Do we like Sally Rooney?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing against LGBTQ+ people, women or the planet turned up, and she is paying a real price for one contested political stand.
Sally Rooney grew up in Castlebar, County Mayo, the middle of three kids, with a mum who ran the local arts centre and books everywhere. She wasn't a model student by her own account, but she joined a writing group at 15 and landed a place at Trinity College Dublin. Her politics took shape in her teens, during Ireland's abortion debate, and she was pleased with the 2018 referendum result.
The first big stoush was in 2021, when she refused to let Israeli publisher Modan do a Hebrew edition of her third novel. She said she backs the Palestinian-led BDS boycott, which she called an “anti-racist and nonviolent grassroots campaign”, and left the door open to a deal that met its rules. Israel's Diaspora Minister called BDS “anti-Semitism in a new guise”, and a political scientist argued it shut out readers because of their nationality.
The bigger one is Palestine Action, which the UK outlawed in July 2025 after activists sprayed red paint on two aircraft at an RAF base. Rooney wrote “I admire and support Palestine Action wholeheartedly”, and said the break-in involved no violence. Membership or support carries up to 14 years in prison in the UK, so where you land depends on whether you read the group as terrorism or as lawful protest that has been wrongly criminalised.
On the harm check, we found nothing from her on trans people, women, migrants or climate, and no work with people pushing harm. Her one contested position is Israel and Palestine. In May 2026 she backed a Hebrew edition of Intermezzo from an independent Israeli publisher that met BDS criteria, and she insisted she isn't targeting Israelis or their culture. Honest gap: her views on trans issues simply didn't turn up in what we read.
The recent fallout is the real story. Faber said it was an “unconscionable situation for a publisher”, and Rooney said further UK publishing could be a “serious criminal offence”. Ebooks are gone and some physical copies linger in shops. Jeremy Corbyn called the ban absurd, and in April she was one of 132 signatories, including Greta Thunberg, to a letter backing the group before a court hearing.
In June she told a Dublin event that marching and petitions had proved “completely inadequate to the challenge before us”, and urged people to act rather than just follow the news. Whether that reads as a call for civil disobedience or something sharper is for you to judge. She was clear about her own exposure, saying she is “wholly prepared to accept the consequences”.