Marie H. Curran's Blog

Those who read my regular column in Athenry News and Views know my stance when it comes to social media – for those of you unaware, it’s a simple stance. I don’t partake -.

As for data. I don’t shop online or subscribe to things online. Quite simply, I don’t trust online.

I began this blog so as to raise awareness around an illness that effects too many people worldwide and over the course of the last few years I’ve almost pulled the plug on my musings.

Thankfully there are others in this wor...

My outings go something like this. The local co-op for garden, hen and vegetable supplies. The food store for well, food. The local garden centre for garden plants and local eateries for a treat. Oh and of course my local GP’s surgery.

My husband drives me to the places furthest from us and I drive to the closer outlets, enjoying those brisk moments of complete independence.

Rarely am I seen in all of these establishments within the course of a month or even two month period. Pacing being my...

As the sun alters our light and that sharp pinch is felt at daybreak and twilight, and as this years fledglings move swiftly on and the summer harvest fills up the pantry, we hear the signal as its sung from the trees:

It’s autumn and there’s no rush.

That’s the thing about autumn. It’s an in-between. A pause between the brutalities of summer and the harshness of winter.

Summer is an assault of the senses as sight and sound and hearing are all set at full capacity. Colourful leaves and wafts...

Last week I received a text from a college friend living nearby.

The text read: “Are you free Saturday next?”

Another college friend was stopping by and so I was being asked to drop in and say hi.

My reply read, “Sorry. I have to bail.”

And so I explained, “We had a wasp nest and a good friend who keeps bees sorted it out for us. The trade off was that I minded three kids while the job was being done. Wrecked. Need a few days to recover.”

The response to my curt statement was a sympathetic on...

Climate. Change.

Two words known in every corner of our globe, be it in the form of extreme heat, floods, famines, cyclones.

Nature is a sensitive creature and for decades we’ve treated her badly, now she’s breaking under our bullying tactics.

The reason she’s breaking and the reason we’ve become such bullies is simple. We’re taking too much from her, too quickly.

In order to solve this problem, we need to revert back to simple. We need to eat less, build less, use less, consume less. Unfortu...

Words can be soothing, powerful and strong. Words can help ease pain and suffering. Words can explain the why’s of the world, ask questions of the world. Words can annoy, words can destroy, but ultimately, words can and do lead to changes within our world.

I began sending words to our department of health in 2015/2016 and when a new minister took over, I passed my mantle on to him as I directed my badgering words at him.

The letters were always the same. When will ME patients in Ireland be tr...

Two houses are under construction. The builders astuteness and attention to detail better than any other builder I’ve ever seen.

All day damp mud is drawn from the nearby river as the symbiotic rhythmic sound of their chatter echos about me.

There are no jack hammers or concrete lorries. Just simple mud to call a home. Soon there will be chicks and then later in the summer, the take off flights will begin. But for now, I marvel at the talents of the house martin.

While nest building is in ful...

Living mainly adrift from the world enables me to see through the lens of life, from afar.

It’s through this pair of binoculars my poems are often crafted and two of my creations were recently published in the magazine The Voice of Eve.

The first, We laugh so Hard speaks about the too many people within our communities struggling to keep afloat and the second Keystrokes and Brown Doors looks at communities again, only this time the concept of being part of something and yet, isolated.

Both...

It’s said we should never make decisions in haste and so I’m taking time to mull over my participation on this internet of things.

Years ago I dumped social media. As I said to Facebook when asked why I was leaving, “I no longer wanted to take part in their social experiment.” A sick experiment which has devastated lives and enabled and emboldened the negatives of the human psyche (something which also applies to Instagram and Twitter).

Since leaving that world, I’ve found a happy space. That...

“La la la la la la la la la… la la la la la la la la la…”

“I love my body, I love my body…”

Had any one of you placed a listening device within my home last Saturday evening, these are the mantas you would have heard emanating from the walls, as I lay in bed suffering from what for me was a busy Saturday.

That morning I woke and did very little. The kitchen table had been set the night before so all I had to do was dress and put bread and milk and butter out. Then I sat and rested until three...