 around the Northwest this Monday afternoon. It's John Bresn with you until half past two. There is a new book by the bestselling author, Carmel Harrington, and Carmel's books are regulars in the bestseller charts, not just here in Ireland, but also in the UK and in the United States. She writes a lot of very warm and uplifting stories with a humor in there and a lot of heart and hope. A story is about family and friendships and love and life as is this new book, but the reason I mention it is, or one of the reasons I mention it, is there's a great Dunneagall connection and this one is called The Girl from Dunneagall. So let's join the girl from Wexford at home in Wexford at the moment. Carmel joins us now. Carmel, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, John. Yeah, the girl from Wexford is talking to the guy from Dunneagall now, so a lovely address. Yes, about the girl from Dunneagall. So how did the title come about and tell us about the Dunneagall connection in the book anyhow? Well, do you know what? I've been going back as a force to Dunneagall for years. I think the first time I went was early teens, and then I went again. I used to go quite a bit. Actually, I worked in Erlingus when I was 18, and it was our kind of place of choice. We would speak up there for weekends when we weren't working, and we had many a great night in Downings, actually, is where we used to go. Good spot for a night, yes. Yeah, just great, great fun. We used to just get a getaway where there were a couple of B&Bs there that we liked, and then when I got married and had kids, we just started going back with the kids, and we would often camp. We have a motorhome, camper van, and we would be always in the kind of the Ballymostocker Bay area, you know, Rathmullen, that kind of area. And a couple of years ago, I was on Ballymostocker Bay with the kids, and it was a good day like today. It was gray and misty, and the kids were in wetsuits being very brave and going into the water. And as I was sitting there on a rock watching them, I kind of just had this idea for a character that had already been kind of in my head, and I knew exactly who she was, where she was from, and she was from this area. And she was standing in the exact same spot I was, looking out across the ocean and thinking about a new life. And it really all just happened on that spot. So Donegal was always going to be the main location in this story, although there are two other locations too, it does bring the story goes to Bermuda and also to Canada, but the main location is Donegal. Okay, so it's not like you've, you know, read one of the tourist reviews or one of the tourist guides or seen a postcard or something. You actually are a regular visitor. So, you know, you know, all about Ballymostocker Bay and the beach and coming down to Atlantic Drive. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I think I've picked good locations because I mean, you could pick anywhere in Donegal. My first, my very first novel, this is book 11, book number one actually had a little cameo for downings for that reason. I sent one of the characters had a hen knight. So she had her hen knight in downings and enjoyed a knight in downings, very like the ones I used to enjoy when I was 18, 19. But yeah, I've been up and down to Donegal a lot. And I've done, I've done, you know, even author events in Donegal. And I always love it. Any chance to get up there. I'm gone. Yeah. I think if I wasn't living in Wexford, I'd live in Donegal. That's the only place in Ireland. Yeah, well, true. You can, you can always, you can always move up here. When the kids get bigger, you can always think about it. Yeah. Yeah. And tell us a wee bit more about the book because you said there's other locations and it goes, well, it goes forwards and backwards really, because 1939 and 1922 are two years of feature in the book. Yes, that's right. Well, I never intended actually John to write a historical fiction novel. It's the first one that I've actually done. But I was down a rabbit hole, a historical rabbit hole, a few years ago. And I came across a BBC historical archival snippet. And a woman from Northern Ireland had shared a story about her mother who left Northern Ireland to get married in Bermuda. And she was due to set sail on the SS Athenia, but didn't, at the last minute, didn't go. So it kind of just set me and there wasn't much more shared other than that, that she had a good life. And the first thing that struck me was that, well, imagine leaving, leaving Northern Ireland in 1939 for a new life to Bermuda. It must have felt like you were going to the other side of the, well, you were the other side of the world. And I thought she must have been very brave and have this amazing sense of adventure. And that triggered this idea of Eliza Lavery. And I thought, wouldn't it be great to write a character? But I knew nothing about the SS Athenia. So I, I said, I'll have a little look. And once I started looking at that ship and the real life events that happened on that, and it was right, it set sail from Belfast, Liverpool and Glasgow on the 1st of September, 1939. And Chamberlain had just issued an ultimatum to Hitler, as had many European leaders. And so the world was teetering on the brink of World War. And it was a scary time. And a lot of Americans and Canadians who were living in Ireland and in the UK, along with Jewish refugees who'd already left Eastern Europe and Germany and had ended up in the UK, they knew they had to get out. The times were getting quite precarious. And so kind of the real life events that happened on that ship I used. And in my case, it kind of changes the life of Eliza. And then 80 years later, in the present day, as you said, 2022, the characters in the present day, their lives are also changed because of what happened all those years before. Not an historical novel as such, but they're, you know, you go from 39 to 22. So it's a bit of both. Yeah, it's a real timeline. It absolutely is. And I suppose it was because it was a slightly new departure for me, because traditionally my books are contemporary novels. And the furthest I've gone back before has been to the 80s. So it was a big jump back. But God, I loved writing the 1939 section. It was really enjoyable to sink my teeth into that period of history. And why was it more enjoyable? Is it because we sometimes hear off stories from the time and we, in our own minds, we romanticize them and things were better back then. And it gives you, in a way, it gives you a bit more artistic license. Or why was it so enjoyable for you? I'm a bit of a history geek, always have been. And so that part of it really interested me. And as I said, like if I'm scrolling, it's usually down a historical archive. It's not just general chit chat. I kind of really enjoy that. So that was really nice. And learning, you know, there were so many firsthand accounts of people who had been on board the SS Athenia, because it's not that far. It's 80 years ago, but there are people still alive. So that was really interesting to me to kind of get my teeth into that. I just found the research part of it really interesting. And it reminded me as well, my two grandmothers, I was very lucky to have them in my life up until I was in my 20s. And they were a huge influence to me. And they were both strong women for different reasons. And their kind of sense of adventure and the stories they told me about their time during the war. One grandmother was in the Royal Air Force in England. And so I was able to use those and kind of pull those as well into the story. So it was just really enjoyable. It was pure escapism for me, John. And when you're writing historical fiction, it brings extra challenges as well, because you're writing a story that's from a different time, a time that you haven't lived through, so you have no experience of. So it brings the challenges of trying to be authentic and making sure then that if you're dealing with real life events, that again, the details are accurate there. But challenges, by the sound of things, you enjoyed the challenge. Yeah, it was funny that it was so silly things like this and I'd have a character look up their watch to check the time. And then I went, oh, crikey, did everybody watch back then? Or was that just something for certain classes? So you'd have to check that out. And then it was kind of like just silly things like, where do people shop? You know, how much did things cost? How much were you likely to have in the bank? If you were working class? So those kind of things were interesting. And even small details that really only just a one sentence in the book, you have to make sure they're correct and that they make sense. But I did find there are some great books, nonfiction, that I was able to buy and read about that period in time. And the actual SS Athena, I was able to see photographs of the dining room there. So when I was talking about Eliza going into the dining room on the ship, I was I knew I was being accurate there because I had the details right in front of me. So so that was really nice. But I did work on any mistakes are mine and mine alone. But I did try very hard to be accurate. I took it seriously. So it all started on a dull day down at the beach of Bally, Miss Docker. It really did. Yeah, and it's actually it's gorgeous, even on a dull day. It's cinematic graphic, isn't it? Like when we were there, and actually the mountains were just peeping through this kind of gray, gray silvery mist. And I thought this could be anywhere in the world really. It's such a gorgeous place, even on that, you know, gray day, it looks stunning, you know. And depending on what time of the day that you go down and where the tide is, it can be an entirely different beach with the channel and then the, you know, the rocks and sometimes you're blocked off or sometimes you can walk the whole length of it. It's brilliant. Yeah, that's it. And we did all of that, actually, because we were just we were there for a week last summer, actually. And we did a lot of that, you know, that we were there when the sun shone and it was very, very busy. And then on those days where it was great misty and my kids, they're hearty, like they don't mind when it's cold, wet suits on and in they go, not a bother. And we have a dog, we've a rescue dog that doesn't need my side. And yeah, he just likes to try and dig his way to Australia. So he's happy on the beach, just digging little sand tunnels and brilliant, brilliant. And you've, you've, you've named him George Bailey. No, no, no prizes for guessing that you're a fan of it's a wonderful life. Yeah, it's tradition free. We watch it everywhere on Christmas Eve. I've always watched it and it's just one of my favorite movies. I think it's one of those movies that it's full of hope and as relevant today as it was all those years ago. So when we, when I went into the rescue center to get to get George Bailey, he was quite bedraggled and quite sad looking at the time. And but his eyes when I looked at them, I thought, my goodness, he's a Jimmy Stewart. He just reminded me of him. And I said to the kids, I want to call him Jimmy Stewart. And they were like, who they were having none of it. And then my son was, I want to call him Bailey. And I thought, Oh, I can work with this. I said, how about George Bailey? And that's how he got his name. Brilliant, brilliant. And what, what about the kids? Have you brought them around to its wonderful life yet? Are they, are they on to it now? They've no choice. Like they wouldn't say they necessarily have quite appreciated it yet. My husband is firmly now. He'd never watched it till he met me. But what we do is we usually watch home alone. First of all, we get that out of the way. And we love that. And then we'll do its wonderful life next. Well, as Christmas traditions go, it's a good one. All right, then. Well, the book is out now. And you can't miss the title. And if you're looking for a summer read, a holiday read, well, you know, none better, The Girl from Donegal, written by Carmel Harrington. And then maybe it'll be an intro into some of your previous books. Or maybe it'll just be the latest. Maybe you've got the collection or some of them. Listen, Carmel, great to chat to you. And hopefully we'll see you back in Donegal this summer. And hopefully you'll get a week of good weather again this year. Oh, thank you. You were very lucky last year. We were lucky. We had some great weather. Yeah, I should look at the sun always shines at some point, doesn't it? Yes, just getting that point to be able to, if you come all the way from Oxford, it's just to, you know, to hit that point. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Look after yourself. Thank you so much.