Louise Kennedy On Irish In London & Her Latest Novel 'Stations'
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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What is Louise Kennedy's novel Stations about?
Delighted to be joined by the author Louise Kennedy and Louise, you've gone and done it again. Well, uh thank you. I I hope I have You've written another terrific novel. You know how much I love trespasses. Stations is absolutely terrific as well. Congratulations. So I'm not going to try and describe it. I always think it's better to leave it to the author to describe what the story is about and the characters. Okay.
So um it opens in nineteen eighty two in a uh small kind of dreary town in the Irish Midlands and um uh uh a recent blowin from the north called Rochine, who's fifteen, um agrees to carry uh a message for her um her main tormentor in school, uh a girl called Tina. to Tina's boyfriend who is called Red and Red is kind of like um uh he's sort of cool, bad and beautiful. Um and um Tina's father thinks that he's a Bowsy, so Tina's not allowed to see him, but Roshin agrees to carry a letter. But um, you know, from the like from the outset, um Roshin and Red find out that they've got a lot more in common than um Than uh Red and uh Tina, who's a bit of an idiot.
And in that section it's utterly charming. It is just so
How does Stations capture teenage life in 1980s Ireland?
Brilliantly written about the period of the time. I re I mean, I'm of a similar age to you and it it just captures what Ireland was like in the nineteen eighties. Yeah. Which was pretty grim place and pretty unforgiving.
Like God love us, we made the best of it, but it was really pretty grim. I had um Yeah, I had this really weird mixture of 'cause I really had to like fully put myself in there and I was remembering things, you know, as they were coming to me, like the agony of the school disco. Um, and how just like completely bonkers it was with all the different like little factions, you know. There were um there'd be like a group of fellas, hairy fellas, um, headbanging right up against the amp and somebody trying to pull them away, saying they'd get a brain hemorrhage and then There'd be fellas wearing these like things that look like chef's jackets who were just waiting for like Spando Ballet or something. And uh and then all of that agony about whether you'd get asked to dance or whether you wouldn't, like you didn't know which was worse.
Um yeah, all of that stuff. It was um it was really kind of I don't wanna say painful, but like you just recall that some of it was like kinda traumatic, you know, it was kinda traumatic being a teenager. But also, um, I used to think the eighties they're just such a it's such great, kind of ridiculous, um, cultural kind of things. So that was fun.
It was so great fun. Now how much of you is in that?
How did Louise Kennedy's move from Belfast influence Roshin's story?
Because You know, you did come from Belfast as a teenager and that and you found it hard to settle, didn't you?
I did. Um so yeah, we left. So Roshin's family left the north in like nineteen seventy nine when she was twelve, um, for various reasons to do with the troubles and um and moved to the south. Um and Roshin isn't popular in school. Like she's having she's n not really f finding a way to fit in and uh and then um You know, later on she leaves, um, you know, kinda uh later on in the eighties she leaves and goes and works in London. So I did all of that. But um I mean I'd have to qualify a few things. I think my father Ros Rosine's family leaves the north because her father um is a Catholic uh member of the RUC and um and and obviously a target or whatever. And also And
that's not your family story.
Yeah, my I think my father would really like me to say that he was never in the peelers. So, um yeah, there's that and um and then also like there's just Roshin and uh and her mum because when they get to the south things don't really work out for her dad, so he goes off um ostent well I mean he does go leave to get work, but then there's kinda no sign of him coming back and that's causing a lot of friction. And you know, um y you know, my parents just had their sixtieth wedding anniversary and um and I have
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:10
2
What is Louise Kennedy's novel Stations about?
0:10–1:25
3
How does Stations capture teenage life in 1980s Ireland?
1:25–2:41
4
How did Louise Kennedy's move from Belfast influence Roshin's story?
2:41–4:44
5
What was life like for young Irish emigrants in 1980s London?
4:44–8:33
6
How does Roshin and Red's relationship develop in Stations?
8:33–9:49
7
How does Louise Kennedy use vivid memories to bring the past to life?
9:49–11:39
8
How did Kennedy's London experiences shape Stations and its characters?
11:39–17:33
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Last Word with Matt Cooper
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