Majella Kelly: ‘Nature makes more sense to me than the man-made rules of the church’

Your debut poetry collection reckons with the legacy of the mother and baby homes in Ireland. Why did you decide to write about that and why did you choose poetry?

I started writing about the place I am from, and my place in the world vis-a-vis home, it just became something that was impossible to ignore. The story intertwines with my own, especially in terms of my rejection of the misogyny of the Catholic Church and its stance on extramarital sex. Poetry can offer condolence with its lyricism.

In your collection the land, its lakes and its associated flora and fauna are key characters. Why were you drawn to these as ways of exploring our history?

Nature is restorative. It makes more sense to me than the man-made rules of the church. I grew up on a small farm so I feel a close connection to the land and I am especially drawn to bodies of water. When I see a trout leaping upstream against the current of a waterfall, I have no doubt that a god exists.

Where did the title for your collection, The Speculations of Country People, come from?

I was back and forth with my editor for a while about a title until all of a sudden The Speculations of Country People became an obvious choice. It seemed to sum up the essence of the collection in that the poems are like overheard conversations, sometimes whispered, sometimes a little mischievous.

You explore generational trauma in your collection and urge us to not forget. Do you think art is the best way to ensure we remember?

I think art is an essential way to remember and to bear witness. But it is best if it is accompanied by formal remembering, both at a community and an institutional level.

Your poem Voice was read out by Brenda Fricker on The Late Late Show as a tribute to the women and children of Ireland’s mother and baby homes. How did that feel?

Sublime!

Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

Seamus Heaney’s grave in 2014.

What is the best writing advice you have heard?

Ted Hughes in his Poetry in the Making where he likens writing poetry to catching a fish. I have never managed to catch a fish, though I have tried a few times, but I often think of Hughes’s fishing metaphor when I am trying to capture an elusive thought or idea and put it into words. I have to just keep staring at that fly bobbing away on the water.

You are supreme ruler for a day. What law do you pass or abolish?

That girls be allowed back to school in Afghanistan and that women everywhere have bodily autonomy.

What current book, film, TV show and podcast would you recommend?

Recently, I enjoyed Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat. I cannot wait for the film of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh collaborating again? I love it already. Their production of Max Porter’s Grief Is the Thing with Feathers was the best thing I have seen on stage. I watched the TV show Trapped recently and I loved how ancient and magical the Icelandic language sounded. I haven’t got into podcasts yet but I have a CD of Alice Oswald reading her book Memorial and I play it over and over in the car. It’s like my Rosary.

[ Anne Tiernan: I was full-term with my third child when my mother took her own life ]

[ ‘We want to read about people falling in love’: Marian Keyes and Curtis Sittenfeld on the romcom revival ]

The most remarkable place you have visited?

A mountain village called Erice in Sicily.

Your most treasured possession?

My YSL handbag.

The most beautiful book you own?

Treading the Dance – Danish Ballads selected and translated by David Broadbridge. A gift from the author.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

Seamus Heaney, Ada Limón, Umberto Eco, Natalie Diaz, Oscar Wilde, Sara Baume, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Emily Dickinson, Billy Collins, Ocean Vuong and Elena Ferrante.

The best and worst things about where you live?

The river. The public transport.

What is your favourite quotation?

“I can imagine/ Pain, turned heron,/ Could fly off slowly in a creak of wings” – Alice Oswald.

Your favourite fictional character?

The unnamed woman in Claire-Louise Bennett’s Pond.

A book to make me laugh?

I might need to occasionally read less serious books!

A book that might move me to tears?

Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous.

What public event affected you the most?

Seamus Heaney reading at Cúirt 2013, made more poignant by his death later that year.

Majella Kelly’s debut collection, The Speculation of Country People, was published by Penguin Press on April 6th

Majella Kelly: ‘Nature makes more sense to me than the man-made rules of the church’

The poet’s debut collection, The Speculations of Country People, reckons with the legacy of Ireland’s mother and baby homes