1. Up and at it - what is your morning routine?
I wake early; I’m a morning person. I clean the ashes from the fire and then I put a coat on over my pyjamas and go outside with the ashes (which are recycled). I clean out the chicken coop (we have three hens) and collect the eggs - if there are any. Then I go back in, make a cup of tea and prepare to face the day. On some mornings, time allowing, I will go for a walk around the damp lanes of Co Fermanagh.
2. What might you eat in a typical working day for...
Breakfast? Almost always porridge, made with water and salt and eaten with nuts, yoghurt and fruit.
Lunch? I might have a poached egg or two (our hens’ eggs poach perfectly), but if I’m in Dublin, where I work two days a week, it will be soup – usually, vegetable.
Evening meal? Probably be something vegetarian. At home, we consume a lot of pulses and a lot of roasted vegetables, but we do, sometimes, eat meat.
3. Is nutrition important to you – do you take health supplements?
Yes, nutrition is important; whatever you put into yourself deeply affects how you feel. My wife and I eat hardly any ultra-processed foods, nor do we drink fizzy drinks. Rubbish food leaves you feeling like rubbish so we try to avoid them and largely succeed. I do not take any health supplements.
4. Ever been on a diet – if so, how did it go?
Yes, years ago, and I lost weight - then I stopped dieting and the weight returned… the old story. I probably should lose weight, but have yet to settle on the best approach. I consciously try to eat smaller portions.
5. Weekend treat?
Lemon drizzle cake.
6. How do you keep physically and mentally fit?
I do yoga at least twice a week and walk when I can. Mentally, if I can tune into the world (or the bit that’s right in front of me), I find I can tune out the chatter that surrounds me and that makes me feel much better.
7. Best tip for everyday fitness?
Walk where possible.
8. Were you a fan of schools sports/PE or do you have a memory from those days that you would rather forget?
I was not a sporty school boy. I did participate in the sports days (I had to) but I have no memories of triumphing or winning. I strongly disliked the way sport was taught when I was at school. I also disliked the relentless pressure to get involved. Nowadays, when it comes to exercise, I just do as I want, when I want. I walk, I go to my yoga classes and, in the summer, I go swimming in Lough Erne.
9. Teetotal or tipple?
Last April, I cut out alcohol completely. My energy levels rose. I felt more clear-headed and I got through the work I had to get through. And then, having got through what I had to get through, I thought, ‘Why go back?’ So, I’m still abstinent. And, as a result, I continue to have more energy and I continue to be more productive. Non-alcoholic Guinness, incidentally, is what I drink when I’m out.
10. Stairs or lift?
Stairs.
- ‘Pilates and paddling are essential in helping me unwind’ - Siobhan Kearney of Menopause NIOpens in new window
- ‘Being a performer is like being an athlete - we need to look after our bodies just as much’ - Shamrock Tenor Tom BrandonOpens in new window
- ‘If you didn’t like camogie there wasn’t much else on offer’ - folk artist Jane CassidyOpens in new window
11. What book are you currently reading?
I’m listening, on Audible, to Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities (a brilliant novel set in pre-First World War Vienna ) and I’m reading Penelope Mortimer’s The Pumpkin Eater (a desolating novel about a woman on her fourth marriage having a nervous breakdown.) Before I started The Pumpkin Eater, I devoured Margaret Drabble’s Jerusalem the Golden (another great novel from the 1960s.) I’m reading a lot of material from that period at the moment. It is my opinion that the Mortimers and the Drabbles of this world were more genuinely subversive and radical than many contemporary writers who would like us to believe they are.
12. Best Netflix/streaming TV?
Ripley starring Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley.
13. Any new skills or hobbies?
I have a part-time full-time job in Dublin (I work in the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing in Trinity College) and I work as a freelance. I don’t have the time to develop a hobby, although that doesn’t stop me wishing that I did. If I had the time, I would like to learn a language (most likely, French).
14. How do you relax?
Sleeping. I love sleep.
15. What would you tell your younger self?
Try not worry; things do work out.
16. What are your goals for 2024?
I have just finished writing a book. Now I would like to write another book. I know, it’s hardly an exciting goal, but writing is the only thing I know.
17. What time do you get to bed and do you think you get enough sleep?
I go to bed around 10pm and read and then nod off. I’m usually awake by 6am. if not earlier. I do get enough sleep (I think), but if I don’t, I just have a nap later. I can nod off in a chair without much difficulty and waken 20 minutes later feeling refreshed.
18. Biggest gripe or regret?
I wish I’d paid more attention in school in my French class. To read French literature now in French would be marvellous.
19. Have your priorities in life or perspectives changed?
Family is always an important priority for me.
20. Has coronavirus – or any health epiphany or life event - changed your attitude towards your own mortality?
The lockdowns certainly had an impact on my life. While I was able to continue to write – I wrote two books – it only strengthened my belief that the only way to live well is by being with my family.
