Tell us about your debut novel, Prestige Drama.It’s a story set in modern-day Derry, where a classy, high-budget TV drama about the Troubles is soon to be filmed, featuring a famous American actress in the leading role. It has a choir of voices. Was it always the plan to tell a polyphonic story?I always wanted it to be first-person and to feature as many different voices as possible. I felt like the best way to channel the humour, anger and sadness of an entire place was by putting the reader directly in their heads.How well served has the North been by film and TV drama depictions? What are the best and the worst?I’d say pretty badly, overall. There have obviously been some worthy treatments of specific events like Bloody Sunday and Omagh, and some very enjoyable films which use the North – and, by dint of that, the Troubles – as a backdrop (Good Vibrations, The Boxer). The worst are the innumerable bit-part provos who show up, all moustache and leather jacket, in films like Patriot Games and The Jackal. You were 12 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed. How did the Troubles affect you?I’ve gone through periods of feeling like I wasn’t affected by it at all. In early adulthood, I perhaps had a sense of it not really being my story to tell. It’s only as I’ve grown older that I’ve realised just how impactful and formative it was for me. I did witness a bombing and was regularly present for bomb scares, and did a checkpoint run twice a day until I was 11. But, more than that, every relative, friend, acquaintance and institution I interacted with was formed from those years, and irrevocably changed by them. I’d say the same is still likely true of people born 20 years after me.Is there a distinctive Northern wit? I’m thinking of Lisa McGee, Colin Bateman and Michael Foley.I would say the type of mordant, gallows humour people associate with the North has predictable origins in the darkness of our recent past, but I’d argue it also has some slightly more prosaic roots. Nationalists in Derry, for example, absorbed a lot more Scottish or northern English comedic tropes than our southern counterparts might have, and even dyed-in-the-wool, true-blue unionists were exposed to more Irishisms than the most pro-United Ireland Londoner would have been.McGee has moved home from England as have Anna Burns and Stacey Gregg. Would you consider it?Every time I go back, I think about it, so never say never.Your memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? won the Irish Biography of The Year in 2021. It was a great read but was it tough or fun to write?In trying to write a funny book about grief, you realise quite quickly that you have to earn every laugh, and that means sitting with the stuff you’ve only ever joked about because it scared you to confront head-on. Doing that was tough, but it made the book more meaningful, and thus funnier in the end.Is there a common thread of coping with loss that links the works?Yes, I would say if DYHMD is a funny book about sadness, then Prestige Drama is a funny book about anger. Both are intrinsically about how we can, or cannot, face the past.You’ve recently started a column in The Irish Times and have been writing one in the UK for years. Does it serve your longer-form writing? Does inspiration come easily?Every Tuesday for nearly eight years I would likely have said, no, inspiration does not come easy. But it does come, and the strictures of weekly columnising are extremely useful for sorting out thoughts in my head, and absolutely feed into my books in ways I can never predict.You’re features editor of The Fence. What do you look for in a pitch?At The Fence, we never do anything topical or hooked to a news cycle, so we always look for a story that would make as much sense today as in five years’ time. Every article is individually illustrated by the best artists in the biz, so anything photo-dependent is a no. Other than that, we just want fresh, interesting words from writers who have good insights and a great prose style.[ Séamas O’Reilly: I met my son crying at the school gates and felt like a war criminalOpens in new window ]Your viral Twitter thread of serving president Mary McAleese while high on drugs has inspired an animated short film, Me, Myself and Mary, starring Chris O’Dowd as you and Aisling Bea as your boss. Tell us all.My friend John Michell bought the rights to the thread shortly after it was tweeted, which seemed like a funny thing to do at the time. Nearly eight years later, he’s made an incredible short that’s been selected to lead the Tribeca Festival’s animation roster. It’s truly wonderful and its success all the more incredible considering it has been made with no outside funding or grants – so if a cultural body wants to help us take it on the road, I’m all ears.What projects are you working on?I’m currently writing a sitcom about Stormont for Channel 4 but it’s very early days so that’s all I can say.What is the best writing advice you have heard?Anything you write over 2,000 words long – read it out loud. Who do you admire the most?Boringly enough, my Dad. He’s earned it, though, I guess.You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?No more live action Disney reboots. Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?Book: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe; film: The Secret Agent; podcast: Blank Check with Griffin & David.Which public event affected you most?Attending the 40th anniversary Bloody Sunday march in 2012.The most remarkable place you have visited?Pula Amphitheatre in Croatia.Your most treasured possession?Thirteen letters my mother wrote to friends in the 10 years before she died.What is the most beautiful book that you own?Beautifully written: A Goat’s Song by Dermot Healy; physically beautiful: On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden.Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Flann O’Brien, if we could skip straight to pints.The best and worst things about where you live?Best: Walthamstow is a great place to raise kids; worst: it is oddly underserved by pubs. What is your favourite quotation?“Please forgive the length of this letter, I hadn’t the time to write a short one.”– Blaise Pascal. Who is your favourite fictional character?Stephen Maturin from Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series.A book to make me laugh? Well-Remembered Days by Arthur Mathews.A book that might move me to tears?Sabrina by Nick Drnaso.Prestige Drama is published by Fleet