Cork born Joseph O'Neill is writing off his own bat
THERE’S a resonant detail on the morning Joseph O’Neill picks up the phone to have a chat. He says he’s a little slow off the mark because he was up late the evening before, watching Ireland collect another scalp at the Cricket World Cup.
For O’Neill cricket is a long-standing passion, and tied pretty closely to his writing, which will come as no surprise to readers of his break-out novel, Netherland. His links to Cork are equally deep, given the evidence of Blood-Dark Track, the non-fiction book he published before Netherland about his two grandfathers – one from Cork, James O’Neill, and one who lived in Turkey, Joseph Dakad.
For many readers that was their introduction to O’Neill: how did he come to write that book?
“I’d had my attention drawn to the fact that both of my grandfathers, neither of whom I’d known, were interned during the war and that this was an unusual turn of events.
“When you’re in a family yourself you don’t have the sense of what’s interesting, what’s a story within that family, even though obviously I’m interested in stories, that’s my thing.
“My grandfathers were different - one was a radical activist — the one who was in the IRA — and the other one was a sort of radical bystander. They were practically always victims of circumstances, and that was very interesting to me in that book, to understand those political circumstances and how they drove them to do what they did.
“Once I got interested in the story, however, I realised that it was the political history of a family, and what it meant to that generation in particular – that they were at the mercy of history, and what that means, to be in that situation. Obviously we have a different perspective.”
Perspective and context are significant for O’Neill. For instance, memories of writing Blood-Dark Track come with a particular setting.
“The other thing about that book is that when I wrote it Ireland — and other places as well, but particularly Ireland — was in the middle of the boom.
“The west was booming generally, and we were removed from the darker moments of history, which that generation — my grandfathers’ generation — wasn’t. I was interested in exploring that.
“And of course, as soon as I published it 9/11 happened and the global economy collapsed a few years after that. Wars began to occur and we had, as a consequence of those wars, Islamic military operations began, so a good deal has changed since I wrote that book, which was in a moment of extraordinary historical tranquility. That was where I was when I embarked on the book.”
That reference to 9/11 underlines the end of that moment of tranquility, of course. Was it the event to remind us that we, no more than O’Neill’s grandfathers, remain at the mercy of global events?
“Well, I’m part of the school of thought which believes that 9/11 wasn’t such a big deal,” says O’Neill.
“By that I mean while it was an enormous shock, and horrible – in those terms it was a big deal, obviously, a mass murder – but I don’t think it was an existential moment for the West.
“The fact is that certain politicians took advantage of the moment in the United States, in particular, to pursue their own agendas... many more people died in Iraq than died in New York City, or in London on 7/7.
“The thing is that after 9/11 — which is what Netherland is about — we were almost put into this position, the man or woman in the street, particularly in New York, of having to think about what this meant, how to behave, to think of what should be done about it.
“And that test was massively failed because most people, particularly the media, didn’t challenge this need to invade Iraq.
“The opportunity was taken to invade Iraq with no interest in the reasons for doing so, or in trumped-up reasons, and even to this day it’s almost rude to face the reality of what happened — that there was a horrifying event which was used, very cynically, to go to fight a war in Iraq.”
His reference to Netherland brings us in a neat circle back to the start of the conversation, and the game which kept him glued to the television into the small hours.
When James Wood of The New Yorker magazine called it “one of the most remarkable post-colonial books I have ever read”, he dwelt in some detail on the use of cricket in the book.
“It was the only idea I had at the time, I was thinking about what I wanted to write about and I felt I could write a story about New York cricket that nobody else could tell.
“I also understood, as soon as I started thinking about it, that it would mean something and resonate in all sorts of ways throughout the stories.
“And Irish writing has quite a history with cricket, of course. There are cricket scenes in A Portrait of the Artist which were very meaningful to me when I read it as a sixteen-year-old, that was a eureka moment – the way the ‘pick, pack, pock’ of the cricket ball on the bats was described made me understand a lot about language, about how language could have power.
“I remember vividly reading those scenes – and, of course, it was all set in the Mardyke in Cork.”
O’Neill’s latest novel, The Dog, was released in 2014, but he’s already moving onto his next challenge.
“When I was a young writer I’d just sit down and write 500 words a day, that’d be my writing for the day. And I’d go on until I got to the end of the story, I’d have a general idea.
“I changed, though, and I tried to get a little more thoughtful about it. I usually have some conceptual thing, one big idea, when I’m trying to write a book.
“For instance, I’m trying to write a book at the moment . . . I have a French cousin who’s a soccer agent, and he deals with a lot of West African players.
“That seems like a big story to me, but after that I’m just dreaming it up. I don’t have a clue where I’m going.”
- Joseph O’Neill appears at Cork World Book Fest 2015 on Wednesday, April 22, at Cork City Library; and at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature on Saturday, April 25, Town Hall Theatre Galway. His latest novel, The Dog, is published by Fourth Estate
Cork World Book Fest: other highlights
Cork City Libary, April 21
Liadain O’Donovan, daughter of Frank O’Connor, is among the speakers at one of several events looking at censorship in Ireland.
City Library, April 24
Michael Carroll (2000AD) and Eoin Coveney (Judge Dredd) launch the latest publication from Cork Comic Creator’s Group.
Triskel Christchurch, April 24
Concentration camp survivor Tomi Reichenthal reads from his memoir of Belsen. Evelyn Conlon also reads from Not the Same Sky, about Irish famine orphan girls shipped to Australia
Triskel, April 25
The celebrated Irish poet (pictured left) reads from his new collection.
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