Sinéad Moriarty’s thirteenth novel - "hopefully lucky 13" - Our Secrets and Lies, was published this month. Sinéad joined guest-host Brenda Donohue on The Ray D’Arcy Show to talk about the process of researching and writing the book, which she says is about "broken dreams".
The book follows Lucy, the first in her family to go to college. She’s studying law and everything seems to be on track. Then she gets pregnant and her boyfriend, as Sinéad puts it, "does a runner" and leaves her to raise twins.
"She intends to go back to college and finish her degree but it never happens and she ends up working in her father’s corner shop. So, life has gone down a very different path to the one she had planned out."
Sinéad says that, as a result of this disappointment with her life diverging from the plan she had set out, Lucy "pushes" her children to lead lives "that she believes will make them happy".
As part of the writing process, Sinéad researched the topic of bullying amongst teenagers, a fate that unfortunately awaits one of the characters in the book, Lucy’s daughter. Sinéad told Brenda that she was taken aback by what she learned, citing the use of social media to modernise bullying.
"I thought I had a fair handle on it. But really, I had no idea how vicious and vile it is...You’re actually being bullied live. And I Just found this astonishing."
It’s a lesson in living vicariously through your children, Sinéad explained.
"It is only when her daughter is kind of at the end of her tether that Lucy realises that really, what you want for your children is not necessarily what they need."
Listen back to the whole interview with Sinéad Moriarty on The Ray D’Arcy Show below:
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