Books
Berghain Nights: A Journey through Techno and Berlin Club Culture (Reaktion, 2025)
Berghain Nights is an autofictional narrative about Liam’s journey through the Berlin club scene. Blending essay and memoir, it features interviews with major artists like Ellen Allien, Rrose, Luke Slater, Eris Drew and Function, alongside other figures from Berlin’s night-time economy and the history of techno. From kinky parties at KitKat Club to the industrial gloom of Tresor, from the queer garden of Buttons to the gay psychedelia of Cocktail d’Amore, Berghain Nights not only captures the excitement of Berlin’s clubs, it explores how spaces like these can help one find a truer self.
‘Embrace[s] the literary potential of underground electronic music. The story here is of the dance floor as a provisional utopia.’ — The New Yorker
‘A really interesting book; an engaging trip with a companiable narrator.’ —The Irish Times: Books of the Year 2025
‘Cagney has crafted an experience that welcomes the weird, the queer, the othered—even if one has no prior exposure to techno or club culture. His love for the genre pulses from every page. ‘ — The Gay and Lesbian Review
‘A personal and surprisingly tender portrait of a culture fighting to stay alive.’ — The Irish Examiner, Top Ten Music Books of the Year
‘A great story, really well told – a thumping good read.’ — RTE Lyric FM, Best of Irish Books 2025
Fiction in Journals
‘We Are the Robots.’ In Winter Papers, Vol. 8 (winter 2022).
‘A JOURNEY THROUGH ☆ FAMOUS ☆ BY ♫ “KANYE WEST” ♫’ The White Review (online edition, 2017)
‘Kill Music/Fake Music’. Gorse, No.6 (2016)
‘Waiting for Gilgamesh’. The Lonely Crowd, Issue 1 (2015)
‘Compulsive Lyre’. The Honest Ulsterman (May 2014)
‘Party [#2]’. Penduline, Issue 9 (2013)
‘Series of Errors’. The Moth, Issue 15 (2013).
Fiction in Edited Anthologies
Liam Cagney, ‘On the Tiles.’ In Rob Doyle, ed., The Irish Tradition: An Irish Fiction Anthology (Rochester/McLean/London: Dalkey Archive Press, 2018).
__________. ‘The Party [#1]’ in Dave Lordan, ed., New Planet Cabaret: An Anthology of New Writing from Ireland (Dublin: New Island, 2013).
Fiction on National Radio
__________. ‘The Party [#1]’, Arena, RTÉ Radio 1, 2 January 2013.
Creative Non-Fiction in Journals
‘Non-Metal Child Wearing a Metal Tee.’ In Paper Visual Art, Issue 17 (summer 2026)
‘TechNoWhere.’ In TOLKA, Issue 6 (winter 2023).
Feature on Berlin Club Culture. In Holy Show, Issue 4 (summer 2022).
‘Club Oblivion.’ In TOLKA, Issue 2 (winter 2021).
‘Rrose is Rrose is Rrose.’ In Paper Visual Art, Issue 11 (winter 2019).
‘Initiations: On Grisey’s Music.’ In gorse, Issue 3 (spring 2015).
Essays on National Radio
‘Slipping into Radigue’ (on the music of French electronic composer Éliane Radigue), RTÉ Lyric FM Culture File, 22 March 2022.
‘Ecce Bono’ (on walking the Nietzsche trail on the Côte d’azur, France), RTÉ Lyric FM Culture File, 1 July 2021.
‘COVID Times at the KitKat’ (on attending a day of support for Berlin’s club sector), RTÉ Lyric FM Culture File, 1 Feb 2021.
Liam Cagney 