‘Multicultural is a handy word but I wrote about one culture, Dublin culture’

Tell me about your debut novel, Ravelling. What are you most proud of in it? What does the title mean?

Ravelling’s about friendship, language, place and having the craic. I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve got the voices of these imperfect heroes – five lads, living in and around the Liberties – out into the world. Ordinary young fellas as flawed legends. Ravelling can mean fraying, unravelling but it can also mean the opposite – the tangling and tightening of threads. The weaving industry once thrived in the Liberties. I love this idea of communities as fabric, pulling apart and coming together.

Your novel is set in Dublin’s Liberties, where you settled as a 19-year-old, having been born in London and raised in Dundalk. Describe it and how living in those three places influenced you as a person and a writer.

I love the energy of London and feel at home there when I visit. We moved home when I was five. Growing up by the sea near Dundalk was brilliant. I love the humour, the people and the accents of home and I still have close schoolfriends. A lot happens in Dundalk. Border towns are special. I moved to this part of Dublin with a group of friends from home. We were an oddity – the only students in an area that was still ravaged by the heroin epidemic. There was a lot of crime but it wasn’t senseless. Less edgy than the Square in Dundalk of a Saturday night. I landed here and never left. My kids grew up here. It’s a place teeming with life. A dream for a writer.

Your cast of characters is very multicultural. Were you keen to explore this aspect of modern Ireland?

Multicultural is a handy word but the book is really about one culture, Dublin culture. All of the people, wherever they’ve originally come from, are living this Dub life. I wanted to show that – the constant cycle of absorption and growth. Cultures that try to stay written in stone die. Dublin culture is vibrant, messy, sometimes dangerous but very much alive.

Deano, Hamza, Oisín, Karl and Benit are Leaving Cert students. Do you have a favourite?

I love them all. They live inside my head and heart. I hear their voices, see their faces. It’d wound me to pick just one.

Are there moments from your own life that have directly inspired scenes or characters in your novel?

Almost everything in the book has either happened to me, in front of me or is a story shared with me. Every character is an amalgam of various people I’ve encountered.

You have a gift for humour. How did you balance this with the novel’s darker themes?

Very few lives are totally miserable. I think Irish people and Dubs in particular are very funny. They use wit and good humour to cope with dark things. That’s not to minimise the seriousness of what the young men in the book are dealing with at times but humour, even in the bleakest of moments, can sustain us.

Was it challenging to write about young men?

Not really, no. These were the young men around me. On the streets, in the shops, at hurling, in Synge Street (where my son went to school) and around my kitchen table. They were making me laugh and cry. I listened to them, studied them. They’re endlessly interesting and funny. I’m not keen on writing about stout, middle-aged, procrastinating women. I’m living that life.

Ravelling’s publicity likens it to Trainspotting, White Teeth and Milkman as an urban story. Were they influences?

Trainspotting was very influential in its realistic portrayal of the fun of drug taking. Not just the misery. White Teeth blew me away. The epic sweep of it, the vibrant characters, the humour. Milkman is a stunning piece of work. It deals with dark themes – grooming, harassment, horrific violence and yet here is an ordinary young woman, observing, surviving and thriving. There’s so much humour in it. A masterpiece.

Ravelling has been optioned by Sleeper Films for a TV series. Will you adapt it yourself? Tell us more.

We’ve a really great scriptwriter on board. I’ll be involved later in the writing process. It’s very exciting because the people involved are all really in love with the work.

Ravelling was first listed to appear in 2022. What delayed it?

In one word, me. I was signed at the start of March 2020 and then lockdown happened. At the same time, things were being upended in my family life. The human interaction I need to fuel my writing was largely gone. I’m a bit of a Taoist though, and I believe all things have their time. The book wasn’t ready to be born until now.

You are a graduate of UCD’s master’s in creative writing. What did it teach you?

The faculty at UCD was amazing. The course gave me the impetus to try new things and to send my work out. As soon as I did, I started getting published and winning things. UCD sparked my writing life.

Which projects are you working on?

I’m writing short stories and I’m back to the drawing board on the second novel.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Kurt Vonnegut, Roddy Doyle, Toni Morrison, Iain Banks, Patrick Kavanagh, Brendan Behan, Maeve Binchy, Nell McCafferty, Elif Shafak, Joseph Conrad.

What is your favourite quotation?

From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Who is your favourite fictional character?

Stephen Wraysford in Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong.

A book to make me laugh?

Corvus by Esther Woolfson.

A book that might move me to tears?

Watership Down.

Ravelling is published by Lilliput Press

‘Multicultural is a handy word but I wrote about one culture, Dublin culture’

Estelle Birdy, the debut author of Ravelling, on writing about imperfect heroes – five lads from Dublin’s Liberties