Sally Rooney was born in Castlebar, Ireland, as the middle of three children. Her father worked for a telecommunications company, while her mother ran an arts center. She disliked school but has described her parents as instrumental in her own intellectual and political development. She attended Trinity College, Dublin, and studied English literature before earning a master's degree in American literature. She also joined her university's debate team and won the 2013 European University Debating Championship. In "Even If You Beat Me," an essay about university debate published in the Dublin Review, Rooney discussed the problems and dilemmas of high-level debating.
That 2015 essay...
