A brand-new book, Leap, offers stories about living creatively in Donegal - read an extract below.
The brainchild of designer/printmaker Laura Buchanan, and writer'editor, Isla McGuckin, Leap is a collection of stories from the architects, poets, musicians, artists, writers, designers, weavers and more who have built their lives around creativity in Donegal, or who continue to draw inspiration from their Donegal roots.
Aoife Sweeney O'Connor, Theatre Maker and Performer
Lean in to what makes you different
You’ve chosen a career of discovery, where you’ll have to get to know yourself time and time again. Hold steady, there’s a ways to go.
Along the way, remember: This life will be all-encompassing, and that’s okay. That’s why you’re doing it in the first place. Rest and restore. Fill up on the things, people and places that you love; soak them in, hold them tight. Come back to what makes you who you are. Spend time in the songs, films and tv shows that your younger self poured love into. Sing. Play. Find things you can be entirely bad at and enjoy the learning. Not everything is about output.
Remember the why: the exploration and imagination – the fun. Things will feel mighty hard, but then they’re done, and your stress and work might have been a part of the mystifying 'process’ all along. Oh yes, you will spend a lot of time thinking about process.
Be good to people. Say yes to things. Take chances. Go backwards, then forwards, then back again. The tangents are what teach you who you are.
Lean in to what makes you different. There is connection in that. Community will come. Find those people who energise you. Let your guard down and let them in.
There really is no set way to do any of it. Know that things need time to come together; everything happens for a reason. And dear god, remember to eat. And have a cuppa, on me.
Daniel O'Donnell, Singer
Treat people well.
You need to be yourself. No matter how much you admire other people, remember there’s only one of you. You need to be doing what you absolutely love. You need to believe in what you're doing. And don't give up!
I always think you're better to try something and realise that it's not for you. That way, you’ll go on to do something else very successfully. But if you don’t, you’ll end up wishing and hankering for the thing you didn't try. Sometimes, on the path of life, you start out walking in one direction and end up taking a detour that you never expected.
I’ve written a number of songs but I'm not reliant on my own pen to write what I sing. So I don't consider myself a songwriter. I just go out, do the shows and enjoy them. For anybody who writes at all - whether it's music or something else - it’s important to be tuned in to what's going on around.
Donegal - the west coast and Ireland, in general - are full of brilliant people. So you don’t need to ask, ‘what am I going to write?’, you just open your ears and open your eyes. Our way with words, our turns of phrase. I just wouldn't want to come from anywhere else!
Always remember that people are important. All of them. It’s easy to look to the big people, but everybody's important, everybody has something to give. Always just treat people well, especially when you become successful.
Leap is published by McGuckin Buchanan - find out more here
