Felicity Hayes-McCoy on twisty roads, Dingle and her enduring love of Mount Brandon
“The Kerry Creators Series grew out of a passion to connect with other writers, illustrators and photographers with links to the Kingdom. Kerry’s motto is “Comhar, Cabhair, Cairdeas,” which translates to “Cooperation, Help, and Friendship” and I can think of no better description of the people in this place that, as a blow-in, I’ve come to love.”
Felicity Hayes-McCoy is the author of the USA Today bestselling “Finfarran” series of novels, set in a fictional county on Ireland’s west coast. Born and educated in Dublin, she built a successful London-based career as an actor and voice-artist, and has nearly fifty years’ experience as a scriptwriter in theatre, music theatre, radio, TV, and digital media. For the past twenty years she has divided life and work between the West Kerry Gaeltacht and inner-city London.
Her 2013 memoir The House on an Irish Hillside, continuously in print since publication, was issued in a new edition in March 2024: Dingle and its Hinterland: People, Places and Heritage, illustrated with her own photos and co-written her husband Wilf Judd, is a guide to its setting. Her 2015 lifestyle book Enough Is Plenty: The Year on the Dingle Peninsula is also illustrated with her own photos. The Keepsake Quilters, a stand-alone novel, was published in October 2022. It will be followed for Christmas 2024 by the next Finfarran novel The Bookseller’s Gift.
Q&A
1. You’re taking a writing break in a Kerry café … Where is it? What Kerry author would you be reading? And which Kingdom-inspired dish would you be absolutely unable to resist?
Depending on the season, you might find me somewhere like Caife na Trá at Com Dhíneol, eating homemade apple pie with a stunning view of the ocean, or by the fire in a pub in Baile an Fhéirtearaigh, warming up with chowder and brown bread. When working on a novel, I tend to read non-fiction: Mary McAuliffe’s books are brilliant reassessments of the place of Irish women in the founding of the state – a proper historian’s approach to material I explored in my second memoir A Woven Silence. For when I finish my own current edit, I’ve been saving Noel O’Regan’s novel Though The Bodies Fall. (ed note: you can find Noel’s #KerryCreators Q&A here).
2. Which month do you love most in Kerry, and why?
All of them – though in winter there’s more time to spend chatting and at sessions with neighbours, which make it special.
3. Who would you rather share a pint of Guinness with: Tom Crean or John B. Keane? Tell us a little more!
I don’t drink pints but, for the sake of the stories he could tell me, I’d happily buy Tom Crean as many as he liked in The South Pole Inn.
4. Which is your favourite Kerry …
Beach? Béal Bán
Pub? I’m happiest walking down the hill to Baile an Fheirtéaraigh and sticking my head round the door to see who’s in Tigh Uí Chatháin or Tigh an tSaorsaigh.
Drive? Anywhere high up or twisty. I never learned to drive so I just sit back and drink in the views.
Hike? From Mám Clasach up Sliabh an Iolair (Mount Eagle), for the shimmering sight of the Blasket Islands.
Bookshop? Depends on what I’m looking for. The eclectic Caife Liteartha bookshop in Dingle has one of the best Irish-language selections in Ireland. We’re lucky to have such a wealth of independent bookshops around the country. I visited over eighty last year, on a signing tour, and I take my hat off to every dedicated, enterprising bookseller I met. Along with local post offices and libraries, bookshops provide the hubs that help rural communities flourish.
View? Cnoc Bhréannainn (Mount Brandon) from the window beside my desk.
5. If time travel allowed you to go back, visit the Blaskets, and give one item and one piece of advice to Peig Sayers, what would they be?
I’d be listening, not talking! I think I’d bring her some tobacco - there were times, in rough weather, when she was reduced to smoking tea leaves in her clay pipe.
6. We’re lucky to have Ireland’s mightiest (and highest) peak right here in the county. Have you ever climbed Carrauntoohil (1,038m)? If so, how did it make you feel? If not … would you consider giving it a go?
I haven’t got round to Carrauntoohil. I live in the shadow of Mount Brandon, though, and may have written too many words describing how that makes me feel!
7. If you could pick one thing the county could do without, and one thing that it must never, ever lose, what would you choose?
The roads are wide enough and we must never, ever lose the twists in them.
8. Finally …
i. The reeks or the strand? Strand.
ii. Dingle or Killarney? Dingle.
iii. Blaskets or Skelligs? Blaskets.
iv. Black or white pudding? Black.
v. Kerryman or Kerry’s Eye? Whichever’s to hand.
vi. Hunter, Dubarry or good old Dunlop? Portwest.
vii. Rooster or Kerr’s Pink? Tibets. They’re blight-resistant, delicious and grow well in our garden.
viii. Turf or timber? If we’re talking smell, it has to be turf.
ix. Dingle Gin or Skelligs chocolate? Dingle gin.
x. Fassbender or Buckley? The only answer I can come up with to this one is “yes!”.
You can find Felicity on instagram (@felicityhayesmccoy) and Facebook (Felicity Hayes-McCoy Author). Loved these answers, and Felicity’s beautiful novels. She’s a brilliant champion for Kerry, and also for Ireland’s independent bookshops, with her legendary bookshop tours! Head over to Felicity’s website to discover more!
