Author: robertmcloughlin

Born and raised in the USA. I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Humanities (with a focus in Literature and Writing) from Hiram College. In 2006 I moved to Ireland where I obtained a Certificate in Creative Writing from Maynooth University. I then obtained a Higher Diploma in Tourism Marketing from Carlow Institute of Technology.

What Do I Love?

robertmcloughlinMemoir

Well, there are people. But, I also love the spider webs that linger on my fence gate. I love this pen given to me minutes after I was shown an original 1st edition copy of James Joyce’s masterpiece “Ulysses” in Dublin.

I love my early mornings which slip into active afternoons, and then to reflective evenings.

I love the things I miss. I love the things that I can dream of while standing in the shower, or while staring off into space as people chatter on in business meetings of no consequence.

I love that I am here. Here, like here on earth, in Ireland, in Kilkenny, and in my home. I have no idea how I got here or why I’m here. Yet, I just love it. I love living. All of it, joy to sadness. Love and hate. Just love it all!

The Writing on the Wall

robertmcloughlinWriting Advice

Sometimes a person can find themselves in a dilemma. The magnitude of the dilemma could be very small or of Herculean proportions. But regardless of its size they remain bamboozled as to how to go about addressing it, how to find the right answers, how to resolve it.
People will lose sleep, tell others that they’ve tried everything, or that they are at their wit’s end and just don’t know what to do. All the advice they are given never seems right – seems like square solutions to problems made of round holes.
Then one day the sun comes out. The idea of going for a walk and to abandon all their problems for an hour or so seems very attractive. So they go. And for the first time in weeks, they see that the trees have lost all their leaves. That the neighbour’s cat is out hunting mice, and that the nearby mountain is still so majestic.
Then taking a turn down a ramshackle back lane, they find an old concrete wall with these words spray painted on it, ‘Sell the house and forget her’.

Something Good

robertmcloughlinMemoir

Woke up this morning feelin’ fine.
There’s somethin’ special on my mind.
Last night I met a new girl in the neighbourhood, whoa yeah.
Something tells me I’m into something good.
She’s the kind of girl who’s not too shy.
And I can tell I’m her kind of guy.

It was 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio. I was just 10 years old. And the group ‘Herman’s Hermit’s’ had just released the song, I’m Into Something Good.

We were living in a new housing projects in the middle of a mixed ghetto: whites, blacks and Puerto Ricans. It was full of all the things you’d hear about on the news: drugs, knives, guns, suicides, homeless bums, the smell of poverty, and fighting, everybody fighting. Wives with husbands, neighbours with neighbours, drunks with other drunks, children with children – a by-product of the stress and despondency that thrives in poverty stricken neighbourhoods.  (more…)

This Place

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I was at an event yesterday.
I met a woman who was standing next to me.

I asked her how long she’d been here for.
She said, ‘Oh, less than an hour.’

Then I asked her how long she was going to stay.
She said, ‘I can only stay for the morning session.’

She looked at me and asked,
‘How about you?’

I said that I’d been here for 63 years.
That I hoped to stay around for another 20 years or so.

She said, ‘Oh, that’s nice’,
and moved to the other side of the room.

Journal Writing

robertmcloughlinWriting Experiences1 Comment on Journal Writing

This week I started a journal writing course facilitated by the author Tara Heavey (Flame and other novels). It’s in a convenient location only a few minutes from my home. Ten of us sitting around an oval table, as the evening darkness dims the day’s light. A nice mix of people who came together to learn a little more about themselves, about writing, about humanity. A few students, a few social workers, a farmer, a physician, an artist, an author, and myself. I already knew several of the people in the group.

Life moves quickly. So many of our actions are reactions to whatever is thrown at us every hour of every day. Seldom do we have the time to contemplate whether we are being the person we hope to be, need to be. Though keeping a journal can help us to get some perspective on how we feel about our own life. (more…)