Q&A with Tara Power

The writer of "My Dublin", Tara Power, has had a storied life after her extensive travelling all over the world. As well as her prose creation, she is an actor, and a lecturer in TU Dublin. There is no more authoritative voice better to discuss Dublin of past, present, and future. With Managing Editor, Emily Linehan they talk about the many inspirations for her piece, available to read now.

I loved all the friends you mentioned in your piece. Do any of these people influence your work? 

I was lucky enough to live in a part of Dublin where old and new met and mixed seamlessly.  When I started learning Irish in the local community center in Pearse street I encountered amazing, colourful characters that were born and raised in the area. Having moved around my entire life, I longed to feel part of a community, and these Dubliners, with their sharp wit and deep wisdom, welcomed me in with open arms and became a source of great inspiration. I was lucky to be able to afford to live as actor, to write film reviews and to study.  Looking back, I always think of this piece as glimpses of life from my bike.  I was writing my experience of living in Dublin as a twenty something year old artist and all these characters shaped this process.

Tell me about Dublin in 2007. Are there any differences or similarities with the city as it is today? 

Dublin at that time was magic. A heyday for me and for many of my friends, but just as 2007 was special for us, 2025 could be someone else’s heyday. There was a buzz and a pulse to the city that felt exciting and alive. There was music everywhere and I could survive as an artist living by the beach! Now, when I’m there the crowds spill off the footpath onto the streets and quiet corners of old pubs are harder to find. Things feel flashier and faster but it’s charm, creativity and culture still shine through and for an Asian food fanatic, Dublin 2025 is heaven. Many of my artist friends couldn’t afford to stay in Dublin making it noticeably harder to survive in the city as a creative. I miss the places that we used to meet- The Central Hotel for port at Christmas, The Globe for a boogie. The list is long.

What’s your writing style? I really enjoyed your snappy sentences and use of punctuation. I came across your work first at an open mic. Do you write pieces for the stage to be spoken aloud or do you focus on the aesthetic of the word written on the page?

It was really great to meet you at Burning Cave open mic.  I would say my writing style is stream of consciousness, woven by real-life interactions, conversation snippets and reflections of place and people. At the time that I wrote My Dublin I was reading a lot of beat poetry. I was also inspired by the short stories of Henry Miller, Sam Shepard and Raymond Carver. Back then I performed spoken word at open mic nights and dabbled in short comedy sketches. These days I also write short stories for children that I then develop into interactive dramas. One of those characters, a busy detective bee, is inspired by someone I met back in Dublin. As an actor who would love to write a one woman show, spoken word and sharing my stories in this way, feels like a safe place to begin that journey.  

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Tara Power

Tara is an actor, writer, lecturer and drama practitioner living in Clonmel, Tipperary. She writes prose, poetry and short stories, many of which she performs at spoken word nights. Tara lectures in TU Dublin on the Early Childhood and Social Care BA looking at the ways that drama education, creativity and play can be used in practice. She recently lived in Beijing,

China where she worked using drama with children. Tara weaves her adventures, different life perspectives and experiences into her writing. Tara loves to perform on stage and radio and is happiest when doing an interpretative dance.

Emily Linehan

Emily, a Tipperary native, has shown a great interest in all things literature from a young age. She has been published in the anthology Cork Words 2, Icarus, and is a 2021 runner-up in UCC's Eoin Murray Scholarship. After completing her M.Phil. in Creative Writing with Trinity, she is currently in TEFL teaching, and submitting furiously to literary journals.