{"id":785748,"date":"2026-02-24T11:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/785748\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:53:17","slug":"really-getting-lost-in-a-good-book-is-one-way-to-find-better-mental-health-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/785748\/","title":{"rendered":"Really getting lost in a good book is one way to find better mental health \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Hogan reads books with his ears now, after a single-punch assault left him blind and living with a brain injury.<\/p>\n

Audio books are his escape from the world, he says, after he goes to bed in the evenings at home in Clarecastle, Co Clare. A wheelchair user, he has been able to live independently in a new, purpose-built bungalow for the past year and a half, with the daily support of carers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life isn\u2019t rock-and-roll, but I have a smile on my face,\u201d says Hogan, a native of Limerick city, whose life was upended at the age of 32 after a night-time attack in Nottingham, England. He was working there at the time as a quantity surveyor on construction projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a whole combination of unfortunate events,\u201d he says of that night, 16 years ago. His best friend, who he usually socialised with, was on holidays abroad that weekend and he ended up in the company of the \u201cwrong people\u201d. One of them invited a stranger back to Hogan\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know this person,\u201d he says of the man who hit him with one punch to the head. Not realising the extent of the damage done, Hogan went to bed. \u201cThat was my biggest mistake. I didn\u2019t get to the hospital until the next day. My brain had been bleeding for the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

A housemate discovered him unconscious after he failed to appear out of his bedroom the following morning. <\/p>\n

In awareness-raising about brain injuries in recent years, one message Hogan hammers home is the importance of getting any head injury checked out straight away. It is a lesson he learned in the hardest of ways. He was left in a coma and his family was told he had only 10 per cent chance of pulling through, but Hogan survived against the odds. <\/p>\n

After rehabilitation in hospitals and time spent in a Co Limerick nursing home for the elderly, he says he was \u201crescued\u201d by Acquired Brain Injury Ireland<\/a>. He lived for almost 12 years in that charity\u2019s Anvers Housing in Clarecastle. \u201cI worked really hard; I was given goals to reach,\u201d he says, slowly progressing to the stage of being able to move into an independent unit.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Ireland Reads Day<\/a> on February 28th, when everyone across the country is encouraged \u201cto get lost in a good book\u201d, Hogan says being able to listen to a variety of books continues to feed his imagination and intellect. Having paid a subscription service for audio books, he was delighted to find out from his local library in Ennis that he could listen to them free through BorrowBox. This digital resource is available to any member of the 330 public libraries in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"BrianBrian Hogan at the De Valera Library. Having paid a subscription service for audio books, he was delighted to find out from the library that he could listen to them free through BorrowBox. Photograph: Eamon Ward <\/p>\n

Once a month he goes to Ennis\u2019s De Valera Library to attend a group run by Headway Ireland<\/a>, which provides services in the community to people affected by brain injury. The library moved into a brand new building in November 2024 and is now fully accessible to people with disabilities, and has suitable bathroom facilities. <\/p>\n

Not only is the building physically suitable for the Headway group, but \u201cthen extra richness came from the relationship that they built with the staff\u201d, says senior executive librarian Cora Gunter. She has worked in the library service for 23 years and was in Galway before moving to Co Clare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one of those few free services that are open and available to everybody. That has its rewards, but then it has also its challenges.\u201d While people traditionally think of a library as a very quiet, safe place, staff of modern-day libraries have to manage the impact of being available to all communities, including people who may be homeless or have addiction and mental health issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe particularly want to reach out to those who most need us. Being accessible is so important because they are the cohort that probably most benefit from the service and being out in the community and being able to be independent for themselves in our space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public libraries, as one of the few \u201ccradle to grave\u201d resources, are still underused, she believes. People may be unaware of the diverse range of services and activities that are now available within, and beyond, the walls of their local branch.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inchicore library: \u2018Empty, gorgeous art deco\u2019 building faces uncertain futureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

One big change Gunter has noticed is the rising demand for study facilities. The 100 spaces in the De Valera Library are full nearly all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increased need for space is immense because so many people haven\u2019t got spaces in their homes,\u201d she points out. Teenagers studying for State exams or adults returning to education are among those seeking a seat at library desks. The family-friendly nature of a library is also very important for attracting the youngest of readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re busy on Saturdays because we have the fathers \u2013 the mothers go shopping and the dads are sent over to the library [with the children],\u201d says Gunter. A reader all her life, \u201cbooks would be like a comfort to me\u201d. Whenever she moved into a new phase or place, \u201cI always used to bring Lord of the Rings and it kind of made me feel safe from that change. You could go back into another world as you got used to that space, or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

She echoes Brian Hogan\u2019s feelings about books being a refuge. He loves to revisit, for instance, the scenes of All Creatures Great and Small, in the James Herriot books about a rural vets\u2019 practice, which he was introduced to by his late mother. She was a keen reader who frequented second-hand bookshops and would bring him and his five siblings to the library.<\/p>\n

The Herriot books are set in the Yorkshire dales, a landscape very familiar to Hogan, as he worked in the adjoining Derbyshire dales when he lived in Nottingham. That was a time in his life when he thought \u201chaving the nicest clothes\u201d and other material things were important.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving good associates and good friends, having good relationships. That\u2019s what\u2019s far more important,\u201d he says now. His Christian faith helps to sustain him and he attends weekly meetings of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important,\u201d he adds, \u201cto have hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DarraghDarragh Power, Re-Hab Officer Headway, Cora Gunter, Senior Executive Librarian and Eilish Murrihy, Branch Librarian with Brian Hogan at the DeValera Library. Photograph: Eamon Ward <\/p>\n

Adults who have fallen out of the habit of reading books are particularly encouraged to pick one up this Saturday (February 28th) on Ireland Reads Day.<\/p>\n

The campaign is a government initiative to celebrate the joy of reading. Funded by the Healthy Ireland programme and supported by public libraries, a key message is that relaxing with an enjoyable book boosts wellbeing by relieving stress and improving cognitive development. Research shows that reading for pleasure enhances empathy, improves social connections, combats loneliness and keeps people mentally active. Various local libraries will host special events to mark the day (irelandreads.ie<\/a>).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Planning permission granted for new library to serve Crumlin and DrimnaghOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cJust jump in, find something, talk to other people [for recommendations],\u201d says arts broadcaster Rick O\u2019Shea, who 12 years ago set up an online book club which now has more than 43,000 members. A couple of years previously he had realised he was not reading as much as he wanted to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d get these little moderate panic attacks every time I went into a bookshop because I\u2019d realise there was so much stuff coming out that I would never get to.\u201d At that point he was getting through about 15 books a year.<\/p>\n

\"BroadcasterBroadcaster Rick O\u2019Shea: ‘I\u2019ve read 90 pages of the new book that I started yesterday because it\u2019s great.’ <\/p>\n

\u201cThe great enemy of reading is screens. That\u2019s the same for adults as it is for kids. It\u2019s the same for me.\u201d If he wants to make proper inroads into a book, he finds it best to leave his phone somewhere else in the house. \u201cPhysically not have it somewhere where you can reach it easily, to look up something that you\u2019ve just thought about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Typically he reads for 30-40 minutes after he goes to bed at night, which also helps him with one essential pillar of health, sleep. He recommends setting a target to cultivate habitual reading, as he did in 2014, when he announced he was going to read 100 books that year. Probably not practical for most people, he concedes, \u201cbut set yourself the target of, like, one or two a month, or whatever you think is doable\u201d. Blogging about the 100 as he went, led to the setting up of the Rick O\u2019Shea book club on Facebook. Don\u2019t persist with books you hate, he says, because that leads to resentment and procrastination over continued reading. Whereas, he adds, \u201cI\u2019ve read 90 pages of the new book that I started yesterday because it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

He read to his three children, now adults, when they were babies, \u201cbefore they were capable of understanding what it was\u201d. But he treasured the time with them, as they grew to learn that a story came out of the book open in front of them.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018The libraries are a brilliant resource and I think as a country we need to celebrate them\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Sarah Webb, children’s writer<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As presenter of RT\u00c9 Radio 1\u2019s arts programme Arena, O\u2019Shea reads books for work as well as pleasure, \u201cbut hopefully the two intersect\u201d. And he makes clear that reading, for him, is not a hobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that I do for fun. It is woven through me for all of my adult life. So that\u2019s why I\u2019m always such an evangelist whenever I get the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family psychotherapist Richard Hogan is also passionate about reading books, which, he believes, are more important than ever for mental health, to counteract the superficiality of social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s such a sustaining gift through life, no matter what age \u2013 but particularly in adolescence when you might be struggling. You think you\u2019re the only one in the world going through this particular feeling or particular emotion \u2013 and then you read and see that you actually aren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily psychotherapist Richard Hogan: ‘Novels bring us into contact with the human condition: to struggle, to strive, to fail, sadness, relationships ending; massive existential themes like good versus evil.’ <\/p>\n

He grew up in a Cork home full of books but, as a child with dyslexia, took no interest in the ones he was being given. That was so until the day he pulled The Catcher in the Rye off the shelf in the library that his late father, Irish Times journalist Dick Hogan, had built up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just blew my head off,\u201d he says of the 1951 JD Salinger novel. \u201cIt spoke straight to me, that recalcitrant, teenage, idealistic kind of cynical voice that we have as teenagers. It sent me off down the rabbit hole of reading and devouring books and just loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In meeting characters in books who struggle, \u201cyou figure out who you are\u201d, he says. \u201cNovels bring us into contact with the human condition: to struggle, to strive, to fail, sadness, relationships ending; massive existential themes like good versus evil. I think we need that probably more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Travel books popular in libraries as Ireland Reads gets under wayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s writer and bookseller Sarah Webb works part-time in a bookshop in Greystones, Co Wicklow, where she sees parents and grandparents increasingly seeking advice on how to keep children reading. She champions the printed word, believing that \u201creading on a screen or online doesn\u2019t have the same escapism\u201d.<\/p>\n

The closeness of the bond that is created when a parent reads to a baby or child is a vital part of the experience. Outsourcing bedtime reading to a phone or children\u2019s audio player, she says, is not the same at all.<\/p>\n

\"Children’sChildren\u2019s writer and bookseller Sarah Webb: ‘I was able to read comics because I was reading the pictures, so comics like the Bunty became incredibly important to me.’ <\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t read until I was nine and a half so I really relied on the adults in my life to read [to me]. I was able to read comics because I was reading the pictures, so comics like the Bunty became incredibly important to me.\u201d To this day she regards comics as a vital art form, especially for children, because they are so visual.<\/p>\n

As soon as Webb started to read, she also started to write. \u201cI realised I had stories that I wanted to tell that weren\u2019t in books.\u201d She has been doing vast amounts of both ever since.<\/p>\n

To lapsed book readers, she suggests listening to an audiobook might be a good way back, along with novellas such as those by Claire Keegan, as they are short.<\/p>\n

Advice that applies equally to children and adults is \u201cto read things you like. If you\u2019re interested in history, read history; if you like a romantic novel read that; or if you\u2019re interested in poetry, read some poetry.\u201d <\/p>\n

People who have not been in a public library for many years may not realise there are no longer fines for late returns, which takes stress out of borrowing. There are now likely to be multiple copies of popular books, she says, rather than just one or two that always seemed to be \u201cout\u201d. A library card from one local authority area can be used in any public library across the Republic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe libraries are a brilliant resource and I think as a country we need to celebrate them,\u201d she adds, \u201cbecause a lot of countries are closing theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brian Hogan reads books with his ears now, after a single-punch assault left him blind and living with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4317],"tags":[69499,347,105,218,16,15],"class_list":["post-785748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-clare","tag-disability","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116125473979582905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}