About Me

My name is Brenda Drumm and I live in Newbridge, Co Kildare with my family: –

• 1 husband (Bryan)
• 2 kids (Emma and Cathal)
• 5 cats (don’t ask) (Katniss, Will, Ellie and Siblings Ripley and Loki)
• an unspecified number of tropical fish (update 2023: there are no longer any fish)

I am [insert age

I worked as Communications Officer with the Catholic Communications Office in Maynooth, Co Kildare for 22 years. I finished up on 8 September 2022. In that time I project managed a Year of Vocation which was really successful. I was also seconded to head up communications for the World Meeting of Families and associated Papal Visit in 2018 (I definitely need to blog about that).

I am working as Communications Manager with the Disability Federation of Ireland since September 2022 and I adore the work. I meet the most amazing people who have such a deep commitment to the issues. I have listened to some extraordinary stories.

In my spare time I used to produce and present two radio programmes on local radio here in Kildare. One was called Religion Matters and it airs on a Sunday morning on Kfm radio and the other was an arts show called Artyfacts which airs on the same radio station on a Wednesday evening at 7pm. I have always wanted to do radio and was thrilled to get the chance back in October 2010 and I have been a very happy radio head ever since. I had to depart from local radio when I took up the Papal Visit Comms as there was no longer any spare time. I also produced and presented Faith Matters, a weekly (yes weekly) podcast about faith and church in Ireland. The pandemic meant that had to be stopped temporarily. I loved doing the podcast.

I am back producing and presenting a monthly podcast in my current role called The DFI Podcast. I love the medium.

I love music and books. I love to read poetry and I appreciate a good short story. Claire Keegan is the queen there. I like to write, memoir pieces but I would love to do a play. I am starting a writing course with playwright John MacKenna this Autumn. I am nervous but also see the possibilities.

I took up art about three year’s ago and I am very much a landscape and seascape person. I find solace in the oils and acrylics and that is one of my favourite ways to wind down.

I love to cook – sweet and savoury. My latest cooking fad is tanginess and ice cream – not served together obviously.

I am really into photography and I have won a couple of competitions for my photos. I have also had a number of my press photos published in National and local newspapers as well as on countless websites. In another life I think I would be a National Geographic photo journalist.

I like to travel but I am equally happy to be at home with Bryan and the kids. My daughter and I are on a tour of European cities in recent years. We have done London, Berlin, Paris. We have also done New York in the fall which was wonderful. Malta was a new addition to the list of travel favourites and then post Covid it was Florence.

I am second eldest in a family of five children and two parents and we are all alive and kicking.

My daughter is an extremely talented published writer and poet. I am looking forward to seeing her novel on book shelves in the not too distant future…..it’s going to happen ……

I have a son who is just embarking on the road to college. Doors and new experiences aplenty to come.

I love a good laugh and Tok Tok has given me many laugh out loud moments.

I consider myself to be very lucky and very blessed.

I do not have a bucket list.

I have one aim in life and that is to wear more purple.

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings,
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens,
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickle for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old
and start to wear purple!

Jenny Joseph

I’m not sure how you found my blog but welcome and thanks for stopping by. I hope you will stay a while and read some of my ramblings.

Brenda

xx

Updated: September 2023