Ireland's Generation X‪?‬ RadioMoLI

“Generation X” describes the group of people born between 1965 and 1985, a generation caught between Baby Boomers and Millennials characterised by anti-establishment slacker culture, cynicism, irony, and— after the global economic crash — negative equity. An American term describing American lives, the moniker perhaps fails to accurately represent the experience of those who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland. This series invites artists and writers who grew up in an Ireland shaped by the Troubles, social justice movements, EU membership, the Peace Process, and the Celtic Tiger, to share their work and reflect on the social and cultural influences at home and abroad.

Claire Kilroy is the author of four novels, All Summer, (Faber & Faber, 2003), Tenderwire, (Faber & Faber, 2006), All Names Have Been Changed, (Faber & Faber, 2009), and The Devil I Know (Faber & Faber, 2012), which was described by The Guardian as “a satiric danse macabre of brio and linguistic virtuosity,” and by the New York Times as “savagely comic... and great fun.” Claire has been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year three times, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2004. She is currently working on Darling, a novel about motherhood, and was an inaugural recipient in 2019 of the Markievicz Award. She lives in Dublin.

Barry McCrea is a novelist and a scholar of comparative literature. His novel, The First Verse, won a number of awards, including the Ferro-Grumley Prize for fiction. His most recent academic book, Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and Europe, was awarded the René Wellek prize for the best book of 2016 by the American Comparative Literature Association. He holds the Keough Family Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he splits his teaching between its campuses in the US and Europe. He is finishing a new novel which follows the life of a Dublin suburban cul-de-sac from 1982 to the present.

“Generation X” describes the group of people born between 1965 and 1985, a generation caught between Baby Boomers and Millennials characterised by anti-establishment slacker culture, cynicism, irony, and— after the global economic crash — negative equity. An American term describing American lives, the moniker perhaps fails to accurately represent the experience of those who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland. This series invites artists and writers who grew up in an Ireland shaped by the Troubles, social justice movements, EU membership, the Peace Process, and the Celtic Tiger, to share their work and reflect on the social and cultural influences at home and abroad.

Mark O’Halloran is an Irish writer and actor from Ennis, County Clare. His work includes the films Adam & Paul, Garage, Prosperity, Dublin Oldschool and, most recently Rialto, which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. O’Halloran has been nominated for numerous awards including a European Film Award, Irish Film and Television Awards, Irish Theatre Awards and the London Evening Standard award for Best Screenplay. He is currently in the process of adapting Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends for television.

Barry McCrea is a novelist and a scholar of comparative literature. His novel, The First Verse, won a number of awards, including the Ferro-Grumley Prize for fiction. His most recent academic book, Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and Europe, was awarded the René Wellek prize for the best book of 2016 by the American Comparative Literature Association. He holds the Keough Family Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he splits his teaching between its campuses in the US and Europe. He is finishing a new novel which follows the life of a Dublin suburban cul-de-sac from 1982 to the present.

“Generation X” describes the group of people born between 1965 and 1985, a generation caught between Baby Boomers and Millennials characterised by anti-establishment slacker culture, cynicism, irony, and— after the global economic crash — negative equity. An American term describing American lives, the moniker perhaps fails to accurately represent the experience of those who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland. This series invites artists and writers who grew up in an Ireland shaped by the Troubles, social justice movements, EU membership, the Peace Process, and the Celtic Tiger, to share their work and reflect on the social and cultural influences at home and abroad.

Caitriona Lally’s debut novel, Eggshells, was shortlisted for the Newcomer of the Year Award at the 2015 Irish Book Awards and the Kate O’Brien Debut Novel Award. She is the 2018 winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the 2019 recipient of the Lannan Fiction Fellowship. Her second novel will be published by New Island in 2021.

Barry McCrea is a novelist and a scholar of comparative literature. His novel, The First Verse, won a number of awards, including the Ferro-Grumley Prize for fiction. His most recent academic book, Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and Europe, was awarded the René Wellek prize for the best book of 2016 by the American Comparative Literature Association. He holds the Keough Family Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he splits his teaching between its campuses in the US and Europe. He is finishing a new novel which follows the life of a Dublin suburban cul-de-sac from 1982 to the present.

“Generation X” describes the group of people born between 1965 and 1985, a generation caught between Baby Boomers and Millennials characterised by anti-establishment slacker culture, cynicism, irony, and— after the global economic crash — negative equity. An American term describing American lives, the moniker perhaps fails to accurately represent the experience of those who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland. This series invites artists and writers who grew up in an Ireland shaped by the Troubles, social justice movements, EU membership, the Peace Process, and the Celtic Tiger, to share their work and reflect on the social and cultural influences at home and abroad.

Born in Tyrone in 1975, Nick Laird is a poet, novelist, screenwriter and former lawyer. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Betty Trask Prize, the Somerset Maugham award, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, and a Guggenheim fellowship. His last collection, Feel Free, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot award and the Derek Walcott Prize. He is the Seamus Heaney Chair of Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast and a Writer-in-Residence at New York University.

Barry McCrea is a novelist and a scholar of comparative literature. His novel, The First Verse, won a number of awards, including the Ferro-Grumley Prize for fiction. His most recent academic book, Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and Europe, was awarded the René Wellek prize for the best book of 2016 by the American Comparative Literature Association. He holds the Keough Family Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he splits his teaching between its campuses in the US and Europe. He is finishing a new novel which follows the life of a Dublin suburban cul-de-sac from 1982 to the present.

“Generation X” describes the group of people born between 1965 and 1985, a generation caught between Baby Boomers and Millennials characterised by anti-establishment slacker culture, cynicism, irony, and— after the global economic crash — negative equity. An American term describing American lives, the moniker perhaps fails to accurately represent the experience of those who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland. This series invites artists and writers who grew up in an Ireland shaped by the Troubles, social justice movements, EU membership, the Peace Process, and the Celtic Tiger, to share their work and reflect on the social and cultural influences at home and abroad.

Paul Murray was born in Dublin in 1975. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and took a master's degree in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. A former bookseller, Murray lives in Dublin. His first novel, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, and nominated for The Kerry Irish Fiction Award. Paul's second novel is Skippy Dies, which was longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize as well as shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Book Award. His debut feature film Metal Heart was released in Ireland last year, and he currently has two projects in development with BBC Comedy.

Barry McCrea is a novelist and a scholar of comparative literature. His novel, The First Verse, won a number of awards, including the Ferro-Grumley Prize for fiction. His most recent academic book, Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and Europe, was awarded the René Wellek prize for the best book of 2016 by the American Comparative Literature Association. He holds the Keough Family Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he splits his teaching between its campuses in the US and Europe. He is finishing a new novel which follows the life of a Dublin suburban cul-de-sac from 1982 to the present.

“Generation X” describes the group of people born between 1965 and 1985, a generation caught between Baby Boomers and Millennials characterised by anti-establishment slacker culture, cynicism, irony, and— after the global economic crash — negative equity. An American term describing American lives, the moniker perhaps fails to accurately represent the experience of those who came of age during the 1980s and 1990s in Ireland. This series invites artists and writers who grew up in an Ireland shaped by the Troubles, social justice movements, EU membership, the Peace Process, and the Celtic Tiger, to share their work and reflect on the social and cultural influences at home and abroad.

Ian Lynch is a musician, singer, songwriter and founding member of the band Lankum, with whom he has spent the last 18 years touring and recording with. He started the podcast Fire Draw Near a year ago and he has spent lockdown researching and making episodes for that, as well as a 3-part documentary on the history of the song The Wild Rover. He has an MLitt in Irish Folklore and has lectured on traditional music and song in UCD. He swims in the sea whenever he can and plays a lot of Dungeons and Dragons.

Barry McCrea is a novelist and a scholar of comparative literature. His novel, The First Verse, won a number of awards, including the Ferro-Grumley Prize for fiction. His most recent academic book, Languages of the Night: Minor Languages and the Literary Imagination in Twentieth-Century Ireland and Europe, was awarded the René Wellek prize for the best book of 2016 by the American Comparative Literature Association. He holds the Keough Family Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where he splits his teaching between its campuses in the US and Europe. He is finishing a new novel which follows the life of a Dublin suburban cul-de-sac from 1982 to the present.