There is  a heatwave in Dublin. I’ve been dividing my time between gorgeous libraries and parks crowded with tourists, office workers, and seagulls. All of us are too hot, but can’t quite bring ourselves to wish for rain. I have been lucky, however, as I reach the midway point of my Summer One research project, for such glorious sunshine to accompany my journey back to Dublin 84 years ago. 

When I started this project in the middle of June I was overwhelmed by all that lay ahead of me. My initial plans were broad and spiraling, and I had convinced myself I would somehow read everything ever published on The Bell, including its issues; all fourteen years of them. With gentle and welcome guidance from my supervisor, this was narrowed down to six years, spanning the period of the Second World War, or The Emergency, as it was known in the politically neutral Éire. A much better place to start. 

My two weeks rushed by in a haze of Trinity concrete and the blue-green of the National Library. It has been a privilege to work in such a beautiful space, even if I cannot bring my pens up to the reading room. It is also wonderful to return to the familiar Trinity libraries in the quiet summer where I can sit anywhere, and ensure that my desk always has a plug socket. With bound volumes of The Bell and a stack of books on Irish literary and social history, I have spent my time in good company, and remembered too why I was so looking forward to my research summer in the first place. 

At some point during the second week, immersed in the bombs falling on Belfast and the small tensions of life in growing Irish towns, I realised that the short fiction that drew me in and inspired me all seemed to come from a single year. With the encouragement of my supervisor during a weekly meeting, we decided that the coincidence was too perfect not to pursue, and my project, once overwhelming, gained a new, sharper focus. This past week has been one of clarity, and having previously only stared at the blank document dedicated to my research poster, I feel now as though I finally have somewhere to go. There is still much to be done in the next three weeks, but my vision is clearer than it was.  

At the beginning of Summer, a group of brilliant former scholars told us that things would not always go the way we were planning, yet, had a funny way of working out and revealing new paths to follow. Turns out they were right, I knew all along that they would be. I am looking forward to seeing where my research will take me in the next few weeks and hope that the weather holds.