writing

On This Day: My Fascination With Historical Anniversaries

On This Day

How an Antarctic explorer began my interest in anniversaries and what I’ve done with this strange fascination.

My fascination with anniversaries started bang on my birthday.

I’ll never forget sitting at the computer in school, trying to act all innocent while surfing the internet. It was too risky to log onto Facebook without the teachers noticing so out of sheer boredom, I went onto the Wikipedia page.

I was on the home page when I noticed a formal picture of a man wearing a Royal Navy uniform. Ironically, this image was under the heading ‘On This Day’. He was standing resolutely, holding a Navy hat in one hand, every inch the proud officer.

Who was this man, you may ask?

My birthday was the 100th anniversary of Robert Falcon Scott’s death

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, British Navy Officer, and Antarctic Explorer. I discovered that my birthday in 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of his death on his return journey from the South Pole. Scott and his comrades had hoped to be the first to reach the Pole, but were ultimately beaten by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team. By 29 March 1912, Scott and his comrades were dead. They were just 11 miles from their One Ton depot camp that could have saved them.

This revelation came as a surprise. I already knew that there was another big 100th anniversary coming up that year (in April as you will see below) but to know that my birthday marked an anniversary such as this, was completely unexpected.

Admittedly at the time, I put this aside for a while and I didn’t think much more about it. I mean, come on, it was my birthday! I had a good excuse! Of course, the following month saw the commemoration of the Titanic’s sinking. I still have my special editions of the Irish Independent that cover this anniversary. I’d later return to the story of Robert Falcon Scott the following year when I studied the poem ‘Antarctica‘ by Derek Mahon for Leaving Cert English. It was one of the better poems that we studied.

Birthdays were a strong connection between Scott and his team. Titus Oates, who Mahon based his poem on, is said to have died on his 32nd birthday, 17 March 1912. I’d later read The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge about events during Terra Nova that happened on each team members’ birthday. It’s my birthday that connects me with Scott and my fascination with amniversaries.

Over the years, I kept up with important historical anniversaries, occasionally recording them in my diary. I remember being in college and deliberately buying another copy of the Irish Independent that included a special paper commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915. I also remember sitting in the college library, writing down about the sinking in my diary. I was determined to make sure I marked that anniversary.

As to why, I guess it all came down to my great love of history growing up. I was always looking up various events, inadvertedly recording the dates of when they took place. I really didn’t think I’d do anything with this; that is until I studied for my Master’s in Griffith College.

I’ll always be grateful to this course as it helped me develop skills that I didn’t even know that I had. I studied Radio Production where one of our assignments was to create a radio documentary of our choice. I went down the anniversary route and created a piece covering the 1981 Hunger Strikes in Northern Ireland. I wanted to do something that covered the 40th anniversary. I created my own script, had voiceover work done, I even managed to interview one of the ex-prisoners. We had a great talk about his experiences and I was really proud of my work.

When I took a class in Video-Journalism and Documentary, we were told to create our own short documentary on any topic we wanted. I went down the historical route after an inspiration visit to Glasnevin Cemetery. I focused my documentary on the story of Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan, calling it Se Plota. I was really happy with the final result.

Considering that I was just learning the basic skills of radio and video production, these creations turned out really well. My lecturers were also very complimentary, saying that I present very well and should consider doing more of this work.

That was what got me thinking. Maybe I could do more of this work. Over that summer, I did some thinking before finally deciding that I was going to open up a YouTube channel. I was going to use my channel to talk about events in history that happened on a particular day of the year.

That summer, I set to work, creating my first video, deciding the topic to cover, what I would name my channel, how I would go about presenting. After some thought, I decided to call my channel On This Day.

It took some time to get used to working on these videos. I had nothing but my phone, a tripod and my laptop. But gradually, I began to get used to it and started to share content on YouTube relating to events in history. Now please don’t get the wrong impression; I am not looking to become a professional YouTuber or influencer. I create these videos because I enjoy creating them.

When 22nd August 1922 rolled around, I was determined to make sure I covered this anniversary on my channel because it was a very important one for Ireland. It marked 100 years since the assassination of Michael Collins in 1922 and there was a lot of commemoration across Ireland for that event.

This video and my Se Plota documentary are the videos that I am most proud of doing so far. I put a lot of work into my videos and I want to make sure that they are being seen and enjoyed by viewers. As I expanded my list of topics, I decided to expand onto TikTok. I know also on a TikTok account, working under the username @onthisdaywitheidhne. It also has seen a steady rise in views.

Over a decade has passed since my fascination with anniversaries began and it doesn’t show signs of going away any time soon. I’ve managed to take this interest and use it to my advantage with my videos on TikTok and YouTube. As to where this interest will go in the future, I’m not sure yet. But I’ll always remember the day of my birthday when I logged onto a school computer and my fascination began.

Burnouts and the Beginnings of Doubt

Anything Articles

Sometimes, you reach a point in time where you just feel like you cannot do anything at all. Where you just feel so drained, physically out of it. Where you’ve lost all love and desire for the things you enjoy doing in life. I hate it when this happens. As somebody who is passionate about the things that she does, I don’t like to lose the enjoyment I feel in the things I do.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ll admit that I went through a complete burnout. I was emotional, I was tired, work was taking its toll on me and I just didn’t feel like doing anything. I just felt so low, so unsure of myself. I hated it.

People who look at the work I post online can see how passionate I am about my work. I love to be able to create my little history videos, write my articles, and express myself. So I will be honest and say, that to lose all of my passion for all of this over the last few weeks were terrible.

These last couple of weeks were tough, no doubt about it. I had to go through a lot of things in my job and while it was good things that happened, all of the things I had to do was just really draining on my mind. When I would finish work in the evening, I’d be too tired to even switch on my laptop, let alone write anything.

As some know, my greatest passion is writing. One of my dreams is to become a published author and have a book published. I’m not going to be the sort of person who makes empty promises about her writings (I know that there is a certain someone who has done that but I am not going to name her), I know what I want to do. It’s not like I am empty-handed in terms of my writing. During COVID, I actually to write the full drafts of not one but TWO stories, which was amazing. I would love to be able to have at least one of my drafts edited and properly written out. One of my resolutions for this year is to send a story off to publishers.

Over the last week, I tried and tried to put together a writing schedule. Set myself a little time during the week to just sit down and actually work on my writings. But no matter how hard I tried, I just could not get a schedule together. I found it so frustrating that I couldn’t even put that together, let alone work on my passions. I hated feeling so burned out because it made me doubt myself and my dream of being an author. Looking at all the people getting their work published left me wondering ‘Am I really as good as them?’ I began to wonder if maybe I wasn’t.

Slowly but surely, I began to recover from my burnout, letting myself rest over the weekend and trying to find myself in my writing again. With this post and my freelance position, I’ve managed to regain my love for writing. I still haven’t worked out a schedule but I will get there!

Doubt is always going to be there. I think I’ll always question my skills and whether I’m as good as the writers who came before me. And there will be times where I will feel like my candle is burned out and I can’t do it anymore. But like the Take That song, you can only relight your fire, and find your passions for life once again.

Removing The Face Mask: Why We Must Stop Hiding Our True Selves

Anything Articles, Society

This is an article that I wrote earlier in the year, explaining about why we must be true to ourselves and not hide our personalities.

We all have our own little routines every morning. Getting up, picking out clothes to wear, checking out how we look in the mirror. We are always looking at ourselves in the mirror, staring at our reflection. But what do we really see?

One night, after having a shower and changing into pajamas, I looked at my own reflection in the mirror. My hair was tied back in a ponytail, my skin was still glistening with moisturizer, my eyes had a hint of mascara leftover from earlier in the day. I stared at my reflection like I was looking at myself for the very first time.

How often do we truly look at ourselves in the mirror? Remove the cosmetics and make-up that we apply to our faces and look at ourselves as natural human beings? Is there even such a thing as a natural human being in today’s society?

Society has its take on the way that people should look. As life has changed and the world has continued to evolve, people feel the pressure to fit into society. Young people, in particular, are constantly examining what they can do with themselves to be popular and accepted. In a way, it’s as if two beings are living inside of us; the outside, the side that is expected by society. And the inside, the one being hidden for fear of rejection.

In the last entry of her diary dated 1st August 1944, Anne Frank wrote about the inner struggles that she faced with herself. She wrote about how she had always felt split in half. She hid her true self on the inside, covering it up with being boisterous and cheeky on the outside – the way others had expected her to be. As she said herself ‘no one knows Anne’s better side’ because she kept it hidden by a mask.

Masks have become common today; we all have to wear them to protect ourselves from the coronavirus. But we’re also wearing another type of mask, protecting our personalities. With these masks, we’re shielding ourselves from the scrutiny and disdain of others, pretending that we’re fine. In the opening scene of the controversial movie Joker, we see Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) sitting in front of a mirror, putting on clown make-up and turning his mouth up in a smile. As he is doing this, a tear rolls down his cheek which symbolizes his inner turmoil. It could be argued that we are all clowns – we use make-up to paint our faces to cover up how we feel on the inside. We feel this pressure to wear these masks to be accepted in society.

It is very easy to be fooled by the mask. It can be so convincing that many times, we do not see what’s hidden underneath until it is too late. It’s especially dangerous for young people – they feel forced to hide their problems, not say anything until eventually, they turn to self-harm and suicide.

In 2018, there were 730 noted suicides in people under the age of 25 in the United Kingdom. Imagine that; 730 suicides in one year. Every person who chooses to end their life is somebody’s child, sibling, grandchild, friend. There are people who love them without the mask, but many find it difficult to see that. They find it difficult because they feel that they cannot love the most important person in their lives – themselves.

Peer pressure and images on social media influence people to change their personalities, hide their true selves to be accepted. Anybody who is considered ‘different’ from how society wants them to be, is labeled as an outcast. That is extremely damaging to any individual.

There is a song called ‘Outside Looking In’ by Jordan Pruitt that perfectly highlights the struggles with acceptance and the pressure to be perfect. Those who are not considered perfect are cast aside by society. There is a moment in the music video where young people are sitting down to have their school photos taken. Their smiles – their masks – hide their inner turmoil.

We all wear masks. Not many of us realize it, but we subconsciously try to cover our true personalities to fit in. We try to blend in, become ‘part of the crowd.’ But are we truly happy with that? As a person who once tried to change herself to be accepted, I can say that you will never find true happiness if you cover your inner self with a mask.

Do not hide your true self. Do not cover yourself up with a mask. If you change yourself to fit into society, you are eventually going to want your own self back sooner or later. It is important that we love ourselves for who we are. Ditch the mask, let your true personality shine out.

Be true, be happy, be you.

Childhood Classics: Should They Be Changed or Left Alone?

Anything Articles

After learning about the intended release of a shocking horror film, I bring my thoughts about childhood classic stories and characters and whether they should be changed or stay the way they were initially created.

I thought I was dreaming or maybe a bit hungover when I woke up at 5am and saw the news. I had dozed off and awoke to find my fairy lights still on, my moon lamp dimming, and my sea projector sending blue waves onto the ceiling. I needed to switch everything off before going back to sleep.

Out of pure habit, I decided to check TikTok, and as I scrolled through the videos, a post from ITV caught my attention. It was talking about an upcoming movie and called it ‘Winnie-the-Pooh, the horror movie.’

Naturally, I was very confused. We all know who Winnie-the-Pooh is; the ‘bear with very little brain’ who lives in the Hundred Acre Wood and adores honey. Now, all of a sudden, he was in a horror movie? I thought it was just a silly joke. Or maybe my mind was a bit fuzzy. But when I looked it up properly, I realized that I was very wrong.

The famous bear with very little brain, Winnie-the-Pooh

As it turned out, there was indeed a horror due for release called Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. Apparently, the story goes like this: Christopher Robin leaves his childhood friends behind as he grows up and leaves for college, something that we all do in life. But this doesn’t sit well for those he leaves behind. Feeling abandoned, and without food, Pooh and Piglet revert to their animal ways; they become completely feral and unhinged, killing their friends in order to survive. When Christopher Robin does eventually return with his new wife, the unhinged Pooh and Piglet go on a murderous rampage, targeting several college girls who are staying in a rural cabin. (That old cliche is never going to die.)

The promotional poster for the new Winnie-the-Pooh horror movie.

To put it very simply, I was shocked. This is Winnie-the-Pooh – the bear with very little brain who lives in the 100 Acre Wood, plays with Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga and Roo! His best friend is Christopher Robin and he absolutely adores honey! I think I just outed myself as somebody who loves Winnie-the-Pooh, didn’t I?

It’s just… Winnie-the-Pooh has been a part of my life ever since I was a baby. When I was very little, my bedroom had Winnie-the-Pooh wall stickers on the wall. I had an electronic Winnie-the-Pooh bear that came with its own honey pot that he would ‘eat’ from. I had the Pooh’s Friendly Places and Honeypot playsets as toys; they were my favorite things to play with. One of my favorite Disney movies is Pooh’s Grand Adventures – The Search for Christopher Robin. In my favorite video game series Kingdom Hearts, one of the worlds that you could visit was the 100 Acre Wood where you could interact with all of the different characters. So… yes, I certainly love Winnie-the-Pooh and I am currently finding it very hard to see him reimagined as a feral bloody horror killer.

I’ve looked at a few times where classics were reimagined by authors and creators. There have been several parodies and mock-ups of different stories released over the last few years. There was a time when I visited the Chapters bookstore in Dublin, to enjoy the chance of buying books at a low price. Well, that time I was browsing the shelves and found a variety of classic parodies.

A sample of ‘reimagined’ classics on sale.

I saw these books for sale and I was disgusted.

Disgusted.

It wasn’t just the style of the covers that horrified me, it was the fact that all of the stories had been modified and made more sexual. Basically, classics such as Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby had been turned into porn.

Many authors were trying to cash in on what I consider the black mark in the world of literacy, that God-awful Fifty Shades series. The ‘love story’ of a controlling stalker and a co-dependent gold digger inspired a lot of authors to write their own little stories that were similar in taste. That aspect, I can understand, but did they have to touch classic stories like these?

Seriously?

Authors such as Charlotte Bronte and Oscar Wilde are long since gone, so technically, nothing can be done to prevent people re-writing their stories. I can understand in a way; sometimes, I see a story that there are elements that I don’t like and I feel I could change them. But… I feel there is a limit. I wouldn’t go so far as to change the main character into a bloody killer or shape the story to revolve around sex. That’s taking a little too far, for me anyway.

The problem is that stories such as Winnie-the-Pooh now reside in the public domain, they’re no longer protected by copyright law. In the United States, copyright law is usually limited to the life of the creator, plus 70 years after their death. Or in more simple terms, copyright of created content expires 70 years after the creator’s death. And since A.A. Milne has been dead since 1956…. you get the idea.

Now that the copyright law has expired on Winnie-the-Pooh, the public can do whatever they want with the character. But I refuse to see Winnie-the-Pooh as anything other than the bear-with-very-little-brain. This is one horror movie that I will definitely not be watching!

What It Means To Write

Life Experiences, stories
Diaries and Journals that were kept between 2009 and 2016 (Credit: Eidhne Gallagher)

Everybody receives their calling in life. It doesn’t matter if they receive their calling when their eight months or eighteen years old, one day, they will receive their calling of what to do with their life. For myself, it was a little bit different.

I received my calling when I was seven, but I didn’t realise it at the time. It started when I found an old accounts book, and started writing a random story. To this day, I still don’t know what inspired the story: it was a fantasy of a young girl sent on a quest to save her hypnotized friends from an evil wizard. Maybe it was because I was a big Harry Potter fan at the time, I don’t know.

On my thirteenth birthday, I began a diary. At the time, I was copying the famous diarist, Anne Frank. My initial plan was to start writing at thirteen, finish at fifteen and see how I’d changed. Instead, I continued my diary when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, all the way through into my twenties. My diary became my escape through the ups and downs of school, university and family. It also helped me look back on happy and sad memories throughout my life.

Even back then, I didn’t just confine myself to my diary. Throughout my teenage years, I wrote my own poems (abysmal ones, I will admit) and started stories. Started stories – I never managed to finish one! As I grew older, the urge to actually finish a story became stronger. It was only then, that I realised what my true calling really was: to be a writer.

Paper Has More Patience Than People.

Anne Frank, 20 June 1942

To write means to express yourself. I found it a lot easier to express how I felt to a piece of paper, rather than a real life person. I found myself being able to let out my emotions on paper, channel my real life problems and experiences and turn them into stories and poems. Particularly during the coronavirus lockdowns, I had time to fill notebook after notebook with my ideas.

Now, I have actually finished not one but two story drafts. I’m not saying that they are ready for publication yet, but one day I hope they will.

What it means to write to me, means being able to change emotions into stories that people will enjoy. Maybe one day, I’ll see my name on the cover of a book on sale in the shops.