Niall Allsop was born and educated in Belfast but spent most of his working life in the UK, first as a teacher, then a photo-journalist and finally as a graphic designer mainly in the arts.
In 2008, he emigrated to southern Italy and in 2017 relocated to Ennis in County Clare. He has written in several non-fiction specialist fields, including the inland waterways, Italian themes and travelogues; he has also written two short memoirs. In 2018, he set up ClareBooks to enable local authors to see their work in print.