SWIMTERVIEW

History, nature writing and the Troubles. Kerri ni Dochartaigh’s new book recounts how nature and swimming kept her sane and helped her heal.

By Ella Foote

SWIMMING IS THE THING; IT SENDS US INTO OURSELVES IN A WAY THAT IS GROUNDING BUT THAT IS ALSO SO GUTTURAL AND VISCERAL. IT OPENS UP THE CRACKS TO ALLOW THE LIGHT IN – IT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING.

“Heaven and earth, the Celtic saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter. They are places that make us feel something larger than ourselves, as though we are held in a place between worlds, beyond experience.” I had never heard the term, thin places - or áitenna tanai, coal áit - until I read Kerri ni Dochartaigh’s new book titled, Thin Places and now I can’t stop thinking about it. It is such a beautiful description for a feeling I have experienced, often in water and always when outdoors in the natural world.

Ireland and Northern Ireland are unfamiliar to me. I spent a long weekend in Dublin when I was about twenty and have vague memories of the city, but otherwise my knowledge and experience of the neighbouring island is from books, film and the news. Like Kerri, I was born in the early eighties, but our experiences growing up were vastly different. While I remember hearing, reading and seeing news about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Kerri lived through them. Born in Derry-Londonderry at the height of the conflict to a Catholic mother and Protestant father, her life has been deeply affected by poverty, loss and trauma. Thin Places, her debut, is a mix of memoir, social history and nature writing. It explores how nature and swimming kept her sane and helped her heal. But it is also an education on what it was like to live through such a violent time and how Brexit is once again allowing divisions to form.