Freelance Writer
Maybe it’s a reaction to the slow continuing churn of lockdowns, travel restrictions and the imminent end of summer, but I’ve been on a Parts Unknown binge this week, the travel show hosted by the charismatic and tragically late Anthony Bourdain. Naturally I began my journey in my home away from home, and the iconic…
Unable to yet switch off, I busy myself making notes on my phone on the ferry over from Roonagh, giving myself minor whiplash as I glance up and down from device to sea to mainland to the Island, jabbing away at the screen to make written records of shapes and colours and every adjective I…
Mountains beyond mountain. Photo by Yannic Läderach on Unsplash It started as a physical thing I’ve been doing yoga on and off, regularly and irregularly, for a few years now. Like a lot of lads, I started because I was interested in the physical side of it: the stretching, the flexing, the strength training that…
Photo by Fitsum Admasu on Unsplash After the scorching bank holiday weekend, I’ve realised that I might never have spent so much of my regular time outdoors as during the lockdown. In the last couple of months I’ve taken to running, walking, cycling and even just sitting outside as much as possible, often for a couple of hours…
Photo by Nathalie Désirée Mottet on Unsplash That’s not me in the photo obviously, but you get the idea. Running during lockdown – running away from home, if you will – has made me realise just all the things other than training that I love about the sport: the non-competitive, non-performance-enhancement side. To me they’re just as important…
Maybe he’s just a phone addict who likes to keep checking his cigarette? Photo by Charles Cheng on Unsplash Self-isolating at home, I should be in my element. All the time in the world to study and write, but work levels hit a bit of a slump over the week as I joined in with all the pandemic…
Me wearing a surgical mask I got in Japan. Not perfect, but it’ll help. Had to take off the shades as I looked too much like a thief and because breathing behind the mask makes them fog up. There’s a sign outside the café-cum-shop appealing to customers that they’re only letting in a “maximum of…
Photo by Henrique Craveiro on Unsplash “There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen.” – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin They say that frogs in a pot of water being brought to the boil won’t notice the temperatures rising beyond a critical point until it’s too late. This logic is often applied to political situations…
Photo by Ruby Doan on Unsplash Now it’s feeling like spring, despite the worst weather all winter. Years in Ireland last around 15 months, from January of one year to March of the next, such is the length of the winter. Spring is rarely counted, unless you’re into the league or the lambing, and it’s probably still the…
Westport Road near Clifden, Co. Galway. Photo by Mateusz Delegacz on Unsplash It’s the middle of February, and there’s a Fatima sun shining through the sleety, snowy, silver-grey skies. The weather is worse than that of slow January, which was cold but clear and dry. Fresh and invigorating. February has no time to waste, even in a…