The poem ‘Some Other Country’ won the Sunday Tribune/Hennessy New Irish Writing Award for Poetry in 1998.

The collection  was published in 2002 by Bradshaw Books and  a selection of the poems was chosen as the winner of the 2001 Listowel Writers’ Week /Ireland Funds Award for a short collection of poems.

Published in 2004, by The Dedalus Press, ‘Icarus sees his Father fly’ won the Listowel Writers’ Week award for poetry.

‘The Majestic’ won the SeaCat Irish National Poetry Competition 2002.

John’s latest collection of poetry, ‘On Water’ was published in May 2014