Writer | Podcasts | Environment
February is not a warming month, and Ireland went ten days this month without sunshine. All the same it’s the beginning of spring. In the lanes I started to see ewes lambing. The pond is filling up with frogspawn. There’s early veg and seeds to plant. I could start to dig again. Anyone following my …
Sinn Féin disappointed many supporters and allies in June of 2024 when they joined the DUP in supporting a British policy to temporarily ban puberty blockers for trans youth. This was a block originally brought in by the Tories, extended by Keir Starmer, when Northern Ireland was something of a loophole for the block in …
Continue reading "How Have Sinn Féin’s LGBT+ Policies Changed So Much in Just Five Years?"
As a kid you fed the crows in the garden behind your parents’ house. You liked that they learned not to be afraid of you over time.
Originally publishing in Catflap magazine (November 2021) There were two reasons I became a champion tree climber as a child. Firstly, because I loved it, the shapes of the branches and glow of the leaves when the light came through, the whisper of the breeze like the promise of something magical about to happen. Secondly, …
For every person I’ve met proclaiming the necessity for real art, I’ve met at least two more people too terrified to share their passion. Asking a young writer, still trying to find their voice in a world of such infinite mass media and “content”, to compare themselves to James Baldwin… That seems unfair. Either shape a generation or shut up? Should we be joking at a time like this?
I have always watched fires burn. As a child, playing with matches Older, piling the wood in the grate better than my dad Later as a circus performer until my knees got bad I have always stopped and watched Captured by the heat And the flicker bittersweet. Bruno Kelly (Reuters) Man Working in a Burning …
Advice for girls who wake up smelling smoke: the fire isn’t lit yet, And if they come to take you to the pyre scratch every bit of them you can get. Even executioners have eyes. I’d advise you to drink honey in the mornings to keep your voice sweet No one came when you screamed …
Continue reading "Advice for Girls Burnt as Witches in Past Lives"
The problem with “sustainable lifestyle” bloggers is that they’re liars. That does not mean that they are always lying on purpose or that a sustainable or minimalist lifestyle is not a good thing to have but ultimately, they’re selling you something, an ideal, and like much you will be sold in your life – …
Continue reading "Sustainable Lifestyle Bloggers Lie But it’s OK"
My mother says when her hands are inside the soil that is how she goes to church. It took me two decades to really understand. It took me finding my own piece of land. Five square feet of neglected backyard, but it was mine Well, it was rented and not for a particularly long time …
Orla ní Dhúill 