Colin Sheridan: Time we were aware normal people suffer invisible pain

It was the cruellest of coincidences that Normal People was filmed and shot in Sligo, a county and community crippled with sadness earlier this year at the loss of one of their most beloved young sons, Red Óg Murphy.

NORMAL PEOPLE: Paul Mescal in action as Connell. Pic: Enda Bowe

In her portrayal of two young Irish people dealing with the excruciating transition from teenage years to adulthood, novelist Sally Rooney caught the world's attention. Her second book, Normal People, sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and the TV adaptation became a phenomenon. It seems a lifetime ago, but in the earliest lockdown days of Coronavirus, the trials and tribulations of Connell and Marianne, two conflicted friends and lovers from the West of Ireland, dominated not just the pop-cultural discourse, but the conversation around a myriad of social issues that were heretofore verboten in Irish homes. 

Once we ceased our sniggering about “scenes of a sexual nature”, we were left with a constructive study on consent, psychological control, and abuse. We also had a portrait of a young man dealing with the demons rampant in his own head, obscured from everyone else.