Reading It Aloud for the First Time
Today brought a new experience for me – reading from I Can See It Still in public for the first time.
The occasion was a Hands Up Project event in Slí Nua Nexus in Ballinrobe, the former Ulster Bank building on Main Street.
It was nice to be back in Slí Nua territory. I started Slí Nua Careers many years ago and owned it until last year, and the new owners have now taken over the old Ulster Bank building. It is great to see the place being used for events like this one.
The Hands Up Project does wonderful work with young people in Gaza and today’s event was a chance to hear more about that work and about what people there are enduring.
My own part in the event was a modest one. I read a section from the book dealing with the arrival of Sam Maguire into Mayo.
I knew when I picked the passage that it might not be the easiest one to read aloud. Writing something on a laptop is one thing. Reading it back, in front of people, is another matter entirely.
And, yes, I found it emotional.
I have written and talked about Mayo football for a fair chunk of my life, but there was something about standing there and reading those words aloud that made it all feel very immediate again. The years of waiting, the people who had gone before, and then the almost unbelievable sight of Sam finally arriving into Mayo.
I got through it anyway.
And I enjoyed it.
There is something very satisfying about reading your own work aloud. You hear it in a slightly different way to how you read it on the page.
And, every now and again, you come across a sentence and think: I might have put that a little differently now. Of course, once the book has gone to print, that particular conversation with yourself is fairly pointless.
Maybe that is just part of writing a book. I suspect you could keep changing things forever if somebody didn’t eventually take it away from you and print it.
So my first public reading from I Can See It Still is now done.
I’m glad it happened in Ballinrobe, and particularly in a building and with an organisation that both have a little bit of personal history for me.
There will be more readings to come, I’m sure. And probably a few more sentences I’ll have another think about – much too late.
I Can See It Still is published on October 16 and is available to pre-order now: https://www.buythebook.ie/product/seeitstill/
