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Making a Difference – not fixing, listening with Sharon Fitzmaurice
Sharon Fitzmaurice has built a professional life out of work that began as personal necessity. Based in the west of Ireland, she describes herself as an intuitive holistic wellness coach, but the foundation of that work lies in experience rather than branding. In conversation on Making a Difference, Fitzmaurice spoke with clarity about a childhood marked by sexual abuse, silence and fear, and about the long process of understanding what that had done to her. “I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse,” she said. “We came from what we would call now a dysfunctional family, but at the time, we just thought it was our family.” Listen to the radio show here (March 16) She placed that experience in a broader Irish context. Growing up, she said, much of what happened in families was not discussed. “Back in Ireland in the 70s and 80s and 90s, lots of things were covered up, brushed under the carpet, and they weren’t spoken about.” The result, for her, was anxiety as a child, depression as a young adult, and a deep uncertainty about identity. “I didn’t really know who I was. I didn’t know who I was supposed to be.” By the […]
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Wishing Well – Arthur Godsil: Strengths First
Arthur Godsil has spent a lifetime in education, with a particular interest in the conditions that allow children to succeed. Across almost four decades at St Andrew’s College, including 23 years as headmaster, he developed a view of learning that is more precise than inspirational and more practical than fashionable. The centre of it is a simple reversal. Strength, not weakness, is where progress starts. Listen to the radio show here (March 3) Godsil describes the conventional approach in schools as deficit based. When a child struggles in one area, the system tends to push more of the same. In his view, that can be demotivating, and it often misses what makes a student engage. “The strengths-based movement in education focuses on what children can do rather than what they cannot do.” He argues that the effect is broader than confidence. The evidence, he says, is that weaker areas can improve when the focus begins with capability. “When we actually concentrate on what children can do, rather than what they cannot do, their weaker subjects also improve.” One example stayed with him. A student, given a pseudonym in the interview, had been persistently in trouble in first year and was […]
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Making a Difference – The Identity Edge: Reclaiming Self
Anne Marie Beggs and Lucy Cronly have co founded The Identity Edge, a female led hub and podcast exploring identity, confidence and mental health for women. Their premise is practical rather than performative. Modern women carry multiple roles, often at the same time, and those roles can crowd out a clear sense of self. The Identity Edge is intended as a structured space to pause, reflect, and reset. Listen to the radio show here (March 2nd) Beggs brings an education and neurodiversity background to the partnership. She works one to one with clients across dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism, and also delivers education in workplaces. She framed the origins of the project as a move from good conversation to purposeful collaboration. Beggs said, “Rather than us just meeting and not being that productive, like just sitting there in a passive capacity, that it might be an idea to do something together.” That idea became tangible last year through a series of joint podcast episodes, initially focused on teenagers, education and how best to support young people through complex social and academic pressures. This year, Beggs wanted to widen the lens to women at different life stages, from early adulthood through parenting, […]
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The Throat of Birds: Aoife Feeney on Satire, Power and the Long Road to Publication
Listen to the radio show here (16Feb) Aoife Feeney’s second novel, The Throat of Birds, took a long route to publication. Completed years ago, it was accepted by one publisher and later rejected by the same house, a reversal that set it back significantly. A newer, smaller Irish publisher, Transat Books, ultimately took it on. Feeney contrasted that slow, uncertain process with the speed of her first novel, Rule of War, published with Somerville Press and supported by literary agent Jonathan Williams. “He brought the book forward very rapidly,” she said. Feeney does not present herself as prolific. She writes when she has something she cannot leave alone. “The reason I write is because certain things occur to me, certain things inspire me,” she said. She is also a painter, and she spoke candidly about having decided not to write again, at least for now. The point, as she framed it, is not output but impulse and attention. “I write because I have read,” she said. “I do not write from just an abstract notion that comes into my head.” That habit of reading as a generator of ideas sits at the heart of The Throat of Birds. The novel […]
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Making a Difference: Building a dream job – from Dublin to South Africa
In a tourism industry that increasingly trades on authenticity, Annie Williams has built a business that is both practical and quietly ambitious. From a base in the South African bush, she runs Kingfisher Creek Safari Lodge, welcoming guests who want the iconic safari experience, but also the flexibility to shape a stay around their own pace, interests and budget. Listen to the radio show (Feb 9). Williams did not arrive in Limpopo through a conventional hospitality route. She spent years in aviation, starting on the ground with Aer Lingus before flying with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. “I always loved being around people,” she says, but her move to South Africa was not motivated by a grand plan to open a lodge. She met a South African and soon found her life rerouted away from Cape Town and Durban to a place many visitors only know as a name on the map. “He decided we were moving to the African bush,” she says. “We packed up our lives in the UK, and we headed off to a town called Hoedspruit (which is basically known as the gateway to the Kruger.” From there, the shift from idea to execution was decisive. […]
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