Irvine Welsh: 'I'm doing a biopic of James Connolly and his early years'
Irvine Welsh at the premiere of autobiographical documentary Reality is Not Enough.
Irvine Welsh came to fame when his tale of Edinburgh drug addicts became a pop culture phenomenon in 1993, and is now turning his attention to one of Ireland’s great revolutionary heroes.
"I'm doing a biopic of James Connolly and his early years," says the author of the Scottish-born hero of 1916. "It will include his time as the Hibs kit boy in the Cowgate [street in Edinburgh known as Little Ireland] as well as his time in America and Ireland. It's such a great story and he's a fascinating character."
While Connolly is honoured with statues and monuments in Belfast, Dublin, Chicago, and New York State, the city of his birth has left him in a cultural dead zone. Like Connolly, Welsh is a fervent Hibernian FC supporter, also born in Edinburgh. Both men were shaped by the same socialist, working-class politics and lived in the cities of Dublin and Chicago.
The writer, who helped Danny Boyle realise the 1996 film version of has always had a complicated relationship with his hometown. Aside from a begrudging, out-of-the-road plaque, Welsh suggests more needs to be done to recognise Connolly.
"That kind of thing tells you so much about Edinburgh and the need to subvert, subjugate, and repress all aspects of working-class culture in this town. It's always muted, apologised for, and marginalised. A lot of it is about Glasgow embracing that culture; it's the narcissism of small differences.
“They are both cities that are surrounded by schemes and inner cities with one or two nice suburbs flung in. One has to define itself in the opposite of the other, and Edinburgh has done it successfully, but it's to the detriment of the working-class people that live in the city".
Welsh recently returned to characters Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud Murphy, and Franco Begbie for his latest novel, It's the fifth to feature the recurring, or as Welsh suggests, "archetypal" characters. The sequel finds them trading smack dens in Leith for the international rave culture of the late 1980s and early ’90s.
The Scottish capital also hosted the recent premiere of a new autobiographical film, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The novelist turns 67 the day after the film goes on general release.
Reflecting on his life, Welsh reveals a trio of near-death experiences: an electric shock; a near-drowning experience, where he was rescued from a swimming pool by a vodka promotions model; and a bus crash on his way to a Dundee United v Hibs match, where one passenger died.
In relation to the crash, he says, "I always get suspicious when folk say: 'That changed my life!' What happens is you experience it and think: 'It's something I need to get through' and then it goes through your subconscious and manifests in different ways and at different times. Any event that becomes part of you in some way, especially if you are a writer doing creative stuff, it comes out."
Altered states have been a constant in Welsh's life and work; under medical supervision, he experienced the psychedelic drug DMT, which is also captured in the film.
Heroin and Hibs were two aspects of local life that were explored in He explains that he was never going to be a Pat Stanton or an Iggy Pop, one a Hibs hero, the other a rock’n'roll legend. Both Stanton and Pop have become friends, as well as appearing in Welsh's work.
"It was fabulous to see Pat getting honoured [with a new stand]. As a kid you see someone like that and you idolise them, you don't conceive you can be pals or become part of that person's life and they become part of yours; that's a strange thing.
“The thing with Iggy is that he's my neighbour in Miami [where Welsh lives between January and March], which is mind-blowing. I'm not only his pal; he gave me so much in terms of how I look at the world and how I do art, for want of a better term.”
Welsh is chuffed he had a hand in relaunching his music hero’s career when and featured on the soundtrack. “I had this great idea sitting in my bedroom in Muirhouse while listening to [Stooges album], covered in plooks [spots]. Who would have thought I would have driven him up to new heights? It's fucking mental and I'm glad I was able to pay back some of the things he gave me."
Iggy Pop suggested Welsh should have met David Bowie when he had the chance. Welsh says he actually turned down the opportunity twice because he never wanted to damage his perception of another lifelong inspiration.
"Bowie was an art school for working-class kids," he says. "For stars at that time, he was unusual in that he shared his references with everybody. He turned people onto soul music, then dance music with Kraftwerk and the Berlin era. I got into New York punk through him. He was really into telling people about his literary influences like Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs and all the American beat writers, he was such a generous personae."
As a teenager growing up in Muirhouse, Welsh would dress up as a glam rocker, heavily influenced by Bowie, for nights out at the weekend. "The reaction today is a bit like when kids tell their parents they are trapped in the wrong body," he suggests. "We would put on eyeliner, make-up, and a big gold star on our forehead, and our parents' reaction would be 'How have we gone so wrong here?' kind of thing.
“When you are a teenager, that's exactly the reaction you want. I remember my mate Colin's dad called us 'two wee poofs' when we were going out to a disco up the town. He was really upset."
During the biographical film, we find Welsh back in Muirhouse playing football with boyhood friends, including Colin. He discusses being arrested as a kid for kicking a ball around. It would shape his politics, and he discusses a continued desire for an independent Scotland free of "London rule", "the aristocracy", "the Royal family", and England's public schools.
During the 1980s, Muirhouse would become blighted by crime, heroin, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Much like today, Welsh began to flit between Edinburgh and London, the two cities where he continues to spend most of his time.
It's been a celebratory summer; aside from book and film releases, the Oasis Live '25 shows at Murrayfield also gave him a nod. "It was so cool of them to play [featured in Trainspotting] as the intro. I was thinking, 'this is something to do with me, this is great', but where I was in the stadium, everybody started nudging and pointing at me. I was there incognito, I thought, ‘this is nuts’. I was chatting to Noel about how brilliant the gigs were, right from to the fireworks at the end, it was fabulous. He was really pleased."
Perhaps the icing on the cake was Noel Gallagher's 'Erin Go Bragh' flag, honouring Noel and Liam's Irish roots, but it's also the motto of Hibernian, who are celebrating their 150th year during the 2025/26 season. "That was a nice gesture, especially at that end of town," he says in relation to the proximity to rivals Hearts at Tynecastle.
Across the M8 in Glasgow, there is a football crisis brewing at the moment. "Money has fucked everyone," opines Welsh. He traces much of it back to a key moment when Hibs manager Jock Stein moved to Celtic.
"I wish Stein had stayed a few years longer at Hibs; we would have won the league and got to a certain level. Scottish football would have been much more interesting. Stein was a genius; he and Alex Ferguson are the two greatest managers. Ferguson made it more interesting with St Mirren, and then he did it more emphatically with Aberdeen. You would have had a bigger Hibs and Hearts. I think Celtic and Rangers would have been slightly smaller clubs, but would have been more capable in Europe than they are now."
- Reality Is Not Enough is released on September 26
