“Spain is better than Ireland in historical memory”

The Irish writer John Banville who returns under his pseudonym Benjamin Black with ‘the drowned’ (alfagura), considers that Spain is “much better” than Ireland in historical memory, Because in your native country there is a tendency to “forget.”

“Spain is much better in the sense of historical memory. People who live in Ireland have the gift of forgetting and have allowed people who govern the church to do horrible things to young women, children and the population, people in generateL “, he answered a question from Europa Press during a meeting with the writer.

In that sense, Banville, who has established a comparison between the two countries, has assured that you cannot “forget” without taking into account the past, and that is one of the reasons why it is not “as popular” in Ireland as It is in Spain, because in his books that “dark” story reviews.

“There are many comparisons between Spain and Ireland. When I came here in the 60s, Spain was very Irish, removing food and weather. You had a dictator and we had a dictator. You had the Catholic Church. In those days it was a police state and this was Ireland, “he said.

Despite reiterating on several occasions that it is not “politician” Banville, who received the Princess Asturias Award from Las Letras in 2014, he explained that the Spanish monarchy, a country from which he feels very close, has a “civilizing influence.”

“I admire the Spanish government, also to the Spanish royal family. For me it was an honor and something wonderful to receive the award. Kings are a civilizing influence within Spain“He added.

In ‘the drowned’ the author takes up his characters from Dr. Quirke and his partner the inspector Strafford to investigate a homicide in the rural Ireland of the 50s with which the Church or politicians intertwine with the lives of the lives of the characters.

“What I like of the inspector Stratford is that he is an impossible character in real life. We are talking about a person who has been raised in a middle -class Protestant family, clearly in the 50s in Ireland in real life I would never have been able to work in police as he does. In fact, I wanted to give a perspective of the Protestants in Ireland because they will be almost 50% and it is not that They had an influence but there were consequences of the number of people who had Protestants in Ireland at that time“He pointed out.

“Political correction is coming to an end”

“Yes, it is something (the political correction) that is coming to an end. We are returning more to a slightly more realistic attitude, but it is true that in the case of the United States, a big problem is coming. The tendency to correction was something very typical of liberals“Banville has reflected.

In that sense, he has appreciated that the situation of the United States under the government of Donald Trump, as well as his policies so linked to religion, is something that can be replicated in the rest of the countries, although he hopes to be little time.

“America is still very powerful. But it will not be for a long time because I am convinced that Trump has problems with Putin. And probably with China too. But, I’m not a politician, “he explained.