A new exhibition marking 20 years since the death of John McGahern has opened at University of Galway.

The exhibition explores the rich literary legacy of one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers through the manuscripts and materials that are collected within the McGahern archive at the University Library.

John McGahern: Writer and Archive traces the themes, writing process, and publication of McGahern’s novels, short stories, plays, essays, and memoir.

The McGahern archive includes more than 80 boxes of materials including early handwritten drafts, an unpublished novel, notebooks, letters and photographs which reflect and document his life in writing.

Professor Frank Shovlin from the University of Liverpool officially opened the exhibition following a public interview with critic and University of Galway academic, Professor Adrian Frazier. In October 2026, Faber & Faber will publish Shovlin’s authorised biography of the writer, John McGahern: A Writing Life, which draws extensively from the McGahern archive. A graduate of University of Galway, Shovlin is the editor of the critically-acclaimed The Letters of John McGahern (Faber & Faber, 2023).

Monica Crump, University of Galway Librarian, said: "The John McGahern Archive is one of the University's most significant literary collections, preserving the creative legacy of a writer whose work continues to resonate with readers around the world. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter the manuscripts, notebooks, letters and photographs that illuminate McGahern's extraordinary craft, while highlighting the vital role of archives in preserving Ireland's cultural memory for future generations. We are delighted to share these remarkable collections with the public as we mark twenty years since his passing."

This new exhibition allows visitors to take a seat alongside the writer at work and follow his words as they take shape upon the page. It includes previously unseen literary drafts, letters and photographs that offer a unique perspective and insight into the mind and writing of John McGahern.

Dr Barry Houlihan, Curator of the exhibition and Archivist at University of Galway, said: “The McGahern Archive is a remarkable collection of literary papers and manuscripts. From familiar school copybooks that contain the first handwritten drafts of his great novels and stories, McGahern was a schoolteacher who through his writings taught us all.”

Breandán Mac Suibhne, Professor of Modern Irish History, University of Galway, said: “Frank Shovlin is one of Ireland’s foremost literary scholars. A graduate of the University of Galway, Shovlin's long-anticipated biography of John McGahern, to be published by Faber & Faber in October 2026, is sure to be widely read and much discussed. The University is delighted that John McGahern’s biographer was available to open this remarkable exhibition curated by Barry Houlihan and sit for a public interview with Adrian Frazier.”

From McGahern’s first published novel, The Barracks (1963), his banned novel, The Dark (1965), to his later masterpieces of Amongst Women (1990) and That They May Face The Rising Sun (2003), McGahern is positioned as one of Ireland’s great masters of the novel form. McGahern’s short stories, from early publication in The New Yorker magazine in the 1960s to his later volumes including Nightlines (1970) and High Ground (1985) show his great skill in creating vivid scenes and intimate lives within the confines of the story.

The exhibition is open to the public until January 15^th 2027 in the foyer of the Hardiman Building at University of Galway.

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