Eleanor Hooker
Eleanor has been a secret writer all her life. After School she trained as a general nurse in Jervis street, where she met her husband, and became a staff nurse in intensive care. She trained as…
Helen Corcoran
Helen decided to become a writer at eight years old. “I read an Amelia Jane book by Enid Blyton, and realised it was what I wanted to do. I wrote my first book at 11. It…
Eoin Lane
Eoin won his first art competition aged six. And at seventeen, following his father’s death, he won a Francis McManus inaugural award for a short story. Spending childhood holidays in Connemara, he loved painting the landscape….
Susan Farrell
A prolific reader, Susan had read her way through most of Conan Doyle’s books by the age of 11. But her passion, as a child, was cooking. “My school didn’t encourage it, so I took my…
Elaine Feeney
From a farming background of five children, Elaine was a quiet, observant child – a watcher. “I read a Kavanagh poem in secondary school and felt his isolation. I read Dylan Thomas aloud to myself at…
Lisa Bradley
Lisa dreamed of becoming an author as a child but was happy when her MA got her into journalism. “I got offered my first reporting job on the Wakefield Herald two thirds of the way through…
James Bailey
Mad about football, at 13, James decided to be a journalist. He reported for the local press; he founded a school newspaper and wrote a blog. At 17 at a random ECG screening, he was diagnosed…
Jim O’Donoghue
Jim has been involved in The Neptune Basketball club since its inception in 1947. “My brother, Donal, was a founding member. At 9, I’d tag along with him as ball boy, and at 14, I togged…
Joanna Fortune
From the time she was gifted a Petite typewriters as a child, Joanna has enjoyed writing. “I said I would be a writer or a journalist, but I became more interested in the psychological area. However,…
Sinead Burke
A little person, Sinead has always received wonderful support from her family – they always said that there was nothing she could not do. And as a child, she always wanted to teach, but was also…
Oein DeBhairduin.
A traveller, storytelling is part of Oein’s culture. He told his first, aged seven. He’s a big reader too. “In my childhood there were books everywhere,” he says. “When I moved to Dublin, I got a…
Nydia Hetherington
An imaginative child, Nydia was unhappy at school. “I found it humiliating,” she says. “All I wanted to do was sit in my bedroom and listen to David Bowie. I found my diaries recently, and didn’t…