Usually I refrain from end of year reviews. This year I decided to buck that trend, and indulge, in the spirit of focusing on the good things in life, in just a touch of the retrospective. As the old song puts it, ‘Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done’.
The problem is, I completely ran out of time, so I’m posting this late, and technically it isn’t even an end of year review at all. It’s more like a start-of-the-year-review-of-the- previous-year kind of thing. Stating the obvious, writing is time-consuming, and time most certainly flies. I almost gave up on this piece altogether, because the festive season was busy with, well, festive things, like gathering with family and friends, Christmas carolling, winter feasting, and winter walking.
But each new day is a gift, and memories are a kind of gift too, deserving to be recorded, and calling out for gratitude. So, at the start of this new day I’m determined to finish putting together these words. And anyway, there are some links to some good books, music, and places to visit in this instalment that might be of interest to some readers out there. So here goes!
2025 commenced with snow, and January forays into bread baking guided by Paul Holywood’s great book Bread, a thoughtful Christmas gift from my daughter and son-in law, and also Cherie Denham’s The Irish Bakery, a fine pairing of authentic recipes and evocative photographs of rural Ireland by Andrew Montgomery.
My winter birthday was celebrated with remarkable pizzazz, at a stunning performance in The Portico of Ards of baroque masterworks by Piers Adams (recorder), Julia Bishop (violin), Angela East (cello), who is the mother of a dear friend of mine, and Jack Gonzales-Harding (harpsichord). Together they comprise Red Priest, a unique and uber-talented ensemble renowned for their ‘inimitable, high energy style’. It’s definitely worth checking them out. And if you ever get a chance to take in a choral or chamber music concert at The Portico of Ards, grab it with both arms. As a small venue it’s a gem.
Birthdays brighten winter months, and this year our family gifted us generously with a February feast at Broughgammon Farm’s convivial Winter Supper Club. The Supper Club serves up great locally produced food, bookended on this occasion by a charcuterie platter with homemade pickles and Irish cheese, and a finale of beetroot mud cake. All in a stone farmstead in beautiful North Antrim under the stars – pure magic!
Back in my college classroom, among the big books in the teaching frame was Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, which generated lots of great debate, as well as several pieces of original art!
Literary highlights in February included Malcolm Guite’s public lecture on Blake, the sixth in the inaugural A. E. Dyson series on poetry in Pembroke College, Cambridge. I’d been reading Peter Ackroyd’s fascinating biography of Blake, so Malcolm’s talk was timely and illuminating.
March bestowed spring flowers, sunshine, and the first of two happy graduations that we celebrated as a family during the year. In terms of books, to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I joined my daughter and friends at the Round Church in Cambridge for an evening of talks, discussion, and music on the Celtic harp, followed by wine, cheese and, yes you may have guessed, Turkish Delight.
A quick trip squeezed in further east, to the city of Norwich, afforded a visit to the wonderful Cathedral library, the refectory cafe and bakery, and also, last but not least, a long awaited personal pilgrimage to Julian of Norwich’s cell. Julian was a visionary medieval ‘anchoress’ who dedicated her life to prayer, ministering from the limitations of a small enclosed dwelling room attached to a church. She is held to be the first woman to write a book in English that we can still read today, her Revelations of Divine Love, so I valued spending a few quiet moments alone in the small space that she occupied. On the day I visited, the church bearing her name was softened with snowdrops, reflecting the assurance of her now famous words: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”.
April saw a trip to Scotland, with family time in Glasgow and a peaceful break at beautiful Craigellie House. From Craigellie we took a tour of Glamis Castle and a sunlit wander around its grand estate, resplendent in spring with daffodils, all topped off with the characters from Macbeth sculpted in wood that appear at intervals between the trees.
Floral blooms continued to come into their own throughout May and June. One of the early summer high points in college life was a presentation on philosophy in schools by the Principal of Holy Cross Primary School, Kevin McArevey; a fine way to bring the academic year to a close. I had seen a brilliant film showcasing Kevin’s impressive work encouraging children in a challenging urban context to think, entitled Young Plato, at Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast back in 2021, so it was great to meet him in person. Another literary highlight in June was a book launch hosted by an amazing local charity Acacia Path, to celebrate the work of a young Syrian writer whose novel reflects her personal journey as a refugee to Belfast.
July gifted milder weather, a welcome break from the routines of teaching, and the second happy graduation of the year for our family. I love gardens in summer, and this year en route to the graduation, having admired the inspiring work of Jenny and Tom Williams restoring their walled Laundry Garden in Wales on Instagram, we went to discover it for ourselves. We spent the most serene couple of days in one of the fantastic wooden roundhouses beside their walled garden, drinking in the stunning uninterrupted views of the Clwydian Hills from our little lodge. Every detail had been attended to by our hosts in terms of comfort. I particularly loved the little stack of books curated in the lodge for guests to read … as well as the rocking chairs in the yard by the chiminea, and the generous supply of giant marshmallows for toasting!
Perhaps one of the best surprises of Summer 2025 was an unexpected reunion on the same trip with a close school friend from home. We found her hard at work in her very own Bakewell Tart Shop in the glorious Peak District. Be sure to call in if you’re ever passing through!
Back in Ireland, late summer was adorned with copious rose hips along the hedgerows. Thanks to a generous bursary award, I attended for the first time the week-long John Hewitt Society Festival in Armagh, discovering a veritable cornucopia of Irish literary life. The highlight of the week for me was a series of ekphrastic writing workshops with Yorkshire poet Anne Caldwell. I am grateful to Anne for her wise teaching and encouragement; her workshops inspired me to introduce my own students to ekphrastic poetry. But more of that later.
The wonderful Seamus Heaney Homeplace hosted the launch, in late August, of the Community Arts Partnership Measure anthology. I was pleased to contribute three poems to the anthology, in the good company of several friends, including fellow County Antrim writer Angeline King. (P.S. I’m hosting a writing workshop ‘Blogging with Joy’ at the Heaney Homeplace on 7th March 2026. Just before An Evening with Simon Armitage the poet Laureate. So no pressure (!) But seriously, it’ll be a great day out – spread the word & get your tickets!!!)
In September we witnessed a celebrity appearance of the herd of Highland cows in Pollock Park, Glasgow, and explored the veritable treasure trove that is the Burrell Collection. I also enjoyed a lovely first visit to the beautiful National Portrait Gallery and cafe in Edinburgh with a dear friend, concluding that art, coffee and good conversation are most certainly a winning combination.
September concluded with a scenic train ride to the city of Derry, to give a talk on C.S. Lewis’s Irish identity at the historic Guildhall. A short late summer family holiday in the Spanish province of Granada followed, affording a tonic of slow mornings, daily sea-swimming, long al fresco evening dinners, and a day trip to the ancient city of Granada itself, this time seeking out La Huerta de San Vicente, the summer home of Federico García Lorca from 1926—1936.
Returning to Belfast, the college semester kicked off with a visit to the Ulster museum with my Literary Studies students to see the Memories of Others exhibition, featuring the photography of Akihiko Okamura. We wrote ekphrastic poems in response to the exhibition, which documents Okamura’s relationship with Ireland during the Northern Irish Troubles. This shared writing experience opened up deep discussions around heritage, place, art and belonging.
October offered the wonderful Words on the Wave exhibition on ‘Ireland’s influencers’ at the Museum of Ireland in Dublin. This special collaboration between the National Museum of Ireland and Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen traced ‘the early medieval journeys of Columbanus, Gall and the monks who travelled to the Alps and beyond’ to ‘discover what inspired them through objects and manuscripts’. The exhibition was beautifully curated and included a remarkable range of treasures. My favourite had to be the Faddan More Psalter, a book of Psalms, probably dating from 800AD but found preserved in an Irish bog in 2006!
In London in November I bade farewell to my fabulous British Curriculum Forum colleagues at the end of my tenure as chair. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have served in this role over the last three years and especially to have co-edited the group’s first book publication Curriculum in a Changing World.
From London, a quick hop on the train took me to the Oxford C.S. Lewis Society to hear my daughter’s talk entitled ‘C.S. Lewis and “that detestable art’”. We also visited Lewis’s home, The Kilns, and spent a fascinating day exploring archives in the Bodleian Library.
In early December, thanks to the wonders of technology, I was delighted to give my first invited guest lecture at the University of Amiens in France – without leaving the comforts of home! The talk, entitled ‘A down-to-earth poet? On Seamus Heaney and the Land’, was part of an exciting interdisciplinary seminar series Seeds.
This year’s winter music fest began for us in November with a wonderfully stirring baroque performance of Handel’s Messiah given locally by the brilliant Ulster Consort directed by Matthew Owens. Having this choir on our doorstep has been a true musical joy. A beautiful Christmas choral concert followed in Belfast, this time by the Priory Singers, directed by Philip Bolton, given in the fine hall of Campbell College, the school attended for a time by C.S.Lewis. The house was full, and as well as being treated to a polished and varied programme of Christmas music across the years, we were welcomed with mulled punch and shortbread and a fire blazing cheerily in the hearth; Belfast hospitality at its best!
To be honest, the 2025 Christmas holidays rang from start to finish with winter singing, including a sparkling guest appearance in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall by Scottish band Celtic Worship who for the first time joined us from Glasgow at the annual and greatly loved Ireland in Christmas Praise event with New Irish Arts under the baton of Jonathan Rea. Complementing superb solo performances by Rachael Heater, Ryan Garnham, Ruth Jennings, Aaron Boyd and Sylvia Burnside, this vibrant Scots-Irish collaboration, worked a treat, and augurs well for future creative projects!
The final stop for Keith and Kristyn Getty’s Home for Christmas tour at The Odyssey Arena in Belfast marked the end of our family’s choral contributions in 2025, and incorporated the UK launch of the Sing Hymnal. When the public concerts in towns and cities came to a close, in the quieter days of Christmas at home the open hymnal at our piano has encouraged reflective music-making throughout the season.
And so, to borrow a phrase from Seamus Heaney, the ‘music of what happens’ rolls from one year into a new one; a good time to wish each of you joy and peace, in all of the days ahead. I’m signing off with Canto CVI in a tiny book given to me this summer by my husband; one of the best New Year poems I know.
‘Ring Out, Wild Bells’
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
