I’m that kid from a broken home in a small town who runs away to travel the world, thinking it’ll solve all his problems – only to learn, you can’t outrun your shadow.My story is a cliche as told as time, and I fully embrace that.But while many aspects of it are universal, I’ve been on some some crazy, unique adventures over the years.What follows is a brief rundown of the highlights and lowlights. If you want to hear more, listen to one of the podcast interviews included below.
I was born in 1989, in a small Irish town called Carrigaline (pop. 12,000), halfway between an airport and a harbour.When I was two, my father gave up pretending he wanted to be a parent and left me, my two older siblings, and our mother for another woman.Divorce was illegal in Ireland at the time, so my parents were stuck married and sharing three children. It went as badly as you’d expect.
My mother struggled with single parenthood in a society that often blamed her and her fellow abandoned moms for their husbands’ affairs, bullying, abuse, and feckless parenting. She spent years working as a maid and taking other odd jobs to ensure we never realised how dire our situation was.
Meanwhile, my father galivanted through a string of random encounters and short lived relationships he had no interest in hiding from his children.I have few fond memories of my early childhood, which was defined by conflict, a horrendous divorce (once it was legalised in1996), endless court cases, crying, loneliness, confusion, and a yearning to escape.The one bright spot were the annual family holidays my mother would take us on to France. Secretly, these were being financed by my uncle and grandfather, who stepped into the void left by my father.
They were also determined that we leave Ireland and see the world beyond our unhappy little cul de sac.However, as I neared puberty, and my teenage boy hormones began to rage, my mother would have a whole new nightmare to navigate: me.
The first few years of travel were crazy.I skipped my college graduation ceremony, because I was living in a caravan on a beach in Western Australia.I partied everywhere from Thailand to North Korea to Palestine to Portugal.I nearly died a bunch of times.Fell in love - more than once. Had my heart broken - more than once.Got tattoo’d by a Buddhist monk in rural Thailand.Hung out at an army camp in Cambodia firing assault rifles for fun.Danced on the streets of Pyongyang to celebrate Kim Jong Il’s birthday.Started and failed at numerous businesses ventures.Legally sold fake cocaine at an Australian sex convention.Picked fruit, ran pub crawls, managed bars - anything to get me the next plane ticket to the next country.Heard about bitcoin in 2015 – didn’t buy any.Spent a day teaching English in a prison.Spent Eid in Ramallah, The West Bank doing shots of tequila from tear gas canisters that had been fired at us earlier that day.Saved a kid from drowning, an American tourist from being beaten to death, and a random guy from falling off a cliff. All in a few weeks.Had my live threatened, a lot.Dropped acid at an illegal rave in the Australian outbackArrested in my underwear for accidentally stealing an iPhone.Got drugged - twice.Pitched a 7-figure walking tour company that would hire homeless people as tour guides to the Malaysian government - and almost pulled it off!Slowly descended into alcoholism.Bottomed out in Kampala, Uganda in 2017.
Then, one fateful morning I woke up and lost my appetite for alcohol and cigarettes (I was on 20+ a day). Poof, gone. No urges, cravings, or “Well, what if I have just one?“I can’t tell you how this happened, but I suspect it had a lot to do with Star Wars…The years that followed, I slowly started to put my life together. This was no immediate, inspiring transformation. Instead, something more like an upward spiral.I was still trapped in the trauma that lead me to start drinking at 14 and not stop for 13 years. Often going round and round in endless circles of self-sabotage.But slowly, slowly, I was starting to put myself together in what I’ve since described as an upword spiral of insreasingly less disastrous fuck ups. (I’ve since learned the upword spiral is a book - which I’m currently reading).And the adventures didn’t stop, they just changed in tone.Six months after I got sober, and s cecade since the worst day of my life, I spent my 28th birthday celebrating Friday prayers with Sudan’s Sufi Muslim community. The following night, I slept alone in the desert next two some 3,000 year old pyramids.I bought a small apartment in a Bulgarian ski town for $12,000, in 2018. It was my shelter from Covid. It remains my safe space when I need a break from the world. And it’s since 4x’d in value.In 2019, I started ghostwriting for ethical hackers and stumbled into the world of SEO and content marketing. I was secretly published in The Guardian, TechCrunch, Wired, The Daily Mail, and many other publications. Friends were reading my work without knowing it.I made some bad investments still never bought any Bitcoin.Wound up back in East Africa, consulting for startups and scaleups in the region after the venture capital bubble burst and they had no budget to pay for my services.Went on my first real holidays in a decade, to Rwanda and Georgia, which was nice.Spent a month living in an old hotel in Stone Town, Zanzibar with a pet mouse, hanging out with a man who used to dress Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela.Once had to retrive my friend’s stolen iPhone from a heroine den with the help of a Somali restauranteur and 20 junkies.Did lots of trauma and EMDR therapy.Still occasionally fell to pieces as old memories burst up to the surface.But overall, started to get my shit together.
And here we are. Exhausted from all that?Imagine living it.If you’re coming here looking for business advice - I’m not your guy.Diagnosed with ADHDSplit my time betweenConsultingMost exciting is buying a new blender
Across The Desk: Digital Nomads – I was invited onto a popular call-in radio show in Johannesburg to discuss the digital nomad lifestyle and field questions from the public on a wide range of related topics and issues.
My first year as a freelance ghostwriter, while traveling East Africa – I detail the long, winding road that took me from a small town in Ireland to Kenya (via 40+ countries), and the many personal pitfalls and professional triumphs along the way.
From East Africa to Bali, meet the Irish digital nomads – I had the pleasure of not just being profiled by the biggest (I think) Irish daily newspaper, but also organising interviews with some friends and acquaintances, in which we discuss the benefits of the digital nomad lifestyle for people in Ireland.
My first year as a freelance ghostwriter, while traveling East Africa – I detail the long, winding road that took me from a small town in Ireland to Kenya (via 40+ countries), and the many personal pitfalls and professional triumphs along the way.