...under construction
1980 - 1990 Wilderness Years
1990 - 1993 Kibbutz & Travels
1994 - 1995 Wirral News
1995 - 1996 Self-employment
1997 - 2001 Eco Worrier
2003 - 2008 Wirral Council
2008 - 2009 Round the World
2010 Wirral Libraries
I was born in Wirral in 1964, second child of Kevin and Tess Kirwan. We're from a long line of Kirwans - the Kings of Galway I am told. This picture is not a visit from the local exorcist, by the way - that's my Missionary Uncle John.
We lived in New Ferry, Bromborough, Neston, and various locations in Wallasey. That's my big brother Stephen - who is still a collector of teddy bears but otherwise a perfectly respectable member of the legal fraternity in Stafford.
Went to school at St Winefrides in Neston, St Georges Primary and St Georges Middle, then Weatherhead - during what we must charitably call its wilderness years. You can check out Friends Reunited for all that sort of stuff.
As a child magician at the Blackman's School of Magic in New Brighton I was, bizarrely, winner of Young Magician of the Year in 1977 but after years of therapy I rarely appear out of empty boxes any more.
Some things just don't add up - and I was one of them when I worked at Barclays Bank, Liscard Village in the eighties. Tried to fend off the boredom of these years through increasingly bizarre extra-curricular activities like getting married, being a special constable, getting divorced, wild times with boy racers (Mark Fawcett where are you now?); Those were the days - but these are the days also
Escaped from branch banking in '89 for lengthy and eventful special assignment at Barclays Help Desk in Wythenshaw, staying at the three star Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham for 18months (yes, that's what your bank charges pay for.) But you know what they say: ten years in banking is enough for anyone. More than enough. So much more than enough.
It's okay, I'm over it. It's over.
In 1990, with the Desert Storm deadline approaching, I set off for Israel as a volunteer through Kibbutz Representatives in Manchester. I'd read a Ladybird book about it when I was seven and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Those Ladybird people have a lot to answer for. More here...
Kibbutz Beit Guvrin 1990 - 1991
My first kibbutz was the Lahish district of the Negev desert, not far from the West Bank border near Hebron, with around 250 members. Principle industries: glue factory, cattle, agriculture, chickens. Fell in love with Moshe Gopher but sadly it was not to be, doomed even. Sigh.
Kibbutz Alonim 1990 - 1993 (intermittently)
Midway between Haifa and Nazareth in Northern Israel. Principle industries: Aluminium factory, chickens, agriculture, plastic flowers. More than 400 members and very good cakes in my day. Pictured right, and on the Kibbutz pics page.
Under the guidance of Editor Gill McMinn in the old Seaview Road office, I was editorial assistant at Wirral News for a year, and was also allowed, nay encouraged, to flex my journalistic muscles. I was with Guy at the time - he made me an electric guitar but then it was either burned in his mate's flat after some feng shui went badly wrong, or sank on the same mate's canal boat.
Some people have all the luck - and also my electric guitar
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Ill-fated expedition to the heady world PR and entrepreneurialshipism. I know - that's not a real word. Progress slow and completely in the wrong direction. I was with Gorgeous Glyn by then, but as he will tell you and everybody else, I was "a shackle to him."
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Through a dangerous cocktail of common sense, idealism and inactivity - set up the Eco Centre in Liscard, which became the Centre for Sustainable Living for the (then) Wirral Green Alliance. I was also heavily involved in setting up Wirral Local Agenda 21 Forum. That was fun.
The centre is still going, but the two groups merged into Wirral LA21 Network - check out the link.
I worked at Trafford Hall - the National Tenants Resource Centre - near Chester working on a capacity building training and grants programme for tenants and residents groups around Britain - very rewarding work to see (and help) the projects develop. I never did find out why it was called the Gatsby Project - it involved very little drinking and relatively few shootings, although I suppose there was a gothic mansion and the pursuit of the Dream.
I work in Wirral Council's Press & PR team under an assumed name.
I started out covering environmental issues but my most recent role was to show Wirral in its best light during Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture 2008, which I did through my Culture for All campaign - with no visible means of support... then I asked for extended leave and was refused but left anyway to 'follow the dream' - the Big Trip and the World Tour - follow The Flashpacker Diaries blog.
First pic: Open Championship, Hoylake 2006 - just before that nasty fight over a maple & pecan danish: Gill Gwatkin, Gill Rutter, Jane Carroll, me, Nick Murton, Nikki Mullineux.
Second pic: the first of Tom Walker's many leaving do's - the one in which nobody got poisoned! Me, Pete (Gwatkin - not one of us... must be wife Gill taking the pic), Amanda Williams, Gill Rutter, Gill Galt and hubby, Tom Walker, Amelia Worrall, Jamie Dixon and Kathryn McGiveron.
The grand tour, the big trip, mind the gap... oh alright, I'll stop going on about it and carry on sorting through the 16,500 photographs we took to find a few to put up here.
More pics here or check out our blog at:
Currently working in Wirral Libraries part time and working on the Best-selling Novel. Yes, I know it's been a long time coming but as you have seen, I am easily distracted.
