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Coming Out - the realisation

I was pretty late coming out. Officially, the 23rd of June 2005, at the age of 31. Most of my close friends all knew, although for me it was like shedding a great weight from my shoulders. Something I had shrouded myself in for years. The word GAY held me still and in some way paralysed me for so many years. I believe now, looking back that I had internalised homophobia. I remember I'd flinch at the word. I'd constantly questioned whether I was normal or some sort of freak that was going against nature. Its bizarre how much time we can waste caught inside our own prison, or more appropriately, in this case the closest. So, it all came about one Summer Solstice on top of the Hill of Tara. I had gone there in the late evening with my house-mates. It was the first time I had experienced Tara at this super special occasion. There was such a vibrance and energy about the place. Kids running in circles and people everywhere smiling and chatting. Its quite a magical feelin...

The news starts anew

I never forget my early days as a snotty nosed teenager- fixated with the inner workings of a newsroom. It wasn’t that I was freakishly concerned with how the story was made- I was more encapsulated by how a person could get to be on TV or radio. My first time in a radio newsroom I was made keenly aware that it wasn’t all about look; it was more about the context of a story which mattered the most. I was 17 when i first came across an equally geeky individual, Adam Ledwith, who shared my passion for the look of Sky News- back when they where good. I wasn’t at the time directly working within the newsroom but I found myself finding home at the political correspondents desk to answer and make calls for the late night talk show I interned on. At 17, I thought I knew it all; it was all about image right? Wrong. You had to actually write news which tough work, broadcasting it was even tougher. Over the course of two years I learned alot- from the construction of a story to the importan...

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