in 2010. Personal life Following a tumultuous relationship with his father, O'Neill left for England at the age of 17. There, he would continue to stay working at a paracetamol factory for some of the time, before returning to Ireland to live in Dalkey. His frequent excursions to London, though, are how O'Neill met with and began a relationship with TV presenter Russell Harty, who encouraged him to publish his work. O'Neill stayed with him until his death in 1988. The British tabloid press, who had run multiple exposés about Harty during his fatal illness, approached O'Neill offering him money to sell his story. Though he rebuffed all these offers, the Sunday Mirror published a nude photo from his modelling days in London. Harty's family had O'Neill, who had no legal standing in the estate, removed from the presenter's house; during this difficult period he eventually became homeless. His first novel, Disturbance, was published in 1989; Kilbrack followed in 1990. O'Neill struggled to write, parted company with both his agent and publisher, and took a job as a night porter at the Cassel Hospital, a psychiatric institution in Richmond, London from 1990 to 2000. O'Neill was in a London pub when he noticed his dog was missing. Paddy had been found by a ballet dancer named Julien Joly. They began a relationship and Joly was instrumental in helping O'Neill put his life back together. During the ten years that followed, O'Neill wrote At Swim, Two Boys, which was published in 2001. The two events seemed to break the negative cycle of the author's life. When published in Britain, Swim was likened to the work of Joyce. The book allowed O'Neill to quit his job as a porter and to open his first bank account.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1779131/Answering-Yes-Stuart-Blackley-interviews.html|title=Answering Yes: Stuart Blackley interviews novelist Jamie ONeill|date=1 May 2002|accessdate=1 May 2002|author=Blackley, Stuart|newspaper=Lambda Book Report}}</ref> Ten years after publication, Alison Walsh, reviewing the year 2001 for the Sunday Independent, called it "a vintage one in Irish writing", specifically naming the "unforgettable" At Swim, Two Boys alongside books by Dermot Bolger, Eoin Colfer and Nuala O'Faolain. He and Julien Joly are no longer together. On writing Bibliography Disturbance (1989) Kilbrack (1990) At Swim, Two Boys (2001) Awards and honours Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction (for At Swim, Two Boys) Lambda Literary Award in Gay Men's Fiction (for At Swim, Two Boys'') References External links Jamie O'Neill's personal website