By Evelyn Cullen
WITH a name like Biddy McLaughlin you would be forgiven for thinking she is from Donegal.
In fact Biddy was born and grew up in Dublin, in a rural ‘no man’s-land’ called ‘The Ward’ on the Meath/Dublin border, but her father and his people are from Urris-managh, Inishowen.
Her Uncle Dan, known to her as the ‘Carndonagh Cossac’ on account of the horses he kept, was a great storyteller from Carndonagh and she counts him as a strong influence in her work.
He was a journeyman and travelled throughout Scotland and England doing hard tunnelling work.
“I’ll never forget his huge funeral in Carndonagh” she said “The horses all neighed together as if in mourning, intrinsically aware of his death”.
These Donegal roots are profoundly evident in her new memoir ‘Tales of a Patchwork Life’, published last week by Mercier Press, and will resonate with the Donegal audience.
“I love Donegal” she said speaking to the Donegal News following the launch.
“I love the accent, I love the people, the food, the gorgeous nature and beaches. It’s like The Bahamas without the sun, and when it has the sun it’s even better, just magical” she gushed.
She counts Moya Brennan as one of her close friends, Danny Minnies of Annagry as one of her favourite restaurants, and the walk along the sea in Moville as one of her favourite walks.
She visits Donegal often, most recently a camper-van trip with her friend Maggsie-boo which took her all around the county.
“I’ve been to every inch of Donegal” she said.
Her memoir, ‘one of resilience in the face of uncharted grief’ is told like a collection of short stories in 49 chapters, each one powerful in its expression of life, love, joy, agony and torment.
Biddy, the eldest of eight children, has endured unthinkable tragedy in her life including the murder of her beloved sister Seanie (Siobhán) and the devastating drowning of her husband, Michael.
The title hardly needs much explaining then, the telling and sharing of her stories keeping her together much like fabric patches holding a quilt together.
There is also a chapter in the book entitled ‘The Patchwork Quilt’ named after a huge patchwork quilt she made once, that took her seven month to finish.
‘Born to be an artist’ was how her former national school teacher Mrs Margaret Collins described Biddy, a creative spirit, also a baker, craftswoman, reader, writer and former journalist with the Sunday Independent and Sunday Times.
Family is clearly very important to Biddy and a huge influence on her life and writing.
Speaking about the book launch, which took place in Hodges Figgis in Dublin last Wednesday, she said “Everyone that was there is a patch in my life, connected through love and stories, it was like a big family gathering”.
The late John B. Keane once remarked, “Biddy had been a storyteller all her life.
In drawings, words and painting, she has captured the tales of common and not-so-common folk caught up in the maelstrom of life”.
Few writers can draw you so deeply into their stories as effortlessly as Biddy does. From the very first chapter ‘The Cottage’, her natural storytelling style captivates you.
The cottage in question is her charming, whitewashed home in Dalkey, Co. Dublin, with its turf fire and homely smells it’s a curious piece of rural heaven on millionaire’s row, which she bought in 1998 and restored with the help of her father, Owen McLaughlin.
And it often has a pot of Donegal dulse on the go, “ Mickey Kearney from Urris has the best dulse” she proclaims “ and crab claws, or crab toes as you say in Donegal”.
The famous red half-door of her cottage, which named her first book Behind the half-door – stories of food and folk, came from Donegal.
She recalls how her father, when making the door asked her to fold her arms in the empty doorway while he measured her from foot to elbow with a piece of old string, crafting it precisely for her to lean over in “chatty comfort”.
Reading her stories makes you feel like you are sitting there with her in her cosy cottage listening to the yarns over a cuppa.
Despite the tragedies in her life Biddy describes herself as lucky.
Her memoir is a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration, comfort, and a reminder of the extraordinary strength within us all.
Will she be making her way to the hills to sign copies for her Donegal readers? “Absolutely” she said “I’d love nothing more”.
Donegal News readers will be the first to know if she does.
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