‘Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.’

Some mornings, I still wake, and there is a second or two where my mind is still. Before long, that peace is broken as I remember that Covid is here, a snake slithering through our communities, leaving in its wake sorrow, worry and loneliness.

I imagine we have all experienced these feelings on some level over the past year and a half. But to borrow from Albus Dumbledore himself, ‘happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light’.

I tried to take the advice of the Professor and to let that light in, through poetry and song, and through my beautiful surroundings here in South Armagh.

I have of course, always had an interest in these things, but very often they were put on the back burner, with the pressures that come from being a mother and a teacher, in the busy world we were living in.

Then, such a world seized to be; months of lockdown in the house, without having to travel to work, of fulfil my part-time job as taxi to children and their hundred odd extra- curricular activities, without the pressure (there, I said it!) of social commitments to friends and family.

Of course, there were plenty of things I did miss; coffee with my Dad, the Parent and Toddler group I attended with all my kids bar the lockdown baby, and without a doubt, I desperately missed live music.

I will never forget the buzz on the Whatsapp every night, as video after video rolled in.

Quickly however, I recognised that people were becoming extremely creative, coming up with new ways to fill that gap.

Notices were popping up all over social media, of clever and highly effective events where we could still share our passion, and still celebrate the human experience through the arts. And I jumped at the chance!

I attended concerts, festivals, cabaret, workshops and projects – all online- every event bigger, broader and more inspiring than the last!

I also had the opportunity, to get behind the running of a few events. As a member of Gaelphobal Ard Mhacha Theas, we never imagined on setting up our small facebook campaign of Amhrán an Lae at the beginning of lockdown, that we would receive upwards on 70 videos, including contributions from Liam Ó Maonlaí, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Pauline Scanlon!

I will never forget the buzz on the Whatsapp every night, as video after video rolled in. I also had a lovely invitation to come aboard Eamonn Mallies Twitter campaign #SouthArmagh #Covid19poetry – where as a group, one of us would read aloud a poem a day – something that if you had told me a year previously I would be doing, I would never have believed you!

Is it not so with a great deal of what has come about over the last 20 months? Unimaginable, before covid hit – self-isolation, lockdowns, bubbles. But it’s worth remembering that so much good was imagined into being also. I sincerely hope we bring forth all that we have learned from that creative work, into whatever type of world awaits us on the other side.