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The Petals Beneath the Morning Light.
The first person to notice the flowers was Mrs Byrne. as she arrived early to light the candles before the eight o’clock Mass. The sun had only now begun to slip through the high windows, with long golden stripes lying across the tiled floor. There, caught in the light like a secret being revealed, lay… Continue reading
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Fit Lads of Winter & The Birth of The Icicle Lounge
There’s something about winter that sharpens everything. The air is colder. The sky is clearer. The silence feels closer to the skin. And yet—in that cold—warmth becomes unmistakable. “Fit Lads of Winter” began as a playful meditation on contrast. I kept imagining figures striding through snow as if it were nothing. Jackets open. Breath visible.… Continue reading
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Arrival
Arrival is a poem about coming home—not only to a place, but to a moment, a body, a ward, a riverbank, a sky clearing after rain. Set along the familiar paths of Monasterevin and Ballybrittas, the poem moves through train platforms, hospital rooms, shared umbrellas, and sudden shafts of light. What might appear ordinary becomes… Continue reading
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Waiting
In much of Christian spirituality, waiting is treated as a virtue—Advent waiting, prayerful waiting, hopeful waiting. But that language can sometimes feel abstract, almost decorative. It does not always account for the body. For the nervous system. For the long fluorescent hours in hospital wards. For the way time stretches, distorts, or presses against the… Continue reading
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Morning. Coffee. Birdsong.
There’s something beautifully Irish about the way morning begins. Before traffic. Before emails. Before the news. Just the thin grey light over hedges and fields—and the blackbird breaking the silence. When I wrote this dawn chorus poem, I was thinking about that ancient rhythm: robin on the post, wrens in the ivy, curlew calling over… Continue reading
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Ash, Attention, and the God Who Breathes: Writing This Hymn for Ash Wednesday
I wrote this hymn for Ash Wednesday out of a neurodivergent way of praying. For many of us, faith does not begin in abstraction. It begins in texture. In the grit of ash against skin. In the sound of a river looping the same bend again and again. In the stillness of a heron that… Continue reading
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Sacred Imagination, Wonderfully Wired
Many of the images that accompany my poems and hymns are created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, which I use as a humble instrument in the service of the Creator. As someone wonderfully wired, I believe the varied ways our minds perceive, feel, and imagine are not accidents but expressions of the imago Dei—the… Continue reading
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Thanksgiving on the Midland Line
There are journeys we take because we must, and journeys that quietly give something back to us along the way. For me, the railway through Ireland’s Midlands has become both—a path to healing and a moving window onto beauty. This poem is a small act of thanksgiving: for tracks that carry me to care, for… Continue reading
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Marked by Starlight, Bound in Love
At NeuroDivine, we know well that the road of faith is seldom straight. It bends and wanders, like a river finding its way to the sea. “Forty Days the Path Before Us” is a Lenten hymn for pilgrims of every kind—for those who travel by valley and high hill, through bogland hush and bright shoreline,… Continue reading
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The rainbow on my wrist.
From Monasterevin’s quiet stopThe morning train rolls west;Past cattle grazing by the line,And rooks that guard each nest.We cross the Barrow’s silver span,The viaduct below;A hare breaks cover in the reedsAnd watches as we go.In Port Laoise-bound and drifting thoughtsI catch a sudden grin—A stranger nods as though they knowSome secret held within.In town, the… Continue reading
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Returning to the Light: A Visual Journey for Lent 2026
As we approach the Lenten season, our community at NeuroDivine is reflecting on what it means to emerge from the shadows—gently, honestly, and in our own time. Our 2026 theme, Returning to the Light, is beautifully embodied in this year’s commemorative artwork. It invites us to pause. To breathe. To witness the movement from the… Continue reading
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Terrace. Neighbours. Gloom.
This poem is a quiet meditation on belonging. Set against the soft pulse of a sleeping terrace, it listens closely to the unnoticed life of the night — cats threading the dark, a fox passing unseen, an owl offering its steady call. In that chorus of small, living presences, the speaker finds not isolation but… Continue reading
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In the quiet of the garden: Lent 1
A new hymn crafted for the readings for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A by Irish writer Michael McFarland Campbell. Continue reading
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Memory. Mission. Transformation.
This hymn was written for NeuroDivine as a song of Eucharistic continuity and hope. It situates the community within the great communion of saints of the Celtic world—Patrick’s fire, Hilda’s shore, Columba’s pilgrimage, Cuthbert’s solitude, Bede’s scholarship—bearing witness that Christ has fed his people in every age and in every kind of mind. At its… Continue reading
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A Sunday kept in Love
A Sunday Kept in Love began as a reflection on an ordinary Sunday shaped by absence, devotion, and small, faithful rituals. The poem gathers simple domestic details—the batter left waiting, the organ lifting prayer at eleven, a familiar café table with one chair open, two cats keeping watch at home—and discovers in them a love… Continue reading
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Word. Refuge. Faith.
“Write Your Word Upon Our Hearts” is a hymn rooted in Deuteronomy 11, Psalm 31, Romans 1 and 3, and Matthew 7, the readings for today (Proper 4) in the Church of Ireland. It prays that God’s Word would be inscribed not only on stone, but within our lives—shaping faith, grounding us in Christ’s righteousness,… Continue reading
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Rescued. Renewed. Rejoicing.
There are moments in life when strength runs thin—when the body falters, when the mind grows tired, when the soul feels hemmed in by shadows. Psalm 116 begins in exactly that place: “I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy.” This Sunday at NeuroDivine, we sit with a… Continue reading
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Rule. Dawn. Praise.
This hymn and stained-glass image are inspired by Chapter 13 of the Rule of Our Holy Father Saint Benedict, in which he sets forth the reverent ordering of the Divine Office at Lauds on ordinary days. Rooted in the rhythm of psalmody, canticle, Gospel praise, and litany, the work reflects Saint Benedict’s vision of a… Continue reading
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Richard. Window. Watch.
In the deep hush of night, wrapped in turquoise warmth, I sit and breathe while Richard keeps his faithful vigil beside me. I sit upright in Andrew’s chair,The window open wide;My coughing stirs the early air,Yet Richard stays beside.Wrapped in a soft Sherpa’s hold,A teddy‑bear‑like hug,I brace against the night‑time coldWithin its gentle snug.Across the… Continue reading
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Holy. Queer. Desire.
For many queer people—especially those of us who are neurodivergent—the search for connection has often unfolded in the margins: in late-night conversations, in coded glances, in apps that both liberate and exhaust us. Our longing has been shaped by secrecy, by rejection, by comparison, and by the fierce hope of finally being seen. This hymn… Continue reading
New book:
A Living Cloud of Irish Witnesses
NeuroDivine 