Summer 2015 plans

I am home now, back in Ireland, in between the sea and the Cave Hill. I wake in the morning to the sound of my mother and father whispering loudly on the landing, the smell of soda bread and fresh coffee. The house is warm and there is always fresh, clean towels folded neatly in the hot press. The swans are gliding in graceful circles on the pond opposite our house and the linen mill is still standing. I find that being away from a place brings you closer to it and I feel a connection to my own little country that I never had when I was living there. So many times whilst living in Bath, I have longed for someone to take their head phones out while we stand waiting for the bus and tell me how their day was, I've longed for shop keepers to rest their hand on my arm when they're talking to me but English people aren't familiar like the Irish. Many times when I've lain in bed, I've missed the gritty smell of the city and the earnest honesty the Belfast people have. There's no folks like home folks - they're the best of all.

Second year of University is over and another summer stretches out before me - long, dusty, winding. It's my last summer as a student before I'm thrown into the world and forced to become an adult. I hear other's around me talking about how afraid they are at the thought of 'growing up' but I am not afraid, It's recently occurred to me how blessed I am, how privileged I am to be a woman in this day and age. I can do whatever I please, be anyone I want, go where I please and when I please. I always depended on another person but now, more than ever, I'm craving independence.


My parents paid for me to do an online TEFL course and so my summer is going to be devoted to getting the qualification. I long to go away, to work in another part of the world and see how people live. It's occurred to me the importance of travelling and seeing the world for God commanded in Genesis for people to 'spread out and populate the earth.' There is so much beauty, wonder and joy in this world and I believe it's our duty to spend our time wisely. Communication is the basis of life and giving someone else the gift of communication is one of the highest gifts there is. The English language is beautiful and I can't wait to reconstruct it, analyse it, reconstruct it, retain it and then pass it onto another.

This summer is also the time for exploration, self improvement, working and travel. I am working in the Jane Austen Centre, mostly at the weekends and I really do love my job. I'll be moving into my new house and living with five wonderful and inspiring girls. I've been interested in how things grow and so my new house mate Morien and I will be planting some sunflowers and pumpkins and tending our little garden. I''ll be working on my novel, trying to write some articles and reading as much as I can. I also want to learn to drive (more freedom) and travel round England with my new rail pass and a sense of wonder and curiosity. I am also going to Wilderness festival which will probably be a bit of an experience and I'm travelling to Switzerland in September so there is plenty to fill my time.

You have to keep moving, keep looking forward and live with passion and conviction. You must
give the soul as well as the heart.

Book Review of 'Nora Webster' by Colm Tóibín

The cover of ‘Nora Webster’ is like an old photograph, salvaged from a box hidden somewhere in the attic: the woman, huddled in her forest green coat, stares out at sea. The title of the novel is simple- it is about a woman called Nora Webster. Like so many Irish modernist novels, nothing much happens in the book which some readers may find this dull and interesting.  There is no fast-moving-action-packed plot line so don’t read this novel if that’s what you’re looking for. What you will find is a story rich in details, colourful in characterization and golden in details of the innate, inner life.  

The novel is set in a little town called Enniscorthy, in the South-East of Ireland. Nora Webster has been recently widowed and must face the daunting task of bringing up her sons on her own, being strong for her two grown up daughters, dealing with criticism and advice from all those around her and being the sole breadwinner of the family. Nora faces the challenges any widow must face but she draws great strength from music and singing which enables her to move past her husband Maurice’s death, let go of her old life and allow her to start living again.

What I loved so much about ‘Nora Webster’ was the sheer ordinariness of the novel. Colm Tóibín’s glorifies the simplicity of life in a small Irish town and the novel reads almost like a memoir.  The passage which has stayed with me the most, is when Nora goes to her clean out their old seaside holiday home and comes to the realisation that that happiness is over - they would pass no more summers there:

 ‘She would not come here again. This is the last time she’d visit this house. What surprised her was the hardness of her resolve, how easy it seemed to turn her back on what she loved, leave this house on the lane to the cliff for others to know for others to come to in the summer and fill with different noises. She let herself feel how much she had lost, how much she would miss.’

What I did struggle with however was Nora herself and I was not completely sure whether or not I liked her. She seemed hardened and desensitised to all that was going around her and I often felt she was selfish. Her sisters, Catherine and Una didn’t seem to like her all that much either. The novel is set over a three year period so Nora wasn’t raw with grief and the novel is more the aftermath of tragedy but I would have liked to see a bit more emotion from the character. 

Whether I liked Nora Webster or not is not the issue for Colm Tóibín has painted a portrait so true to life that it reflects on all of humanity. Tóibín sheds light on the gift of music and the importance creativity has on the healing process which I find a such a beautiful and simple resolve to the novel.