How conversations with real friends can make drama more authentic

In 26 years I had never seen Irish youth life portrayed so honestly. However, the story then moved to Trinity College and all sense of belonging was lost. I admire Sally Rooney, her endless talent and her books, but there’s only a limited number of challenging Trinners novellas and TV adaptations that we can pick from.

Rooney’s tremendous influence has spurred another generation of books set in or around the university and its alumni. Barely 19-year-old characters drink wine seriously in vintage tweed blazers, when in reality most people of that age in Ireland drink vodka, which also doubles as a paint remover. I understand that all experiences are different, but if you experience too much of it, you forget that diversity is possible.

You see what we need now is some flavor. We need people’s stories. I want to see a love story written about two young people who meet on Donegal Tuesday while queuing for the pub at 6am during Galway Rag Week. Conor will be the boy’s name and he will be from Ballybofey. He’s wearing his finest Donegal jersey and meets a pretty girl from Limerick. He drinks from a two-liter bottle of Devils Bit Cider and she drinks a can of raspberry-flavored White Claw.

Unfortunately, Conor gets too drunk. He’ll lose his phone and won’t remember if her name was Caoimhe or Aoife, or if she was studying nursing or occupational therapy.

But Conor won’t give up on the girl he thinks he loves and vows to go out every Tuesday night for the rest of the school year until he finds her. Eventually he meets the woman of his dreams in the middle of Eyre Square. He offers her some of his snack box, but she tells him she’s vegan.

This will be a point of contention in their relationship. Conor, whose family owns a lucrative dairy farm outside of town, believes vegans are the modern equivalent of witches.

Instead of moving and twitching and awkwardly saying “I don’t know” after each sentence, Conor and Aoife/Caoimhe will be unpredictable at times but full of heart.

She will defiantly stand up and yell, “You know what, I know. You’re fat,” every time he warns her, if she keeps drinking oat milk, she’ll get early osteoporosis.

These characters won’t think too much, and that’s key. In both book and television form, the characters are in conversations with friends and his predecessor normal people, were some of the deepest young adult thinkers I’ve ever met. Maybe it’s Trinity, but I’m not sure because I haven’t been there.

It’s possible my friends, I’m just not that smart, but you haven’t had enough time to think about who you were or what you were doing in my day.

For most of college you were terribly broke, living in a mouse-infested house with empty bottles on the windowsill, counting down to the next Thursday night.

Deep self-analysis comes later in life, usually around 26, when you’re on a crowded bus and someone is breathing straight into your mouth. It may be less aesthetic, but it is a life lived.

Well, the Irish writers hit me with their best shot. There is content to be found everywhere, from every city to small town to rural backwater.

I want a dark comedy about penniless UCC students who are seriously considering selling their passports to a shady man named Keith so they can buy a Commerce Ball ticket (I really didn’t make this up).

I want a friday night lights-like masterpiece about the epic ups and downs of Club GAA and a continuation of the epic story of Conor and Aoife/Caoimhe. Is he avoiding his dairy background and going vegan for his NUIG love?

Well, we’ll just have to wait and find out.