Úrscéal coireachta úr is ea Mandatory Reporting le Jenny Wilson O'Raghallaigh. Whodunnit - nó Whydunnit? - atá anseo ina bhfuil príomhcarachtair ag streachailt le bheith ina Mheiriceánach in Éirinn, lena óige trámatúil - agus leis an gcorpán a aimsítear.
Síceolaí cliniciúil is ea Jenny Wilson O'Raghallaigh atá ag obair i mBleá Cliath ar bhain a ficsean go seo gearrliosta an Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger amach agus a bhí ina buaiteoir ar Novel Fair Áras na Scríbhneoirí.
Labhair RTÉ.ie/Gaeilge leis an údar faoi na téamaí a phléitear agus mar a mhúnlaigh a taithí féin an insint.
Mandatory Reporting, was recently launched in Dublin. As an American in Ireland you wrote about an American character in Ireland, a guy called Jonah. Is Ireland the whale?
"Ceist iontach. Ó thaobh an scéal bhíobalta de, déanann an míol mór Jonah a eiseach agus go seo tá sé ag fanacht in Éirinn, mar aon liom féin. Sílim go bhfuil cuid de sin ann, bheith ag maireachtaint sa dorchadas agus gan muinín a bheith agat faoin todhchaí, nó cad é sprioc an turais, gur féidir linn comthreomhar a aithint ann."
"An é Éireann an mhíol mór, máis ea? Cinnte, braithim, ach ó thaobh deireadh an scéala, neamhchinnte."
Deirtear le scríbhneoirí scríobh faoina bhfuil ar eolas acu; aithníonn tusa an domhain seo ina bhfuil Jonah ina chónaí go rí-mhaith.
"I mean, there's a couple layers to that. I know the experience of coming to Ireland as an American. The feeling that I should understand it better than I actually do, and I guess that's something that has stayed with me for a long time, even though I have, because of my work, very intimate conversations with Irish people pretty much every day, there's still, you know, a little bit of a sense of the other for me, of maybe still scurrying a little bit to catch up."
"And I mean, I think, in the same layer is the fact that Ireland is changing all the time and in the last, you know, 30 years that I've been here so much has changed in terms of the Irish experience."
"So there's that, right. So I'm very familiar with the world of coming here, maybe never acclimating. Raising Irish children with, you know, semi-American accents, which is like a-whole-nother level of hell. And then the second layer of the world of psychology and trying to navigate the experience of, kind of, midwifing people's secrets - the horrors that they've experienced in a way that feels safe but is also within the context of a bigger framework in which I can't always keep those secrets safe."
So just when you thought that you’d caught up with Ireland it’s moved just beyond reach again. But notwithstanding your professional persona, do you think that being a clinical psychologist is perhaps some kind of an anchor weighing you down in taking Ireland as other non-psychologists might take it at face value? Are you trying to analyse Ireland? And I mean that honestly, that's a serious question.
"Braithim é sin, sea. Agus sílim go bhfuil freagra ann dó sa mhéid is go bhfuil cuid den bua ainilíseach sin agam, ó thaobh gairm na síceolaíochta ina iomláine de, bíodh sé sin in Éirinn nó in áit ar bith, go bhfuil an achar sin agam ón t-ábhar - is buntáiste atá ansin. Agus sílim go léirítear sin in iliomad slite."
You can't divest yourself of of your training.
"Ceart, caillim go minic é, gan dabht. Mar sin ní hé go bhfuilim os a chionn, ar fad, ach sílim go bhfuil fírinne sa mhéid a deir tú faoin achar nó an faid idir mé agus an t-ábhar agus go caomhnaíonn sé sin cuid den eile sin gur dheineas trácht air cheana."
"Ach is ceist fíor-spéisiúil í. Tá deartháir céile agam atá pósta ar síceolaí agus deartháir eile atá pósta ar bhean nach síceolaí í agus nfheadair muid bhfuil sí cáilithe a dhóthain le bheith ina Raghallach ar chor ar bith! Seans nach mar seo atá do gach aon Éireannach, gan dabht!"
So back to Jonah, it turns into a police story; someone dies, there's an investigation and Jonah has to now grapple with this on top of everything else he's trying to grapple with in his very scientific, sort of, worldview, that doesn't help him get to grips with the personal side of the Irish psyche.
"Yes. I think that there's that, the foreignness, there's the fact that he's not very self-aware. He's a young man in his early 20s, he comes from an engineering background and suddenly he's working in a psychological space."
"But also I guess one of the things I was trying to do with the novel was connect early trauma and Jonah with the trauma he previously has from childhood and how that interacts with the trauma of the people that he's meeting in the clinical health setting."
"Mar sin, sea, cinnte, is faoi féin atá - a phearsantacht, a charachtar ach freisin faoinar tharla dó roimhe seo. Go luath - ní spoiler é seo, tá sé sa réamhrá - labhrann sé faoi thimpist a tharla inar maraíodh a dheirfiúir agus as a bhfuair a mháthair droch gortú inchinne. Lagaíonn sé seo a mhisneach ann féin, agus an chionnt a bhraitheann sé faoi mar a tharla an timpist, ach chomh maith i ndaoine eile, agus cad as a fáisctear iad."
"That's one of the tragedies of brain injuries is that we realise actually, you know, our character is embodied in neurons. And if something happens to those neurons. We might look exactly the same from the outside, but who we are has really shifted and because he had that experience early on it's very hard for him, I think, to trust."
Téamaí móra, doimhne atá á láimhseáil san úrscéal seo agus an t-údarás ag an scríbhneoir díriú isteach ortha laistigh de scéal aonaránach, ealaíonta.
Tá sí ag obair cheana féin ar an tárna leabhar sa sraith - 'Freedom of Information', mar theideal oibre. Má thaithníonn Mandatory Reporting leat, tá tuilleadh le teacht.
Tá Mandatory Reporting le Jenny Wilson O'Raghallaigh ar díol anois.
