Born in Scotland in 1956, McKirdy spent his childhood in Hong Kong. He arrived in England for the first time as a twenty-year-old and stayed for five years before deciding to permanently move to Hong Kong. He has published a number of poetry collections, some of which depict the relationship between the colonisers and colonised in British Hong Kong in the 1960s. He also co-edited multiple anthologies and is one of the organisers of the group Poetry OutLoud Hong Kong.