Exploring the Irish Sea as a Metaphor of Trauma and Healing in Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time (2023)

This article examines the role of the Irish Sea in Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time (2023), elucidating how it serves as a metaphor of traumatic memories and healing. Focusing on protagonist Tom Kettle, a retired police officer grappling with personal and historical wounds, the study intersects trauma and ecocritical theories to decode the sea’s figurative resonance. The Irish Sea reflects Tom’s ruptured psyche and the ebb and flow of suppressed memories. The study argues how the dynamic duality of forgetting and remembering signifies both the burden of the past and the possibility of healing. Barry dexterously weaves the sea’s natural rhythms into Tom’s emotional odyssey, suggesting that healing emanates through the integrated conduit of confrontation and release. The study aims to contribute by embodying the binary of suffering and solace, theorizing the novel’s broader themes of memory, loss, and the redemptive power of nature.