What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Happiness is a pursuit, often in the dark, of something that may be unattainable in this world.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
St Rita of Cascia, patron saint of the impossible.
Which living person do you most admire?
Nelson Mandela.
Which is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Ego, when I spot it slinking around.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Books, Silvermints, or call for another brandy.
What is your favourite journey?
From one side of the river Suir to the other, and vice versa.
On what occasion do you lie?
I’m prepared to lie through my teeth if I’m being tortured.
Which living person do you most despise?
Self-righteousness.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Ask me on my death-bed, if there’s time and I still have the use of myself.
When and where were you happiest?
I was almost one year old, and in my cot.
Which talent would you most like to have?
To play drums or trombone with a swinging band or a symphony orchestra.
What is your current state of mind?
Always searching for the right word or phrase or line for whatever poem I’m working at.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Gradually digging and planting the un-diggable garden of our house when I was a young.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what do you think it would be?
Perhaps a tree; on a slope above a river. Or a fiddle in the right hands.
What is your most treasured possession?
The great gifts are music, song, and words.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Humiliation, loneliness, depression, and despair and the unspeakable grief left after suicide.
What is your favourite occupation?
Being in good company, and sharing in loving laughter.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Humility and kindness, in either order. Or as one together.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Kindness and humility, in either order. Or as one together.
Who are your favourite writers?
The ones with the most soul and the least ego.
What is your motto?
Lift up your hearts…
Michael Coady will be reading at the Clifden Community Arts Week, which runs until September 28.
Kernan Andrews
