Jean's Journal: Remembering Maeve Binchy

by Jean Farrell

Maeve Binchy (1940-2012) knew the way we were. Her novels are set in Ireland, in the 1950s and 60s.

Readers’ alert - the following is depressing. The years are galloping past much too fast. At 75, I am doing things now that I have been putting on the long finger - before time runs out on me!

My sisters and I went to The Maeve Binchy Literary Festival, in Dalkey recently. We had lovely time. Various events and discussions took place.

We learnt that 47 million of Maeve’s books have been sold all over the world. Her niece, Sarah Binchy told us it is said that, “There is always someone somewhere reading a Maeve Binchy story!”

This is not surprising considering that her books have been translated into 37 languages, including Chinese, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Japanese, Brazilian, Russian, Slovenian and Turkish.

I wonder what all these folk, living in different cultures, make of Irish life as portrayed so clearly in Maeve’s books.

I’m going to add a short extract now from one of her novels. If you are my age, you will understand the situation too well. If you are under forty years of age, you will have no understanding of it, at all. In fact, you will be astonished.

In her book ‘Echoes’ Agnes is a woman who runs a little shop in a little town somewhere in Ireland. Her unmarried daughter, Clare, is a secondary school teacher in Dublin. One day, Clare arrived home very unexpectedly.

“‘I came to talk to you.’ Clare told her mother. Agnes laid down the kettle without filling it. ‘Mother of God, you’re pregnant,’ she said. Clare nodded.’

‘How you can sit there, as bold as brass, and tell me this? How you can do it? It’s beyond belief,’ her mother wept.

‘Please, Mam. Let me tell you what I came home to say. I’m getting married.’

‘A bit late in the day for that isn’t it?’ her mother said.

‘It’s David, David Power. We’re getting married in a few weeks’ time, in Dublin.’

Agnes stood up. ‘David Power! You let David Power, the doctor’s son, make little of you, use you, disgrace you and get you into trouble? I can’t believe my own ears.’

‘Don’t talk of him disgracing me. I was just as eager as he was.’

‘Don’t boast of it, you little tramp. Don’t stand there like a slut in my kitchen and tell me what you were eager for and what you weren’t. You’ve ruined us all in this family. The shame of it. We’ll be the laughing stock of the place – marrying into the Powers no less.

'Do you think that Mrs Power is going to let the likes of you cross her doorstep? Do you think that woman is going to let her son, with the fine education he has, marry a girl from a shop in Castlebay? A girl who is no better than she should be?’

Agnes was laughing now, a twisted, ugly laugh. ‘I never even did my Primary Certificate. And yet I can see with the two eyes in my head that there’ll be no marriage. Only disgrace, jeers and a child to bring up’

‘Mam, David and I are getting married in Dublin soon. It’s all arranged. There’s no need to mention anything else, is there?”

‘People aren’t fools, Clare. They can count to nine like the rest of us.

They’ll never forget this. Oh, the shame of it,’ Agnes said weeping openly.”

That’s the way we were back then, sadly. I wrote about these attitudes recently.

I wonder can readers, from all over the world, identify with the situation in 'Echoes'. I wonder do they think that Ireland is still like this. I wonder would Chinese readers understand all the tea being made on every page. I wonder would Russian readers know what ‘bold as brass’ means.

On the Sunday of the literary weekend we had a guided tour around Dalkey. The woman pointed out many spots which had links to Maeve and her husband Gordon Snell (1932-2026.) I laughed when she said that Maeve insisted that real nuns be used in the making of the films of some of her books. Maeve told the directors firmly that, “Only real nuns can walk like nuns!”

The guide told us that fans of her books visit our country frequently to see ‘Maeve’s Ireland.’ Some are organised fan-clubs who come out to Dalkey to walk around Maeve’s home village.

These readers know the various characters in Maeve’s books inside out. Our guide told us that they get fact and fiction mixed up, as they ask which of the restaurants in Dalkey is Quentin’s. This is a fictitious place written about by Maeve. The guide had a tour from Florida and from Japan recently, she told us.

We were hugely impressed with the beautiful village of Dalkey. There were no nail bars nor bookies nor barber shops nor tattoos parlours nor vapes shops nor takeaways nor second-hand shops on the main street.

Instead there were lots of coffee shops, restaurants, gift shops, delicatessens and classy bars. As we sat outside one, in glorious sunshine, we observed very well-dressed folk pass by. Even their dogs were well-dressed, without a mongrel insight! One would need to have lots of money to buy a house there!

‘Light A Penny Candle’ is the first book Maeve wrote, more than forty years ago. I think it is her best. Even if you read it before, I’d recommend you read it again. I know you will enjoy the great story.

jeanfarrell@live.ie