Paul Howard

Who is Paul Howard?

Paul Howard is a journalist with The Irish Times on Saturday. Howard is best known as the author of the paper's Ross O'Carroll-Kelly columns. In addition, he has written a series of books about the character of Ross, a wealthy, rugby union-playing resident of Foxrock in South Dublin. The inspiration for the columns first came from a nonfiction article Howard was researching on Leinster schools rugby. The information he had gathered on the social activities engaged in by the young rugby players was unprintable for legal reasons; instead, Howard decided to use the material to inspire a set of characters attending the fictional school of "Castlerock".

He is the author of two plays – The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger in 2007 and Between Foxrock and a Hard Place in 2010 – as well as the hugely successful 2012 puppet-based Anglo the Musical.

His first non-Ross-related venture into fiction – Triggs – The Autobiography of Roy Keane’s Dog – was a number one bestseller in 2012.

He is a two-time Irish Book Award winner, collecting the Best Popular Fiction prize in 2007 for Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade and in 2010 for The Oh My God Delusion.