{"id":7807,"date":"2008-02-27T22:21:30","date_gmt":"2008-02-28T03:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=7807"},"modified":"2026-04-13T20:26:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T00:26:01","slug":"i-cant-think-of-anything-you-might-say-about-irish-people-that-is-absolutely-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=7807","title":{"rendered":"Anne Enright: \u201cI can\u2019t think of anything you might say about Irish people that is absolutely true.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"17look1.jpg\"WONDERFUL interview with Anne Enright<\/a>, author of The Gathering<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, winner of the Man Booker Prize last year. I finished it near my birthday last year (post here<\/a>) – and had mixed feelings about it, although the writing knocked me on my ass. I just LIKE her as a person, too – every interview I’ve read with her has been fascinating. Seems like a lady I’d like to have a pint with.<\/p>\n

She says in the interview:<\/p>\n

Q. Where does the idea of “authentic” Irishness come from?<\/p>\n

A. From the diaspora. They dreamt about Ireland and reinvented it. Ireland is a series of stories that have been told to us, starting with the Irish Celtic national revival. I never believed in “Old Ireland.” It has been made all of kitsch by the diaspora, looking back and deciding what Ireland is. Yes, it is green. Yes, it is friendly. I can’t think of anything else for definite.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I read that, and thought of the piece I wrote “Road Works Ahead”. I’m a writer. I read other people’s thoughts and think of my own work. That’s the way it goes. I still get emails about that “Road Works Ahead” piece. Irish people, Irish-American people – but mostly straight Irish. After I wrote that piece, an Irish newspaper linked to it, a big one, a national paper – and my piece was used as a launching-off place for an op-ed column – by an Irishman, who was worried about what had happened to that good old Irish hospitality. I felt a cringing within me when I saw that I had been referenced, I have a sensitivity towards how i come off … i didn’t want to seem like I was criticizing Ireland, or behaving like an obnoxious irish-American, pissed off that there were no more leprechauns. But the op-ed column was quite honest, and quite open … it took my observations (made as an outsider, yes) and started to ask questions, based upon those observations. And the response I got was overwhelming. And also quite respectful and nice. It was great. Like I said, people still email me about that piece.<\/p>\n

I am (a couple generations removed) a member of the diaspora and I recognize it in her words. I recognize it from the conversation I had with Eamon in the piece I wrote above. The whole Quiet Man<\/i> thing, and the whole ambivalence about progress and change.<\/p>\n

And I LOVED LOVED LOVED Anne Enright’s thoughts on Joyce. I literally giggled with glee when I read them:<\/p>\n

Q. Almost every review of an Irish writer’s work makes comparisons to James Joyce. Is it hard to get away from him?<\/p>\n

A. I don’t want to get away from him. It’s male writers who have a problem with Joyce; they’re all “in the long shadow of Joyce, and who can step into his shoes?” I don’t want any shoes, thank you very much. Joyce made everything possible; he opened all the doors and windows. Also, I have a very strong theory that he was actually a woman. He wrote endlessly introspective and domestic things, which is the accusation made about women writers – there’s no action and nothing happens. Then you look at “Ulysses” and say, well, he was a girl, that was his secret.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Marvelous. I want to read that to my father. He will appreciate it.<\/p>\n

Full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WONDERFUL interview with Anne Enright, author of The Gathering, winner of the Man Booker Prize last year. I finished it near my birthday last year (post here) – and had mixed feelings about it, although the writing knocked me on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,9],"tags":[35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7807"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103594,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7807\/revisions\/103594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}