Peter is the recipient of the Rooney Prize for Literature (1977), two Arts Council Bursaries (1982 and 1986) and was writer in residence at the Abbey Theatre in 1980.With his brother Jim he founded the Project Theatre Company and his writing credits there include The Liberty Suit (in collaboration with Gerard Mannix Flynn), which later transferred to the Royal Court Theatre, London; Emigrants and No Entry opened at the Project and also transferred to the Royal Court and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), respectively.

Theatre work: A Child’s Christmas in Wales at the Abbey Theatre; The Plough and the Stars for Second Age Theatre Company; Brighton Beach Memoirs and Children of Eve at Andrews Lane Theatre; The Risen People at the Gaiety Theatre; Hatchet at the Olympia Theatre; The Kips, The Digs, The Village at Project Arts Centre; the world premiere of I Keano at the Olympia Theatre; The Nativity: What the Donkey Saw at the Mill Theatre, The world premiere of The Shawshank Redemption at The Gaiety Theatre Dublin and The Wyndhams Theatre London. Last year he directed the hugely successful Dancing Shoes – The George Best Story, which had a sold-out run at the Belfast Grand Opera House and returns to Belfast and Dublin this year.

He also directed the world premiere of Somewhere Over the Balcony for Charabanc Theatre Company at the Drill Hall, London and for the same company directed The Blind Fiddler by Marie Jones and The Stick Wife by Dara Cloud. Other directorial credits include the American premiere of his play Diary of a Hunger Strike at the Los Angeles Theatre Centre, Shades of the Jelly Woman at the Irish Arts Centre, New York, Off-Broadway the premiere of his play Mother of All the Behans with Rosaleen Linehan and at the Live Oak Theatre in Austin, the regional premiere of Brian Friel’s Translations and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

His film credits include the award winning short The Breakfast (winner of the Prix Arte Europe at the Brest Festival, 1998 and a Canadian Rocky at Banff, 1999) and the feature Borstal Boy, released in 2000.

His publishing credits include two books based on his family, 44: A Dublin Memoir (nominated for an Irish Times Literary Award in 2000) and Forty-Seven Roses. His first novel Big Fat Love was published in October of 2003.