John Kelly is in conversation with one of Ireland’s most foremost playwrights and novelists, Sebastian Barry.
Sebastian Barry came to prominence in 1995 with his play The Steward of Christendom which won many awards and has been seen around the world. His other plays include Boss Grady’s Boys, Our Lady of Sligo and The Pride of Parnell St.
He is also a highly acclaimed novelist and was short listed for the Man Book Prize in 2005 for A Long Long Way which told the story of Ireland’s entry into the First World War, a war which claimed the lives of two hundred thousand Irishmen serving King and country of England and was virtually airbrushed from Irish history for generations.
Barry has featured his own family history in his plays and novels. His grandfather was a major in the British army and his great grandfather was an officer of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, regarded by his son-in-law as one of the chief officers of British imperialism. His mother, the late Joan O’Hara was one of Irish theatre’s most celebrated actresses and came to television prominence in later life as the much-loved character Eunice, on Fair City.
His new novel The Secret Scripture tells the story of Roseanne McNulty, nearing her hundredth birthday and an uncertain future as the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she has spent the best part of her adult life, faces closure. As she talks about her past with her psychiatrist, a grieving widower, Dr Grene, a story emerges of a life treated by terrible mistreatment and ignorance, and yet marked by love passion and hope and Roseanne’s story becomes an alternative, secret, history of Ireland.