Donal Ryan is down-to-earth by anyone’s standards. It is only after I leave his office that it strikes me this is why he is so popular. He experiences the world as we all do, but has an acute ability to express his thoughts and emotions in a profoundly moving manner.

If he wanted to, the Tipperary author could brag about a lot: his debut novel The Spinning Heart was longlisted for a Booker Prize, his fiction since has been lauded by critics, and he has another three-book deal to fulfil.

Despite all this, Donal remarks – with what I find to be trademark sincerity – that he is constantly in awe of others that he meets. “I met Joe O’Connor in Dublin about four years ago. I was near him at an event and I didn’t speak to him, I was so shy. I had read Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls – I just thought he was fantastic. Redemption Falls is one of those books that I think about every day. One of those books that literally comes into your mind every single day of your life, so I was kind of overawed when I met him.”

Passion

As well as his skill in portraying situations, another facet of Donal’s writing talent lies in his empathy and ability to feel emotions deeply. When he speaks about unemployment and housing, passion radiates from him and it is clear these topics affect him profoundly.

“I walk around the world half blind, I think it is kind of an OK way for a writer to be, because when I do discover things, they affect me very deeply. I grew up in a house where there was this natural socialism.

“My parents were so completely egalitarian, they had friends from all walks of life and I couldn’t see the difference between people until my teenage years. When I started to see the differences as other people saw them, I couldn’t believe it.”

Housing, he feels, is the biggest problem facing Ireland today, and the lack of action being taken in relation to the matter frustrates him: “To allow rents to skyrocket and say: ‘Well, we will have to sit back and wait for the market to sort it out, we have to wait for supply to meet demand and then the market will bring the prices down again.’ Just cap the rents for Christ sake, give people houses, like. It is horrendous.”

lecturing at UL

Donal has just taken up a post lecturing the MA in creative writing at the University of Limerick. Of late, his career choices have been in the news. In February, it was met with shock that he was returning to his civil-service job. At the time he did not anticipate this move would get such a response and explains that, for him, he was only returning to the job he loved and had taken a career break from.

“I was on a three-year career break and the question was: ‘Why are you going back?’ I said that I had to go back because I have a mortgage to pay, which is kind of euphemistic for life in general. It kind of got a bit out of hand, to be honest.”

Writing

During the interview, Donal is witty, humorous and pokes fun at himself. At one point the writer says he is completely void of ambition and that he went for promotion twice in his life, got it once and would never go through the trauma again.

He is a little more serious in making his next point. Donal says writing has been a passion of his throughout his life and, surprisingly, admits that he lacked confidence in his work – confidence eventually given to him by his wife Anne Marie.

“I lived in a flat for years, I had various girlfriends, flatmates and friends living there, but a lot of the time I was alone in this flat and I really should have been writing novel after novel there.

“I had so much time; I was a civil servant, I was single, I had no kids and all I had to do, really, in my free time was have a social life. I pretty much dedicated myself to having a social life instead of writing.

“I could have given five to 10 hours a week to writing, but when I did I just felt sick, I never had any belief. It took me years and years to generate belief and, really, Anne Marie gave it to me. She said to me: ‘This is good. Absolutely you can do this.’ Because, you kind of don’t believe your parents, you always suspect your parents’ opinion of you is born out of love and they can say you are great until the cows come home – but you won’t believe it.”

Thankfully, Anne Marie did instil confidence in Donal and allowed him, with his feet so firmly on the ground, to share his wonderful words with the world. CL