Who I am

I am a writer, poet, storyteller and lecturer living in Galway City, Ireland.

Originally from Glasgow I have lived half my live in Galway City in the west of Ireland. I dig into my Scottish and Irish heritage to create written work and live shows.
I am increasingly using the name Letham R. McPaike to reflect the strength I draw from my heritage. Letham is from my Scottish lineage, McPaike from my Irish, and of course R. is me, Rab, balanced between both.
My tip for all story makers is have fun, make mistakes and enjoy sharing what eventually transpires.

My published novels and short story collections are written in English though during the early messy draft work I will skip and scribble away between Scots and English. My script work follows a similar process. I also work as a ghost writer

My first full length book, Transformation, was written in 2004 after I had immersed myself in studying classical Greek and Roman literature as a BA student in University of Galway. In a six week blast all that gleaned knowledge fused with my love of folklore to create a story about a Pooka intruding into the life of two young lovers. My Classical Civilisation work earned me my second award, the Athenry Award, while the book generated more strong reviews of my written work, including this from the Galway City Tribune: "A dark, supernatural story that manages to make you cry, laugh and scare you to bits" 

​My poetry is written in both English and Scots. The draft work for my English poetry is entirely in English. The draft work for my Scots poetry is entirely in Scots. 

My poetry has featured in Books Ireland, Burning Bush, Chapman, Criterion, Cyphers, The Guardian, The Herald,  New Writing Scotland, Northwords, Orphan Leaf Review, Peace News, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Scotland, Ropes, The Shop, textualities.net, West Coast Magazine, West 47

I wrote and performed the future folk tale “God and The Brevity” for the short Irish Documentary Hidden Collision, which went on to win many awards, including: Best International Documentary, İnönü Film Festival, Turkey, May 2022; and ​Best Short Documentary, Reykjavik Film Festival, February 2022.
When I cannot find the words for the poetry or prose I am working on I draw pictures or put on music and dance myself into the emotion of the piece I am working on.

For more on my poetry see My poetry
​For more on my writing see My Books

For the last two decades I have earned a living standing up and retelling tales from Ireland and Scotland, as well as from my family.

It is a lot of fun researching this work. I particularly enjoy looking into lesser known Medieval texts. It is in these non-canonical sources that the really wild and genre defying stories can be found. 

After I have dug up the raw material I then begin engaging with it, trying to find a way to share the stories with a 21st century audience. A good example is my retelling of Niall Frosach’s Act of Truth, the medieval LGBTQ tale that was erased from Ireland’s literary cannon as a result of the 1929 Censorship of Publications Act. 

While the research involves a lot of writing, the story creating has less writing. Sometimes no writing at all. A lot of that creative process involves m​e simply talking the idea out whilst my body moves into the emotion of the story. 

I also use storytelling as a tool to encourage inclusion and diversity. In 2025I was commission to share my skills with teenagers from Belfast and Limerick as part of the Living Legends festival funded by Creative Ireland’s Creative Youth on a Shared Island Fund. As a visiting artist in University of Galway I work on a project, partly funded by Poetry Ireland, to teach children in local DEIS schools how to collect and retell family folklore, memory and history. In addition, I tell stories in rural and island communities in Mayo and Galway.
This commitment to inclusion is also reflected in the ticketing policy of my Celtic Tales show: there are regular priced tickets and discount tickets for lower income people. The Celtic Tales show continues to operates under the same ethos as when I set it up in 2007; to make storytelling as popular as Galway’s club and music venues, and to bring lesser known myths and folktales back into public awareness, especially tales that challenge normative ideas concerning gender, sexuality and labour roles. 

​For more about the my storytelling see My Storytelling