Irish Times Women’s Podcast Roisin Ingle interviews Prof Veronica O’Keane
The past year will leave its imprint of all of our lives.
Think of babies born during this pandemic whose first year will have been spent in such a limited way – no physical contact with grandparents, wider family or friends – little chance for socialisation.
So this Irish Times Women’s Podcast on memory and how we remember things seemed very timely.
Veronica O’Keane, professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin has written a book on the subject - The Rag and Bone Shop: How We Make Memories and How Memories Make Us.
The Rag and Bone Shop by Veronica O Keane review – a trip down memory s many lanes Kate Kellaway
Veronica O’Keane is a professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin. Early in her career, while working on a perinatal psychiatric ward at the Bethlem Royal hospital, now part of the Maudsley in south London, she encountered Edith, who was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Edith believed her baby had been replaced by an impostor. She was convinced her husband, too, had been swapped for a substitute. When interviewed, she was locked in, fearful and reluctant to talk to what she saw as an equally suspect medical team. On her way into the hospital, she had spotted, in the local graveyard, a small, tilted gravestone and was certain her baby had been killed and buried there.
Memory – and the stuff of dreams | The Spectator spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Books to look out for in 2021
Irish fiction
New work that has been a long time coming generates a particular shiver of anticipation.
Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Her publisher says: “An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgment.” Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Photograph: Alan Betson