by Maria McCarthy | 27 May, 2026 | Uncategorized
I was astounded, and not a little chuffed, to receive an email from Scottish crime writer Denise Mina, giving a long, thoughtful and generous critique of my latest book, Learning to be Irish. I was curious as to how she found my book, published by Siglum, an indie press. Like most small press publications, it has reached a small readership.
Denise Mina writes:
A few indie press publications from my bookshelves
‘Learning to be Irish caught my eye precisely because it was published by Siglum. I try to keep a close eye on independent presses; they’re consistently doing some of the most exciting, emotionally rigorous publishing around, and Simon Barrow [Siglum editor] has a fantastic eye for work that dips beneath the surface.’
As a former indie publisher, and as an indie author, I have to agree. My latest Substack is In Praise of indie publishing. Some of my favourite reads this year are from indie authors, indie publishers.
With Denise Mina’s permission, I share some of the comments from her email below:
What struck me immediately was the tension between identities that are never entirely stable or complete. The book seems deeply aware of what it means to grow up belonging partially to several worlds while never feeling fully claimed by any of them. That experience of being shaped by stories, loyalties, silences, and contradictions inherited from others felt painfully recognizable.
I was especially moved by the domestic details woven throughout the description, the women gathered in the kitchen, the rebel songs, the showbands, the family stories hovering somewhere between truth, performance, and survival. Those kinds of memories often carry more emotional and cultural weight than official histories ever can. They become a form of education in themselves.
The line about “learning to be English after the IRA bombs two pubs in Guildford” stayed with me in particular. It captures, in very few words, the sudden pressure placed upon identity when politics and violence alter how a person is perceived publicly. There is something heartbreaking in the idea that belonging can become conditional so quickly.
What I admired most was the sense that the book does not appear interested in neat conclusions. Instead, it seems willing to remain inside uncertainty, inherited silence, fragmented memory, and the possibility that some truths about family and identity may never fully resolve themselves. That emotional honesty gives the work real depth […]
I mainly wanted to say that I admired the emotional restraint and honesty suggested by the work. Books about identity often become overly declarative, but yours seems more interested in the quieter reality of living inside contradiction.
Denise Mina
You can order Learning to be Irish directly from me, or from the usual online retailers. For UK orders only, copies are £12 plus £2.40 p&p. Email me, and I can send a Paypal invoice: maria[at]medwaymaria.co.uk
I have a few copies left of my story collection, As Long as it Takes, for £12.40 inc p&p. Again, email me at: maria[at]medwaymaria.co.uk
by Maria McCarthy | 23 Apr, 2026 | Uncategorized
This week marks one year since Learning to be Irish was published. I wrote a few weeks ago about how difficult it is to promote a book by an indie publisher, and was pleased to be contacted by Andy Garland of Radio Kent. He had found my website after seeing my Writing from Life workshop advertised online, and invited me to record an extract from my book for the BBC Upload Show. I made a video, with the help of Dr Bob, my husband. and an extract from the audio was broadcast on Radio Kent, and some other local stations, on 16 April 2026. If you want to listen, it’s about 1 hour and 10 mins into the programme: BBC Upload Show.
Being a technical wizard (I wish), I have uploaded the video we made to YouTube. It’s just over 9 minutes long. It’s from an early chapter of Learning to be Irish. The chapter is called ‘Learning to be English’. You can watch it here.
Writing from Life
The Writing from Life workshop, which I ran on 11 April in Rochester, was a great success. In the beautiful surrounding of The French Hospital almshouses, built for the descendants of Huguenots, a dozen of us wrote from objects, photographs, and using the prompt ‘I remember…’ We looked at examples of life writing, including poems by Martin Figura and Patience Agbabi, extracts from Lemn Sissay’s memoir, My Name is Why, and Viv Albertine’s memoir, To Throw Away Unopened. The last of these prompted quite a discussion, and I explore it further on Substack. The post, on what we leave to be found after our deaths, is one of my most articles. As someone who keeps journals, notebooks and other writing, should I be concerned about who reads them after I die?
I am looking forward to running the Writing from Life workshop for a group of residents of The French Hospital. I was interested to discover that many Huguenots fled to Ireland. I wonder if I have Huguenot roots.
by Maria McCarthy | 23 Feb, 2026 | Uncategorized
Sometimes it feels like no-one is listening, no-one cares if you have written a poem or not; and then you sit in a room, listen to the work of other poets, read some of your own, and it all feels worthwhile. Full disclosure: I haven’t written a poem in ages. My weekly Substack posts are my entire current writing output, and have been for some time, apart from the notebook-writing that never meets the world, or might do so in a different form a long time later. I am taking a week off posting on Substack while I recover from a minor operation, and have vowed to work up some poems, yet here I am posting on my website instead.
Left to right: Charlotte Ansell, Rosie Johnston and Maria C. McCarthy at Faversham Literary Festival 2026.
A few days ago, I joined Charlotte Ansell and Rosie Johnston to read from Learning to be Irish at the Poetry Hub, Faversham Literary Festival. I wasn’t quite the full Maria, weary and sore after my op three days before, but I didn’t want to miss this opportunity. What wonderful company to be in, and I was also pleased to catch Mat Riches’ set on arrival at the Guildhall. Mat kindly writes:
We stayed on to see the day’s excellent compere, Rosie Johnston, sandwiched between Charlotte Ansell and Maria McCarthy. While it’s fair to say each set came with a content warning all three delivered sets of incredible power, all were deeply moving, and more importantly fine poetry…You don’t always get all three.
You can read the full post here. Mat Riches says he lost money on the gig, and we poets often do. My own big box of books for sale remained untouched. As someone once wrote, ‘There’s no money in poetry, but then there’s poetry in money’. Though I do remember the Simon Armitage poem, ‘Ten Pence Story‘.
It’s hard, promoting a book by an indie press, as many of us were last Saturday. I don’t venture far from the Medway Towns for such events, either as a participant or as a reader. I am hoping to go further, if I can find some reading opportunities.
I sent Ian Duhig a copy of Learning to be Irish, and he kindly posted this comment (see pic) on Instagram, about my poem ‘Villanelle at the Falls Hotel’.
I guess if I am ‘adept in a demanding technical form’, as Ian Duhig writes, and ‘a particularly fine poet’, as John O’Donoghue states on the back of my book, I ought to get off this website and on with drafting some new poems.
You can order my book direct from this website, or the usual online booksellers: Learning to be Irish
Please do contact me if you would like to invite me to any events: maria(at)medwaymaria.co.uk
by Maria McCarthy | 20 Jan, 2026 | Uncategorized
2026 has been marked, so far, by a nasty virus. I haven’t coughed so much and for so long since my first bout of Covid in 2020. Nonetheless, I have been keeping up with my weekly Substack posts, where most of my writing finds a home these days. Each week I wonder if I have anything to write about; each week I somehow produce between 1000 and 1500 words. Some of my recent posts have been about revisiting my singles collection, from The Unplayables to Comedy and Novelty Records. I also wrote about Joe Wicks and Me, after discovering that the fitness guru went to the same primary school as me. The last of these prompted a welcome email from an old schoolfriend whom I haven’t seen since 1978.
The promotion of Learning to be Irish continues with an appearance at Faversham Literary Festival on 21 February, as part of The Poetry Hub. See Events for more details.
I am open to invitations from book groups and writers’ groups that invite guest speakers.
A belated happy new year to my readers. I hope that January finds you in better health than me!
by Maria McCarthy | 8 Oct, 2025 | Uncategorized
I have recently returned from a trip to Mitchelstown, Co, Cork, and took Learning to be Irish with me.
I took my book for a trip to The Vee mountain pass, to Mt Melleray, where the abbey has recently been vacated by a diminishing number of ageing monks, and on to Cobh, where we visited the Heritage Museum, which has an exhibition about migration from Ireland. It was a wonderful trip, on which I reconnected with my roots. I was listening to Jackie Kay on This Cultural Life recently, and she talked of finding an ‘affinity with the landscape’ when she visited Nigeria, after she found her birth father. I can identify with this.
You can read more about my trip, alongside 150 Canadians commemorating 200 years since the Peter Robinson settlers migrated from small towns in Ireland like Mitchelstown to Ontario. on Substack.
‘a fascinating exploration of culture and identity’
The Frogmore Papers reviews Learning to be Irish in Issue 106, Autumn 2025:
Maria McCarthy’s account of ‘learning to be Irish’ as a child of Irish migrants, born in England, takes many forms in this entertaining and consistently engaging collection, which comprises fiction, memoir and poetry. Learning to be Irish is a fascinating exploration of culture and identity and the connexions between them, and McCarthy writes with unfailing honesty and admirable candour. Her ‘Mitchelstown’ sequence of poems concludes: I’m Irish with an English voice,/English with an Irish heart,/floating forever between Holyhead an Dun Laoghaire…
Jeremy Page
Medway River Lit events
The fabulous River Lit Festival will be returning this November, and I am taking part in two events to promote my new book, Learning to be Irish.
The first is an author talk, alongside Medway artist Simon Mills, on 8 November 2025, 1.00 – 3.30 at Rochester Library, Eastgate, Rochester.
Events are on a pay what you can basis. You can reserve a place here.
The second event is an Author Fair on 29 November 2025, 11.30 – 2.30, at Nucleus Arts, Chatham. More details here.
