I took a bit of a #Substack sabbatical last quarter.
I can't explain it; it just sort of happened. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with this little newsletter community I’ve started building, or - to be blunt - why I was doing it; so I took a pause.
I enjoy writing, and like a lot of people I think I do it to make sense of the world around me. I didn’t have, or hadn’t created, an outlet for that curiosity and creative energy.
During the pandemic I took-up cycling in a big way. I was not ‘on the road’, traveling for work any more, so in addition to all the cycling I dug back into reading more; something I’ve always enjoyed, but had silently-traded for too-much binging and streaming.
Someone suggested I pick up a copy of a book by the late Irish travel writer, Dervla Murphy, called A Place Apart. That book began to change the way I think about my own origin story, and think about the place I am from: Northern Ireland. I’ll talk a lot more about her book, and where it sent me, as April goes along.
Somewhere late in the pandemic — maybe around the third wave - I made the seemingly-intemperate decision to write a book. Doing so before I really started ‘writing’ seriously, was the wrong order in which to approach this. I know, I know: Insert journey/destination metaphor here.
Since then I’ve conducted over thirty interviews, cycled around Northern Ireland during an election campaign, read a lot of books, listened to many audiobooks and podcasts, consumed long-form journalism and great magazine pieces.
And I’ve started asking my parents and members of my family lots and lots of (sometimes uncomfortable) questions.
But I kept getting in my own way, and often mostly in my own head, about it all.
Then a series of friends were sent by some force in the universe to offer me the advice I needed, in the ways I needed to hear it.
After a walk in the woods, a friend sent me some advice. He pulled out this quote, and embedded it in a text reminding me that I’m a storyteller, whether I believe it, or not.
Then during a phone call with a friend from out west, both of us catching up on life between kids’ activities, I was reminded that books - if there’s to be a book in this anywhere, and ultimately there doesn’t have to be - are best thought of in the context of something more like a decade.
That hit me like a wave of relief, rather than as a shock of despair. I felt I could relax into the process more.
That phone call was followed quickly by these words from a retired journalist, whose advice and perspective I have benefited greatly from over the years. After I shared something about recurrent imposter syndrome concerns, they said two things that resonated strongly, because one is objectively true, and because two is so simple:
You can’t impersonate yourself.
Write about this subject that matters to you in the way it matters to you.
The last chapter of the profound-advice-from-friends came from a woman I’ve known since just before time the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, when we were both at University. She gave me permission to be myself, while gently-but-incisively pointing out the lengths I’d been going to not to do that; to bury myself behind an academic or reportage veneer.
She also turned me on to a book I’m sure many of you know - but which I have fallen for - Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott.
I’m taking all that advice to ❤️ as I re-orient myself to why I write, how I write, and what I write about. As one person said, “…it doesn’t matter if the length is a newspaper column, a magazine article or a book. The right length is whatever you need to tell the story and do it justice, no less, no more.”
Thanks, universe, for the nudge.
As I orient myself to this approach, I was trying to think about how best I want to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Belfast Agreement (“Good Friday Agreement”) of April 10, 1998.
As I work on whatever-this-is: a book, or some other form of a ‘confession and a struggle to understand things about myself and this world in which I live’, I thought I’d share some of it with you.
There will be a lot of new ‘content’ generated this month, some surrounding the Agreement 25 Conference (which you can livestream all or part of at that link), hosted by Secretary Clinton - in her role as Chancellor of Queen’s University in Belfast - and President Clinton. This event will feature many of the GFA negotiators themselves, and policymakers, influencers and peacekeepers. It will not, as I will allude to in a future post, include some of the young change-makers in Northern Ireland.
But, my point is — you may well be inundated this month with reporting about the anniversary of the GFA, Northern Ireland today, and into the future.
My small contribution to that this month will be to put together a series of posts this month, themed: A Month of Good Fridays. I’ll aim to publish a few times a week, with:
Edited, condensed interviews with some folks who generously gave me some of their time (and, often tea!) - and from whom I learned a great deal; and I hope you will, too. These are religious figures, current and former politicians, former paramilitaries, civil society leaders, and everyday citizens;
Poetry and music that has helped me to better understand and appreciate the perspectives in, of and about Northern Ireland over the years; and,
Some personal essays.
I recognize that to go from getting none of me last quarter, to a lot of ‘me’ in your inbox this month, may be too much. My hope and intent is to help bring some educated and intimate perspectives about Northern Ireland, interspersed with some poetry, music, and personal reflections.
Some of you joined this list as a referral from some photography Substacks, like
and -- for which I'm very grateful. I’ll promise to include media in each post- links, recommended reading and listening, and definitely photos - and would similarly welcome any recommendations you may have for me to check-out, or share with others - or any pics you've taken in Ireland posted in the comments!If you think someone else might be interested in this month’s focus, please please share, so they can subscribe. I don’t know exactly where this series will go - but I’ve got a lot of material, ideas and perspectives (especially from some really interesting people) to share; I’d love it if you’ll join me on this journey, and indulge me as I figure it out.
Here’s a piece of music for you; Happy Monday.