The last time I wrote something here, is pretty much when The Ghost Limb was published - November 2022. The year and a half since then has been a whirlwind.
I have barely written any articles or essays in this time, with the exception of some pieces for the Irish News.
But I have been busier than ever - talking, meeting people, listening, thinking. And, with bouts of illness and managing my ME, I’ve spent a lot of time sleeping too…
The Ghost Limb went to reprint quite quickly, and I will be eternally grateful for the support of my publishers Beyond the Pale, all the independent and radical bookshops who stocked the book, the local media, and most of all readers for making this happen. So many people have been in touch - from all kinds of places and politics - and every one of you has made a deep impression on me. I’ve inhaled the stories people have told me on the road from Crumlin to Larne, Derry to Bellaghy to Bangor. Your voices travel with me and I find myself tuning into your wisdom often. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to talk.
I’ll pop some things here that might be intresting to tune into, if you would like to hear more about the book and its afterlife - The Red Lines Podcast, The Shrapnel Podcast, Slugger TV, the North podcast, Soul Surmise and The Echo Chamber for a more general state of the nation. There was a lovely book review by Nicholas Allen in the Irish Times, one by Gladys Ganiel on Slugger O’Toole, book reflections by Gemma Reid at Quarto, Jim Larmour in the Irish Marxist Review, Rev. Steve Stockman on his blog, and Emma McArdle in Éire Nua. Support from BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Foyle, BBC NI, the Irish News, the Derry Journal and other outlets has been invaluable. Reclaim the Enlightenment have continued to champion the work. Thank you all for your kindness.
A lot of the goodness of the book has happened live. Pinging between events in east Belfast and west Belfast and realising that I am so completely at home in both places. The penny dropping at Féile 2023 that ‘my community’ was the glorious mixture of people in the room, not anything inherited or ascribed. The same kind of feeling hitting me in Derry, surrounded by such a rich mix of people. People I have lovingly come to call, in my head, and often to their faces, the ‘hallions’. Grasping around for a non-binary word to describe our connection and anti-sectarian unity of purpose. I’ve had the indescribable joy of adding many more hallions to my life since the book came out.
The chalking continued at many of these events. I did not chalk myself, but sometimes I brought chalk along for others. 1798 chalkmarks were spotted inside Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry, the pavement outside the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast and ‘1798 - google it’ on multiple sections of the Lagan towpath. One mammy found 1798 scrawled on her living room wall.
Exploring Irish reunifcation has been a fascinating part of the book’s afterlife. This has taken me to Ireland’s Future in the Ulster Hall (with the SSE to come in June 2024), Sinn Féin’s 2023 Ard Fheis, a debate with Ireland’s Border Poll, and to the Oireachtas’ Good Friday Agreement Implementation Committee last month.
While I would personally vote for reunifcation tomorrow, I am not in campaign mode at these events. I’m in uncertainty mode, questioning and nuance mode, ‘why is nobody factoring in climate collapse?’ mode. I’m interested conversations that are real and messy, not scripted or preordained. I’m interested in Citizens’ Assemblies and meaningful grassroots democracy as a mechanism for political change. I’m interested in how to take those high falutin words and make them real in the world.
A large part of the book’s afterlife has been conversations with fellow leftists in kitchens, cafes, pubs and online, puzzling over what sort of Ireland we might want to live in. Stephen Baker and Kellie Turtle and I explored this a little on NVTV, and we have not stopped talking since. I’ve started to write about it. Tenatively. Some very small bits coming soon…
Most of the people in the book are still a huge part of my life. Whether that’s us doing panel discussions, drinking tea, singing in the pub, dragging the kids to events/protests/historical sites, and thinking of ways to make the places we live in more enriching. We’ve tried to do this through exploring local heritage, adventures in language, multicultural projects, supporting anti-racist and anti-war campaigns. This feels like an important time globally to work your patch locally.
The biggest thing I’ve worked on this year - again with huge help from friends - is making a four part radio series about The Ghost Limb for RTÉ. The series will be aired summer/autumn 2024. Independent producer Dónall Ó Maolfabhail from Scun Scan Productions has patiently worked with our thran alternative Protestant tribe, taking our many rebellions on the chin, pulling the story out, encouraging us to live in the political afterlife of the book.
It’s been a wild ride taking this journey with ME as a constant companion. Recording for radio, I often have take breaks to lie down. Friends and family drive me to events while I hit the crunchie bars hard and try to clear the fog in my brain. Event organisers have made accommodations to help me do the work. I’ve had to turn down many lovely things, just to keep functioning, but I’ve so appreciated the invitations. Any big events or media are preceded and followed by a week in bed. These are the bits that only my family and closest friends see. To them, the biggest thanks of all.
Truthfully, I’m not sure what the future holds work-wise. I have a few different few book and project ideas, but I need to sit longer with them. My thoughts often swirl around constitutional change in Ireland and Britain, climate collpase, citizens’ democracy, hidden local histories, and I still want to get to know loyalists better. I have plenty to be at while I carve out space for the new. I work slow. It takes me a long time to think and process. More listening, more talking, more pints, more sleeping. I am hoping for a fallow period. And then, undoubtedly, a little more mischief…
With thanks to the multiple takers of these photos, who I am too muddled to remember. The sticker of the Muddler’s Club is from Brian at Visual Thinkery.
And with sincere apologies for only mentioning the selection of things I can remember today. I’ll add things as I recall them.