Joseph O'Connor on writing, music, and being a 'Gregorian chant geek'

Joseph O’Connor is a master of many writing genres but he is also deeply musical, as his latest novel and an upcoming celebration of it in the central character’s hometown Killarney illustrate. He spoke to Clodagh Finn

Joseph O'Connor outside the room, at the end of his garden, where he writes. Pic: Moya Nolan

It is unexpected, and rather beautiful, to hear author Joseph O’Connor talk about sacred music with such deep admiration that he playfully refers to himself as a “Gregorian chant geek”.

He fell in love with it, he says, when he discovered it lulled his eldest son, James, now 23, to sleep as a baby. His “very, very curious and alert” first-born did not like to sleep, but late one evening he nodded off after his father happened upon Gregorian chant on the radio.