2043 looks bleak: Limerick writer Dan Mooney discusses new novel
SITTING on a bench by the river, Limerick's Daniel J Mooney lights up a cigarette as dozens of seagulls encircle Howley’s Quay. Dan has always been a storyteller. Throughout his life, he has swapped tales at family reunions and penned pieces of creative fiction.
Next week, he will be launching his third book, The 14th Storm.
Dan cannot pinpoint the moment he realised he wanted to become a writer, it has always been part of him. In hindsight, there were a few moments that were formative in ways he did not realise.
“One of the local kids, Eva was the editor and she decided we were doing this kids' newspaper. I remember I was fascinated by the curse of Tutankhamun, so I wrote a fictional piece about someone disturbing his grave, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to me. But looking back on it, an 11-year-old kid, who was told to write something for a newspaper, and immediately went ‘I'll write a piece of creative fiction about Tutankhamun’,” he laughs.
Whenever his cousins would visit, Dan was the one telling them bedtime stories.
“I'd just make up some story where we're all the heroes, all based around the stuff that we were interested in as kids. That was how we ended almost every night,” he recalls.
With The 14th Storm, Dan has penned a gripping science-fiction story. 2043: the climate has finally changed. The planet is ravaged by violent storms and much of the world is now uninhabitable.
Amidst a world of hunger and desperate people, the Department of Environmental Justice have one mission - finding those who have denied climate change.
On the eve of the 14th storm, Broderick and Malley are asked to hunt the leader of a stirring rebellion, but something feels wrong. Their journey is upended by Fionnuala, a young and idealistic runaway who is hopeful for the future and desperate to save the target.
Together, the three of them must learn to adapt to the climate and the polarised groups if they are to survive.
He started writing this story in 2023. At the time, it might have seemed far-fetched, but not any more.
“In three short years, it feels less and less far-fetched as you watch the news,” says Dan before pulling on his cigarette.
“Anyone reading it in 2023 can imagine 20 years down the line. It's harder to imagine 60 years down the line. You're taken out of the story. I needed it to be immediate to people's consciousness.”
The main idea of the novel came from a sociological observation, even though Dan stresses he is not a sociologist. We all have been told we have to do our parts, take personal responsibility for climate change. A concept he explains with the example of paper straws versus plastic straws.
“The first thing was the concept of personal responsibility for climate change. It’s all on all of us, individually, to make the changes. Meanwhile, the main offenders, the largest contributors to carbon emissions, the ones who are really causing the problems... No sanctions. Or if there are sanctions, they can buy their way out of them. You can pay to offset your carbon footprint. And if you've got enough money, that's just licence to do whatever you want.”
Dan wondered - If people have personal responsibility for managing climate change, who will be to blame once a catastrophe happens?
“It will happen, and people are going to die in large numbers. Someone is to blame. You've told us all individually that we're responsible, so if we were all responsible and this happened, whose fault is it? Who didn't do enough?”
An idea Dan extrapolated in The 14th Storm while using cinematic writing. And with grey skies looming over Limerick, it’s not difficult to picture his three characters jumping out of the pages to warn us of the story that could soon become reality.
Although, Dan does not aim to shock, but rather, to surprise the readers.
"I want readers to be jarred just slightly by the characters’ perspectives. I like the characters to have that ability to kind of stun a reader a little bit with a perspective that may not have been anticipated. Not trying for the sake of... shock or for the sake of a twist. This stuff has become very, very applicable in scary ways, and I just wonder if people who read it are gonna find that too.”
His Treaty City gets quite a few mentions in the book - after all, he absolutely loves the place. When he worked in Dublin, Dan used to get really cranky whenever someone badmouthed his city.
“I was doing the radio news and get people talking about Stab City and ‘Limerick’s a sh*th*le’. I used to get really defensive about it. I'd get annoyed with people, and I'd be like ‘You have no idea what Limerick is like, come down and see it. I'm getting a little bit older, and I'm like ‘Good, stay away’. What we've got is a nice little thing going on here. We have a beautiful arts scene, sports, culture, music going on.”
If there is one thing that inspires him about Limerick, it’s people getting stuff done - like the man juggling with fire who briefly catches his attention.
“What, are you telling me I can't? Watch me. That attitude that Limerick has, that's infectious, I love it,” he says.
Perhaps it's with the same attitude that Dan wears a large ruby red ring on his finger.
“It was given to me and intended to be a joke. Like, you're never going to wear that. Because it's obviously very large and extremely showy. And I put it on, and now I won't take it off, because I just think that's funnier that I wear it,” he laughs.
Once his book makes its way onto the world, Dan intends to enjoy a retreat. “I’m going to find a cottage somewhere, on my own, with my laptop and two bottles of whiskey. I’m just gonna write and sip for a week. That’s a lovely, soothing thought for me - that everything will be done.”
The 14th Storm will be launched on Wednesday, November 15 at 6.30pm in O’Mahonys Booksellers.