Interview: Dr Kate O’Malley, Assistant Editor, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy project

Interview date: 21 May 2009

What book do you wish you had written?
Any Harry Potter book. (Not that I’ve read them, so you know what I’m getting at.)

What would you do if you were not working for DIFP?
Teach history at second level or lecture perhaps, but I wouldn’t rule out escaping to the country and opening a rescue home for dogs.

When was the last time you looked at wikipedia?
Last week. (I’m not proud!)

What event had the greatest impact on history in Ireland?
Oh wow… that’s very broad!  As a modernist, I guess I’d have to say the Civil War. Like a lot of people in Ireland, I have family members who fought on both sides so I more than appreciate the immense impact it had on so many lives at the time, and the quagmire of complexities involved… but… that its repercussions ripple and sway today’s political landscape to such an extent is frankly depressing and frustrating, especially in today’s climate when we desperately need a fresh political party to get things going!  The phrase ‘political arrested development’ comes to mind.

What book are you currently reading?
Right this minute I have some Department of External Affairs files on my desk that I’m reading through in preparation for the upcoming DIFP Volume, our seventh volume which will cover the second half of the Second World War.  At home I’m listening to podcasts of Melvyn Bragg’s ‘In Our Time’ series (does listening count?!), but I’m actually reading ‘Making Babies’ by Anne Enright and I’ve just finished ‘The Suspicions of Mr. Wicher’ by Kate Summerscale. (Sometimes I feel guilty if I’m reading something and it isn’t a history book, so I prefer going to the cinema when not working!)

Tags: Kate O'Malley