Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
irish times
I PREDICT A PRANK WAR
Interviewed Lisa Hannigan yesterday for the Irish Times. A friend of mine who knows her vaguely tipped me off that she’s a very devoted member of some obscure sect of born again Christians. She hasn’t spoken about it publically before, he said. But if I raised the topic delicately, and pressed her if she at first denied it, then she might just go on the record about it.
And rather foolishly, I believed him…
“IT’S 7.30AM. I’VE JUST FINISHED DEER STALKING…”
As promised a while back, here’s the transcript of my “explosive” interview with celebrity chef, rhetorical question fetishist and all-round pompous arsehole Marco Pierre White, published in the Irish Times yesterday. Since I filed copy, he’s been dumped from his reality show in the US. To be honest, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow… Read this article here.
UP, UP AND AWAY
A CUP OF TEA. A bowl of corn flakes. Two slices of brown toast with margarine and honey . . . If someone had asked me on the tarmac what I ate for breakfast this morning, I doubt I’d have been able to recall. Hurling upside down through a bank of clouds at 250 miles per hour, though, I can recount every tiny detail, from the brand name of the margarine, to the expiration date on the milk. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Brokesville
Ireland 2008: The champagne has been guzzled. The punchbowl is an ashtray. And there’s a strange girl crying in the bathroom. With analysts predicting the slowest economic growth this year since 1991, it looks as though the party is finally over. There’s no avoiding it. As a nation, its time to locate our jackets, make our excuses and flag a taxi back to Brokesville. Read the rest of this entry »
ON FATHER’S DAY
Every time the seasons change I think about my father. In early spring I see him jotting down the names and dates-of-birth of his latest crop of Under-10s, gleefully identifying future corner-backs and budding centre-fielders. When the sun comes out in May, I envision us striking out for the beach at Enniscrone. (You always know when it’s summer there, he’d say, because the old ladies wear their overcoats unbuttoned.) In August, he’s picking blackberries to make jam. And when the frosts return in late November, he’s making breadcrumbs for the birds that come to forage in our garden. Read the rest of this entry »
You can’t hurry love?
THE LIGHTING IS soft. That’s the first thing you notice when you arrive downstairs at the Turk’s Head pub in Dublin city centre. If it were any softer, you might pull up a chair by one of those old flower pots and ask it what it’s looking for in a potential boyfriend. The organisers of tonight’s speed dating event asked participants to assemble at 7.45pm sharp. I arrive at 7.49pm, so flustered I almost sign up for salsa dancing lessons by accident. But nothing actually happens until almost 9pm.
The ladies, by and large, have shown up in pairs. They sit awkwardly at the bar, fixing their hair and stealing furtive glances at the latest arrivals. The guys have almost all come alone. But as with any group of men, thrown together in any circumstances, anywhere in the world, we pick up the conversation almost without missing a beat. Robbie Keane to Celtic, huh? How’ll that pan out? Risky move on Spurs’ part. He scores goals, the boy scores goals. Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Irish Times, December 10 2008IMAGINE NO MORE FRY UPS
With pork off the menu, can one Irishman survive without his traditional breakfast? asks Eoin Butler .
AS THE FALLOUT from the weekend recall of Irish pork continues to be felt across a range of sectors, there is one area in which its implications are already quite clear. The traditional Irish breakfast, for the time being at least, is off the menu.
For generations, breakfast has been a meal that nourished the Irish soul. In times past, an Irishman might have awoken to find his potatoes blighted, his religion proscribed or his children exiled. But put a plate of rashers, sausages and black pudding down in front of him and suddenly things didn’t look so bad. Read the rest of this entry »
Published: Irish Times, September 3 2009AND YOUR NEW FLATMATES ARE…
So you’re finally moving into a place of your own? Congratulations, first and foremost. In a world that never fails to deliver its share of letdowns and crushing disappointments, this is one rite of passage that actually lives up to the hype. Before outlining some of the comparatively minor pitfalls that may lie ahead, it is worth taking stock again of what precisely you stand to gain. Read the rest of this entry »
“Would you say that uncertified practitioners risk bringing the entire soul-coaching profession into disrepute..?”
PAULA HUGHES
Shaman, soul coach and holistic piano instructor
Congratulations on becoming Ireland’s first certified soul coach. I imagine it was a fairly rigorous training process.
It was intensive. There were 10 days of studying with a woman called Denise Linn in California. After that, there were lots of emails and conference calls. It’s difficult to describe the work, because it’s such an experiential thing. But it’s very simple and very profound and humbling to be present at.
Would you say that uncertified practitioners risk bringing the entire soul-coaching profession into disrepute?
There are lots of other people out there doing soul coaching, yes. But I don’t know what they do. My focus is on doing my own job to the best of my ability. I’m not going to squander my energy on something that isn’t important.
Tell us about Soul Journey. It sounds like a compilation album.
Soul Journey is where you bring a client on a guided meditation, so you need to create a safe environment for them to make that journey and hold that space for them. That’s what the soul journey is – bringing you to that space where flickers of intuition can come through, where you suddenly see things differently.
You’ve helped clients regress to past lives?
What I do with people is to say, look, let’s journey to a significant moment in a past life that still resonates with you today. Perhaps you have a trust issue, maybe it’s an organisational thing. But its root is not from this lifetime. It’s funny, though. I had always imagined I’d be an Egyptian princess. But when Denise Linn did it with me, I was a farmer in the mountains near Tipperary.
Were you disappointed?
I was. But there’s wisdom there, too. One of my clients turned out to have been a child in the Arctic, an Eskimo, who got separated from her parents. She was able to relate this to a problem she was having in her own life, where she was being irrationally protective of her child.
My sister is protective of her child. Might she have been an Eskimo too?
Not necessarily, no. That was just this woman’s experience. That’s what she got.
On your website you talk about the wisdom of Native Americans, the Samis of Lapland, ancient Celts and others. Are there any indigenous people whose folk beliefs you don’t endorse?
I suppose I went through a period of being a course junkie and trying everything out. And what can happen is that you’re running around getting wonderful insights from wonderful people, but you’re not living your own life. You’re not finding your own wisdom. I think that’s where people have to stay within their own power.
You dabble in Shamanism, too.
People have their own paths when it comes to spiritualism. And Shamanism is one of those paths. It’s about connecting with other worlds, forging a relationship with compassionate, wise beings. So it’s extremely powerful. We forget the wealth of ancient wisdom that’s out there.
What kind of places have you been to?
In Shamanic terms, there are the lower world, the middle world and the upper world. In the upper world, your guides would be concerned with bigger questions such as “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?” or “What’s my purpose in life?” In the lower world you might ask . . .
Where did I leave the remote control?
Yeah, or which tools do I need to do a certain job? It’s very practical and that’s why I love it. I don’t do things that aren’t practical and simple. Say if I’m running a workshop, I’ll tune in and ask what I need to bring with me. And I’ll be told. It might be that I need to bring a particular book, for example. And I won’t know why. But then, sure enough, during the workshop someone will ask a question and I’ll have the book there to check the answer. It never fails.
New Age mysticism has been criticised for focusing more on how we treat ourselves than on how we treat other people. Is that a fair criticism?
A lot of people have that perception. They ask, is this all about me? Am I being selfish? But when you get on a plane you’re told that, in the event of decompression, you should put on your own mask first before seeing to other people. It’s no different with soul coaching. If you don’t nurture yourself, then your ability to be present and help others is diminished. Being a mother is bloody tough. Taking a moment out of the day – and it only has to be a moment – to re-centre yourself: that’s not selfish, that’s just survival.
THIS IS NOT A JOKE SHOP. THIS IS AN ADULT FETISH SHOP. SERIOUS SHOPPERS ONLY.
“This is not a Joke Shop” warns the sign at the entrance to Basic Instincts in Dublin’s Temple Bar. “This is an Adult Fetish Shop. Serious shoppers only.” It is with as much solemnity as I can muster then, that I press the buzzer and step inside. The shelves are stocked with adult DVDs, magazines and toys. Commanding pride of place at the front of the store though is a mind-boggling assortment of bondage and S.&M. paraphenalia.
This may not be a joke shop. But my basic instinct is to laugh. Nervously. Read the rest of this entry »