Podcaster in Residence - Episode 6 - An Cailín Bán - Nuala O'Connor

In this episode Zoë Comyns’ guest is writer Nuala O’Connor – they discuss writing historical fiction and specifically the case of An Cailín Bán – Ellen Hanley. An Cailín Bán/The Colleen Bawn was 15-year-old Ellen Hanley from Limerick who, in 1819, married John Scanlan a 28-year-old squire’s son. He convinced her to elope with him; he took her dowry and after six weeks of marriage he ordered his servant Steven Sullivan to kill her and dispose of the body in the Shannon estuary. Zoë speaks to historian Pat Fitzgerald about stories related to Ellen Hanley, he refers to some of the literary and stage adaptations of An Cailín Bán and the primary source National Library of Ireland documents that exist from the inquest and trial of Ellen Hanley’s murderers. Zoë has commissioned a short story by Nuala O’Connor which imagines the reader of these NLI documents. In White Ellen a descendent of one of the murderers comes to Ireland to find out more about the murder and explore the shame she feels being related to a murderer. White Ellen is read by Carla C Emmons. Nuala O’Connor Nuala O’Connor is a novelist, short story writer and poet. She is the author of numerous novels, including Becoming Belle, Miss Emily, Nora and Seaborne. She has written six short story collections, her most recent being Birdie (2020). Her short fiction has won the Francis MacManus Award, the James Joyce Quarterly Fiction Contest and the UK’s Short Fiction Journal Prize. Nuala’s novel’s has also been nominated for numerous prizes including the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the International Dublin Literary Award. Nora was shortlisted for the 2021 An Post Irish Book Awards RTÉ Audience voice Award. She is editor-in-chief at flash e-zine Splonk.