What We Do
Holy Show began as an annual print magazine and grew into something much broader: a platform for literary and multidisciplinary work that brings literary authors and essayists into conversation with artists across visual art, film, theatre, music, dance and architecture.
Across print, live events, exhibitions and touring productions, our work has always been interested in finding better, stranger and more memorable ways for literature to meet an audience.
We believe writing should not sit quietly on a shelf. It should be performed, projected, installed, carried into galleries, festivals, fields and theatres, and made to speak to the wider culture around it.
Publication
Holy Show is a magazine of contemporary life and culture as seen through the eyes of Ireland’s artists. We commission essays, criticism and creative non-fiction that emerge from artistic practice and collaboration, adapting stories from artists and their projects to the printed page.
Each issue brings together writing connected to theatre, film, music, dance, visual art, architecture and performance—work that is often funny, sometimes profound, occasionally strange, and always rooted in real artistic lives.
Production
Holy Show Productions is our live events and touring wing. What began as a simple collaboration between a writer and a filmmaker grew into nationwide touring productions across festivals and venues in Ireland and abroad.
We have produced live audiovisual essays, literary performances, screenings, readings, installations and festival events that bring literature off the page and into shared space—often combining writing with film, music, sound design and visual art. We ran a four day exhibition at Pallas Projects and an eight month exhibition at the Museum of Literature Ireland.
Projects have toured to venues including Project Arts Centre, Cúirt, The Dock, Linenhall Arts Centre, Belltable, and internationally at DOX Prague.
Curating & Exhibitions
Alongside publishing and live production, Holy Show has curated multidisciplinary exhibitions that extend the life of the magazine into physical space.
This includes exhibitions at Pallas Projects and Museum of Literature Ireland, where writing, visual art, film and installation were brought together to create exhibitions built from the pages of the journal itself.
We have also collaborated with organisations including Irish Museum of Modern Art, Irish Architecture Foundation, and the Embassy of Ireland, Berlin, while maintaining regular creative residencies at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre.
Our Team
Brendan Mac Evilly, Editor & Creative Producer
Brendan is the author of the novel Deep Burn (Marrowbone Books 2025) and At Swim: A Book About the Sea (Collins Press 2016). His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Winter Papers, The Stinging Fly, Channel, the Honest Ulsterman, the Guardian, the Irish Times, and Sunday Times among other outlets. He is the director/editor of Holy Show, and is the current Emerging Curator in Development at Kilkenny Arts Office. See bmacevilly.com
Peter McNamara, Editor & Creative Producer
Peter is an editor/producer from Dublin. Aside from managing Holy Show magazine and production company, he operates the awarding-winning retailer Marrowbone Books. Formerly, he has worked as a community journalist and a high-profile cultural and corporate events manager.
Shannon Pelletier, Publisher, Design Director
Shannon comes from a diverse background in performing, arts management and production. She received her Master’s in Arts Policy and Practice at the NUIG Huston School for Film & Digital Media in Galway, Ireland and currently works in publication design. For more information or to get in touch, visit pellegraphicdesign.com or on IG at @pellegraphicdesign.
Kevin O’Brien, Publisher, Creative Director
Kevin is a graphic designer with a passionate focus in publication design. His passion for Irish culture is enhanced with the telling of stories, photos and illustrations through Holy Show publications. He was co-publisher of Éirways magazine. Kevin’s many interests include well-designed books and magazines, food, art, architecture, and his love of Irish traditional music.
Currently
After seven years and seven publications, Holy Show is currently on pause while we develop new projects and consider what comes next. Its editor Brendan Mac Evilly is still writing, curating, programming, performing and making. He is available at brendan@macevilly.com or see bmacevilly.com. Holy Show’s designer Shannon can be contacted at shannon@pellegraphicdesign.com or see pellegraphicdesign.com
We remain interested in collaborations between writers and artists, especially work that pushes literature beyond conventional readings and towards something more alive, hybrid and unexpected.