The Prompt - 'Tearing it Down' with author Dave Rudden
For the latest episode of RTÉ Radio 1's new writing showcase The Prompt, author Dave Rudden chose the prompt 'Tearing it Down'.
Dave's bestselling novel Knights of the Borrowed Dark won Children's Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2016 and is now a syllabus text.He has also authored multiple works in the Doctor Who universe. Since 2022, he has served as an Ambassador for Ireland Reads and is currently Writer-in-Residence for the Kids Love Books podcast on RTÉ, as well as Artist-in-Residence at Dublin City University.
He tells Zoë Comyns that he used to be a teacher and believes that every kid is a 'story kid'. Dave started to focus on writing for children knowing they would tell him exactly what they thought of his work: 'Adults will be polite and kids will be honest'.
Dave selected three pieces blind from the shortlist of submissions sent into The Prompt:
C O'Shea - From Da Ground Up
J Anthony - Nightshift
A Bell - On Waking to More of the Same 2024
L El Gammal - On Ruido
P Shine - The Reformer
S Meehan - The Egg
P McNally - Crazy Dash
R Callaghan - A Daughter of Dissidence
The first piece selected for broadcast was by Lobna El Gammal, entitled On Ruido. Lobna is an Egyptian-Canadian based in Ireland. Lobna describes herself as "part engineer, part poet, full human," dabbling creatively at the intersection of Art and Science. She draws inspiration from nature, diaspora experiences, the Islamic faith, and the Arabic language.
Many submissions to the prompt 'Tearing it Down' pexplored today's global uncertainty — politically and environmentally and Lobna's piece begins as prose and morphs into poetry.
Lobna explores how the air metaphorically and literally carries our words and how little control we feel we have over this.
'The news channels have been warning us not to breathe too much this week. Red is the colour they choose to mark danger; it is the colour of our insides. The government says there are too many particles in the air, its quality index too high. I wonder what they were saying to smog the skies like this, to choke the breath out of air.
It's bad timing. I was planning to tell you that I love you this week'
This repeated line runs throughout "I was planning to tell you that I love you this week" highlighting the urgency and vulnerability of trying to express love in the chaos of the world.
Listen to last week's episode of The Prompt: 'A World Without'
The second piece in the programme selected by Dave is from Amanda Bell, echoing themes from Lobna's On Ruido — questioning who holds power and agency for change:
Protesters fill the streets in desperate throngs,
keen to make vicarious amends.
The carpet bombing carries on.
Can faith in social structures be kept strong
confronted with malevolent intent?
I dreamt the past had ended; I was wrong.
It tackles complicity and futility in responses to modern conflict. Amanda Bell is a writer, editor, and award-winning poet who has published seven books,and she says this villanelle came from two ideas: "First, the concept of waiting for the past to end. I have young adult children, elderly parents, and as an individual I feel constantly on the cusp of life-changing events, but then that is the circle of life – no beginnings or endings, just cycles."
Has human nature been thus, all along –
debate the laws of war, pursue revenge
while carpet bombing carries on?
I dreamt the past had ended; I was wrong.
"Second, once the destruction of Gaza began.. my overall feeling was that humans have learned nothing from history beyond brute aggression. The prompt 'Tearing it Down' spoke to me not only of the epic destruction of infrastructure, but also of any semblance of civilised society."
Listen: Dave Rudden talks to Brendan Courtney
For Dave Rudden, the piece expresses "a frustration….we're supposed to have systems that stop this and they're not working, maybe they never worked, but we're being confronted constantly with the situation that rules and bonds don't seem to matter when cruel people want to do cruel things."
The final piece in the episode is by Peter Shine, originally from Roscommon, Ireland, and now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and son. He works as a Program Coordinator at the University of Texas.
An actor as well, Peter has performed with Fregoli Theatre, Austin Shakespeare, Decadent Theatre, and Druid Theatre.
His piece takes the prompt in an entirely different direction; in his piece The Reformer, a man is tethered to a school quad, a ghost bound by time and place. He witnesses the endless building, tearing down and rebuilding of the world around him.
'After the school was levelled, Thomas would wake and rise and walk in that same spot undisturbed by the detritus underfoot. No matter the strange surroundings he awoke to, Thomas was steadfast in his ritual. For a time, he awoke in a hallway with long bright lights overhead. Then it was a great big room. Then a series of small rooms, another hallway, then a gap between two buildings. Then came a time when there was nothing but bare, barren land. Then a thicket of trees. Then a clearing. Then Thomas would wake and find himself among structures that defied understanding. This, then, gave way to a time without structure - where Thomas had been told to stay until he was told otherwise.'
Dave chats about how this writer explores a ghost's perspective when they're doomed to repeat the same routine forever: "They're seeing what's going on but they're not really understanding it…and cannot piece the mystery together' for themself. 'If there was a chance for people to understand this person's [the ghost's] story, those people are gone and now this person is haunting a clearing or a forest and no one even recognises who they might have been."
Horror is very much Dave Rudden's territory - his latest book is Conn of the Dead, a tale written for children that takes on horror, necromancers and zombies.
Zoë and Dave discuss how kids cope well with the horror genre. Conn in Conn of the Dead has individual and behavioural needs and through writing the book Dave realised he shares many neurodivergent traits with Conn. The character harnesses these traits to tackle the villain in the book.
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