Madeleine D'Arcy: Cork writer inspired by her census work for new collection of stories

The Macroom native will be taking part in Cork Short Story Festival in advance of launching her latest book

Fri, 08 Oct, 2021 - 08:30

Colette Sheridan

A snapshot of life in a small urban environment is how award-winning writer, Madeleine D'Arcy describes her new collection of short stories, Liberty Terrace.

The Macroom native, who lives in Cork city, says the original premise of the collection changed. Having worked as a census enumerator in 2016, D'Arcy wanted her book to come out in April of this year when the next census was scheduled to be carried out. She found the part-time job time-consuming and difficult with some people very suspicious about filling out a government form and others either never at home or just not answering the door.

"I consoled myself by thinking that maybe some time in the future, my census experience would be fodder for fiction," says D'Arcy. But Covid-19 meant that the 2021 census was cancelled.

However, in keeping with her original plan, some of the characters in Liberty Terrace appear in more than one story. Apart from one character, all of the protagonists live in the fictional Cork terrace. They include a woman granted refugee status, a squatter taken by surprise, a boy who is on the autistic spectrum, a woman with multiple sclerosis who wants to die and an egotistical has-been musician who is put up for a week in the penthouse of the Elysian apartment block.

This latter story is satirical and very funny. As writer, Kevin Barry says of the collection: "These are fizzing dark comedies with deadly serious intent from a natural storyteller."

D'Arcy, winner of the Hennessy Literary Award for First Fiction and the overall Hennessy Award for New Irish Writer in 2010, is under no illusions about 'making it' in the literary world. A former solicitor who worked in a legal practice in London for 13 years, she came to writing relatively late in life, publishing her debut collection, Waiting for the Bullet, in 2014.

She believes older writers are treated badly, both male and female. "Once you're no longer flavour of the month or you've had a few novels published but they're not bestsellers, you tend to be dropped," she says.

"The talk at the moment is that agents and publishers are snapping up anyone they think is the next Sally Rooney. Speaking to an older and very experienced woman writer recently, her view is that the business can be quite cruel. There's the possibility that these young women will be dropped if they don't produce the goods."

D'Arcy, who has recently completed her first novel, says that something very similar happens in her fictional book. The novel is about four young people who leave Cork for London in the late 1970s/early '80s. Two of the characters are in bands.

"A lot of Irish bands were signed back then for very little money to big London labels and were subsequently dropped when they didn't deliver. That's probably always the case. But what I think is very important is taking care of the mental health of young people. The older I get, the more I realise that young talent of all kinds is snapped up but not taken care of. These people are dropped when they're not making money.

"If you're in the limelight as a young person, it's actually very dangerous and debilitating if things don't work out. From the Amy Winehouses and Kurt Cobains of this world to the young writer who gets a lot of attention, in a few years their star has waned. I know people talk about mental health a lot more now. But I'm not sure if the people who talk most about it on social media are actually the ones who need help rather than the people who suffer in silence."

Danielle McLaughlin and Madeleine D'Arcy co-host Fiction at the Friary in Cork.

D'Arcy says that her novel, while fictional, draws on her own experiences in London. "None of the characters is a mini-me, but one of them has done law and goes to London to work as a solicitor. Another character has a difficult and deprived background. She moves to London and works as a prostitute."

D'Arcy and fellow writer Danielle McLaughlin are the curators of Fiction at the Friary, a free monthly fiction event in Cork since 2017. "One of the reasons we set it up is because we're interested in inclusivity, egalitarianism and encouraging people who might be intimidated [by the literary world] and male-dominated institutions like the Abbey and all the rest of it. All that is changing though."

Madeleine D'Arcy (and Deirdre Sullivan) will be in conversation with Alannah Hopkin at the Cork Short Story Festival on October 15 at 7pm online. www.corkshortstory.net.
D'Arcy's collection, Liberty Terrace, published by Doire Press, will be launched at Cork City Library on October 28.

Cork Short Story Festival highlights

Cork Short Story Festival takes place online (with the exception of the opening event with Cónal Creedon), from Tuesday, October 12 to Saturday, October 16. For tickets and more details see http://www.corkshortstory.net/

Tuesday, October 12

7pm, Cónal Creedon in conversation with Tina Pisco – launch of Pancho and Lefty Ride Again, in person at Waterstones

9pm, Evelyn Conlon & Adrian Duncan in conversation with Alannah Hopkin