LET’S TALK ABOUT ...
Sebastian Barry’s
A Long Long Way (2005)

SEBASTIAN BARRY, novelist, poet and playwright, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1955, and now lives in County Wicklow. The title of his third novel, A Long Long Way (2005), a Booker Prize contender, comes from the World War I anthem, “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” and it tells of 17-year-old Willie Dunne and his regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and of the divided loyalties felt by many Irish soldiers fighting in the Great War in the wake of the Easter uprising of 1916. It is an engrossing read, with engaging characters and written in an elegant prose style that is poetically magical. Barry is also the author of two other novels: Annie Dunne (2002) and The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998). Those keen on Irish history and would like to know more about the Easter Rebellion of 1916 will do well to explore Charles Townshend’s Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion (Penguin, 2005).

Bibliography
BARRY Sebastian [1955-] Novelist. Born in Dublin, Ireland. NOVELS A Long Long Way (2005: shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize for Fiction); Annie Dunne (2002); The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998) NOVELLAS Time Out of Mind/Strappado Square (1983) PLAYS Whistling Psyche/Fred and Jane (2004); Hinterland (2002); Our Lady of Sligo (1998); The Steward of Christendom (1995); Prayers of Sherkin/Boss Grady’s Boys: Two Plays (1990) POETRY The Pinkening Boy (2004); Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever (1989); The Water-Colourist (1983) CHILDREN’S Elsewhere: The Adventures of Belemus (1985) EDITED The Inherited Boundaries: Younger Poets of the Republic of Ireland (1986)