From The Archives: Paul Murray on family secrets, loneliness and The Bee Sting

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From the archives this month: Dua’s February 2025 conversation with Irish author Paul Murray, on his novel The Bee Sting. An epic family saga set in contemporary Ireland, the novel follows the Barnes family through financial collapse, fractured relationships and the secrets that have shaped their lives across generations. Paul talks about growing up in 1990s Ireland, a country deeply influenced by the Catholic Church and its conservative values, and how that environment dictated what people could or couldn’t say about themselves. He and Dua discuss the loneliness of adolescence, the ‘friendships’ that define those years and the difficulty of leaving behind relationships that no longer serve…