The Guardian profile: Sebastian Barry

He is a greatly admired figure and, unusually in Ireland, I haven't met anyone who doesn't like him
History and family fuse in the work of the hot tip for this year's Booker

Jo Adetunji writing in The Guardian,
Friday September 12 2008

For someone who didn't master reading or writing until the age of nine, the list of Sebastian Barry's accomplishments - author, playwright, poet, and apparently a sweet singing voice - is noteworthy.

Considered one of the new generation of Irish writers - a label he thinks "awful" - the 55-year-old is the odds-on favourite to win this year's Booker prize. It is his second Booker nomination; the first was in 2005, for his novel A Long Long Way.
For Barry, reclaiming lost family voices and using them to explore facets of Irish history and troubled pasts is a recurring theme. His latest book, The Secret Scripture, about a 100-year-old woman who has "disappeared" into a mental hospital, is entwined with Barry's own personal family narrative.

The idea for the character came from a great-aunt who was banished for transgressing Catholic codes of behaviour in Ireland and about whom Barry knew nothing, save that she was "a beauty" and "no good".

Barry's work is filled with examples of ancestry. The play Our Lady of Sligo, based on stories about his grandmother, caused a rift between Barry and his grandfather, who refused to speak to him again. Another play, Prayers of Sherkin, is partly based on a poem written to his great-grandmother about her membership of a Protestant sect, an embarrassing family secret that Barry wasn't supposed to know.

Fintan O'Toole, assistant editor of the Irish Times and former drama critic for the paper, said Barry's "incredible achievement" had been fusing "experience of family history with a very serious examination of Irish history". He added: "He explores characters and uses that to create a version of Irish history that challenges classic narrative. Barry's works - the plays and novels - are a determined attempt to complicate Irish history. Taking family - it's the most obvious way people are the same. Using the idea of identity makes for externally powerful plays. It's a very useful corrective to monolithic ideals that have existed in Ireland."

Born in Dublin to an architect father and Joan O'Hara, a well-known Irish actor, Barry grew up in a large, 19th-century house by the sea. It was an isolated household. His mother was often away performing. Other performers in his family included his aunt, a soprano singer and harpist. While his grandfather on his mother's side was a major in the British army, his paternal grandfather was a fervent nationalist.

For the full piece link here to the Guardian online.