Anne Gormley

I’m Anne and I have retired from teaching English for a few years. I am now enjoying the opportunity to do different things, such as giving tours of Trinity College Campus and learning more about the history and architecture there. Every time I give a tour I learn something new which I find stimulating.

I also mentor some students in secondary school and also in Trinity which keeps me young! In my spare time, I try to do some creative writing. This year I have also been giving workshops on English Literature through the ages to several people who are now retired. These people have worked in various places from the Executive director of a Bank, to a librarian, a teacher and mentor in a prison, to a PR manager. Their insights have been very interesting!

I first heard about Hearts+Minds through a friend of mine around the middle of the lockdown when we were experiencing the effects of Covid. She suggested that it would be helpful to have a type of platform whereby people could be inspired during this rather grim time. I was enthralled by the idea of inspiring people through the written word. Having spent much of my life teaching students how to write better, I was keen to see if I could do it myself, and of course, the whole challenge of writing a blog offered a good opportunity.

Hearts+Minds offers insights from people who think a bit more deeply about life and things. And helpful advice. Not just through the written word, but through podcasts that you can listen to while driving the kids to different places, or while working in the kitchen or at home.

We women have to try to manage a life that demands a lot of multi-tasking. Granted, we may be good at multitasking, but many times the pressure of balancing work, kids, college, shopping and all the other bits in life can cause a lot of stress and pain. But then a life that is busy and that bit demanding can also be rewarding if we can try and re-focus again and again and remind ourselves about the ‘good whys’ of what we are doing.

I read biographies of people who have lived quite spectacular and also unspectacular lives and many times these speak to me loudly. I also learn a lot through the failures of these people. This is all inspiration for my writing. Recently I read a biography about Rosa Franklyn, the woman whose work was key to the understanding of DNA. Her sheer grit and determination really captured me especially when she was confronted with the battle of ovarian cancer at the tender age of thirty-seven. I find that reading poetry also can be a great source of inspiration - just sometimes reading the lines aloud can throw me into another totally different and enchanting world.

If I had to pick a favourite blog or podcast…I think it depends on the mood and time. Recently Siobhan Scullion’s post Living Spiritual Motherhood - Every Woman Can be a Mother was very good and I liked the fact that she wrote not just about married women, but women in many different situations. One of the podcasts which really spoke to me was How to Let Go of False Expectations with Gobnait O’Grady. I liked the common sense and practical approach which she sustained throughout. It was very helpful.