Irish playwright brings culture and creativity to La Salle

By Tara Pizzo
Senior Staff Writer
March 22, 2006

After many celebrated St. Patrick’s Day over the weekend, it seemed almost perfect for the La Salle community to have the opportunity to hear Sebastian Barry read excerpts from his critically acclaimed novel, A Long Long Way, on Monday, March 20 at 1 p.m. in the Dan Rodden Theatre. Barry is an Irish playwright, novelist and poet who has won numerous awards and is currently a visiting professor in the Irish Studies Program at Villanova University.

Professor of English Dr. Steven Smith began the presentation by saying that this was just one of the events of the semester celebrating Irish playwrights. He then introduced Barry to the eager audience by describing the powerful and moving effect that his works have on people.

“[You can] just open any of his books and read and your heart will respond and your mind will be open,” Smith said.

As Barry took center stage, he opened by giving some background information about his latest novel. A Long Long Way is essentially “about the southern Irish soldiers in the First World War,” he said.

He continued to explain how close to 200,000 Irish men went to war, and how about 50,000 of them died. After giving the audience a brief history about World War I and the uprisings occurring in Ireland at that time, he began to read excerpts from his novel. The first excerpt he read was set around the year 1915, in which he introduced the audience to one of the novel’s main characters, Willie Dunne. Barry read the section of his novel with such enthusiasm and poise that he instantly captured the audience’s attention. It was obvious by the intrigued looks upon their faces that they wanted to hear more.

The excerpt described Dunne, who was a soldier returning home to his father and sisters. His mother had died at a young age so there was great significance with his relationship to his father. Barry read a part of the novel that vividly described how Dunne’s father helped him become clean after he had returned home filthy from the war. He then read a section that involved singing. Barry took a minute to gather his thoughts, drank some water and then sang the few verses of the song featured in the novel. This proved to the audience just how dedicated Barry is to his work.

After reading for about 30 minutes, Barry was open to questions. An audience member even asked him to sing again, and without a second thought, Barry was singing another tune. After that humorous question, audience members asked Barry some intellectual questions, such as how he gathered information for his novel. For this particular novel, he said that the writing process involved researching books and other sources. Another question asked how Barry determined whether his stories would become novels or plays. Barry responded by saying it was in the nature of the characters. He also commented that as a playwright, he prays that humor arrives because it is not something that he can write.

Barry has been writing for the past 27 years and said that he has been doing it for a “ferocious and good reason.” He concluded the presentation by expressing to the audience how much he wants his work to be “meaningful” and how being at La Salle was a “real pleasure.”

pizzot1@lasalle.edu