Arts Lives captures literary genius of a new generation

Whatever else we’ve lost along the way, Ireland can still boast of a proud literary heritage – and some of the finest young writers on the planet have their roots firmly planted in Irish soil.

Two of them, Colum McCann and John Connolly, share not only the fact that they were both central to the recent Cúirt Literary Festival in Galway, but they were also the subject of terrific Arts Lives specials on RTE1.

The other common link they share is that they have one foot firmly planted on both sides of the Atlantic; Connolly spends half his year in Maine, and McCann has been domiciled in New York for the past 15 years.

Ironically, while Connolly spends more time in Ireland, his books reveal nothing at all of his nationality – they are all based in and around Portland, where he spends so much of his time.

But Colum McCann draws from both wells – not least in his latest bestseller, Let The Great World Spin – while at the same time entering into worlds he knew nothing about before he chose to write a work of fiction on them.

Arts Lives took us to a world he is very familiar with and the hint was in the title. Colum McCann – Becoming a New Yorker was a real insight into both the writing world and real world of a Dubliner who has made a life for himself in the city that never sleeps.

Modest but thoughtful, McCann’s willingness to give of himself meant that this was never going to be a question of going through the motions. And it did not disappoint – he took us on a tour of both his adopted city and his subject matter as well as into his home.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.