It’s an uncharacteristically sunny and warm October day in Dublin when I sit down at Il Caffe de Napoli to meet with Bridget Farrell, founder of Bullaun Press. We’ve met to discuss her and Bullaun Press’ recent emergence into the – admittedly crowded – Irish publishing scene. What Bullaun Press does, though, is something different than the traditional plug-and-chug nature of large publishing houses readers may be familiar with. Bullaun Press works only with works in translation, whether into or out of English, and makes a concerted effort to maintain the voice of both author and translator throughout the process.
The company came out of the pandemic, like many others, and was fostered by Farrell’s own fascination with translated works – and her desire to see more of them.
“I was so interested in translation and it was really bugging me why there were no books in translation being published here so it was just on my mind for a long time,” said Farrell. “And I realised I was actually waiting for someone else to do it, and no one else was. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna give this a go.’”
Farrell and I agreed that both contemporary and historical Irish literature has had its day in the sun with translation: just a few weeks ago I attended a talk by Booker winner Anne Enright and the Polish and Romanian translators responsible for putting her latest novel The Wren, the Wren into their respective languages. Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been translated into more than 30 different languages. Since Irish literature has disseminated its way across the world, I asked Farrell, isn’t it only fair that Irish readers get a taste of other cultures as well?
“I think the big word is reciprocity,” said Farrell. “Take, for example, the Dublin Literary Award, that’s been won by books in translation many times. It’s not that we aren’t readers of books in translation, we definitely are, and supporters of it, so this [Bullaun Press] just seems like another step in that direction.”
The first book published under Bullaun Press, I Am Lewy, is an English translation of Eoghan Ó Tuairisc’s 1977 novella An Lomnochtán– the first ever English appearance of the work. It’s no simple feat to preserve the Irish language’s haunting, melodic tone, and Ó Tuairisc’s own depiction of a six-year-old boy’s inner mind along with it, but translator Mícheál Ó hAodha does so with seamless grace.
Translating works from Irish is a delicate topic to traverse with any publisher – should such a language as English, which spent years fundamentally colonising Irish out of existence, be given the privilege of hosting a book like An Lomnochtán? To her credit, Farrell has clearly considered this topic at length, and Irish is no small matter in Bullaun Press’ ethos; the company was birthed on the Gaeltacht island of Inis Mór, though her and the press have since relocated to Sligo.
“I think, for a start, you can say the fact that the novels are being written in Irish means that the authors very much wanted them to appear in Irish,” said Farrell. “So perhaps to immediately translate them into English would not even be the appropriate thing to do. I’ve only worked with one particular translator [who works] from Irish and he is amazing. He’s a writer in his own right, as well, and that really shows through. That book was 40 years old, the author was dead – the author’s widow happened to be alive, and she’s an Irish language poet, so she was able to get quite involved with the translation.”
Bullaun Press doesn’t only work with Irish authors and translators, though; its most recent release, There’s a Monster Behind the Door, was written by French author Gaëlle Bélem and translated into English by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert. The novel, originally published in French in 2020, has received mass critical acclaim and was launched in Books Upstairs in October to a full house – a testament to the growing popularity of novels in translation in the country. Notably, the cover features all three women’s names in prominent pink-and-white lettering.
Indeed, in any work published by Bullaun Press, the reader will notice the translator’s name always appears on the front cover, right next to the original author. Unlike many other translated works, which feature the translator’s name on the back cover or front page, Bullaun Press’s translators are – rightfully – treated as a second author of the novel, a key cornerstone of the work’s completion.
Recognising translators’ expertise is only one of many key points that pepper all of Bullaun Press’ imprints. Another? Recognising translation as a method of cultural exchange. Though the books come from across the globe and, ostensibly, very different cultures, there are still themes that ring true for every reader, in every language, a testament to the power of translation, Farrell says.
“There are a few themes that always seem to appear [in Bullaun Press’ books],” said Farrell. “One of them would be to do with language itself, to an extent, but mostly identity, that cultural identity not necessarily being fixed. [Am Lomnochtán] is told from the point of view of a little boy and the narrator grew up in Ballinasloe – within his family there was a division and conflict about identity. A lot of the theme of the book centres around identity and trying to understand identity through language. The Austrian book that we did [Without Waking Up by Carolina Schutti, translated by Deirde McMahon], the author is from a Polish background, and there’s a big theme in the book is she’s looking for her mother tongue that she lost.”
There’s a Monster Behind the Door is available in shops and online now, as well as Bullaun Press’ other imprints, including I Am Lewy. Bullaun Press encourages readers to buy from independent bookstores whenever possible.
