Bobby McDonagh

Good morning, Clare.

Well, I'm inspired by the British Museum publication some years ago, History of the World in 100 Objects, which became a joint project with the BBC.

So I thought I would do something that was fresh and original and engaging, which is to describe the European Union in 12 objects.

Why 12?

Well, of course, you have to...

Constrain yourself.

Discipline and structure is a good thing.

But I chose 12 because there are 12 stars on the European flag.

And once I'd chosen that, then I worked out which 12 objects I would choose.

So they're household objects, as you've seen, like a mirror, a weighing scale, a table and so on.

Because the European Union is immensely interesting and it's not at all boring.

Before I...

Launched it at the International Dublin Book Festival last week.

I was in the green room and there was another author there and I gave her a copy of the book and she said, oh, I'm really delighted to get that because I really want to know more about Europe.

It's so boring, but it's not boring at all.

It's immensely exciting.

Both in the way it operates and in what it can achieve for Ireland.

Well, people are to an extent bored by it everywhere.

Perhaps not so much in this country because our media cover it better than other countries and because we've had several referendums.

But there's a sort of vicious circle.