Michael Harding

We talk about what we have done in the past rather than what we are going to do in the future

‘Would you not get yourself a concertina?’ he asked. Why? ‘It would be quieter’

‘It’s not that we were taking different sides in an argument. We had become the argument.’

I am forced to stop at a lay-by near Athlone, where I spend 10 minutes bent over the bonnet of my Toyota

‘All my life I have relied on music as a remedy for depression. It lifts up my soul’

It was a social event for Ukrainians in the local library of a rural town, but he wasn’t there for the tea or biscuits

I left the phone on the bedside locker – but struggled to get through breakfast in the silence

I found three little porcelain angels at my parents’ plot, none of which I had seen before

Their unrestrained exuberance for storytelling showed me how bearing witness to one’s own life is the core of a writers’ destiny

His voice always made me shiver, but he also contributed greatly – albeit inadvertently – to my moral development

Maybe I am naive but for me binoculars were a beautiful remnant of Victorian tranquillity. I’ve never thought of them as an aid for killing

‘One thing for certain is that young people will always fly from war on whatever life raft they can find’

The weather resembled Leitrim in January. I wondered how I could have been so foolish to think this would all be fun

I took myself to the Camino a few weeks ago but I was focused on walking rather than pilgrimage

‘In a curious way this wilderness feels like home,’ the General said, and I said nothing, though I understood what he meant

Annie presided over her wonderful kitchen with the authority of a speaker in the Houses of Parliament

Talking to plants and small birds is entirely sensible in this part of the country

Michael Harding: The camera’s heartbroken original owner gave me a gift - I imagine her sorrow embedded in it, and at times I feel it points at things without my guidance

Michael Harding: As a teenager, I’d hitch from Cavan with a tent on my back and sleep in the grass just for the thrill of a night in the Astoria Ballroom with Dickie Rock

With a permanent limp Jack joined the half-blind Peabody and the bewildered Charlie in a quiet but significant communion of love

It amazes me how easily catastrophe rises in my life. And how my sense of faith can be so quickly shattered

Michael Harding: My partner’s jaw dropped when I mentioned an old neighbour’s chamber pot

Michael Harding: I headed off, not with a walking stick, but with Ryanair to the mystical Spanish city

I got an invitation recently to a barbecue from a couple that are known for not getting on with each other

Michael Harding: An initial salutation and greetings was acceptable enough. But I crossed a line when I mentioned the holidaymakers’ cake

After bumping into him in the pharmacy, we went for coffee and compared our medication. This was a level of intimacy we had not bargained for

I had a dream about King Charles. A friend suggested it was articulating the pain of my own low self-esteem

Michael Harding: Perhaps he just went inside for a glass of water, but it felt like he had vanished; as if the balcony was his portal to an invisible realm

Michael Harding: My magical thinking about second-hand items bringing good fortune began in childhood

The truth is we can belong anywhere if we give it a chance

Love was something I longed for so desperately that I blundered for years as a young man

‘I used to long to know all about anyone who was clearly not from my neck of the woods. But such curiosity is a thing of the past’

Michael Harding: It was a risky joke, because stories have a way of imprisoning us

Some Irish towns are so devastated by economic disasters that I get homesick on the road and yearn for the quiet pastoral beauty of Leitrim

‘I swung back down to gather up the girl in my arms — she had of course fainted — and I carried her to a waiting ambulance’

Michael Harding: He finished his pint in that firm silence men use when they want to hide how frightened they are

In a packed hostelry in Meenaleck, we bore witness to a spectacular, life-affirming moment in which the world felt like a kinder and gentler place

I have felt gratitude every single day since, for the ambulance team which reached me so swiftly and saved me from the abyss, so that I could continue writing columns and enjoying swanky hotels

Michael Harding: At breakfast there was an unusual hush in the restaurant. It didn’t feel like a normal hotel

People who know better have assured me that it’s an artistic masterpiece, but I couldn’t bear to go beyond episode three