Donegal novel depicting 1970s Killybegs up for top Irish award

Killybegs author Garrett Carr’s novel The Boy from the Sea is on the shortlist for the Eason Irish Novel of the Year in the An Post Irish Book Awards, one of Ireland’s major literary prizes.

The novel, which opens in 1973 and is set in Killybegs, was described by the UK Times as “an ode to Donegal and its no-nonsense people.” It follows the trials and tribulations of a fishing family named the Bonnars as they deal with the ramifications of their decision to adopt an abandoned baby.

READ NEXT: McConalogue: 'Donegal ATU leading out in ensuring North West embraces AI'

“Fishing families have hardly appeared in Irish literature at all,” says Garrett, “which is part of the reason I wanted to write about one – like a businessperson spots a gap in the market, I felt it was a gap in the culture. Plus, it is my own background; I am the son of a fisherman, so I felt it was a job I could take on.”

In a couple of paragraphs, the beginning of the novel, fisherman Ambrose Bonnar travels around Ireland to work out of Waterford, Cork, Galway and other harbours before returning to Donegal. “I included that as I wanted to make it clear the novel is set not just in Ireland, but in Donegal,” Garrett explains. “I wanted to capture its distinct character, and the first step was saying it’s not like these other places.”

Often when a novelist deals with a small town, they fictionalise it, to protect the feelings of the townspeople because or to give themselves creative freedom, but Garrett’s novel is set in the real Killybegs. “The town was always such a one-off, especially in the 1970s and 80s, when The Boy from the Sea is set, and when the fishing industry was expanding so rapidly, there was great drama to be found in how fortunes were won and lost in those times. I saw no good reason to invent a fictional town; the story would’ve lost more than it gained.”

The Boy from the Sea is up against seven other novels for the coveted prize, including The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor and Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney. The winner will be announced during a ceremony in Dublin on 27 November. Anyone can join the process of selecting a winner by casting an online vote on the Irish Book Awards website.

.