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Internationally renowned author Joseph O'Connor has paid tribute to the Sunday Tribune's New Irish Writing editor Ciaran Carty by dedicating his latest novel, Ghost Light, to him.
Carty was the first to discover O'Connor's writing talent when he submitted a short story to the New Irish Writing section of this newspaper in 1989.
"I owe him more than I can ever say. The dedication of this novel to Ciaran, and to his wife Julia, is utterly inadequate thanks to the affectionate support he has given my generation of Irish writers. He has done so much for all of us and we owe him deepest gratitude."
O'Connor, author of the international bestseller Star of the Sea, said Carty had amassed many admirers and friends in Irish writing circles. "He has been a friend to so many Irish writers that I couldn't begin to list them all, but they include Colum McCann, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton, John Boyne and literally dozens of others. A modest, intelligent, extraordinarily knowledgeable man of enormous personal charm, he's the greatest company imaginable and all of us love him. He's been a friend, an ally, and a hero to a whole generation of writers, and it's my pleasure and honour to thank him."
The Glenageary-born author, whose sister is Sineád O'Connor, will see his new novel published next week.
Carty said he was "honoured" to have had the book dedicated to him, but maintained the author's talent would have seen him through regardless. "It was the first year that we had begun the New Irish Writing competition and almost at the end I got this story, 'The Last of the Mohicans', from a new author, Joe O'Connor. So I rang him and told him I liked it. He said 'thank God' because he had given himself two years to make it as a writer and was coming up to the end of those two years. There is no doubt in my mind he would have made it no matter what happened," he said.
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Ahh! At the end of our first trip to Ireland I bought Star of the Sea at the airport to use up my remaining Euro. Never heard of this O'Connor chap, but... He has opened up the world of modern Irish writers to me. My debt to him is truly inestimable. I read everything I can find of his and I read everybody he recommends on his website or in interviews. If I disagree with his judgments it is only by slight degree because he can entertain himself as well as his readers by his own hyperbole when he is on about the work of a personal friend. My reading life is so much richer for our "chance airport encounter". It is his own use of language to set tone and story that just so often takes my breath away. I read Joe O'Connor slowly to better savor his language. I eagerly await Ghost Light.