Sin Scéal Eile

The awful stormy weather of late broke long enough for me to photograph Caitriona down on the wooden bridge in Clontarf, which was quite fitting as we’d been chatting about the arrival of Spring. Caitriona emailed me through Irish with a smattering of béarla to tell me about her love of “Naomh Bríd agus mná na hÉireann”. We chat a bit about Bríd as well as her sister in sainthood, St Gobnait (the patron saint of bees) but mainly we chat about Irish country life, our language, religion and traditions. Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait. We’re interviewing and photographing people from all over Ireland, collecting their stories and sharing them daily. You can be a part of it too, just follow @ruthlessimagery online for more details.x R

I met Daria on a quiet afternoon in her local pub in Drogheda, she was easy to recognise thankfully. She came dressed in sequins, feathers and legs that went on for days. Apparently there’s a bit of a burlesque scene burgeoning in Drogheda. Daria has been producing wildly entertaining evenings for the past few years, attracting folk from as far as Belfast and locals alike, with each show selling out.  She explains the origins of burlesque to me, how it compares to modern day performing, while also patiently answering all my endless questions (and then letting me try on the headdress). Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait. We’re interviewing and photographing people from all over Ireland, collecting their stories and sharing them daily. You can be a part of it too, just follow @ruthlessimagery online for more details.x R

When Ciara wrote to me about being in this project, she didn’t say much at all. She just said that her story is one about “heartache and uncertainty at a time of life where others seem to have everything together”. This was enough for me to know I needed to listen to her story. We sit outside on Drury street, it’s lashing rain and we’ve just begged the bar to turn on the patio heaters above us as we sip a warm cider. One of the many things that Ciara and I agree upon during our chats is that heartbreak isn’t respected or acknowledged enough in today’s society. The grief you experience when a relationship breaks down can be as painful as a death, but yet there’s no mass gathering of well wishers to help you get you through it. Listening to Ciara speak today and I know that she’s speaking for entire generations of women who have been through relationship wars as well (myself included).Come back tomorrow for another photograph/podcast/story.xRuth

Kim is one of many Americans who have applied to be in this project, but what made her stand out to me was that she mentioned having absolutely no ancestral roots that tie her to Ireland. She chose to come to Ireland in a very level headed, logistical way. She followed her work here, but she stayed because she loved it. She found a home, a community, a street full of neighbours who are gas craic and a gorgeous dog from Cork named Darby.We chat about America and all that’s happening over there right now, how frightening it must be for those that live there. How the differences in politics might alienate people, even those in the same family. Come back tomorrow for another photograph/podcast/story.xRuth

I met Emma in her hometown of Dunboyne, in a cute cafe that she has recently started to frequent a lot more often. Emma has had some epic life changes of late. She’s done what a lot of people her age are doing and boomeranged back home to her parents house. But not only has she moved back home, she’s also left a marriage and sold the home she worked so hard to afford. On top of that upheaval, she has decided to completely change her career too, turning her love for gardening into a new and fruitful future career in horticulture. Emma is sharing her story today during these precarious and exciting months, so that when she manages to get back on track, she can see just how far she's come. Come back tomorrow for another podcast/photo/story.xRuth

I met MJ O’Brien in her home in the middle of Dublin City Centre, her back garden is the canal dock, which makes for a wonderful vista. She’s funny, charming and flirting with my sound engineer/partner who is recording our podcast today. MJ leads with “I got into some trouble” with a little smirk on her face, the kind that tells me there was a man involved. She starts telling me about her nursing college in the UK and how it was located near a U.S. Army base. How they would send bus loads of soldiers over for dances. MJ would wait all night for “ladies choice”, describing herself as a bit of a plain Jane who was constantly looked over. It was at one of these dances where she’d meet Al and fall madly in love with him. “I was 17 and I thought he was the second coming. He was lovely and of course, he was a different shade”. As I look around MJ’s apartment, the family photos come into focus, and the smiling faces of all different skin tones start to make perfect sense. MJ has worked hard her whole life, living all across America for the last 43 years, from New Jersey to New Mexico, bringing up her two sons.She has come back to Ireland to get to know her siblings and friends again, now as an adult. Sitting with me here today she reminisces about the life she’s lead and the choices that she’s made. It hasn’t been an easy journey, she has faced all kinds of hardships, losses and injustices, but MJ feels it’s important to forgive those who’ve done you wrong or even inadvertently hurt you. However, it’s most important to forgive yourself, something she has only learned to do later in life. Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait. We’re interviewing and photographing people from all over Ireland, collecting their stories and sharing them daily. You can be a part of it too, just follow @ruthlessimagery online for more details.x R

I met Niamh in her home on the banks of the canal. It's secluded, remote, peaceful. Her Mum answers the door and welcomes us into the kitchen, country style (through the back door). The house smells divine thanks to the plant-based cookies Niamh has been baking so considerately. Niamh is back living in her parents home, like so many other 29 year olds. She’s done quite a bit of travelling, during which she met her husband, who also lives with them. Niamh would prefer to live in Dublin city, in the thick of it all. Where she can easily access public transport and have everything at her fingertips. However, if you think about how hard the housing crisis is for people right now, it’s even worse for disabled people. Niamh has a condition called Friedreich's ataxia. It’s quite rare, with only about 200 people in Ireland with it (including Niamh’s younger brother). It’s a neurodegenerative disorder that causes progressive damage to the nervous system, including impaired coordination, muscle weakness, speech problems, and heart issues.Niamh is an accomplished journalist. It’s a career she knew she wanted from a young age, she set her sights on it and worked incredibly hard and went on to write for the Guardian and Al Jazeera. She takes pride in giving disabled people a voice in the media. Sadly, Niamh knows that she has a battle ahead of her. In 2023, the USA approved the first ever treatment for Niamh’s condition. It’s a treatment that could stop the progression of her disorder and give her a better quality of life for longer. However, the Irish government still has not decided to fund the treatment. As Niamh’s condition worsens, she knows her speech will be affected soon, as will her ability to write. We’ve been chatting for about 30 minutes at her kitchen table and already I can sense it’s tiring her. It seems wholly cruel and unfair, that the people who we should be protecting and caring for most in society, are those who will be expected to lobby and campaign for the medical treatment that would improve their lives so much.Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait. We’re interviewing and photographing people from all over Ireland, collecting their stories and sharing them daily. You can be a part of it too, just follow @ruthlessimagery online for more details.x R

The sun was splitting the rocks down in Vico Baths when we met screenwriter and director, Nessa. She picked the location and I’m so glad she did. I’m not used to being this far south of the Liffey, I don’t know the area and I was a little bit nervous that she’d chosen somewhere so open to the elements to chat on a January day. I feel like I was meant to meet this kindred soul and we were blessed with sunny skies to prove it. She’s a woman in the arts, fighting for her vision to be recognised. She’s a mother, a wife and a friend who misses her friends. It transpires that Nessa and I both emigrated to London around the same time, she however stuck it out for 18 years longer than I did, building both her career and her family. We sit on the sunny rocks, listening to the waves, taking stock of our lives as Irish women and wondering what’s coming next over the horizon.