Thomas McCarthy: 'Writing is a vocation — it’s not something you can plan'

The Cork-based writer has published a book of his literary criticism through the decades.

Mon, 09 Sep, 2024 - 21:30

Colette Sheridan

Cork-based poet and critic Thomas McCarthy reckons he’s probably a kindly reviewer. "I don’t think that’s a limitation because I make up for the kindliness with precise information of what I’m reviewing,” says the Waterford-born scribe who has just published Questioning Ireland, a collection of his literary criticism over fifty years.

McCarthy has noted incredible changes in the literary world in this country in the last four decades. “The most fundamental and thrilling change has been the development of women’s writing. It’s a huge late flowering,” he says.

He cites the most important poets coming through that period as Paula Meehan, Eavan Boland, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. “There are amazing new poets like Doireann Ní Ghriofa, Leanne O’Sullivan and Molly Twomey, all very interesting characters.”

While he admits that his novel reading is a little behind, McCarthy acknowledges that there is a strong crop of Irish novelists including Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan and John Banville.

“I sometimes think both Claire Keegan and John Banville are actually poets working in prose. Claire Keegan is stunning. I was in New York in December giving a reading. I was walking by the Riverside Library and there was a big poster from the book club of that library saying they were doing a new Claire Keegan novel. I just thought it was fantastic that we have somebody who’s so well known here who is also known far away.”

McCarthy says Sara Baume is another very interesting writer. “There are all these amazing talents; it’s almost frightening.”

He says he hasn’t read the novels of Sally Rooney, but admires what she's achieved. Maeve Binchy was another writer that McCarthy admired, even though her work isn’t in the more rarefied literary genre. “She was a no-holds barred entertainer. She meant to entertain. She was a great storyteller and she was lovely. Her attitude to writing and to life was so fabulous. In fact, she reminds me of Molly Keane who loved life as well; she loved glamour and parties and dinners.” (McCarthy is a big fan of Keane’s writing which abides by the rule to only write about what you know “or what you passionately wish to possess.”)

McCarthy, who always comes across as both thoughtful and cheerful, believes that you can choose to love life. “It’s a decision you have to make. Molly Keane had tragedy in her life. Her beautiful young husband was only thirty-six when he died after an operation. She could have chosen a life of absolute negativity, but she fought it. I was sixteen when I first met her. I was gardening in Glenshelane House [in County Waterford] when she came into the garden.”

With new names being constantly added to the crop of contemporary writers, it’s easy to forget the talent that shone in previous decades. McCarthy believes that the poet, Paul Durcan, is the “most neglected” writer in Ireland.

“People say everybody knows about him but nobody reads him carefully enough. His two great books, Going Home to Russia and Berlin Café Wall, are incredible collections of poetry which I think are among the best published since Yeats, really. Paul was a great public performer. I think sometimes people think of him as just a performer, and so dramatic. But there’s great depth in his poetry and a kind of unique music to what he does. Having your own personal music is the real signature of a real poet.”

These days, McCarthy says there’s a professionalism and seriousness about writing that was never there before. Does it seem as if being a writer is a valid career choice? “Yeah, but maybe that’s a dangerous thing because first and foremost, writing is a vocation. It’s an accident. It’s not something you can plan. I’m all in favour of those post-graduate degrees and workshops in creative writing. They will give young adults the chance to take two years out of their lives just to concentrate on their work. At the end of it, they’ll know whether they can do it or not. That’s the most important function of Masters degrees in writing.”

McCarthy is currently re-reading the Greek poet, CP Cavafy. “I first read him when I was at college fifty years ago. And I’m also utterly immersed in the Latin poet Ausonius, who lived during the late Roman Empire in Gaul. He wrote brilliantly about very ordinary things like his house and his farm. He lived to be nearly 100. I’m going around like a zombie, as if I’m living in the fourth century AD!”