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Like Raifteri, Mullen finds the Muse in Mayo By Tom Shiel Through the long years tapping on a keyboard, pausing occasionally to tug his beard gently and let the inspiration flow, Michael Mullen has published 27 books. Lesser creations, in terms of size, such as short stories and newspaper articles, have flowed unceasingly from ceaseless mind to flying fingers. The passion for writing, although not all consuming, will be a lifelong one. Michael has retired from teaching at Glenisland N.S. near Castlebar but still the inner muse beckons him daily to his study/sanctuary where he produces several chapters every day of the current novel on which he is working. Over a timespan of about 20 years, Michael Mullen's literary career has taken him from writing for children to his latest work on what he describes as the "ultimate desecration of man"- the Holocaust. His first books "Kelly" and "Festival of Fools" dealt with the mythological. Michael explains: "I thought then my life lay in the imaginative field. Later, "Seawolves from the North", a novel on the "Book of Kells" led him into history and archaeology. It is terrain in which he now feels very comfortable. ROUTE MARCH Before he knew it, the restless author was on a route march through Irish history. In one book, he dwelt on the Battle of Clontarf; later he wrote plots around the Battle of the Boyne; the Plantation of Connacht and O'Sullivan Beare's epic forced march from Cork to Leitrim. Despite an interest in the events and individuals of the 1916 rebellion, Michael never touched it in his writings. He says: "It is a period that always interested me but I felt that the political tensions were such that it would be better to leave it aside. I see others are beginning to explore that angle now". When the first microfilms of the Connaught Telegraph, Ireland's oldest provincial newspaper, appeared in the 1980's, Michael was first to examine them in detail. He was entranced by the wealth of information they contained about 19th century life in the west. Discipline was the author's byword as he stole most evenings to the library. In the end, he produced about 40 articles on old Castlebar and the surrounding area. More latterly, the old newspaper files have formed the basis for a factual account of the effects of the Famine in the region. Michael, who lives with his wife, Deirdre, at Rathbawn, Castlebar, has combined a part-time career as a writer with full-time work as a national teacher. Many teachers have been writers, Michael points out, John McGahern and Bryan McMahon being prime examples. Last Thursday evening when I interviewed Michael Mullen, I sensed some relief perhaps that his dual role was ended and he could now concentrate on writing. Earlier in the day, the "Teachers' Journal" had published Michael's valedictory article dealing with his life as a teacher, entitled "Goodbye to all that". ADULT WORLD Although writing and teaching may seem to go hand in hand, it did create some pressures for Michael. He explains: "Combining writing and teaching is a very difficult task and you have to organise your life very, very well. You have to be seen to be doing what you are supposed to do and at the same time you need an outlet. If you are always teaching you need to get into the adult world and I have always been very interested in books". Every day, no matter what the mood or social or domestic tasks are pressing, Michael sits down at his word processor. Inspiration doesn't always flow like a wellspring. He says himself: "It is a test of the novelist or indeed any writer that he or she sits down with a blank mind and eventually things begin to pump up from the subconscious. They get form and shape. This shape is very important. It is amazing how things come back to you and they coalesce". Of all his achievements, Michael Mullen is particuarly proud of his vast trilogy which centres on the west of Ireland, particularly Mayo. The trilogy opener was the famine novel "The Hungry Land" followed by "Rites of Inheritance" and "The House of Mirrors". That phase in Michael's creative life is now over. He has turned his skills and interests firmly in the direction of Europe. A novel on the Romanoffs was followed by one on Michaelangelo; the Spanish Inquisition and then, a subject he had been skirting for years, the Holocaust. "Pillars of Fire", tells the story of a wealthy family of Parisian Jews, rounded up by the Nazis, who are herded into trains and shipped to Auschwitz. The author's voice changes a decibel, there is more than a hint of emotion, as he explains: "It might seem impossible that somebody from a civilised society should end up in Auschwitz but they did. It is a mark on the French nation that so many Jews were permitted to be taken to Drancy, where part of the novel is set, and then taken in a convoy of cattle carts right across Europe to the death chambers and crematoria where bones were reduced to ashes and poured in the Vistula River. Now that the Holocaust has been covered, Michael isn't sure what his next topic will be. "I don't know where my future lies. I never plan things. If an idea come up, I follow it. I also have to think of markets". INTEGRITY OF VISION After 15 years, most of Mullen's books are still in print. He puts this down to the "integrity" of his creations. "I think basically a writer is a lonely person but somebody who must have integrity and integrity of vision. So from that point of view I do not cultivate other writers and do not look for the patronage of critics". Recently, the author was chuffed to receive a letter from a woman in St. Petersburg who had read his "Last Day of the Romanoffs". The woman commented on how well he understood Russian culture. Michael feels this was a great tribute as he had often wondered whether an author from outside could get into the heart of a country. Now he knows that one can. For, he maintains, people are basically the same no matter where they live in the world. "They talk in the same way, walk in the same way, get drunk in the same manner. They have the same outlook and the same chart. The winds that blow around our western shores is no different to the wind that sweeps across Europe". Long ago, Mullen made a decision that he would stay in the west, that he wouldn't attach himself to a coterie in Dublin, that, like Raifteiri, he would stand with his own people for what he was worth. Michael Mullen is self-deprecating. You will often see him out for a walk in Castlebar, "shuffling along" as he says himself, cap firmly on head, chattering to anybody and everybody, glad to be alive and part of the wonderful world we all live in. This is part of what the author himself describes as his "dreamtime". He finds inspiration in the local environment and the scenery. "I am always picking up ideas", he says, "the Muse is always working". With that Michael Mullen took a sip of his mineral water . Our interview, conducted at the Castle Street Bookshop, was over. In a few minutes he would be addressing guests at the launch of his latest novel "Pillars of Fire". "Nights like this are lovely but tomorrow it's back to my desk", he explained finally. " When I'm writing that's when I'm really contented". * "Pillars of Fire" by Michael Mullen, published by Blackwater Press, is on sale now in all bookshops, £4.99. |
