I didn’t foresee that the death of somebody I hadn’t seen for years would have such a profound effect but as I sat sobbing over Ronnie’s death notice at the weekend, remembering the warm, generous, kind and exuberant man that he was, I realised that some lives touch our own in ways that have an impact forever.
Ronnie certainly had an impact on my life – I credit him with my entire journalism career – a career I’ve loved and been lucky in, all because he gave an unknown, inexperienced writer a chance.
I was living in Galway post university, a BA degree in English and an MA in Postmodernism qualifying me for the sum total of absolutely nothing career wise. I’d written a few small reviews for the Advertiser’s arts pages and thought I’d like to do more writing, so I asked for a meeting with Ronnie. I was hoping to maybe get a few advertorials so I nearly fell off the chair when he told me that he was planning to turn the back page of the Advertiser into a Galway Life column and would I like to write it.
Would I what?
I nearly bit his arm off with excitement. I didn’t bother pointing out to him that I had zilch experience for the job as it was obvious he knew that already – but he was still prepared to give me a chance. What a chance it was. Galway Life, written under the pen name Brid Breeze, continued for several years with Ronnie’s support and enthusiasm. Plenty of other work stemmed from this and eventually I was writing for the national papers as well.
Ronnie also gave me my first job as an editor – with magpie magazine – and from there I moved to London as an editor for Hearst Mags, a global publisher of titles like Cosmopolitan and Elle.
But no matter how glitzy the subsequent jobs or the pleasure they brought me, nothing will ever beat the fun of those early days in the Advertiser, the laughs and the jokes, Ronnie’s stories and plans, his joyful enthusiasm, his passion for the job we were doing, his love for Galway and the local community. His life and his work truly touched so many of us and made our lives better.
At this time of intense sadness, I thank the universe for Ronnie’s glorious life.
