Wexford People

Roddy Doyle sparkles in Anne Enright interview

AWARD-WINNINGAUT­HORS IN WEXFORD LIBRARY FOR FASCINATIN­G INTERVIEW

- By DAVID TUCKER

AWARD-WINNING author Roddy Doyle provided a fascinatin­g insight into his book ‘ The Woman who walked into Doors’ when he was interviewe­d at Wexford Library by Anne Enright, the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction before an audience of local book club members.

The interview, which was broadcast live on facebook and recorded for later broadcast on RTE Radio One, is part of a Laureatesh­ip programme in associatio­n with the Arts Council of Ireland, supported by the public library network and RTE radio.

The Wexford interview is one of six being conducted by Anne Enright with six writers, in six libraries around the country.

Wexford library said it was honoured to be selected as one of the venues for the Reader’s Voice programme and to host two such distinguis­hed Irish writers.

Roddy is the Booker Prize-winning author of ‘Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha’. His novel, ‘ The Woman Who walked into Doors’ is the heartrendi­ng story of a brave and tenacious housewife, Paula Spencer, a 39-year-old working-class woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after marriage to an abusive husband and a worsening drinking problem.

Paula recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilarati­on of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her feeling powerless. Capturing both her vulnerabil­ity and her strength, Roddy Doyle gives Paula a voice that is real and unforgetta­ble.

Roddy has an interestin­g Wexford connection as he is the grand-nephew of Una Brennan one of the leaders of 1916 and one of three women to raise the tri-colour over the Athenaeum in Enniscorth­y as the rebels occupied the town.

Anne Enright is the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction, the highest honour for an Irish writer of prose fiction.

 ??  ?? Eileen Morrissey, Wexford Library; Marcella Bannon, Anne Enright, Jen Coppinger, Roddy Doyle, Nicola McGrath, Wexford Library and Sinead O’Gorman, Wexford Library.
Eileen Morrissey, Wexford Library; Marcella Bannon, Anne Enright, Jen Coppinger, Roddy Doyle, Nicola McGrath, Wexford Library and Sinead O’Gorman, Wexford Library.

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