban the use of phones, then speaking, at the pub. A performative move, it is doomed to failure but becomes a media sensation and local hotspot. It is not until he meets yoga teacher Rebecca, however, that Murphy is forced to face the demons of his past (depression, death of his parents, redundancy) and, between a silent pub and an ancient Irish monastery (with puffins), open himself to feeling again.

His fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals including Ropes, J Journal and Saltbush Review. Formerly a care worker, prison teacher, barman and journalist, he now lives in South London and writes full time.