• Mind That, ’Tis My Brother (Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1995), 196pp.
• Turtles All the Way Down (Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1997), 282pp.
• Polygamy: A Novel (Dublin: Poolbeg 1998), [14], 255pp.
• Hamartan (Poolbeg Press 2000), 207pp.
• Rough Rides in Dry Places (Poolbeg Press 2001), 287pp.

• Mind That, ’Tis My Brother (Meridian, 20 June 2002) [adapted from the novel]
• Knock 3 Times (Meridian, 10 Sept. 2007)

• Tom Crean: Hero of the South Pole (Dubin: Poolbeg Press 2017), 43pp., ill. by Derry Dillon.
• Roger Casement: Human Rights Hero [Nutshell Heroes; 1916 Centenary] (Dublin: Scholastic Press), 48pp.
q.pp.

• “Polygamy”, in If Only, ed. Kate Cruise O’Brien & Mary Maher (Dublin: Poolbeg Press 1997) [with Patricia Scanlon, Maeve Binchy, Jennifer Johnston, Mary Dorcey, Liz MacManus, Mary Rose O’Callaghan, et al. - incl. the editors.

 ‘I have come to recognise that I have an instinctive fear of giving away my autonomy. [...] But, of course, there are also solid reasons for hanging on to it in Africa. I’ve known expatriate women who were trapped in desperately unhappy marriages, unable to go home because they would be forced to leave their children behind them. Mine was an odd position. It was a Muslim marriage so I was supposed to be subservient. And I was, in a way. Yet I was the breadwinner. I worked in the university on local salary and, perceived to be rich, looked after my husband's family and other migrant Tuaregs. So, in another way, I was the boss. However, the Tuareg, unlike their neighbours the Arabs, are well used to strong women as their culture traditionally is matriarchal.’

[On returning to Ireland in 1989:] ‘It was a difficult decision. I thought I'd stay in Africa for the rest of my life, but my health was bad and the country was in free fall economically. By that time I was managing a restaurant and recreation centre for the American Embassy in Niamey but was still on a modest “local salary”. Life was tough and I feared for my children’s future. My husband came back to Cork city with me, but one Irish winter put paid to him. He went back to Niger, the Tuareg began their decade-long rebellion against the government of Niger and I lost touch with him, only again making contact with him in 2011, before his untimely death in 2012.’

Turtles All the Way Down (1997)

“Yeh could say the honeymoon was ovur. To tell yuh the truth I was pissed off. Isn't human nature a queer thing?  You'll grant me 'human nature' I hope? Dead an' all as I am.”

Polygamy (1998)

“I watched Khadija. I wanted to be comforted like the children. I wanted to grasp her golden breasts with their dusky overlay of indigo. I wanted to lay my head on her rounded thighs and breath in that musky mix of indigo and sweat and oil-based perfume – his smell – the smell of his tribe.”

Harmattan (1999)

“I studied the possessed man again as my heart thudded to the drumbeat. Then a woman threw herself into the circle in violent orgiastic dance. "The spirits have caught her too!" shouted Chimbizat. Two of the women darted forward. One removed the huge silver earrings which swung crazily from the dancer's elongated lobes, while the other fumbled at her back.  As I watched the baby being lifted from the mother's back – the ecstatic face of the mother, the fat little startled face of the baby , the two other faces intent on a familiar task – the old woman at my side fell to the ground and began to roll in a frenzy. A powerful revulsion seized me by the throat.”