Creative Writing
, e l g n I n n A n a m o W Warrior
Eileen Casey meets an ‘open hearted’ author
Wedding day for Ann and husband Peter. She was widowed at only 41 with eight children when Peter tragically took his own life.
Having just finished reading open hearted (lower case title on the author’s insistence), I feel a renewed sense of trust in humanity. Seriously. Ann Ingle is a woman of tremendous empathy and warmth. Non-judgemental towards people in whatever circumstance they find themselves in; she’s faced her own trials and tribulations with courage. While there’s been a fair amount of happiness in her life, there’s also been plenty of heartache. The first time I met Ann in the Irish Writers Centre, her blue eyes seemed to gaze deeper than the casual glance usually offered to a relative stranger (which I was then). At that time I was facilitating a memoir workshop for Age & Opportunity and Ann became a member of that lovely vibrant group. Quiet, self-contained, always interested, it wasn’t altogether surprising when ‘open hearted’, her highly regarded memoir, appeared. Evidence that its worthy of such validation lies in its being shortlisted for an Irish Book Award, 2021 (in two categories; memoir and autobiography).Having read this beautiful hardback edition (un-put-down-able as rave reviews continue to attest), I am filled anew with admiration for this petite, self-contained warrior woman. First and foremost, ‘open hearted’ adheres to the first principle of all good writing; it comes coated in searing honesty; with the beauty of truth, warts n’ all. In any case she’s never felt the need to hold back; ‘the truth is I would not have been able to tell it any other way. Why should I? At my age I have nothing to lose!’ 68 Senior Times l January - February 2022 l www.seniortimes.ie
Ann Ingle on ‘open hearted’: ‘the truth is I would not have been able to tell it any other way. Why should I? At my age I have nothing to lose!’
open hearted among other things, tells a love story that starts out in a familiar way; girl meets boy, fall in love, marry, eight children follow, they live happily ever after unfortunately, it’s not that kind of love story and while this couple were happy, there was sadness too. Although the love between Ann and her husband Peter was (still is) the stuff of fairytale, the ending isn’t quite so predictable. There’s an old adage about there being a book in everyone and yes, there probably is. Some of us are born storytellers too, able to embellish, tell a good yarn. Putting it down on paper is a different matter. Ann Ingle, not only has the ability to structure narrative, characterise individuals, vivify settings using her sensory perceptions in a finely tuned way, but she also has a really gripping life story to recount. A tale of two cities, a romantic odyssey that knew highs and lows. She was widowed young (41) with eight children when Peter tragically took his own life (a heartache written about with tremendous power, dignity and love), Between the pages of her memoir, Ann does a sterling job of recounting her life’s journey, one that began with her birth in
