Maggie O’Farrell

I did.

Yes, I did.

I do.

I suppose so.

Yeah, I don't ever, I hope nobody feels like I'm trespassing on anyone else's beliefs or, but it just felt, it just, it was a story that just wouldn't go away.

And I don't know who else would have written about my great-great-grandfather.

It is based in your family history, so it does seem legitimate.

I remember I was worried about it.

I was talking to my husband and he said, to be honest, he said, you've got more right to write this than you have about 16th century England or Renaissance Florence.

And I thought, oh, yeah, that's true, actually.

I hadn't thought of it that way.

I've heard it said that Ireland's biggest export is not, in fact, Guinness.

It's people.

And I'm sure that's true.

I think it's...

Yeah, I mean, it's inevitable, you know, and I always think emigration is not... It's usually at the heart of it a sad story, isn't it?

And when I think about those people who left their homelands, not just Irish people, everywhere, in the 19th century or whatever, it was such an extraordinary thing to do.

And I know some of them, it wasn't by choice, particularly in Ireland, but...

It's such an extraordinary thing to leave your homeland knowing that the people you're saying goodbye to, you will in all likelihood never see them again.

And in a lot of cases, you wouldn't be able to communicate with them again.