Mary O’Rourke

I try to keep myself on an even keel by talking, reading and writing. I’m very fond of talking, and by and large I spend a lot of time talking. I find it’s very good. If there are issues in my head I get them out there, and I hear the issues from other people, so that all adds up to a complete picture for me.

I write a bit; I’ve written two bestsellers, and every week I do 1,000 words for the Advertiser group of newspapers in the midlands and the west of Ireland. I find that great for clearing my head: putting my thoughts together logically, putting them in print, and then, on a Thursday, reading the finished article. It always gives me a sense of accomplishment, way beyond the value of what I do, but there it is. I always liked writing, and I’m still doing it. AUTHOR AND POLITICIAN

I read a lot. As I get older, if I’m in any way upset in my head I take out a book and read 20, 30, or 40 pages. It settles me immediately. I’ve been out of my own small world and in another.

The most important thing for keeping me on an even keel is family. I have two sons, one in Dublin and one in Athlone. Talking with family lifts your heart and lifts your mind, and I always realise from so doing that there is so much more to life than just me or what happens to me, and what it’s all about — it’s about family, and it’s the close feeling which would lift anyone’s heart. Talking to any one of my family brings the sun into my life and banishes any dark clouds which may be thinking of emerging.

All my life I’ve been struck by a phrase that Scarlett O’Hara used in Gone with the

Wind. When she was beset by troubles, her reply was always, ‘I’ll think about that tomorrow’.

I have adopted that strategy. No, I don’t go to bed and sleep on it and hope there’ll be a reply in the morning, but on occasions when something is really bothering me and I’m trying to figure it out, I finally say, ‘I’ll think about that tomorrow’. Then I go to bed and I sleep, and when I wake in the morning I tackle into it again. So that’s another hint for keeping an even keel.