Hitching for hope in dark times
In the heady days of the Celtic Tiger, Ruairí McKiernan was one of the best-known social campaigners in the country. Through the organisation Community Creations, he had helped set up SpunOut.ie, a youth movement that harnessed the internet to focus on mental and sexual health as well as political empowerment.
The organisation raised millions of euros, won numerous awards and helped organise a visit by the Dalai Lama to Ireland.
“Like Ireland’s economy, I was flying high, propelled by adrenaline and a particular definition of success. However, just as the country had experienced a crash landing, I was about to endure my own,” he reflects.
By mid-2011, he had reached burnout.
“I felt paralysed by fear and uncertainty, and I knew something needed to change. Reading the Dalai Lama’s writings, I took inspiration from his thoughts on how fear can infect our lives and limit our choices, and how by learning to live ‘in the now’ we might find greater peace.”
Within months, he had walked away from Community Creations, was falling into debt with no obvious next steps ahead of him.
Just as he was considering following the well-worn path to emigration, the newly elected President Michael D Higgins invited him to be one of his seven appointees to the Council of State, an advisory body for the president. The role gave him an injection of enthusiasm but a year later his usual energy levels had not returned.
He was then invited to speak about citizens’ views of Ireland at the MacGill summer school and the idea suddenly dawned on him that he should hitchhike around Ireland, listening to people speak for themselves and amplifying their voices.
Hitching became second nature to him after being bullied on the school bus. In later years he hitched across Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and West Africa.
He kicked off his month-long odyssey from Spiddal, where his mom Ann Keenaghan had set up a healing clinic four years earlier. Ruairí had also spent six years in Galway where he met his future wife Susan. He asked on social media if anyone had an audio recorder he could borrow - a woman called Muireann sourced one and a lad called Ross offered to would deliver it to him.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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