Maureen Gallagher
By Lynda Cookson
She’s done it all and refuses to be limited. Caged in her peaceful, lavender infused home at the edge of Galway, the slim and energetic person that is Maureen Gallagher, the writer, tries her best to be calm and serene.
Most people look like their dogs. Not this person. Maureen Gallagher is far more like the flame from the candle, heating the bowl of lavender oil, in the sitting room in her home. She was up and down, in and out of her chair, excitedly grabbing books and papers from the book-lined walls, to show me snippets of her writing, or the publications she is interested in. Even my many years of shorthand practice failed me as I listened to Maureen, and tried to capture on paper, the words which were flashing around the room like fireworks. So much for the balancing aroma of lavender wafting out from next to the peaceful vase of daffodils. They may have a calming effect on many folk, but not on Maureen!
She has always wanted to be one of four things: an actress, an artist, a ballerina, or an author. She’s tried them all and has finally settled into her niche as a writer. Did I say settled? I don’t think so. Not Maureen. Positioned herself is better. Positioned herself so that she can see the world, challenge it, debate with it, and then write about it!
It was a delightful morning, spent as an audience of one to an enthusiastic actress performing her own work with such pleasure and skill. What a privilege. Her poetry is delightful. It is amusing, thought-provoking and definitely quite mischievous. On the first reading of her poems, the words flow and the mental images appear, comfortably. On the second reading, and especially when performed by the poet herself, the boldness appears and the actress makes the most of every meaning each word may have. As Maureen finished reading each poem, and temporarily relaxed back into her chair, I found myself disappointed that the reading had ended. I found her words fun, and I wanted more.
The stage exerted the biggest pull on Maureen as a youngster, and she trained as an actress with grand ideas for her future. A few boring roles later, she realised that she was too tall to land the big parts, and so the challenge and excitement of the stage boards and footlights waned. For a while she took up the guitar and singing, but neck and shoulder pains, from hours spent bent over the guitar, put paid to that career too.
All this while and in between, Maureen married, moved to Galway from Monaghan in the 1970’s, was bringing up a small family, and was teaching children with special needs. As her time became more her own, she completed a year at GMIT studying painting and art, but decided she would rather be a film maker! She felt that art, requiring her to work on only one idea at a time, was too limiting. All that is left of her foray into art is a delicate pink watercolour rose, although she did bounce up, grab another book, and show me the cartoons she had drawn, one of which was published in the Times. She needed to earn a living at the time, so the film making was side-lined for a job teaching traveller children, which stirred up a passionate interest and involvement in politics. As an activitist, she joined the Regan march, the Dunnes Stores strikers, became very involved in matters of divorce and abortion, and started writing for political magazines. This was the catalyst which gave her the momentum to write poetry.
She wrote without seeking to be published, for a while, but after encouraging a friend to write and be published, she thought: “I can do that too”. Soon afterwards, she was well on her way to getting short stories, poetry, and essays published! She laughed as she told me the old belief of many writers, that before you’ve even got home after posting off a written submission, the rejection letter has landed on your doormat! Once, to the chagrin of an indignant Maureen, the publisher did not even bother to write a formal rejection letter but simply stamped and returned her own letter in her own envelope! How rude! To this day she is shocked by how dismissive publishers can be. Nevertheless, this stoic writer sticks to her philosophy that “You must thrive on rejection”. A tough philosophy indeed.
Maureen says: “My poetry is one third love, one third political and the last third whatever!” Perhaps she should own up to the last third being for fun! She admits that creative writing is the hardest of all, but has a healthy solution for the problem. She dons her walking shoes and gets out there to fill her head with images and inspiration, so that when she returns, its not a blank page which faces her, but rather a headful of feelings and ideas. If she happens to be out driving somewhere when the creative urge strikes, she’ll be the crazy woman you spot at the traffic light repeating her idea to herself, over and over again, so that she doesn’t forget it. She loves performing, thrives on ideas, and it shows!
Recently, Maureen was nominated for The Hennessy Cognac Literary Award, and if you would like to see and hear her in action, she will be reading her poetry at the Art in the West exhibition at Leisureland, Salthill, on Friday 24 June 2005 at 7.30 pm.
A watercolour rose painting by Maureen Gallagher
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