Beginner’s Pluck: Award-winning short story writer Roisin Maguire

'Night Swimmers' is a wonderful evocation of a small community peopled by brilliantly drawn characters

Roisín Maguire is an award-winning writer of short fiction and holds an MA in Creative Writing from Queens University in Belfast. Picture: Muiread Kelly 

When she was eight, Roisin’s teacher said she would be a writer.

“I was sure I’d marry him when I grew up,” she says.

She didn’t — but became a primary school teacher for 10 years.

“I left for a year, because my second child contracted cancer. He’s fine now.”

She then joined the family business, as a sales executive.

Meanwhile, she wrote short stories, and won several awards, including the Seamus Dunne and Irish News Awards.

And I was shortlisted for the Hennessy. But I stopped writing when my fourth child was born.

In 2018, leaving the family business, Roisin took an MA in creative writing, and afterwards, after a year’s training as a midwife, she moved into techno birthing, becoming a coach and a doula. That led to her training in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy.

“I’m really busy,” she says.

Roisin swims every day.

Meanwhile, during the pandemic, Roisin started to write Night Swimmers, finishing it in five months. She has also self-published a novel called Sisters.

Who is Roisin Maguire?

Date/ place of birth: 1970/ Newry, Co Down.

Education: St Mary’s Downpatrick. Queen’s University, Belfast, English. “During my degree I worked as a bouncer.” MA in creative writing.

Home: Ballyhornan on the east coast of County Down.

Family: Husband Mark, four children and one granddaughter; three budgies: Frankie, Rocco, and Rio.

The day job: Hypnotherapist.

In another life: A keen swimmer — Roisin swims every day, she volunteers as a scuba-diving instructor. “I’d do it for a living, but in warm water.”

Favourite writers: Sebastian Barry; Niall Williams; Maggie O’Farrell; Louise Kennedy; Georgette Heyer; Elizabeth Strout.

Second book: “I have five or six summaries of novels — I haven’t picked one yet.”

Top tip: “Do it. Don’t wash the windows. Don’t wash the dog.”

The debut

Night Swimmers

Serpent’s Tail, €20.06/ Kindle, €8.03

Evan arrives in coastal Ballybrady after the death of his baby daughter has broken his marriage.

Grieving, he locks horns with Grace, a feisty loner, who spends her days swimming, fishing, and quilting.

When lockdown hits, Evan’s troubled young son comes to stay, and the three are drawn together.

The verdict: A wonderful evocation of a small community peopled by brilliantly drawn characters; their kindness to each other unites them.

I adored it.