Gerard Beirne: Luke, I am not sure I ever imagined that I would be interviewing my son, a writer and novelist. In fact, I don't know if I ever seriously thought I'd be a writer and novelist myself. So, I guess the question is, how did it happen? Can you tell me a little bit how it happened for you?

Luke Beirne: Well, growing up with a father as a writer – a poet and novelist – made writing books seem like a possibility for me. That made the biggest difference. I began trying to write bits and pieces at a very young age. I remember one time while in elementary school sitting downstairs in our computer room and writing a very short ‘scene’, and then you came in to read it afterwards. It’s my first memory of writing something and sits close to my heart.

GB: Obviously being your father, I am a bit of a biased reader, but even when I put those biases aside, I am deeply impressed by the quality of your writing, sentence for sentence, and the depth of thought within the narrative. In fact, when I was reading Foxhunt, it felt as though it had been written by a far older writer (you were only 23 at the time of writing it). It seemed to me that somehow you used the structure of the writing to allow you access into a rich understanding of life somewhere deep within you, a wisdom beyond your years even. Do you have any thoughts about this part of the writing process?

LB: I think that writing can help people to ‘tap into’ strands of knowledge that they have access to but are not yet fully able to articulate when speaking or even, necessarily, in thought. It takes a lot of editing and rewriting to produce something that is publishable, so that might be part of the secret there. You can work your way deeper and deeper into thoughts and experiences, unravelling their significance bit by bit.

GB: Your most recent novel, Blacklion, is similar in ways to your first, Foxhunt in that they both have their roots in espionage, intrigue, and covert operations. Both look at the CIA infiltration of organisations during the Cold War albeit during different time periods. In Foxhunt, the infiltration of the literary world in the 1950s, and in Blacklion, the infiltration of terrorist organisations (specifically the IRA) in the 1970s,  but the styles are quite different. Foxhunt has a more noirish feel whereas Blacklion is more stark and spare in its mood and tone. Can you talk about the formal qualities and your intent with these books, the differences, the similarities. And what was your reasoning behind that?

LB: I worked as a ghostwriter for a couple of years after graduating from university. I think that I drew on stylistic elements from the novels that I was ghost writing when creating Blacklion. It was intended to appeal to a wider range of readers than my first novel and has more fast-paced action sequences – which include more guns and violence. It is kind of like an action movie. With Foxhunt, I drew on research that I had done at university – about the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Cultural Cold War. It has countless layers of significance, and I would not have been able to write it without also writing an academic thesis on a similar topic. Though it has all of this research behind it, I tried, first and foremost, to just write a ‘good book.’ All of the research just lies beneath the surface, holding up the prose.

GB: I know these books have come out of your own personal interests in politics and social order as shaped by cultural influences. How does your own political worldview shape your writing do you think?

LB: I believe, first and foremost, in the idea that everybody is equal and should be treated as such, with the same rights and opportunities as anybody else. I don’t know that this has influenced my writing ‘style’ hugely, but it has certainly influenced the content that I write about. I believe that both books must be read with attention to the interactions between their characters, some of which are better than others. Out of both books, I think that my favourite character – who mirrors many of my own beliefs and perceptions is Marguerite from Foxhunt.

GB: You were born in Ireland, in Donegal, but we moved to Canada when you were only two and a half and you have lived there since. Blacklion is set in Ireland and deals with an IRA unit operating in southern Ireland and along the border. How has your Irish heritage influenced your writing do you think?

LB: I wrote Blacklion because of my connection to Ireland. While writing it, I drew on personal experiences and places that really exist and that I have experienced closely. Certain characters in Blacklion are slightly distorted reflections of Irish people I have known.

GB: In addition to your fiction, you have written extensively (in non-fiction form) about two of your passions, boxing and politics. Your writing about boxing, whether describing the fights or its philosophy, is both exhilarating and thoughtfully nuanced. What draws you to write about it?

You clearly have a strong social conscience, and your political writing, to use a boxing metaphor, pulls no punches. You are outspoken and courageously take on issues such as the oppression of First Nations, the government's covert surveillance of its citizens etc. How do these issues motivate your writing?

LB: I find boxing a great topic for writing because it’s a controlled and artificial conflict and controlled/artificial conflicts are pivotal in literary fiction too. I boxed for many years – until 2022, when I suffered an injury, so I have a deep love and respect for boxing. I think that those are the main reasons that I have been drawn to write about it.

Thank you for saying that my political writing is courageous. I try to draw attention to topics that people might not necessarily be paying attention to but which I believe have significant implications. In Canada, Indigenous people have, and continue to, suffer from severe and brutal injustice and oppression. I think all settlers should be aware of this and actively attempt to right the wrongs that we have done to the people whose land we live on.

GB: We can't ignore your ghostwriting either. It haunts your biography. But indeed, you have ghostwritten more than a dozen genre novels from westerns to cyberpunk sci-fi. These are written to order in a sense and require great discipline to complete in very limited time periods. Have you enjoyed writing them and how have they influenced your literary fiction process, or have they?

LB: I have, indeed, ghostwritten over a dozen genre books. This was just done as a ‘job’ and to cover day-to-day expenses. I believe that I learned to write much faster by ghostwriting and think that my second novel, Blacklion, drew on things that I learned by writing the genre novels, such as ways to build tension and how to produce fast-paced action scenes.

GB: I know we share a common love of Graham Greene's work, but in general who are your literary influences do you think?

LB: Graham Greene is definitely a big influence of mine; however, I think that everything I read ‘splashes’ onto me and leaves a mark – kind of seeps in and maintains a presence in my own work. Hemingway is another big influence; however, I have a difficult time identifying specific authors who have influenced my writing style.  

GB: Are there any Irish writers in particular that you admire? Which Canadian writers, that we might not know about here in Ireland, should we be paying attention to?

LB: For Irish writers, I like Frank O’Connor, Eimear McBride, Sean O’Casey, and a certain Gerard Beirne. For Canadian, my favourite is Alice Munro. I also really like Thomas King and I’ll give a special shout-out to Robert Munsch.

GB: I am aware that you have been working on a collection of short stories for a while, (in fact one of them was published here in the Honest Ulsterman); how do you like that form and is that likely to be your next book?

LB: It might be my next book, however, short story collections are very hard to get published, as you know. The big problem is that short story collections don’t tend to make much money, so not many publishers are willing or able to take that kind of risk. I might publish a novella next, if possible. I have one set in Saint John that is pretty much done right now. My next step might be to get that finished off and submitted.

GB: Finally it has been a pleasure and a rare treat to interview you. I couldn't be prouder. Your prose is both exquisite and intelligent and your non-fiction illuminating and fearless. Congratulations.

LB: Thank you. It’s a huge pleasure for me to be interviewed by my dad about something we both love. My love of writing came from you, so I also want to thank you for sharing that with me. I respect and admire you immensely.