Anne Casey Anne Casey — a lyrical light
In the rural idyll of west Ireland, in the green hills of County Clare, just a few minutes from the beach at Spanish Point, rests the small town of Miltown Malbay. Here, born to a local fisherman and his wife the town draper, a daughter makes her way through secondary school before heading off to study law in Dublin. Then, half a world and a third of a lifetime away, that daughter has made her home in Sydney, has won a parcel of awards for her poetry and shares a message of hope and empowerment that points a way ahead through the climate challenge, social issues and the epidemic fallout.
Half a world away
Anne Casey has been resident in Australia now for more years than she lived in Ireland, but for her Ireland is very clearly her spiritual home. Casey recalls, “I grew up behind the counter of my mother’s clothes shop which had been ‘Casey’s’ for a hundred years back then. In Miltown I lived an idyllic childhood, between the counter of my mum’s shop, centre of gossip for the community, and my dad’s boat — he ran a trawler off the coast. I used to get to go out on the boat with him a lot. Sometimes for two days at a time.”
