Kevin Barry
Kevin Barry
Kevin Gerard Barrywas the first Irish republican to be executed by the British since the leaders of the Easter Rising. Barry was sentenced to death for his part in an Irish Volunteers operation which resulted in the deaths of three British soldiers...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionAuthor
CountryIreland
assault book couple false lure open quieter quite readers risky security strange
It was quite risky to open the book with one of my quieter stories; I'm kind of trying, I think, to lure readers into a false sense of security and then assault them with a couple really loud, really strange stories.
bowl super winning
Going to the Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl. That would be it.
hangover passion thinking
Before forty, you think that exhaustion is something like a long-lasting hangover. But at forty you learn all about it. Even your passions exhaust you.
except green mystic turn
We're going to turn Mystic green ... except for the river.
disastrous effect great jewish jews needed next philip point roth west work
At one point I would read nothing that was not by the great American Jews - Saul Bellow, Philip Roth - which had a disastrous effect of making me think I needed to write the next great Jewish American novel. As a ginger-haired child in the West of Ireland, that didn't work out very well, as you can imagine.
bike bit cook country cycle eat feed open pedal sing small songs
Get up, groan, write a bit, moan, eat breakfast, write some more, cycle my bike through the Sligo hills, make up country songs as I pedal along, sing them, have lunch, have a nap, groan, moan, write a small bit more, cook dinner, feed wifey, open a bottle, or several, slump, sleep.
cork wrote
I was freelancing for years in Cork and around. I also wrote freelance pieces for 'The Irish Times.'
aching bed emerge expression hear morning particular passed physical sound weariness
I remember, as a child, a particular groan that my father would sound when he crawled from the bed in the morning. I hear the same groan now, precisely, every morning, when I emerge from my own lair. It's more than an expression of physical weariness - it's an aching of the soul. Even the groans get passed down.
pragmatic side takes useful
I think journalism is useful training for a writer in the way it takes the preciousness out of the pragmatic side of the craft.
lives
Libraries are where we learn that we can live our lives through books.
cover cub days district early human life local passed remains reporter source time
In my very early days as a journalist, as a cub reporter on a local newspaper, I used to cover the district courthouse in Limerick city - all human life passed through that establishment, and my time there remains a source of inspiration.
directly morning rewrite rough three
Very first thing in the morning, I spew some rough genius directly on to the laptop. Then I have coffee and rewrite for three hours.
affinity almost critical felt generosity great lived special unified work worked
I have always felt a special affinity with V. S. Pritchett. He worked from the ear, primarily, as I do, and he was an all-rounder, writing short stories, novels, memoir, travelogue, critical biography. He lived to be almost 100, and he never stopped, and his work is unified by a great generosity of spirit.
cultural education
We want to take education and make it a cultural experience.