Book Review: Ireland's space traveller talks about fulfilling her dreams

Niamh Shaw: Artist-turned astronaut from Co Louth; she played a nun in ‘Fair City’ and studied with Nasa. Picture: Darragh Kane

• Dream Big: An Irish Woman's Space Odyssey 
• Niamh Shaw
• Mercier Press, €14.99

A quirky book combining science, the arts, and space exploration, Louth woman Niamh Shaw’s memoir of striving to fulfill a childhood dream makes uplifting reading. Niamh, a familiar and accomplished performer, has been combining her scientific knowledge and performance skills to inspire and communicate science to the public on appearances varying from The Tommy Tiernan to The Late Late Show. 

With two degrees in engineering and a Ph.D., she initially followed a career in academia before going on to study film acting in Los Angeles. From 2007 to 2008, Niamh was a familiar sight on Irish television when she played a nun in the RTÉ soap Fair City. 

The opening chapters of the book show an undeniably privileged woman being offered a promising career in academia; knowing this wasn’t for her, she moved onto yet another successful career, this time in acting, but acknowledging feelings of resounding emptiness, she realised that more than anything, she really wanted to fulfill a childhood dream of going to space. 

An honest book, we share Niamh’s genuine struggles with a glut of personal issues; pain, disappointment, unfulfillment and broken relationships. Initial ‘poor little rich girl’ empathy develops more into awe as the book progresses, the reader experiencing her sheer passion for seeing through the endeavour of leaving planet Earth on a craft.

Space adventure is Niamh’s greatest aspiration. A woman fervent about igniting people’s curiosity, in this, her first book, 'Dream Big- an Irishwoman's Space Odyssey' she writes about combining (what to some people may seem the unusual combination of) arts and space studies to make her dream of travelling to space as an artist come true. She hasn’t got there yet, but her story will surely inspire those who dare to dream big.

From the transgressions of a classroom in Dundalk to a career in academia, Niamh talks us through the journey of creating space-themed theatre shows and multimedia installations. 

Her rigorous space training adventures see her living in a simulated Mars habitat in Utah to a rocket launch on the steppes of Kazakhstan. We learn of her time with NASA, attending the International Space University’s annual Space Studies Programme in Ohio. Asking us to "Dream Big" she shares these extraordinary experiences on her quest to see Earth from above as the International Space Station's first artist-in-residence.

Can you imagine bouncing weightlessly inside a zero-g aircraft in Russia? The pages reveal a world alien to most of us; astronaut training. She speaks of being inspired by people with a similar love of science. 

A professional science communicator, the author creatively intersperses throughout excerpts from her theatre shows – all space-related – ("Diary of a Martian Beekeeper" (2018) was based on her Mars Analog experiences) and QR codes, enabling the reader to access clips relevant to the written material online.

If you’re scientifically minded and always wondered what kind of people go to space, and what kind of training they undertake, this book is definitely for you. Aside from the pervasive scientific element, the book will appeal to anyone niggled by disappointments thrown in their life’s path. Although unfulfilled, are you one of those people terrified of leaving that ‘good job’ behind?

For those wishing to steer a new life course, particularly at midlife, this is an elevating story; it’s about navigating one's possibilities and having the reliance and the fight within ourselves to accomplish what we want.