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LGBT life in rural Ireland: Irish Times
I left Roscommon when I was 18, six years after I first realised I was gay. Two years later I came out. I saw Dublin as an escape, a place where I could finally be myself.
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Is Ireland still no country for young people?
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Travis Alabanza interview in The Irish Times
"I realised that – as a gender non-conforming person, as a trans person – I was so used to the harassment I was experiencing that even the quite ridiculous event of a burger being thrown at me didn’t stop me in my tracks.”
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How a homophobic micro-aggression affected me in the workplace
I was standing with a group of men in an old job and had just had my photo taken. One of the men made a joke about the photo and said I could use it as my Tinder profile picture if I wanted to. "Better not be Grindr!" one of the other men said. Everyone had a good laugh. I tried my best not to look perturbed and tried to laugh along too.
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Momo challenge: how the viral hoax took on a life of its own
This article appeared in The Irish Times on 2nd March 2019. By now, most people will have heard of the “Momo challenge.” The game allegedly encourages children and young people to contact an unknown number via WhatsApp, where they are then be tasked with a series of challenges by an anonymous user. Reporting around the Momo challenge has suggested that children may be told to harm themselves and, in some instances, even attempt suicide by the game. It is accompanied by a hard-to-forget image of a woman with bulging eyes and a wide smile. The Momo challenge has led to something of a panic – a response that would be…
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Finding your Irish family: ‘Looking out the airplane window I cried’
This article originally appeared on IrishTimes.com on 7 January 2019. When Jeanie Lewis, who is from Chicago, started tracing her family history a few years ago, she was able to find out a certain amount of information by herself. Her research revealed that she was descended from an Irishman who had taken part in the Fenian Rising of 1867, before emigrating to Chicago. She was able to access that information through an Irish centre in Chicago, but she wasn’t sure what to do next. Then, a few years ago, she discovered Ireland Reaching Out (irelandxo.com), an online initiative that calls itself a “reverse genealogy” project. Instead of waiting for people…
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Is Ireland still no country for young people?
This article originally appeared on IrishTimes.com on 29th December 2018. In the year up to April 2018, 12,500 people aged 15-24 left Ireland. The figure stands in stark contrast with the numbers who emigrated at the peak of the recession. Between April 2011-2012, 35,800 in the same age group emigrated in the face of an uncertain future in Ireland. While emigration has slowed dramatically, the recent figures – published by the Central Statistics Office in September – show that young people are still choosing to leave Ireland, despite economic recovery. While some choose to leave for adventure and to see the world, others are going for a better quality of…
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LGBT life in rural Ireland: Irish Times
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Lisa O’Neill interview in The Irish Times
I’ve been a huge fan of Lisa O’Neill’s for a few years now, so when the opportunity to interview her for The Irish Times presented itself, I was delighted. Lisa is a truly unique and incredibly talented Irish musician and her latest album, Heard a Long Gone Song, is truly wonderful. My interview with Lisa is below. It is notable that, when asked about her formative years, Irish folk musician Lisa O’Neill responds by saying that she accidentally poisoned herself when she was 18 months old by drinking rat poison. “I don’t know why I’m telling you that,” she laughs. “But it’s all part of the journey. I mean, there are…
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Hallucinations, tremors and sleep issues: when dementia doesn’t mean memory loss
Dementia is an incredibly important issue facing our society today, yet despite this, many people don’t understand that dementia does not always mean memory loss. Kevin Quaid spoke to me for an article in The Irish Times about what it’s like to live with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). “The worst part of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the hallucinations and the nightmares,” says 54-year-old Kevin Quaid from Cork. In the year-and-a-half since he was diagnosed with the condition, he has written a book about his experience, called Lewy Body Dementia, Survival and Me. He wrote it because not enough people know what it is, or know that dementia doesn’t always mean…
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Gaelscoil Sathairn London: New Irish language classes for children
I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview James McDonald, who is in the process of launching a new Gaelscoil in London for Irish parents who want their children to grow up speaking the Irish language. It’s an incredibly important initiative and gives the Irish abroad a chance to stay connected to their heritage and culture. This article was published by The Irish Times. The Irish language can be an incredibly important way for many Irish people living abroad to connect to their heritage and culture, but the endeavour becomes more challenging when they have children. Irish emigrants and their kids immediately miss out on the what most Irish…
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The Irish Times: The magic and loss of coming out in rural Ireland
It was a huge privilege to interview writer and performer Xnthony for a feature in today’s Irish Times. Xnthony is hugely talented and speaks so eloquently on the experience of growing up gay in rural Ireland. He’s bringing his new show, Confirmation, to this year’s Fringe Festival and tickets are on sale now. While Ireland’s marriage equality referendum in 2015 was a seminal moment for the country, it was also a seminal moment for Co Roscommon – but perhaps not in a very happy way. Roscommon-South Leitrim was the only constituency in the country to vote against same-sex marriage. Roscommon was quickly dubbed Ireland’s conservative backwater, and it became the subject of…
