Jane Birkin's original Hermès Birkin bag set to be auctioned by Sotheby's
Actor and singer Jane Birkin's original
Hermès
Birkin will come to auction and lead
Sotheby's
first Fashion Icons sale on July 10th in parallel with Paris Haute Couture Week.
The bag will be available to view at Sotheby's New York from Friday, June 6th, until next Thursday, June 12th.
It will be exhibited at Sotheby's Galleries on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré from July 3rd-9th.
The French fashion house Hermès created the popular bag 40 years ago after the original Birkin had been commissioned in 1984 exclusively for and in collaboration with Jane Birkin by then Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas. A chance encounter between the two on a flight from Paris to London saw the creation of the perfect bag to suit the actor and singer's busy lifestyle.
READ MORE
The all-black leather prototype can be distinguished by seven design elements, features commercialised Birkins do not have.
These features include it's size – the original Birkin is a hybrid of two sizes with a width and height of a Birkin 35 and the depth of a Birkin 40. The metal studs on the bottom of the original bag are also smaller, the metal rings are closed, and it features gilded brass hardware.
The original Birkin's inner zipper is also different as Hermès changed supplier from Éclair to Riri, and it features a shoulder strap that was not kept on the commercialised productions. Jane Birkin also kept a nail clipper on a chain hanging from the base of the shoulder strap, inside of her bag.
Jane Birkin received her original bag in 1985 and was gifted four other Birkin bags. Whenever she was asked about the Birkin, she made sure to specify which was the original.
She kept the bag for nearly 10 years before putting it up for a charity auction on October 5th, 1994, in support of Association Solidarité Sida, a leading Aids charity in France. It was sold again at auction in 2000 and has been in private hands since. Jane Birkin
died in Paris in 2023
.
Actor and singer Jane Birkin in 1968. Photograph:Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's global head of handbags and fashion, said: 'There is no doubt that the original Birkin bag is a true one-of-a-kind. There are rare moments in the world of fashion when an object transcends trends and becomes a legend. Jane Birkin's original Birkin bag is such a moment.'
The most expensive handbag ever sold at auction is the White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28, which went for $513,040 (€450,221).
Bidding on all items from the Fashion Icons sale, including the original Birkin, opens online at Sothebys.com from June 26th until July 10th. This online only sale will feature items from other designers such as Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, John Galliano, Thierry Mugler and Azzedine Alaïa.
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Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Eileen Walsh: Women actors ‘are like avocados. You're nearly ready, nearly ready - then you're ripe, then you've gone off'
What is the longest period of time you have sat in a venue watching a piece of theatre? Three hours? Four? Maybe six for some rare double or triple bill? Well, from 4pm on Saturday, June 14th to 4pm the following day, actor Eileen Walsh will be spending 24 hours on stage at the Cork Opera House , in a one-off performance of The Second Woman. This is an Irish premiere of the show, running during Cork Midsummer Festival , and a co-production with the Cork Opera House. It was originally created in 2017 by Australians Anna Breckon and Nat Randall, and has been performed in various cities around the world, including Sydney, New York and London. The show is described as 'a durational theatre experience', which sounds about right if you are a member of the audience, but how will the person holding everything together on stage for 24 hours manage to endure in this truly epic role? 'I've done 72 hours in labour,' Walsh says matter-of-factly, as she looks through the lunch menu at Dublin's College Green Hotel. 'You stay awake when you have to.' READ MORE The place is busy and noisy, and there is a particularly loud group sitting in the banquette behind me. As we start talking, I fret a little that my recorder won't pick up Walsh's voice amid the general din of cutlery and lunchtime clamour. But later, when I play back the recording, every word of hers is in there, perfectly clear. Of course it is; it's the voice of an actor, trained to enunciate and carry; to cut through all the noise. Walsh is in an orange singlet and black trouser suit, her dark hair in a ponytail. I know what age she is (48, I've done my research) but if I didn't, I couldn't tell by looking at her enviable chameleon face. The question of age is relevant because this theme is woven through The Second Woman, and her character of Virginia. 'Her age is never mentioned,' Walsh says. 'But it's very much about age and ageing, and about how men see us women.' Walsh has been acting for all of her adult life; in theatre, film and TV. Some of her recent appearances were opposite her old friend Cillian Murphy in the adaptation of Claire Keegan's novella, Small Things Like These ; and in Chris O'Dowd's streaming series Small Town, Big Story . The question is, how is she going to prepare for her latest, and longest, performance? 'I don't know if you can prepare for it, because it is all such an unknown,' she says. 'Part of the preparing for it is a bit like letting go, and trusting in the process. Even if you had done it before, it is an unknown because it would be 100 new situations and 100 new people.' Eileen Walsh: Being a mother is so difficult because you are being constantly pulled. Photograph Nick Bradshaw Walsh will not be alone on stage. Her character Virginia plays the same scene 100 times, each lasting seven minutes, each with a different male character, all called Marty, 100 Martys in total. In Cork, as in other cities where the show has been performed, the Martys are mostly amateurs, with some professionals in the mix. Will there be anyone famous? 'I think there are surprises,' Walsh says cautiously. 'I think it will be a mix of people I have worked with before, and who are interested in the theme of the project. But I don't know, and I won't know until I see them on stage on the night – if there are any. The last thing I want is to spend 24 hours wondering if Liam Neeson is coming.' Or indeed, Cillian Murphy. Or Chris O'Dowd. The core of the lines spoken by each character in each scene stays the same, but the scene itself has the possibility of opening in various different ways. The male character, by improvising, can choose what kind of relationship he wants to have with Virginia. None will have rehearsed with Walsh, so until each scene starts, she will have no idea which back story the person playing opposite her will choose. 'The opening of the scene is a window of opportunity for them to say something along the lines of 'As your brother,' if they don't want any romantic interaction. Or, 'As your dad,' or, 'As your friend.' So they can set their own parameters if they want to. Essentially it is all about relationships.' Stage directions allow for various kinds of action, and little pieces of physical exercise and respite for the actor. 'There's an opportunity to have a dance, there's an opportunity to have a drink, there's an opportunity to sit or to eat. You get an opportunity to sit down briefly, but other than that you are on the go. It's very physical. Then there is an opportunity at the end of each scene for the participant to choose to end the interaction in a positive or negative way. As much as my character is having a monumental breakdown, the men remain main characters in their lives all the time.' Walsh does the scene seven times, with some minutes at the end of each hour to reset the stage again. 'The props might have been moved, the drink might have been spilt. You stay on stage the whole time while that is happening, and then every few hours there's a comfort break, to have a pee, or fix make-up.' In The Second Woman Eileen Walsh plays the same scene 100 times, each lasting seven minutes, each with a different male character, all called Marty, 100 Martys in total. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw When the show was performed in London at the Young Vic in 2023, Walsh queued for three hours to watch a three-hour slot. 'We had to wait for people coming out to be able to buy tickets,' she explains. Walsh had no idea that two years later, she herself would be playing this extraordinary role. How do you rehearse for such a role? 'The rehearsal process is two weeks, and by day two you are working with four actors in turn. They will give me a flavour of what to do if someone freezes on the night, or if they are going on too long.' These actors won't be appearing in the performance; they will be trying to work through some of the different possible variations of the same seven-minute scene. But no element of preparation will come close to replicating what the actual night of performance will bring. Both Breckon and Randall will be coming over to Cork from Australia for the rehearsals, and to see her 24-hour performance. The Second Woman will be Cork-born Walsh's first major stage role in Ireland since returning from Britain last October. She lived there for some 30 years, first with husband Stuart McCaffer, and then as a family with their children, Tippi and Ethel. It's impossible to see acting as a life choice in Ireland now. How do you get a mortgage? Have kids? I don't know how young actors do it — Eileen Walsh 'Tippi is 19 and was born in Edinburgh.' (She's named for Tippi Hedren, now 95, who famously appeared in Hitchcock's The Birds; mother of Melanie Griffith, grandmother of Dakota Johnson.) 'I had watched The Birds, and thought Tippi was such a lovely name,' Walsh says. 'Ethel was born in London and she is 16. The girls were partly responsible for us moving back. Tippi was really interested in coming back and maybe doing drama school here. And we found a lovely school for Ethel. It kind of made sense.' When I ask if her children will be going to see the show, Walsh says her rehearsal time in Cork coincides with Ethel's Junior Cert. She thus won't be available at home for reassuring in-person hugs with her exam student. 'Being a mother is so difficult because you are being constantly pulled.' Tippi and Ethel have a better understanding and tolerance of parents being temporarily absent for work than most of their peers, having been raised in a household with two creative parents (McCaffer is a sculptor). After being away from Ireland for 30 years, both the paucity of available housing and the cost of it was a deep shock to Walsh when they returned. 'Looking for a rental for two adults and two kids, the costs were eye watering. Not only could we not get in the door for a lot of places, but the costs involved in trying to rent a two-bedroom flat while we were looking for a house were crazy. 'The costs are crippling. Dublin is laughing in the face of London when it comes to housing prices.' They did eventually find somewhere. 'We bought a wreck of a house we are desperately trying to do up.' Walsh wonders aloud how actors in Ireland today, especially in Dublin, are managing to develop a professional career while also finding affordable housing. 'I moved out of home at 17 and it was possible to pay your rent – and also have a great time. It is just not possible any more, and I don't know how younger versions of me are coping now. 'Financially it's having the result of turning acting into a middle-class profession, because what young kids from a working class background can afford to hire rehearsal space and to live within Dublin? It's impossible to see acting as a life choice in Ireland now. How do you get a mortgage? Have kids? I don't know how young actors do it. Besides, of course, moving away from Ireland.' Eileen Walsh: 'I moved out of home at 17 and it was possible to pay your rent and also have a great time ... I don't know how younger versions of me are coping now.' Photograph: Nick Bradshaw Back in 1996, when Walsh was still a student, she was cast in the role of Runt opposite Cillian Murphy as Pig in Enda Walsh's seminal then new play, Disco Pigs. (The two Walshes are not related.) The whole thing was a sensational success for all three of them, and burnished their names brightly. When the film version was cast a few years later, Murphy remained in the role of Pig, while Elaine Cassidy was given the role of Runt. Walsh said at the time she didn't even know the auditions were being held. It's a topic that has come up over and over again in interviews during the intervening years, the What If's around that casting. It's clear that Walsh was deeply hurt. She was 'heartbroken' at the decision to not cast her in this role that she had first brought to life. One can only imagine the strain it put on her friendship with Murphy at the time, for a start. It must also have been difficult for Elaine Cassidy to keep hearing publicly how something that was nothing to do with her had so affected the morale of another fellow actor. 'I feel like I've spoken a lot about that,' Walsh says now. 'It was a lesson for me very early on. And it wasn't the first or the last time I got bad news. And just because the role was yours doesn't mean it stays yours. They are heartbreaking things to learn. Or if someone says they want you for a job and then they change their mind, that's a f***ing killer as well. It's not something that gets better with age. It just burns more, because the opportunities are better, so the burn is greater.' [ From the archive: Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh on 'Disco Pigs': 'It was the ignorance of youth' Opens in new window ] At this point in our conversation, there are a number of other expletives scattered by Walsh, as if this old and sad wound has triggered some kind of latent, but still important, emotion. We talk for a while about how ageing in the acting profession – wherever one is located in the world – frequently works against women in a way it does not against men. 'I think women are constantly being told that for men, acting is a marathon and for women it's a sprint, because you have a short time to make an impact. You're like an avocado,' she says. I ask her to repeat that last word, unsure if I've heard it correctly. 'Avocado,' she says firmly. 'You're nearly ready, nearly ready – then you're ripe, then you've gone off. That's what you're made to feel like. Do it now, while you're lovely and young and your boobs are still upright, or whatever, While you're taut. And I think that is a total f***ing lie. It might be a marathon for men, but to remain in this business as a woman, it's like a decathlon. You have to f***ing go and go and go and it takes tenaciousness and being stubborn and strident to know your values. 'Men are allowed to feel old and to be seen like a fine wine, whereas I think for women it just takes so much boldness to stay in this profession as you age. And also to play parts where you don't have to always be the f***ing mother or the disappointed wife.' Eileen Walsh as Eileen Furlong in Small Things Like These. Photograph: Enda Bowe In the last year, Walsh has appeared in three significant screen productions: Small Things Like These; Say Nothing , the Disney + adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe's book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland in which she plays Bridie Dolan, the aunt of Dolours and Marian Price who was blinded in a bomb-making accident; and Small Town, Big Story in the role of Catherine, a wheelchair user who is having a steamy affair with a colleague. In Small Things Like These, she co-stars with Oscar-winning Cillian Murphy, three decades on from Disco Pigs. 'A long circle completed,' she says. [ Small Things Like These: Cillian Murphy's performance is fiercely internalised in a film emblematic of a changing Ireland Opens in new window ] Claire Keegan's novella is set in 1985 in Co Wexford, and focuses on what happens when Bill Furlong, a fuel merchant, husband to Eileen Furlong and father of five daughters, discovers what is going on at the local convent, which is also a laundry that serves the town. Murphy – whom she calls Cill – contacted her when she was playing Elizabeth Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible at the National Theatre in London. He asked her to read the script for Small Things, which Enda Walsh had written. 'I know that Cill as producer was very intent on working with people he knows and loves and worked with previously and had kind of relationships with. The whole movie was spotted with friends and long-time collaborators.' After she had read the script, she went to meet director Tim Mielants. She and Murphy 'had to do something similar to a chemistry meet. That meeting was filmed when we worked on some scenes together.' Small Things Like These: Eileen Walsh as Eileen Furlong and Cillian Murphy as Bill Furlong. Photograph: Enda Bowe/Lionsgate The two play the married couple in the movie, Bill and Eileen Furlong. 'It's a very tired relationship. They are a long time into the marriage, and they are very used to each other, so it's a no chemistry-chemistry meet, if that makes sense.' Walsh got the part. I remind her of what she has said earlier in the interview about being fed up of playing roles of mothers and disappointed wives, which one could see as a fair description of her role of Eileen Furlong. This role, Walsh makes clear, was very different from any kind of generic cliche of playing a mother or wife. 'Playing Eileen, she wasn't a put-upon wife, but was a mirror of what an awful lot of women were like at that time in Ireland. [ Irish Times readers pick Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These as the best Irish book of the 21st century Opens in new window ] 'Claire Keegan's writing is such a gift to any actor. Claire's story behind everybody is very dark. Nobody gets an easy ride with a Claire Keegan character, and that's a real draw to any actor. She doesn't soft soap anything. For me to play that character, to play Eileen, meant I saw so much of my own mother and the women that I grew up underneath, [women] I grew up looking up to. It was a hard time. They were trying to make money stretch very hard, at a time when dinners would have to be simple and very much planned to the last slice of bread. They were not women spouting rainbows.' As it happens, Walsh's next big upcoming role after the Cork Midsummer Festival will be that of Jocasta, Oedipus's mother, in Marina Carr's new play, The Boy. It will open at the Abbey in the autumn as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. She'll play a mother in this interpretation of a Greek myth, certainly, but again, no ordinary one. Rehearsals start in July. [ From the archive: Eileen Walsh: How I reconcile motherhood with playing Medea Opens in new window ] Meanwhile, back to her modern-day Greek marathon in Cork this month. Due to the length of the show, there are a variety of ticket types the public can avail of. You can buy a ticket for the entire 24 hours, and either stay at the venue for the whole time or leave and return. On return, you may have to queue again and wait for a seat to become free. Other tickets are being sold for scheduled time slots for a number of hours. If you choose to come for the 2am slot, for instance, you'll pay a bit less for your ticket. There will also be some tickets available at the door, although it's likely you'll have to queue. There will be pop-up food and drink venues in the foyer to provide sustenance. The Cork Opera House has a capacity of 1,000 seats. If those seats keep turning over a during the 24 hours, thousands of people will have an opportunity to see this remarkable highlight of Cork Midsummer Festival: truly a night like no other this year in Ireland.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Event guide: Pulp, Beyond the Pale, Cork Midsummer and other best things to do in Ireland this week
Event of the week Pulp Tuesday, June 10th, 3Arena, Dublin, 6.30pm, from €66.75, Never say never, right? The Sheffield art rock-pop group Pulp , who, in 2022, returned from almost 10 years in exile, this week release a new album, More, their first full studio work since We Love Life, from 2001. They'll be playing some of its songs, of course, but every diehard fan will surely be waiting for the 30th-anniversary deep dive into the band's fifth album, Different Class, which features the perennial pop songs Common People and Disco 2000. Accompanying the music will be the distinctive, trim figure of Pulp's frontman, Jarvis Cocker , whose dance moves alone will be worth the ticket price. Gigs In the Meadows Saturday, June 7th, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, 1pm, €85/€75, There's nothing like an Iggy Pop show, as anyone who has seen the man play live knows. The 78-year-old's stage presence may be more subdued of late, and he no longer stage-dives – 'I'm too rickety for that now,' he says, in fairness – but he still packs a punch. Equal to the task is a support line-up that includes Slowdive, The Scratch, Gilla Band, Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Billy Nomates, the teenage blues whizz-kid Muireann Bradley and Meryl Streek. No less a festival treasure than Dr John Cooper Clarke will administer shots of poetry and jokes. The Waterboys Saturday, June 7th, 3Arena, Dublin, 6.30pm, from €46.35; Sunday, June 8th, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, 6.30pm, £45.65, There is little point in trying to categorise The Waterboys , the creative-free-for-all band fronted by Mike Scott since 1983. From postpunk and cinematic rock to genteel folk and stabs of vigorous trad, Scott has led the group with a singular yet no less widescreen vision. They'll be playing songs from their most recent album, Life, Death and Dennis Hopper, but those waiting for The Whole of the Moon won't walk away disappointed. Also, Thursday, July 10th, Live at the Marquee, Cork. Beyond The Pale in 2023. Photograph: Glen Bollard Beyond the Pale From Friday, June 13th, until Sunday, June 13th-15th, Glendalough Estate, Co Wicklow, noon, €239/€99, One of the more recent Irish music success stories is Beyond the Pale , which has shrewdly managed to make its presence felt on the festival calendar through smart programming, family-friendly areas and youngster-tailored activities, wellness events (including Ireland's first mobile sauna), arts (including public interviews, comedy, circus/burlesque, cabaret, spoken word and theatre) and food talks/tastings in the site's Beyond the Plate tent. Music acts to experience include Jon Hopkins, Róisín Murphy, Kiasmos, Soda Blonde, Fionn Regan, Death in Vegas and – yes! – Samantha Mumba. READ MORE Arts festival Cork Midsummer Festival From Friday, June 13th, until Sunday, June 22nd, various venues, times and prices, What isn't there to like, asks Lorraine Maye, head of Cork Midsummer Festival , about 'shows you won't see elsewhere in Ireland, art that will be seen for the very first time and moments that will never be repeated?' This multidisciplinary arts festival returns with a series of events created not only by Cork natives and communities but also by artists from Australia, France, Norway and Palestine. Highlights include the Helios installation (St Fin Barre's Cathedral, from Saturday, June 14th, until Saturday, June 21st), The Second Woman (Cork Opera House, Saturday, June 14th, and Sunday, June 15th), Solstice Céilí (Elizabeth Fort) and The Black Wolfe Tone (Cork Arts Theatre, Friday, June 20th, and Saturday, June 21st). Book festival John Banville will be taking part in the Dalkey Book Festival. Photograph:Dalkey Book Festival From Thursday, June 12th, until Sunday, June 15th, Dalkey, Co Dublin, various venues, times and prices, A snug coastal village featuring critical thinkers, writers and poets? Yes, please. Topics range from globalisation, the psychology of money and Adolf Hitler to the United States in 2025, AI and Roger Casement. Authors who'll be at the four-day festival include Lionel Shriver, Caroline Erskine, John Banville , Joe O'Connor, Elaine Feeney, Kevin Barry , Joseph O'Neill, Horace Panter, Martina Devlin, Roddy Doyle , James Morrissey and Colum McCann . Martin Doyle, Jennifer O'Connell, Fintan O'Toole, Finn McRedmond and Patrick Freyne are among those from The Irish Times taking part. Visual art Sam Gilliam: Sewing Fields From Friday, June 13th, until Sunday, January 25th, Irish Museum of Modern Art , Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, free, Sam Gilliam (1933-2022) is regarded as one of the most important innovators in postwar American painting. His works of unstretched lengths of painting, sewing and collage, suspended from the walls and ceilings of exhibition spaces, highlight his mastery of form and colour, and choice of material. Sewing Fields is influenced by Gilliam's time in Ireland in 1993, when, while in residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, in Co Mayo (and in collaboration with a local dressmaker), he engaged with new materials that he cut and layered into groundbreaking sculptural compositions. Film festival Bloomsday Film Festival From Wednesday, June 11th, until Monday, June 16th, James Joyce Centre/IFI, various times and prices, Run in partnership with the Bloomsday Festival and the James Joyce Centre, the Bloomsday Film Festival is inspired by 'Ireland's father of modernism'. The six-day event includes Irish and international screenings (Sunday, June 15th, is dedicated to Joycean short films), poetry readings, music performances and public interviews. Official Selection highlights include Tania Notaro's Postpartum, Pádraig G Finlay's Bloomsday Zoomplay, Gemma Creagh's Conveyance and Fernando Oikawa Garcia's If You Call Me Eveline. Still running Escaped Alone From Thursday, June 12th until Saturday, June 14th, Everyman Theatre , Cork, 7.30pm, from €19, Receiving its Irish premiere, Caryl Churchill's acclaimed 2016 play revolves around four women balancing the benefits of a good chat with a sense of impending doom. Sorcha Cusack, Anna Healy, Ruth McCabe and Deirdre Monaghan star; Annabelle Comyn directs. (Also, from Thursday, June 19th until Saturday, June 28th, Project Arts Centre, Dublin.) Book it this week Galway Film Fleadh , Galway, July 8th-13th, Yusef/Cat Stevens, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, September 18th, Tom Odell, 3Arena, Dublin, October 23rd, Metallica, Aviva Stadium, Dublin, June 19th and 21st, 2026,
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Sarah Maria Griffin: ‘I will be trying to figure out what the internet means to me for the rest of my life'
Tell us about your new novel, Eat the Ones You Love Eat the Ones You Love is a story about two women who work in a flower shop in a fictionalised Dublin shopping centre, and an orchid, who watches them with bad intentions. It's about hunger, desire and working for minimum wage. You quit writing after feeling burnt-out and trained as a florist only to be thwarted by the pandemic. How did you return to writing? I came back gradually. I made and distributed zines during the pandemic – small, low-stakes, handmade booklets that I posted to people all over the world. Their imperfections and ephemeral nature helped me feel playful about the work again. It was a slow recovery, but I think it had to be. What do flowers mean to you? I find them so interesting. I trained to be a florist because I wanted to work with people again – and in working with flowers, I learned so much about the delicate and complex nature of dealing in things that have a short, sharp self-life. No matter what is happening in people's lives, they turn to flowers. Grief, love, birth, heartbreak, apology. Flowers are always there, and therefore, florists are, too. Baby is a bloodthirsty orchid. Why are monsters a recurring theme in your writing? Baby is the narrator of the story, who terrorises and stalks the protagonists, but he is by far not the worst of them. I write about monsters because ultimately I am writing about people. The monster is the medium and the message in the work I make. I'm interested in surprises, and in play, and writing monsters that live alongside people is part of that. In my forthcoming work, and my previous work, there are monsters too. They're subtly interconnected narratively – a kind of pantheon. READ MORE Was the horror comedy musical Little Shop of Horrors an influence? What this book and Little Shop have in common is a talking plant, and a story about desperation for social mobility. And a shop. So the musical is not necessarily the nexus of the work, but it is part of the recipe, for sure. They are cousins, not sisters. You've described science fiction as 'drag, the costume you put on to tell the truth' I find that I can speak authentically about my experience in the world when I am using the glitter and costume of speculative fiction, or sci-fi, or horror. It's like finding a pair of shoes that make you walk taller. Is it fair to say you have an appalled fascination for the internet and technology? It is: I love the internet, I grew up there – but that doesn't mean I'm not critical of it, or deeply aware that it is a kind of dangerous landscape to give your heart over to. I will be trying to figure out what the internet means to me for the rest of my life. What or who made you a writer? Reading, and playing video games as a child. I was a kind of an escapist, and writing felt to me like the road out of reality. Your debut Spare & Found Parts is 'a love letter to Dublin'. Tell us more. Spare and Found Parts is set in a Dublin of the near future, just post-apocalypse. The Dublin there is ruined, but still undeniably itself. I wrote it while living abroad, this sort of love song to a home I couldn't quite get back to. Other Words for Smoke won the Teen & YA Irish Book Award in 2019. What was it about? The title arose from a Google search! The most common search term I had during the writing of that work was other words for smoke, because it is a book about a house fire. It is about 2½ generations of women in a house that has a monster living in it – it is also about the legacy of the Magdalene laundries and the shadow they left behind. It is a story about the cost of escape. You wrote about your emigrant experience in San Francisco for The Irish Times, which resulted in a book of essays, Not Lost Yes, a long time ago now. It is a snapshot of a single year in my life, told through essays and fragments. Though it is very far from where I am now, I can still recognise what my voice would become, from there. You write about video games for the Guardian I do – it is one of the greatest joys of my professional life. I believe video games need good, comprehensive, critical coverage in the press as they make up the largest sector in the entertainment industry, and it is a privilege to get to discuss them. I cover indies, weird games, art games – and I have a great time doing it. You make zines, more than 60 at the last count. Tell us about them I made zines at different points in my writing career, but really launched into them during the pandemic. They are simple paper booklets that I mailed out to readers week on week. I wrote pandemic diaries, but I also wrote about silly things, things that interest me, extended jokes. They are intimate, and low-stakes. They are cheap to make, cheap to distribute, and bring people a tactile connection that I think is sorely missing in the age of the internet. They changed my life. How important are libraries to you, including the National Library, as places to work and learn? I believe libraries are the most important public buildings we have. They serve a huge purpose to the community at large – a space you can be in, reading, without paying for it. There is almost no other indoor place you can just be in without spending money. They are truly humanitarian spaces. The National Library is my favourite building in the world: I wrote much of my next novel there, under the green dome, in the silence. I think there is something sacred about it. So many people thinking, throughout history and time, all under one roof. It's hard not to feel the power of it. Which projects are you working on? I am currently in edits on my 2026 novel, and finishing a horror screenplay which was funded by Screen Ireland last year. I'm also sneakily finishing another novel, too. Have you made a literary pilgrimage? I recently went to see the Log Lady's Log, from Twin Peaks, in Portland. That felt like a creative summit, for me. A proximity to something very special. What is the best writing advice you have heard? Finish the thing. It's spoken so often by so many other writers, and it helps to be reminded to just finish it. David Lynch in 2014. Photograph: Williams + Hirakawa/The New York Times Who do you admire the most? I try not to do big admiration or big heroes, but David Lynch was a beacon for me. You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish? I would invoke free, State-funded childcare for everyone – and, both parents get a full year of paid leave. Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend? Book: Sky Daddy by Kate Folk; Film: A Real Pain ; Podcast: Maintenance Phase Which public event affected you most? Like most others here in Ireland, my eyes are on Gaza every day. The most remarkable place you have visited? The Tower of the Sun, in Osaka. Your most treasured possession? My great-grandmother's wedding ring. What is the most beautiful book that you own? Leonora Carrington's book of tarot. Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party? Caroline O'Donoghue and Maeve Binchy. The three of us have a lot to talk about. The best and worst things about where you live? The best thing is that I live in walking distance of the Botanic Gardens. The worst is that I didn't move here years ago. What is your favourite quotation? 'If your nerve deny you, go above your nerve.' Our gal Emily Dickinson. Who is your favourite fictional character? The entire cast of Succession. A book to make me laugh? For me it will always come back to Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling, by Sarah Breen and Emer McLysaght. A book that might move me to tears? Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. Eat the Ones You Love is published by Titan Books
