Episode 22: Did Ye hear Mammy died? - with Séamas O’Reilly

An Irish Times number 1 best seller in it's first week of publication Séamas O’Reilly's memoir is a true Derry story. Did ye hear Mammy died? may not be the cheeriest title ever given to a book…but it is set in 90's Derry. Lisa McGee’s Derry. Derry Girls Derry. The dark humour is to the forefront in a story that is both heartbreaking and choke on your tea hilarious in the turn of a page. 

The 9th of eleven children this is Séamas' story of growing up without a mother in the care of their father Joe. A Derry Da extraordinaire. This is the Derry Girls world of bomb scares wakes and priests with wonderful hair. We laughed and sobbed our way through it. Obviously TDG's needed to talk to this writer - to analyse him - interrogate him - laugh with him - comfort him and maybe even adopt him… The three of us read it on our very recent trip back to the mothership, where some of us were getting a bit too used to the home comforts! You’ll also hear about uses for nail varnish remover you would never have dreamt about! And there’s a couple of behind the scenes secrets of how we manage to get recording.. 

Séamas on twitter: https://twitter.com/shockproofbeats

https://twitter.com/FleetReads?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Some of Séamas’ articles:  https://muckrack.com/seamas-oreilly-1/articles

Guardian articles: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/seamas-o-reilly

His book is available everywhere including our favourite bookshop https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/LittleAcornsBookstore

That twitter feed from Séamas O’Reilly about his worst day at work which involved ‘the then’ President of Ireland which went viral: (remember in the words of Claire - ‘drugs are for mugs’

https://twitter.com/shockproofbeats/status/992006545473966082?lang=en

Amanda Burton - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Burton

Nigella Lawson - https://www.nigella.com/

(Some priests are named in the book) Bishop Edward Daly - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Daly_(bishop)

The film Marie-Louise went to with her mother!! Breaking the Waves -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_the_Waves

Halloween in Derry - https://derryhalloween.com

Séamas went to the same ‘big’ school as a few other writers: 

Seamus Heaney - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/seamus-heaney

Brian Friel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Friel

Seamus Deane - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Deane

For more information about the podcast, visit: www.thebiglight.com/talkingderrygirls

Keep up to date with us on Twitter: @TBLderrygirls

Check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/talkingderrygirls

WATCH Derry Girls on Channel 4: https://www.channel4.com

On RTE (in Ireland): https://www.rte.ie/

Series 1 & 2 available on Netflix outside UK: https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/derry-girls-season-2-coming-to-netflix-in-august-2019/