Siobhan McNamara

Writer,Journalist, Photographer

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Wheels of Fracking - A great idea from Lakelands Cycling Club in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland #tourismnotfracking

Wheels of Fracking – A great idea from Lakelands Cycling Club in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland #tourismnotfracking

  This cross-border cycling event and video was organised to show the currently unspoiled scenery of Fermanagh and Leitrim where plans are well under way for thousands of hydraulic fracturing wells and supporting compressor stations and storage ponds. With Ireland being such a small country, there are fears that these plans for the northwest could have a devastating impact on tourism and farming,…

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No-one wants to be a refugee

No-one wants to be a refugee

Imagine all those routine things you take for granted, like sending the kids off to school, going to work or to the shops, and coming home to the comfort of your home, maybe watching tv, spending time online, booking a holiday. Then imagine it all disintegrating in the blink of an eye. Kosovar refugees fleeing their homeland on 01 March 1999 UN Photo/UNHCR/R LeMoyne This is not fiction. This is…

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It seems my Terry Pratchett collection is complete

Normally when I hear the words: ‘you have to read this, it’s hilarious’ I make a mental note to avoid whatever ‘this’ is like the plague. And so, naively, it was with Terry Pratchett for a while at least. But his books called to me and eventually I succumbed. Thank goodness. Over the last 20 years Terry Pratchett has made me laugh. A lot. But that is only the start of it. Whether writing for…

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Free flash fiction competition

Free flash fiction competition

Free to enter  competition for all you flash fictioners out there – 350 words and the theme for May is ‘Prehistory’ This is from the mystery games website Daggerville Games. There is usually a murder-mystery theme for their monthly writing competition, and they are a lot of fun to write. https://www.facebook.com/daggerville?fref=ts

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Riverdance From Source to Sea #riverdance20

Riverdance From Source to Sea #riverdance20

Conchita Wurst is all the talk of Eurovision 2014 after winning the competition for Austria with Rise Like a Phoenix. Congratulations to Conchita. She certainly made an impression and was a gracious winner, defying homophobia and political differences that should have no place in music. While the infamous Eurovision Song Contest isn’t really my cup of tea, I can’t help but well up when I see the…

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Remember the Rubik’s Cube?

Remember the Rubik’s Cube?

Remember the Rubik’s Cube? Did you love it or did it drive you crazy with its complexity? Today it celebrates its 40th birthday. I was a little surprised to discover it had been around quite so long. Almost as long as myself, in fact. Apparently there are 43 quintillion possible combinations to the Rubik’s Cube but it can always be solved in no more than 20 moves. As a child I knew people who…

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Welcome

I'm revamping my blog /website. It's been neglected over the last few years but only because I have been very busy with my day job - the writing that pays the bills - with Iconic Media's Donegal print and web titles including DonegalLive.ie

There are stories that need to be told, some that cry out, others that whisper; so many words that want to come together to make sense of what it is to be human in all its shades, its moods, its banality and outrageousness, its horror,  its pain,  pleasure and wonder.  Stories help us make sense of the everyday or give shape and substance to our wildest imaginings. Here is a selection of my…

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Property Trap

Honoured and excited to hear today that my story Property Trap was awarded second place in the Short Writes short story competition :))) http://www.shortwrites.com/news/editor/literature/62-shortlisted-story-property-trap-by-siobhan Property Trap by Siobhan McNamara You could cope with everything else were it not for the rats. It is because of them that you shout at Luke all the time: ‘Don’t…

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Roomies - a 100 word story

Roomies – a 100 word story

This is my contribution to this week’s Friday Fictioneers 100-word fiction challenge.

Thanks to Liz Young for the very quirky photo prompt and to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting the group.

To join the fun and submit your own story, click here

To read other contributions, click on the blue froggy

©Liz Young Roomies

“I was the greatest choreographer in the world, according to the critics,”…

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Infinite Circle - a 100w story

Infinite Circle – a 100w story

This story is written in response to the photo prompt (below) for Friday Fictioneers, the finest flash fiction group on the web.

If you fancy joining the challenge, click here to go to host Rochelle Wisoff-Fields blog for details.

To read other contributions, click on the Blue Froggy

© J Hardy Carroll

  Infinite Circle

Childhood sweethearts. That’s what people call us.

Adam and I sat together at…

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Fine Art - a 100w story

Fine Art – a 100w story

I’ve been busy with work, family and a few other writing projects over the last few months but it was only after reading a recent brave and honest post from Dawn at Tales From The Motherland that I realised how much I missed the interaction of the blog. On one hand, I like the solitude of writing but it can be quite isolating too, so its great to have a forum that helps us to stay connected.

So…

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Remembering the first Riverdance performance in 1994

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Daily Writing or Reading Comic

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This is a story I wrote a few years ago, but I dusted off for the day that’s in it . Sadly, it’s based on a real event.