Karen Dempsey

I mean, when I did my nursing and then I went back to UCD and I did an arts degree in English, Irish and psychology.

I remember being like, Irish, what's that got to do with anything?

And now the language is such an important part of my ceremonial work, because even if the ceremony isn't in Irish...

it informs the landscape of how I'm approaching the ceremony.

There's a really deep connection between Irish people.

Even if we've always spoken English all our lives, the language is in our bones and it comes out how we speak and in the turn of phrase we use.

And I will often, I will nearly always incorporate the landscape as well within a ceremony.

Like where we are standing is meaningful.

No matter where it is, the land we stand on when we make a commitment to one another is important and profound as well.

Yes.

Some aspect of each one of those roles and careers grew a part of my personality.

So it helped me develop different parts of my personality to a more rounded place now.

There's two ways of looking at this.

I really do think...

I live my life as full as I can today.

End of story.

Because I know tomorrow is not promised to me.

I also don't let that be tyrannical.

Like the tyranny of you might die tomorrow.

You know, like some people say, oh, tell everybody you love them because you might die tomorrow.