Beginner’s Pluck: Miriam Mulcahy
Miriam Mulcahy, author of This is My Sea
Brought up in County Kildare, Miriam enjoyed a childhood full of culture.
“My dad was in the army, but he could have been an actor,” she says. “He was offered a place in the Abbey Theatre but felt the life would have been too precarious.”
Miriam was taken to the theatre frequently, and this led her to a love of Russian writers.
“I read them all, and I turn to the classics time and again. They’re my comfort read.”
The family loved County Kerry, spending a week there each year with friends.
“And we spent two months each year in a caravan in Wexford. The time was important to us. We spent all day on the beach and had gangs of friends.”
Leaving college with a ‘bad’ degree, Miriam took a Journalism course and got a placement on the .
“Then I started freelancing but I wasn’t making a living, so I got some teaching jobs, and started writing fiction. The rejections crushed me.”
She then wrote features for local papers, and for magazine. But in 2010, the commissions dried up, so she began copywriting and taking on website work.
“Meanwhile, I was writing novels, submitting them, and getting rejections.”
Miriam worked as a parliamentary assistant in 2019 and has also written for Fáilte Ireland.
1971/ Kildare.
Holy Family Convent, Newbridge; University of Limerick, European Studies.
Kildare.
Children Oisín, Aoibh, Doireann, and Rebecca and dog, Juno.
Journalism and copywriting.
“I’d have loved to have been an actor.”
Favourite writers: Hilary Mantel; Isak Dinesen; John Steinbeck; Leo Tolstoy; Donna Tartt; EM Forster.
“I’m researching a second book.”
Top tip: “Accept that your first draft will be rubbish. Then rewrite.”
@MulcahyMir
Miriam came from a strong, united family. And when her father, her mother and then her sister died in the course of seven years, the grief threatened to drown her. But her lifelong love of the sea — gifted to her by her parents, helped her to get through the pain.
Lyrical, powerful and impactful.
