Part Transformation + Part Inspiration: A Writing Retreat in Magical Ireland
Every time I retreat, I advance: How escaping can help you find the words and the stories that are trying to find you
When I invest in my writing, I like to escape to a magical place that inspires me. I love being alone, I love being with the page—and I love being in community with other writers who support me.
I go on writing retreats because every time I retreat, I advance.
Ireland is that place for me, as is Taos, New Mexico. Scotland is that place for my retreat co-facilitator, Jona Kotter. Meet us on our Facebook Live:
We’re calling our Ireland Writing Retreat on the Wild Atlantic Way (June 9-13, 2024) part transformation + part inspiration because we truly believe that if you can get away to the greenest of the green—the Ring of Kerry—you’ll find the words and the stories you need to find.
Panoramic of ocean view at Parknasilla, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Why retreat? Why not just hole up at home, sit your butt in the chair and write?
I’ve heard good things about discipline. It’s worked for me -- a book coming out in Fall 2024 (Boundless, about how, when you have become no one, you can become someone again); a string of awards leading up to that book; seven spiritual nonfiction books published by Penguin.
But there is nothing like escape. I call it conscious extraction.
To pack a suitcase means making decisions about what you will leave behind. It’s good practice in saying no.
To apply for a passport is to hope. It’s about expansion. What you will allow. What you now feel free to say yes to.
Besides, at home, there’s laundry. Need I say more?
OK, if I do, I’ll add: At home, there are distracting people. Tell them you love them and say goodbye.
Caher Conree, looking to the Atlantic Ocean, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Why Ireland?
Why anywhere? There is something about choosing “anywhere but here” that heightens your curiosity. You make yourself a sharp observer of this new world. You awaken to the extraordinary.
Dare I say this is what writing is?
And you thought it was about pens and notebooks, pixels and files. You thought it was about getting the grammar and punctuation right.
Sorry! You do have to get that right. But that doesn’t make you a writer—it makes you a good-grade-getter.
It’s how you observe the exotic and the familiar that makes writing that touches people where they are. It’s what you see.
When you go on retreat, you sharpen your awareness. Not just for the new place, but have you noticed how much better you write about home or hometown when you have some distance?
The contrast of the new place invites your mind to recall the splendid details that evoke home—at the same time it invites you to play.
So come, let Ireland be your muse.
What do I mean when I say our retreats are generative and restorative?
First, the generative part. We want you to write pages. Pages and pages.
We want you to fully embrace that you must “draft to discover.” Tell your story to the page. Then you can tell it to me.
Last year, I spent one month in Ireland in Co. Kerry, and I wrote nearly 30,000 words on a new project I never expected to write. I “discovered” Inch Beach, a few kilometers from the home I was renting, and it felt like finding my Muse. The words came out.
You know this feeling. This is the good stuff. The excitement.
We want to co-design that experience with you.
Because there’s nothing like writing words to restore your faith in your writing.
And there’s nothing like doing that together -- in a community where two experienced mentors and several wise writers are supporting your vision and admiring your sentences.
You will leave with the sense that, “This work matters.”
What’s the restorative part? Is there a spa?
Yes, and. Yes, there is a spa, and there is the most restorative idea of all: This work matters.
Yes, and there is ocean. Yes, and there are fairytale woodlands.
Yes, and this week will restore your beautiful mind.
What are the mentors for? Can’t I just disappear and write?
By all means, disappear and write. And when you forget how to practice one of my favorite practices, “The Art of Disappearing,” we’ll co-design a disappearance for you.
Our mentoring is designed to give you exactly what you need. Maybe you need someone who is engaged with you and invested in you. Maybe you need someone who can point you to the perfect prompt, the most effective writing exercise or the most astonishing craft book.
Maybe you need someone who holds your vision with you and helps you be bolder.
Our mornings are designed to inspire and equip, with writing craft talks and exercises. Then our afternoons are designed to be productive. You have several ways to engage with us:
1:1 mentoring
1:2 mentoring where you get both of us brainstorming a trouble spot in your writing, whether it’s the beginning, middle or end.
Co-working
Writer’s date
Fairy house, on the walking trail at Parknasilla, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Tell me about Parknasilla
This resort is at the southern end of the Ring of Kerry, right on the Atlantic Ocean, with 10 walking trails across 500 acres of inlets, beaches, mountains and woodlands.
You may write in a fairy forest. It’s recently come to light that there are 18 miniature fairy houses on the grounds.
I told Jona that, and she was “in.”
But also, there is a great restaurant, a whiskey bar and a spa.
Spa treatments include massages, facials and a thermal suite. These are not included in the retreat, but we will most certainly help you design a writer’s date around them.
I saved the best for last -- our guest speakers
It’s become our tradition to immerse ourselves in the writers and mythmakers of a place -- we did it in Taos, we did it in Scotland, and we did it once before in Ireland in 2022, when poet-singer Micheal “Moley” O’Suilleabhain came up to Connemara and mesmerized the room.
For Jona, it felt like she was suddenly on retreat, not just a retreat leader. “It was transformative,” Jona said. “I was enraptured.”
This year, we are featuring Micheal and his mother, Noirin ni Riain. Together with Owen O’Suilleabhain (Noirin’s son, Micheal’s brother), the three lead Turas D’Anam (Journey of the Soul) tours in Ireland’s Kingdom Country (the Ring of Kerry) and the Golden Vale. Many know them from their featured presentations on Irish/English poet David Whyte’s walking tours of Ireland.
That’s how I met them, in 2019, on David Whyte’s magical pilgrimage in County Clare and the Connemara region in County Galway. I was enraptured from the first note.
In 2020, the three of them founded the Dámh Imeall – (H)Edge School, an online community of inquiry and ritual with online workshops and events on a range of interfaith and multi-disciplinary topics. Now they are forming online monthly gatherings of the Inner Soul Circle community, which they describe as “a space where your insights are treasured, your spirit is nurtured, and your desire for a deeper connection with your fellow human is celebrated.”
Nóirín is known as the High Priestess of Gregorian Chant. A singer, interfaith minister, and doctor of theology, she coined a discipline of listening to the Divine, which she calls Theosony. Nóirín has released sixteen albums since 1978, including three with her sons Owen and Micheal. Her voice has rung out for peace on many continents, from United Nations conferences to gatherings with the Dalai Lama.
Noirin has long explored the spiritual song, whether that is the Irish sean-nós amhrán cráifeach, this led her to other traditions such as Gregorian Chant, the music of Hildegard von Bingen, Joa Bolendas and Mira Bai.
Noirin worked with Sinead O’Connor to tutor her in Gregorian chants, and she wrote about it here, shortly after Sinead’s passing:
https://feminismandreligion.com/2023/08/20/omos-do-sinead-oconnor-by-rev-noirin-ni-riain/
Noirin is the author of three books, including the memoir, Listening with the Ear of the Heart, and the recently released Sacred Rituals: A Simple Book of Everyday Prayer.
Micheal is a singer, musician and poet whose first volume of poetry, Early Music, was published in 2019 by David Whyte’s Many Rivers Press.
He performs across the genres of comedy, ancient music, and poetry, and plays the Irish frame drum (bodhrán), guitar, and piano.
Micheal holds an MA in Ethnomusicology specializing in Irish rap music, and works in schools and with youth groups on hip hop and creative writing.
Mícheál has shared stages and been invited to work with Russell Crowe, Alan Doyle, Samantha Barks, Nigel Kennedy, The Chieftains, Steven Spielberg, Bobby McFerrin, Scott Grimes, STING, Rhiannon Giddens, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Quartet, BAD ROBOT studios, Kripalu Yoga Centre, The Art of Living, Sounds True, Centre for Spiritual Living, Boston College, to name but a few…
Mícheál provides coaching and conversation in a range of fields. He deepens the narrative around creativity and the artist's sense of belonging. Permission and virtuosity are deep themes in his poetry, music, and his conversational interest. Music and poetry are both areas where he is brave enough to inspire others.
Standing stones, Waterville, Ring of Kerry, Ireland, where it is said Amerigen landed (Song of Amerigen)
Here’s the part where I have to tell you some sales-y things
The Ireland Writing Retreat on the Ring of Kerry is a five-day, four-night retreat, all inclusive with lodging and all meals (except one night out in a small Irish village. It’s June 9-13, 2024.
This week, through Feb. 19, we’re offering a discount on the deposit. You can get in for $500 (instead of $995) and lock in the Early Bird Rate of $2,695.
After that, it goes up by $200 to $2,895, so this is the best window.
If you make your deposit this week, we’ll set you up on installment payments so you can spread things out.
Also, because this is the week of love … we know some of you are part of writer-couples. (Collaboration in life and love -- that’s where it’s at!) So if you and your significant other want to getaway and write and be inspired -- we’re offering a Two Together special where you can get (each!) $500 off.
Plus, we are offering a day pass for residents of Ireland and the United Kingdom who just want to drop in for one day -- June 10, the day we feature Noirin and Micheal. It will be a momentous start for the week for our retreat participants, but we have decided to open it up so people from Ireland and the UK can join us. That’s only 175 Euros.
Fairies and standing stones
I think that’s all the sales-y things. And now, back to Ireland. I’m Irish, and this place is in my soul. You don’t have to be Irish for this place to touch you deep down. It’s full of myth and fairies, wild wind and lush mountains, standing stones and ring forts, bonfires and dark skies. The stories await.
