Old God’s Time Study Guide

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin to the renowned Irish actress Joan O’Hara. He studied English and Latin at Trinity College, where he was made an honorary fellow in 2022. Along with his novels, Barry has written in a variety of formats; along with his first novel, Macker’s Garden (1982), Barry also got his start as a writer through his plays The Pentagonal Dream, The Engine of Owl-Life, and Boss Grady’s Boys, the latter of which premiered at the famous Abbey Theatre. Barry’s novels gained more attention when his 2005 novel A Long Long Way was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Since then, he has steadily developed a reputation as one of Ireland’s landmark novelists. He currently lives in Wicklow County with his wife, Alison Deegan.

Old God’s Time is set in the 1990s, which was the last decade of the Troubles. This was a conflict in Northern Island between Unionists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain under the United Kingdom’s jurisdiction, and the Nationalists, who wanted to see Northern Ireland unified with the independent Republic of Ireland. Although the Troubles were mainly centered in Northern Ireland due to the nature of the conflict, it was an incredibly violent dispute that occasionally spilled over into the Republic as well, with its most violent attack—the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings—being depicted in the novel. The enduring trauma of this national conflict echoes throughout the novel, with Barry frequently invoking tragedies of the Troubles in his narrative.

Edwidge Danticat’s 2013 novel Claire of the Sea Light deals with many of the same motifs as Old God’s Time. Like the latter novel, Danticat’s novel is focused on a mystery in a seaside town, where a young girl goes missing. However, the novel is just as much about the other characters as it is about the victim; like Old God’s Time, Claire of the Sea Light weaves the past and present to explore both personal and communal trauma among a people that are still feeling the ramifications of colonization. In addition, Barry has named Steve Sam-Sendberg’s 2016 novel, The Chosen Ones, as an influence. Barry himself wrote a review in The Guardian of the novel, which is a deeply grim novel depicting Nazi atrocities against children in World War II-era Austria. Much like Old God’s Time, then, this novel uses child abuse as a microcosm of larger communal and historical traumas. Barry is perhaps best known for A Long Long Way (2005), which was listed for the Man Booker Prize.