Niall Mac Lochlainn

Transcription

This is an adventure story. And what's involved in an adventure story, of course, is that the reader moves between adventures: what's going to happen? what's going to happen to him now? what's the next thing that'll jump out of the box? And, of course, if I told ... now what the plot of "An Litir" is, well, I think that would ruin the story for the readers ... and they wouldn't ... well, why would they read it if they knew what was going to happen? It's about a young person, he's at school, and it's set at the beginning of the 17th century ... when there was a lot of trouble in Ireland. "When was there not?" you say, but there was then, for sure. And that's the setting, it's situated for the most part in Galway City. And that's it ... that's the way ... it continues on from there. I think a few years ago that the Franciscans were celebrating ... now, I'm not too sure, but I think it was the foundation of St Anthony's College in Louvain ... in 1607. And they did a great thing – they ran an Oireachtas competition. They provided the money, a fine prize. As it happens, it was my friend and publisher Darach Ó Scolaí who won the prize ... for "An Cléireach" and it was well deserved – "An Cléireach" is a great book. But it occurred to me at the time that I'd like to enter this competition. Now, I suppose Darach Ó Scolaí is lucky that I didn't enter. Maybe I shouldn't say that but I didn't manage to finish my book. But I suppose, at that time ... I'm not saying for a second that I'd have won the prize – far from it. But what happened is that I wasn't in on the competition, so no one will ever know what chance I might have had. But, I suppose I started thinking in that direction: sometime in the 17th century ... the Franciscans, Louvain College, Hugh O'Neill, that very interesting person ... who was behind, for the most part, the Nine Years War, which gave the English their most real battle, I suppose, at the time. As regards the idea, that's another question, because there is a particular idea behind "An Litir". Now, if I could speak as a reader, and thinking back on things that I've read, I think this is an idea that can be seen in other books of mine, especially, maybe, in "An Dochtúir Áthas", and maybe "Fontenoy" as well, I'm not sure. That's to say, that's there's a piece of information here and that that piece of information is moved to another side. So one person has it and now it's given to another person ... and how the other person responds to that. Now, it doesn't have to be a piece of information that's clear – maybe it's a secret, maybe it's unclear, maybe the second person doesn't understand it, maybe they do – but what's the second person's response to this thing that's given to him, in a way, that he's thankful for ... that he's sometimes thankful for ... sometimes he wants it, but in any case, he has it now. And what will his response be to it? And sometimes he doesn't have any response, except that he reads it and that he has an opinion: "oh, that's funny, that's interesting". Other times, he'll say, "no, I don't want that," and that's the problem Lúcás Ó Briain has in "An Litir". And so he has a responsibility, maybe, or does he? etc. So that's, in a way, the idea, and what arises from that? The response that you have to these words, to this information, to this lack of information ... to this mission, if it's a mission – what are the consequences of that? What are the events that will follow that action you take regarding the thing that you've been given? There's two kinds of research that I did in this case. The library research, if you like, some hours on the internet, because there are great facilities on the internet now ... between archive.org and loads of Irish now, Irish language documents that ... CELT have in Cork and the Institute for Advanced Studies and all those bodies, Royal Irish Academy ... lots of stuff available now. And another great site now, I didn't know this at the time ... I had to go to the library to look at it, but the English state papers ... – and a lot of those, of course, have a connection with Ireland – they're available on the internet. And not only the calenders, if you like, I don't know how you'd say it ... the summaries. Not only those, but the manuscripts are available now. So there's that, and then you go to the library. I suppose Trinity College's Library is the one I went to most. You look at the state papers and the history books. And another thing which is very enjoyable, and you're right, I really enjoyed it ... and that's going to Galway City itself and walking around. There's a difficulty with history books in general, and one which is based, to a certain extent, on politics, religion, even morality and so on. Say, you're presenting something to the reader who isn't familiar with the politics of the time ... the religion of the time. How do you do that? How do you bring the reader into these issues, into these debates? People discuss things in the story. You'd like for the reader to understand the discussion. But that's a conflict, I feel, is present in the historical adventure book ... that is, that the adventure book depends on adventures. So, someone walks into a room, he's hit on the head ... but he's not hit hard enough, so he wakes up ... and he escapes, etc. and there's a lot of incidents like that. But if you want to explain that he's on one side of the political argument ... and that he was hit on the head because of another political cause that's connected with religion ... and those things were extremely complicated at the time, and they're still complicated ... So, how do you find the space ... between him opening the door and whatever strikes him on the back of his head ... to explain that it's because he made a stand against Hugh O'Neill that he was hit on the head? So that's it ... I don't know ... I'm not saying that I always succeeded in doing that ... but you definitely have to give some of the background or the incidents don't mean anything ... but if you spend too much time with the explanation, the adventure becomes boring ... and maybe the reader won't continue reading, which would be disastrous. I have a silly little representation of the adventure novel. So, say this is it. So, the novelist, he provides a setting. The writer, he provides … this is the setting. It’s a kind of red colour, a bit vacant. And, then, quickly … now you can’t … that’s the description … this part. Now, very quickly, without spending too much time on it, you have to do this. You have to ... and then he goes and something else happens. And then, say, the next time it happens, he’ll be like that. I'm working on part two. I've written the first draft. There are quite a number of adjustments to be made on that and, as I said, editing and rewriting, etc. I don't know the answer to that question – it depends on how quickly I can finish this draft ... and to finish the rewrite and to get it to the point that I'm happy to send it on to the publisher ... and it depends, then, on the publisher's work schedule ... when it will be published. I'd like to say that it'll be seen this year, but at my work rate ... it doesn't have to be this year, but I hope, if it's not seen this year, then it won't be too long after that before it's available.