Galway’s Writer in Residence, Michael O’Loughlin,

You are writer in residence for the year. How do you hope the post will contribute to your writing and to you personally?

Being writer in residence for me has a number of positive aspects. It gives me time to concentrate on my own work, rather than spending time teaching or translating for example. From the writer’s point of view that’s the main thing. But being in Galway has already started to have effects I didn’t expect. Although I have lived in a lot of places I never lived outside Dublin in Ireland. That has definitely changed my perspective. I’m beginning to understand, for example, the hostility people outside Dublin often feel for the Dublin-based media. I’m based in the Ballybane resource centre, and now when I hear the DART accent on the radio I realise how bizarre and distant Dublin can seem. The fact is, people in Dublin don’t care about the issues in places like Galway. They tend to assume that everywhere is like Dublin. On the other hand, there often seems to be an umbilical connection between D4 and parts of Galway!

You have lived abroad. Do you think it helps you develop a new perspective on being Irish and on life in general?

I suppose I’ve lived most of my adult life abroad, mainly in Amsterdam. It certainly gives you a different perspective on being Irish. At a certain stage you realise that you have stopped being Irish and become something else, so when you go back to Ireland will always be the ‘returned yank’, at a slight angle to the rest of society, because you have developed too much perspective. You become too objective. It can be both a good and bad thing.

What do you hope to accomplish as writer in residence in Galway?

Well, in a sense the writer in residence’s job is simply to be here! There are plenty of writers resident in Galway already, so I would hope that the writer in residence contributes something that is different. In my own case, I think my background abroad has made me acutely aware of other literatures and cultures, and sensitive to the experience of being an outsider in society. I hope that gives me a different perspective. I see myself as a resource for people to exploit: so exploit me! Related to this is the special programme I have developed with James Harrold, the City Arts Officer. I am very interested in immigration and emigration and cultural clashes. I want to gather the stories from the immigrant community and explore their experience. We see these people in our midst, we work with them, live with them, yet have very little idea of how they see us, and how they experience emigration. It’s a complex project, but we’re working hard on it and hope to publish all these stories somewhere down the line. In addition I’m doing thing like giving talks in the libraries on European writers, and I have been giving classes to aspiring writers. I’m available 24/7!

What do you think of the writing scene in Galway? Are there too many poets here?

The writing scene in Galway is incredibly vibrant and diverse. I think there are more poetry readings here than in Dublin. People like Kevin Higgins, Fred Johnson and John Walsh are all doing great work in organizing poetry events, and there’s the publishing scene, including Crannog! I’ve just had a great time in Curt, which is easily the best literary festival in Ireland.

Besides poetry, you have written short stories, criticism and done translations. Is it important to be diverse?

I have written in a lot of different media, screenplays, poetry, criticism, and translation. Each has its own particular discipline obviously, but I tend deep down to regard it all as aspects of one particular personal quest.

And the future? What are you working on? Do you plan to stay in Ireland?

At the moment I’m concentrating on finishing a poetry collection, which is just about done. In addition I have completed a new screenplay, my first to be set in Ireland, and am now about to start trying to get it made. So that’s the next 5 years accounted for!