Honest story of Nuala î Faol‡in compelling viewing

Date Published: {J}

If anyone thought that a documentary made by broadcaster Marian Finnucane about her late friend, Nuala Ó Faoláin, would be a sweet portrayal of the writer, they were very much mistaken.

‘Nuala: a Life, a Death’ aired on RTÉ One last week, was one of the most moving – and shocking – documentaries I have ever seen.

Granted, it was longer than most programmes at one hour and 45 minutes, giving the producers ample time to cover the writer’s terrible childhood, her adventurous and full career in both broadcasting and print journalism and finally to her public battle with cancer.

Her radio interview with Marian just weeks before her death was compelling because of its honesty. In fact, some of the interview was used to narrate the television documentary, making her words all the more poignant.

Though I was enthralled by Nuala’s life, I was shocked by her revelations about the Phelans’ home life where her father, Terry O’Sullivan, was one of the best known social columnists in the country (and paid as much as an editor) and her mother a reluctant homemaker. Both parents were absent in different ways, the father by his socialising with young mistresses all over Dublin and further afield, and the mother through her alcoholism which saw her drinking from early evening until midnight in the local pub, leaving the nine children to fend for themselves.

Two of Nuala’s brothers died because of drink and the appalling childhood had an obvious detrimental effect on all of the children. It didn’t need a psychologist to tell you that much.

While many would question the programme maker’s decision to further publicise Nuala’s private life, it is fair to say that she herself courted publicity all of her life, even when she was dying. Her interview with Marian was shocking because of its raw honesty.

Many might have felt Nuala’s airing of her fears of dying, her fears of waiting for death and her regrets at so much about life in general was undignified but that interview drew an unprecedented response from listeners, giving Nuala some comfort and obviously giving Marian some leverage to turn her friend’s life into a full documentary. Again some viewers might have been offended by the exposure of a family’s private life.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.