Interview with Dermot Bolger

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I interviewed Dermot Bolger for the Sunday Business Post Magazine, and the piece appears today. The occasion is the arrival of Bolger’s new novel, An Ark of Light (New Island). Here’s a short excerpt from the interview:

In 1977, Dermot Bolger was a young poet in need of friendship and recognition. His mother had died of a cerebral haemorrhage when he was 10. His father, a merchant seaman, was often away in long voyages. Alone in his family’s house in Finglas, Bolger stayed awake until the small hours, banging out poems on a manual typewriter, using carbon paper when he couldn’t afford a fresh ribbon. He was 18 and unemployed. A literary career seemed scarcely possible.

Then a letter from a stranger arrived, inviting Bolger to stay the night in a caravan parked outside the village of Turlough, in Co. Mayo. The sender had seen Bolger’s name in the Irish Press. Packing up his poems, Bolger hitchhiked to Mayo and found his way to the caravan (which was known, he later learned, as the Ark). It was the home of Sheila Fitzgerald, who would become one of the most important figures in Bolger’s life. “How marvellous you’re here!” Sheila cried, as she opened the door. “Isn’t life exciting?”