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Why did you decide to put this collection together?
Well, I felt there was a need for it.
"Gearrscéalta an Chéid" was available, bhí "Dúshraith" ar fáil ...
and "Gearrscéalta an Chéid" in particular – it gave a great insight ...
into the growth, development and excellence of the short story in the last century.
But I felt, and the publishers agreed with me, that there was a need and space for another collection,
a collection which would give an insight into the state of the contemporary short story.
And to that end, "Gearrscéalta ár Linne" gives the reader an insight into the kind of short stories that are being written today.
Irish language writers are very fond the short story. Why do you think that's so?
Well, there's a tradition of it.
"Comhar", "An tUltach", "Feasta", "Bliainiris" and other magazines tend to regularly publish short stories.
So, writers understand that if they write short stories that there's a market for them and the opportunity to publish them ...
and that they'll be read as part of the magazine.
As well as that, there's a reading tradition and a reviewing tradition.
There's controversy and arguments about style, form and the nature of the Irish language short story,
something which is not true when it comes to novels and plays.
Do you think it's a bad thing that there's so much poetry and short story writing in Irish and so little novel writing?
Be thankful that people are writing,
be thankful that we have publishing companies,
be thankful that there are magazines that are happy to publish short stories, poems, little lyrics.
That question is the result of a mind that is focusing on the state of the language.
That question is the result of a mind that's worried about the state of the language.
That attitude is not the same as the attitude of the reader.
The reader is reading for pleasure, to escape from life.
The two attitudes are not the same, if you know what I mean.
As it says in the book, this is a continuation of the other collection of stories Cló Iar-Chonnact published, "Gearrscéalta an Chéid".
If you had to compare the short stories written in the past 30 years and are in this book and the short stories written in the last century,
which are better, do you think?
There's no question about it, there were a few giants in the last century:
Pádraic Ó Conaire, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Liam Ó Flaithearta.
There are more people writing short stories at a very high level at present than there were at any time in the last century.
It's hard to say which are better – the stories at present or last century's stories.
But I'd say there are more authors at a high level writing and publishing at present than there were at any time, maybe, ever.
I don't think we understand how good the short story writers being published at the minute are:
Seán Mac Mathúna, Alan Titley, Micheál Ó Conghaile, Pádraig Ó Cíobháin, Pádraic Breathnach.
There are very capable people writing and being published at the minute.
Which of the short stories in "Gearrscéalta ár Linne" were you most taken with?
I was very taken with the cleverness ...
and with the writing style of Alan Titley.
In the same way, with the style that Micheál Ó Conghaile creates in his stories.
As a story in itself, I thought "Sos Cogaidh" by Joe Steve Ó Neachtain was very good.
The same with Dáithí Sproule – there was cleverness in those two stories.
Seán Mac Mathúna's humour.
I think, in the future, people will look back and have a great amount of respect for Seán Mac Mathúna,
as a skilled craftsman, short story teller and writer.
Do it concern you as an editor that there are so few short stories by women in the collection? Why do you think women aren't writing fiction in Irish?
The thing about women – it's not that they're not there.
It's not that they're not writing.
It's not that they're not being published.
There are women who are publishing short stories but they're not publishing collections of short stories.
So the likes of Éilis Ní Dhuibhne, Aingeal de Búrca, Katherine Duffy –
they have published excellent short stories but they don't have collections of short stories in Irish.
Orna Ní Choileáin has and Colette Nic Aodha has.
But the editor has to make a choice and there isn't space for everyone.
So a decision has to be made, trimming down has to be done.
If you had to put a book like this together in twenty years time, who of the young writers working now would be featured?
Well I hope I'll be still alive in 20 years time!
But, I would certainly hope that some of the young people would be still ploughing on and working away.
Katherine Duffy, for sure. Katherine Duffy has a few short stories ...
that were published in "Comhar" and in other places and I think she has great potential as a writer.
Alex Hijmans, Martin Colefare, I think, and Muiris Ó Meara.
Muiris Ó Meara and Martin Colefare are two that are heavily influenced by Alan Titley.
Cleverness and dark comedy are at the fore in their stories.
But, I hope ... I'd be very happy if those three ... those four had published a few collections in 20 years time.