Tim Bradford in conversation with Waterstone's Online

1.What I rather liked about your book was that it deftly and amusingly dissected Irish culture but it also revealed quite a lot about the often peculiar relationship between perfidious Albion and Hibernia. Why do you think so many little Englanders now long to be Irish?
There's so much of the mad ancient stuff we've lost, the oral tradition that our great-grandparents' generation were a part of but which has been eradicated by the communication revolution of the last 100 years. Also, keen Ireland is a culture on the move, successfully melding old traditions with the needs of a modern high tech 21st century nation state. We are also left grasping for a satisfactory definition of Englishness yet what we do have seems narrow in comparison with Irishness. I think as English people we long for a modern national identity of our own.

Another reason why so many English blokes are into Irishness is the influence of Dana. In the early 70s there were subliminal messages in her Eurovision song 'All Kinds of Everything' which said things like "young English boys you are under my power". Play the track at very slow speeds for proof. It helps if you're hammered.

2. Quite a large portion of the book is concerned with Finnegania, or the London Irish community. Do feel that with the improvement in Irish economy and Dublin now a thriving international city once more, that fewer Irish will actually choose to leave Ireland?
Yes and you can't blame them, really. The latest statistics seem to show that, for the first time in ages, more people are returning to Ireland than leaving it, which is obviously a good thing for Dublin and Ireland but not so great for the old Irish communities in London. Those that do come over maybe don't hang out in those old communities any more.

It's the 30 something generation who left in the 80s and made their way in the world who are now poised to return and with all those skilled people going back it should have a positive impact on business over in Ireland. The Irish Government has tried to persuade people to return, using ad campaigns, but others in the country aren't quite so. Things are possibly changing too quickly for a lot of people.

3. Your Irish friends described you as being typically English. Do you think there is anything that can really be described as typically Irish or English for that matter?
It's always dangerous ground when you start talking about things like national characteristics, but when I'm described as typically English I suppose they mean the stoicism - this relates to football matches when England invariably lose and I'd generally go "ah well, it's only sport, eh lads - fancy a beer?". As far as being typically Irish goes, all the Irish people I know seem to be able to tell stories properly.

4. What advice would you give to anyone else attempting to sell a car in Ireland?
Park the car, sit your self down in a nice comfy Internet cafe and fire off a few emails to garage websites. Or best of all, if you're actually looking for a decent price, get a copy of Autotrader and sell it in London, then fly over to Ireland with the money for a long weekend break.

6. Has Mr. MacGowan read it?
According to his girlfriend he has and found it "very funny and very Joyceian"

...unfortunately, though, unlike Joyce my spelling mistakes weren't intentional.

7. I was always rather disappointed, in the same way I could never take Jack Kerouac seriously after I learned he lived with his mother for most of his life, to discover the majority of The Pogues came from Eastbourne. In an era of plastic Irish theme pubs do you think there is a danger that elements of Irish culture have become MacBlarnied?
The Pogues, though they might have been brought up over here, sing about Ireland because in some way they probably feel displaced. Like country and folk music in America, immigrants had left their homelands but carried on the old traditions. I don't think you should be too hard on people just because they want to find their roots. The MacBlarney thing is strange. On the one hand it's annoying and obviously fake, that Ireland can be described by a few simple signs and symbols. Yet you could also say it's coming from a newly confident country that is selling itself hard to the rest of the World. Why shouldn't they take control of the images used to represent them for commercial purposes?

8. Do you really think Daniel O'Donnell is as significant to Irish culture as W.B. Yeats is?
In the use of v-necked sweaters on album covers, Daniel is streets ahead. Yeats never understood the potential of casual clothing as a cultural signifier. Daniel is 'New Ireland', preaching his soft-country gospel to the World - well, to a load of permed suburban grannies. Oh well, there goes the permed suburban grannies market (though they were already wavering after the Superquinn sausages thing).

9. With the exception of your own fine tome, are there any other books on Ireland or by Irish authors that you feel that any everyone should read?
All Alcoholics are Charmers by Martina Evans, Walking A Line by Tom Paulin, The Truth About the Irish by Terry Eagleton, A History of Hurling by Seamus J King, Rambles in Eirinn by William Bulfin, Round Ireland in Low Gear by Eric Newby, At Swim Two Birds/The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, Collected works - Patrick Kavanagh, Silly Verse for Kids by Spike Milligan and anything by John B. Keane.

10. Have B*witched had their day?
No, I feel they'll move to the States, a couple will get married to big rap stars or record company execs. and get into films, one will start a porn website, another will do TV presenting (possibly a Sunday evening religious broadcast), then they'll get together to do Ireland's Eurovision entry in around 2007,storm it then move back to the old country in a blaze of glory.

11.What next for Tim Bradford?
Designing websites, WSC stuff, a couple of new books bubbling away, getting a few more gigs for Magic Orange, the 'pub country bollocks' band I play in, hanging out in Ireland with my girlfriend and daughter and hopefully going back to Sligo and buying my dream house some day.
 

Interview conducted by Travis Elborough 2000