Horror over Tuam and a love of nature inspired Majella Kelly’s late love affair with poetry

How Majella Kelly found peace in poetry with her debut collection, writes Ellie O’Byrne

Majella Kelly: 'I see God in Nature - but if I go into a church, I feel angry'. Pic: Ethan Leon

Poet and teacher Majella Kelly’s break-up with the Catholic Church was more of a slow souring over time, a serious of painful realisations, than a dramatic show-down.

“I was quite a good Catholic at one time, would you believe?” she asks with a laugh. In fact, when Majella went to college to do European studies in UCC in the late 80s, she was a regular mass-goer.