Maeve Higgins: Time out of place — an emigrant’s story of having a foot in both lands

Maeve Higgins talks to writer Carmel McMahon's about the influences that informed her memoir 'In Ordinary Time'

Carmel McMahon's debut book 'In Ordinary Time' was published this week. Picture: Lauren Carroll/Instagram

Carmel McMahon, whose debut book In Ordinary Time was published this week, has a strong sense of where she came from and where she has been. It took leaving and returning to Ireland for her to find that sense of place, and the sense of self that comes naturally with it.

In 1993, McMahon was one of thousands of young people who left Ireland for New York. She was just 20. Now, almost 30 years later, she has returned to live in Mayo and it’s there she completed work on this memoir. Such clarity in writing does not come easily to a writer, but as a reader this book left me with a feeling of peace.