People of the Wild Atlantic Way – 

Aoife Doolan – Bantry, West Cork.

‘Music and painting make up my everyday. I live through music and art. That’s how I see my environment, how I negotiate the landscape and the people around me. I can’t pass a day without creating something from what I see. I find the people and the community in Bantry hugely inspirational. My life has changed since I moved here four years ago. I never really had that sense of belonging or connecting to a place before. I remember the epiphany moment when I woke up on my first morning here on a beautiful June day, looking out on the Atlantic and Beara, I just went ah, this makes sense, and all of a sudden everything started to fall into place. The town is steeped in creativity, there is a great support network in the community and it has changed the way I look at life, the way I see people and my understanding of human connection, its really good for the soul. My passion is to encourage others and see them come out of themselves in the same fashion as it was done for me through the support I was given. Creativity is a way of life and we do it in the everyday without realising it. Every step you take forward there is no taking one step back – once you know something you can’t unknow it.’