In 2019, Niamh Mulvey faced a critical juncture in her life. Her extensive experience in the publishing sector, including an illustrious progression to become a senior commissioning editor at Quercus, a renowned UK publisher and working with established authors such as Louise O’Neill, made her a notable figure in the industry. However, after being rejected for a position she was convinced she’d clinch, she found herself compelled to reassess her career path.
Mulvey speaks of a deeply embarrassing career setback she had encountered, one that seemed to confirm her worst self-doubts. In person, with her lively eyes and her freckled countenance, Mulvey exudes an air of ease and self-assurance. Living in Kilkenny with her husband Thomas and their two children, Seán and Rosanna, she is a far cry from her life half a decade back when she was in London, struggling with unworthy novel drafts and feeling overwhelmed.
She recalls the arduous period when she was both striving to escalate her career and pen a compelling novel, only to hit a figurative brick wall. It resulted in her pondering whether she truly wanted to be part of the literary world. Resolving to step away from her job, she believed she could sustain herself with freelance work, reiterating that her children and a home to live in were her priorities. She recalls making peace with the fact that her pay from publishing barely covered childcare costs, rendering her employment redundant.
Mulvey realised that she had lost herself in her career and yearned to reclaim her individuality. Consequently, she made the emphatic decision to stop defining herself by her professional roles, reaffirming her personal value as a human being. Recognising this was a pivotal and liberating moment for her, despite appearing clichéd.
Once she released herself, her authorship journey truly began. Establishing a start-up titled ‘In the History Books’ alongside a tech associate was her initial path, but she soon realised a passion for drafting short narratives in her spare time. The lockdown arrived, her entrepreneur project met its end, yet her literary pursuit persisted. By the closure of 2020, she’d drafted sufficient material for an array. Sallyanne Sweeney, her friend and now agent, brokered a deal for her assortment Hearts & Bones: Love Stories for Late Youth with Picador in 2021. Speaking of this precipitous journey, she describes it as an unexpected surge of creativity that was truly transformative.
Prior to this, Mulvey made small contributions to literature, one of them being a short narrative in the notoriously selective Stinging Fly journal in 2011. While reflecting upon this, she remarks, half-jokingly, that it may have been an oversight on the part of Declan Meade, the journal’s publisher, to publish her work. Struggling to replicate the initial success, she surmised that it was likely a one-time stroke of fortune.
Fast forward thirteen years, a well-worn and annotated first edition of her first novel, The Amendments, lays before us. She expresses disbelief that she was capable of producing said book, having previously assumed that such a feat could only be accomplished by a certain intellectual elite.
The Amendments, while difficult to encapsulate due to its unique approach, narrates the tale of a woman named Nell, who wishes to begin a family in London with her partner Adrienne. However, spectres of her past linger and the narrative intermittently harks back to her adolescent years during the early 2000s in Ireland, where she was previously allied with a Catholic youth formation. The story also revisits her mother’s younger years during the 80s in Ireland, where she was associated with the women’s rights movement.
Mulvey used her own life experiences as a basis for her writing, even though she initially struggled to recognise their literary potential. As the oldest child in a family of five – three boys and two girls- she was born in 1983 and spent her early years in Carlow before moving to Kilkenny. Her parents, a mental health nurse and a public sector employee, encouraged her education in an Irish medium primary school- Gaelscoil Osraí in Kilkenny. Later, she attended Presentation convent school, followed by university in Galway where she majored in English and History. She originally saw her background as mundane, believing it wasn’t interesting enough to inspire her writing.
She underestimated how her seemingly ordinary past held marked depth and intrigue. For instance, as an adolescent, she was part of a Catholic youth group, which greatly resembled the one depicted in her book. This involvement resulted in enduring friendships but as she matured, aligning with Ireland’s liberal shift, she distanced herself from that part of her life. She felt a sense of embarrassment for being attracted to Catholicism. However, upon reflection, she found the experience captivating, particularly considering most people didn’t share the same interest.
When she began penning down her thoughts, she was astounded by the abundant ideas flowing out, starting with the storyline in the anthology ‘Hearts & Bones’. This served as a precursor to ‘The Amendments’, as both centred on the same universe and characters. As she let her friend in on the story, her friend’s interest made her realise she had an entire novel to pen down.
“I’ve often been teased for sounding excessively sentimental, but upon getting inspired, I was able to output 10,000 words within a span of seven days. To be frank, my initial draft was rather too emotional than necessary. It required a considerable amount of refinement to achieve the intended resonance. The whole process was a fascinating challenge.”
Her final creation offers an engrossing but heart-wrenching feel which is never excessive. As typified by Mulvey’s writings, mastery of control is evident. Her works portray an icy calm tone, probe the prevailing norms, and unveil the intricacies underneath.
While the liberalisation of the abortion laws through the referendums of 1983 and 2018 remains a subtle backdrop to her work, she expressly states that her narrative is not specifically a “repeal novel”. Mulvey is curious about the discrepancies between significant historical events and the reality of personal experiences. She feels a sense of empathy for politicians tasked with the daunting job of truncating complex issues into easily digestible bits, given life’s inherent complexities. She seems sceptical that binary decisions can truly encapsulate reality.
Describing herself as having a tendency to oppose mainstream trends, Mulvey admits that she purposefully avoids reading popular books, out of sheer obstinacy. Her current reading list is restricted to wartime narratives and espionage-focused literature, in her own words, “very much like what a grandfather would enjoy.” She doesn’t indulge herself with contemporary literature, not due to doubts about their quality, but to preserve her unique creative instincts from undue influence.
During the development of her novel, Hearts & Bones, Mulvey became keenly interested in the concept of meditation as an avenue for deeply understanding her characters’ consciousness. In her quest to explore consciousness, she finds herself embracing meditative practices, Buddhism, and mindfulness. She adopted an embodied method of writing, sometimes writing in complete darkness with a sleep mask on.
She consequently incorporates this blend of meditation and writing in her creative writing sessions. Mulvey believes that writers often grapple with feelings of fear, tension, and shame, and mindfulness practice serves as a valuable tool to manage these emotions.
“This may seem quite far-fetched for anyone having a pragmatic, journalistic upbringing. “Yes,” she responds. “I acknowledge. Besides, I am a rather doubtful individual. I possess a certain intolerance towards pseudoscience. Despite that, I do believe there’s a somewhat mystical element encompassed in writing. I presumed you might question me regarding faith, surprisingly, my proximity to a belief in a divine entity has never been as close as it occurs to me whilst penning down fiction.”
‘The Amendments’, authored by Niamh Mulvey, will be available for sale from Picador, beginning Thursday, the 18th of April.