In 2007, playwright and novelist Lucy Caldwell had the vision to be one of the few writers to tackle the subject of teen suicide in her play “Leaves”. The script for the play won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright and the Druid Theatre Company put the play on in London.
Lucy, being from Northern Ireland, was keeping up to date with news stories from home and read an article about the Niamh Louise Foundation. She made contact with Catherine McBennett, Co-Founder, and went on to dedicate “Leaves” to the memory of Niamh McKee. Catherine and James were privileged to be invited by Lucy to watch the play in London and over the years, keen to keep the topic alive and reduce stigma, Lucy has continued to keep in contact with the Foundation.
We were delighted to be contacted by her once again as Lucy’s short story collection “Multitudes” has been selected as the Irish Times Book Club choice for the month of September with one of the stories in the collection, “Killing Time”, which won the Commonwealth Writers Award (Canada & Europe) in 2014, being about a teen suicide attempt.
To mark this, Lucy conducted an interview with Catherine about the Niamh Louise Foundation, its work, and the topic of teen mental health.