Ravensbrück 1945-2025
Why did five Irish women end up in Ravensbrück Concentration camp in World War II? They were like me, you or someone you know –nun, secretary, nanny, au pair and mostly anonymous until now. In February 2025 the Irish Embassy…
Writing ~ Re-connecting
Writing ~ Re-connecting
Why did five Irish women end up in Ravensbrück Concentration camp in World War II? They were like me, you or someone you know –nun, secretary, nanny, au pair and mostly anonymous until now. In February 2025 the Irish Embassy…
On 14th November, 2024, the first 19 Stolpersteine/stumble-stones were laid in Wunstorf. the Heimat of my partner, Schorse. Stolpersteine are small brass plaques inscribed with individual names and details of their extermination or persecution by the Nazis. Anybody who didn’t…
XBorders is a new cross-border project bringing together emerging writers to explore and write about borders through fiction or non-fiction. As part of the Irish Writers Centre’s Northern Irish programme, writers from across Ireland will work on the theme of…
Lia Mills (libranwriter.com) article on why there are so many Irish writers. She blames the weather. Read her blog and read her novel, Fallen, if you haven’t already. I defy you to find a better literary representation of 1914-16 in Dublin.…
What makes a writer? Prompted by the Leipzig Book Fair in March, Suzanne Rippenberger’s article in the German newspaper, Taggespiegel explores „second book syndrome“. She claims the second book crisis it heightened by the writer’s consciousness of the time between…
Saturday 29th November between 2.30 and 4pm at Chorlton Library, Manchester M21 9PN. My novel, „Bone and Blood“ internationally available from 28th November will be celebrated at an event with proceeds to the Bhopal Medical Appeal. (see www.bhopal.org for the…
In my novel, „Bone and Blood“, a young woman, Aisling, regrets choices she has made. Is she responsible for those choices? Is she a victim or is it more complicated than that? Are her choices corrupted by ambiguity, secrecy and…
Reading to understand myself and others has been in my blood since I first examined the picture of the British Houses of Parliament on the bottle of brown sauce, that accompanied the Irish family fry, and persuaded a sibling to…

On 25th October, my novel, Bone and Blood will be launched in Schoeneberg, Berlin in a Chapel in the cemetery, St. Alter-Matthaeus Kirchhof, Grossgoerschenstrass 12-14, Berlin 10829. The first 50 who have already responded to the invitation are invited for…
2012 will be the year of big changes. I want to reclaim my social network by using this blog as a newsletter. I plan to let you have a look at progress on the garden, my writing and the self-catering…