Trespasses author reveals hopes for Northern Ireland’s future as Channel 4 drama arrives on screens

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Despite the significant religious differences in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants, both groups share nearly the same prayer, called the ‘Our Father’ or the Lord’s Prayer. A key line in this prayer asks for forgiveness in a way that connects it to offering forgiveness to others: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.’

Novelist Louise Kennedy, who was born in Holywood, County Down and raised in Dublin and Kildare, fondly recalls it being the first prayer she learned as a child. She remembers being struck by one of the words used: ‘Trespasses. It’s a strange word,’ she thought, ‘something like a sin, but bigger than that.’

Nearly fifty years after the original appeal for forgiveness, author Kennedy used it as the title of her first novel, Trespasses, published in 2022. The book was a finalist for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction and is now being adapted into a four-part drama for Channel 4. The story unfolds in Northern Ireland in 1975, amidst the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, and centers on a passionate affair between Cushla, a single Catholic teacher, and Michael, a married Protestant lawyer.

Kennedy describes a violation of religious and moral boundaries. However, the book also explores other kinds of boundary crossing – specifically related to social class and location, as the character Cushla ventures into unfamiliar areas of Belfast.

Essentially, this story shows how falling in love with the wrong person could lead to devastating, even fatal, consequences. The author explains that, historically, relationships often led to violence – people were publicly shamed, attacked, and even murdered – and were constantly subject to scrutiny and distrust.

The book depicts shocking violence against a secondary character due to their interfaith marriage [Catholic-Protestant]. However, the film presents this violence in a disturbingly clinical way, focusing on the physical details of injuries – swelling, bruises, and wounds. Author Kennedy believes this graphic detail is crucial, recalling how, as a child, she encountered news coverage of the Shankill Butchers trial – a group of loyalist paramilitaries known for torturing and murdering both Catholics and Protestants – and the impact it had on her.

The details of what happened to the victims were incredibly disturbing, and I spent a long time reading about it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I saw. It makes you wonder if someone should have prevented a young girl like me from seeing such awful things.

Kennedy admits the ever-present danger of death in her novel, Trespasses, likely stems from both historical research and her own experiences. She began writing fiction in 2019, while recovering from surgery for skin cancer, as a way to distract herself from her own mortality, aiming to write a thousand words each day. After the cancer returned as stage four in 2021, immunotherapy successfully treated the melanoma. As she puts it, she ‘probably should be dead – but I’m not.’

My play, Trespasses, is packed with cultural touchstones. In the television adaptation, I used old clips from shows like Mastermind and The Generation Game to evoke the era. Growing up in Belfast, television was very British – filled with comedians like Dick Emery and Morecambe and Wise. Every Sunday, you could watch any sport imaginable, but there was never any coverage of Gaelic football or hurling. I think this made the nationalist community feel overlooked, like their culture didn’t matter. It was as if we weren’t part of public life. For those interested in Irish culture and language, it created a feeling of being outsiders, of going against the grain.

I always thought shows set in Northern Ireland didn’t really catch on with viewers here in Britain, and it makes sense to me why. For years, the news was full of terrible things happening there – shootings, bombings, the hunger strikes – so people probably didn’t want to see more of that darkness even in a drama. But I think things are different now. Enough time has passed, and there’s a whole new generation who didn’t experience it and are genuinely curious to learn more about that period.

Trespasses is one example of a growing wave of successful Northern Irish art and entertainment, alongside works like Anna Burns’s award-winning novel Milkman and popular TV series. I tested Kennedy’s knowledge with a trivia question: where is the show Mastermind filmed? He didn’t know – the answer is Belfast! That’s also where major shows like Game of Thrones and Line of Duty were made.

She said it was a fantastic experience. The team behind ‘Trespasses’ had previously worked on successful shows like ‘The Fall’, ‘Blue Lights’, and ‘Derry Girls’, bringing a lot of expertise to the project.

Even though we’ve seen some benefits from the expected post-Cold War savings, Kennedy believes the government hasn’t delivered on other promises. He points out that ongoing problems and governmental inefficiency mean funds allocated from the central government often go unused.

Public services, such as the NHS, are severely underfunded and struggling. The Civil Rights movement began because people – particularly Catholics – faced discrimination when trying to find homes and get an education. These Catholic communities have continued to fall behind, and in some areas, conditions are now even worse than they used to be.

When asked if he believes the peace will last in Northern Ireland, Kennedy expressed hope that it will. He anticipates a vote on whether Northern Ireland should unite with Ireland will likely happen in the near future. This vote, as outlined in the Good Friday Agreement, must be held if officials believe a majority of people in Northern Ireland would support unification.

Growing up, the area was majority Protestant – around 60 percent. Now, it’s become majority Catholic, with about 51 to 52 percent identifying as Catholic. This shift represents a significant change, and I’m concerned it could lead to a resurgence of violence if a vote on the border is ever held.

In September of next year, a new novel called Stations by Kennedy will be released. The story follows two teenagers, one in Ireland and one in London, over two decades, from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Readers and those familiar with her work will likely be eager to see her continue to delve into the complex history of her homeland.

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2025-11-04 13:06