I re-discovered this (February 2026) and it explains my long absence, so here goes.
Just over a year ago, I declared that I was looking forward to picking up my pen again, after a year dedicated to major building work in my house.
I’ve written lots, but not quite as I expected.
My two unpublished novels still await my attention, as I became distracted by my genealogical research. This was thanks to FamilySearch, the mega website for family history. It has introduced a function called Full Text Search, which is revolutionising access to research sources, particularly for Irish historians. When I dipped into it, I discovered information which is helping me break down what we genealogists call ‘a brick wall’. The roots of one set of my great-grandparents have eluded me, as I haven’t been able to find a marriage certificate for them.
Thanks to Full Text Search, a wealth of data has fallen into my lap about my great-grandmother, Mary Napier, née Scott. As I trawled through it, I thought, ‘there’s an article in this.’ As I trawled further, I realised there was, in fact, a book in it!
That’s my current writing project, ‘The Scotts of Kilkenny 1700-1913, a directory’. I beavered away on it for several months early in the year and then had to stop.
Thanks to being published in 2024 in ‘Breifne’, a history journal in the north-west of Ireland, I was asked to speak at an event in Cavan in August 2025. As I wanted this to go well, I had to focus on preparing my talk and creating a decent PowerPoint. So with great regret, I put the book aside. I had a lovely weekend in the Slieve Russell hotel (at my own expense, I hasten to add) and received good feedback on my talk about Patrick MacCabe Fay.
In September (2025), I gave a talk in my local library – Coolock, Dublin – on starting one’s family history research, so spent time preparing that one, too.
And now I’m off to Australia for three weeks (October-November 2025), so the Scotts of Kilkenny have joined the queue of books waiting to be written / re-written / promoted.
One of these days…
(c) Audrey Mac Cready
