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Ruth Gilligan

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Ruth Gilligan
Born (1988-03-12) 12 March 1988 (age 36)
Dublin, Ireland
OccupationNovelist, actress
NationalityIrish
Period2006–present
GenreLiterary fiction; historical fiction
Notable worksNine Folds Make a Paper Swan, played Laura Halpin in Fair City

Ruth Gilligan (born 12 March 1988) is an Irish writer, journalist and university lecturer, born in Dublin.[1]

Early life

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Gilligan's father was an accountant and her mother a speech therapist. Her brother David is ten years her senior, and the family hail from Blackrock, where she grew up.[1][2]

Career and studies

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Gilligan studied acting at the Betty Ann Norton Theatre School in Dublin from the age of six, and later secured theatre, TV commercial and short film roles. Her first professional role was at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, at the age of 11.[1]

At second level, Gilligan attended St. Andrew's College, Booterstown, and while there, from age 12 to age 16, she played Laura Halpin in the Irish soap opera Fair City,[1] and wrote her first novel, Forget,[3][4][5] as a Transition Year secondary school project.[6][7] After reading and editing by successful novelist Patricia Scanlan, and extensive rewriting, the novel was published in 2006 in the UK and Ireland, reaching number one on the Irish Bestsellers' List,[8] making her the youngest person in Ireland ever to have done so.

Achieving eight Higher-Level A1 grades in her Leaving Certificate examinations,[1] Gilligan continued her studies at Cambridge University achieving a double First Class Honours[citation needed] degree in English literature from Gonville and Caius College.[9] While in second year there she published her second novel, Somewhere in Between, which was also translated into German.[10]

In January 2009, Gilligan was announced as the youngest ever recipient of an O'Reilly Foundation Scholarship to pursue advanced studies in English literature.[11] Her third book was launched in Blackrock, County Dublin in August 2009, following which she discussed her work, scholarship and GB Olympic fencing boyfriend Alex O'Connell, to whom the book is dedicated, in a live TV interview.[12]

From 2009-2010 she attended Yale University, earning an MA in English literature. From 2010-2011 she was enrolled on the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia.[13] In 2014 she earned her PhD in English from the University of Exeter.

Having set aside a new novel,[1] her fourth published book, Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan, is based around the history of Irish Jews, and was published by Atlantic Books in July 2016 (UK / Ireland). It received very favourable reviews, including numerous comparisons to James Joyce and Colum McCann.[14] In 2017, it was published in the US by Tin House, and in Israel by Penn Israel.

The Butchers (also published under the title The Butchers' Blessing), was published in 2020.[15] Set in the 1990s, it tells of a group of men, known as The Butchers, who travel around Ireland to farmers who follow the "old ways", slaughtering cattle according to a traditional ritual which stems from an ancient curse; the BSE outbreak in Ireland forms a background.[16] Gilligan has said that readers are often shocked or hurt to find out that both the ritual and the curse are made up.[17] The Butchers won the 2021 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.[16]

Gilligan took up a post as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Birmingham,[13] and as of 2020, is a senior lecturer there.[15]

She reviews books for the Times Literary Supplement, Guardian, LA Review of Books and Irish Independent, where she was a columnist for a number of years.

Gilligan also works with Colum McCann's storytelling charity Narrative 4 - an international organisation devoted to fostering radical empathy amongst diverse teens - for whom she has organised a number of projects.[18][15]

Books

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  • Forget (Number 1 bestseller) (2006)[19]
  • Somewhere in Between (2007)[20]
  • Can You See Me? (2009)[21]
  • Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan (2017)[22]
  • The Butchers (also published as The Butchers' Blessing) (winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2021)[16] (2020) [23]

Personal life

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Gilligan is married to lawyer and former Olympic fencer on the Great Britain team, Alex O'Connell. They met in 2008, became engaged in 2016, and married in County Wicklow in 2017. They now live in Highbury, London.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Shortall, Eithne (10 July 2016). "Talent to Burn". The Sunday Times (of London). News International. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  2. ^ "Ruth Gilligan - Author, Journalist, Lecturer". Ruth Gilligan - Author, Journalist, Lecturer. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  3. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (2006). Forget. Dublin: Hodder Headline Ireland. pp. 279 p., 24 cm. ISBN 0-340-92088-2.
  4. ^ Heaney, Mick (31 December 2006). "The leisure principle". Arts & Entertainment. The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  5. ^ "The love lives of generation text". Irish Independent. 7 August 2006.
  6. ^ Heaney, Mick (13 August 2006). "Ireland: Teenage kickstart". Arts & Entertainment. The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  7. ^ "RTÉ Television - Tubridy Tonight". RTÉ.ie. Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
  8. ^ "Top of the class: How one student managed to achieve it all". Irish Times. 9 September 2006.
  9. ^ "Studying at Gonville & Caius - English". Gonville & Caius College. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  10. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (1 February 2009). Der Sommer deines Lebens. ASIN 3596181488.
  11. ^ "The O'Reilly Foundation - Home". Oreillyfoundation.ie. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  12. ^ "TV3 interview". Tv3.ie. Retrieved 31 December 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  13. ^ a b "Dr Ruth Gilligan - Department of Film and Creative Writing - University of Birmingham". Birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  14. ^ Frawley, Oona (1 July 2016). "Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan by Ruth Gilligan review – tales of the Irish-Jewish experience". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  15. ^ a b c Doyle, Martin (27 March 2020). "Ruth Gilligan Q&A: 'the tension between modern and ancient Ireland fascinates me'". Irish Times. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  16. ^ a b c Flood, Alison (11 May 2021). "The Butchers: novel set in Irish BSE crisis wins Ondaatje prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  17. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (10 November 2020). "On the Lies We Tell in Fiction". Literary Hub.
  18. ^ "Ruth Gilligan: write what you want to know". Irishtimes.com. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  19. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (8 February 2007). Forget. Hachette Books Ireland. ASIN 0340923849.
  20. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (24 July 2008). Somewhere In Between. Hachette Books Ireland. ASIN 0340923512.
  21. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (6 August 2009). Can You See Me?. Hachette Books Ireland. ASIN 0340976810.
  22. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (7 July 2016). Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan. Atlantic Books. ASIN 1782398562.
  23. ^ Gilligan, Ruth (26 March 2020). The Butchers. Atlantic Books. ASIN B07TS9QTHW.

Sources

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