“There is one thing we have learned from the Celtic Tiger years: Listen to the dissenting voice”. An Interview with Martina Devlin

Abstract

Writer and journalist Martina Devlin was born in Omagh, in the North of Ireland, although she currently lives in Dublin. She worked in Fleet Street, London, and she now writes a weekly column for the Irish Independent. As a writer, her prizes include a Hennessy Literary Award and the V.S. Pritchett prize. In her novels she has dealt with events of the past: Ship of Dreams (2007), a novel about the Titanic, and The House Where it Happened (2015), a narrative based on a witchcraft trial in the 18th Century. However, in About Sisterland (2015) she imagines a future world ruled by women. Other titles include Three Wise Men (2000), Be Careful What You Wish for (2001), Venus Reborn (2003) and Temptation (2004). She is also the author of two non-fiction books, The Hollow Heart (2005), about her attempts at in-vitro fertilization, and Banksters (2009), co-autored with David Murphy, about the Irish banking collapse. In the present interview Devlin talks about Irish current affairs, about her work and in particular about her latest collection of short stories, Truth and Dare (2018). The conversation took place in February 2018 at Trinity College Dublin, where she is doing a MPhil in Anglo-Irish literature.