Some stories are written because they want to be told. Others are written because they need to be remembered. My guest on this week’s podcast, Jane Buckley, is a writer who carries both intentions close to her heart.

Born in Derry, Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Jane grew up during one of the most turbulent periods in Irish history – the Troubles, a conflict that shaped generations from the late 1960s until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. For many, this era is a chapter spoken about in hushed tones, half-remembered or misunderstood. But for Jane, it was lived experience. It was childhood. It was home.

Writing to Remember, Writing to Heal

Jane’s powerful four-part book series, Stones Corner — Turmoil, Darkness, Light, and Hope brings readers right into the emotional core of that time. Although the characters and storylines are fictional, they are rooted in real events and lived realities. Through her writing, Jane shines a light on the human cost of conflict, the fear, the quiet acts of bravery, the divided streets, and the resilience that helped ordinary people survive extraordinary circumstances.

Her books don’t just tell a story, they honour a generation.
They invite readers to understand the Troubles not as a distant headline, but as something deeply human, personal, and still echoing today.

Jane writes to make sense of it all.
She writes to honour those who lived through it.
She writes so it will not be forgotten.

From Checkpoints to Imagination

During our conversation, Jane shared how ordinary life was anything but ordinary. Passing armed checkpoints. Being warned not to speak to children from “the other side.” Navigating a world divided not just by politics, but by fear.

And yet, she still found escape - not in place, but in books and swimming.

She buried herself in stories, long before she began writing them. That love of reading became the seed of her storytelling years later, proving once again how imagination can carry us through what reality cannot soften.

A New Chapter: Project Children

Jane’s next work returns to the theme of hope, this time through a true story many have never heard. Between the 1970s and 1990s, a US initiative called Project Children flew 23,000 children from across the Northern Irish divide to America. For a few weeks every summer, they lived in peace, welcomed by families who simply wanted to offer safety, possibility, and normal childhood memories.

It wasn’t a political movement. It was a human one, changing lives not through speeches or treaties, but through compassion. One child. One home. One summer at a time.

Jane is writing this story not only to honour the people behind it, but so her own grandchildren in New Zealand will one day know where she came from, and more importantly, the strength, solidarity, and hope that existed even in the darkest times.

Why Stories Like Jane’s Matter

As we spoke, I found myself reflecting on how many people only know history through a single perspective, a headline, or a distant documentary - never through the voices of those who lived it.

Jane’s work reminds us that storytelling is a bridge. Even when told through fiction, truth finds a way through. And when we listen to stories that challenge our assumptions, something powerful happens, we expand our understanding, and healing becomes possible.

We cannot rewrite the past, but we can learn from it.
We can choose to listen.
We can choose to open our hearts.
We can choose to make sure these stories are never buried again.

🎧 Listen to the Full Conversation

If this story speaks to you, if you are curious about the human side of history, the power of storytelling, or the resilience of the Irish spirit, I invite you to listen to my full conversation with Jane Buckley on the podcast.

Her wisdom, warmth, and honesty will stay with you long after the episode ends.

Click here to listen now.

Sharon Fitzmaurice

Sharon Fitzmaurice is a Holistic Wellness Coach, Reiki Master Teacher & Practitioner, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Speaker, and Host of The Sharon Fitzmaurice Podcast. She is the author of Someone Please Help Me, So I Did and Awaken Your Wellbeing, and the founder of Soulful Journeys Online Community.

A passionate advocate for mental health awareness and survivors of childhood abuse, Sharon’s mission is to inspire others to heal, grow, and reconnect with their authentic selves. Through her work, writing, and conversations, she reminds us that within every story lies the power to transform and rise.

This may be a hard conversation to listen to but one that I feel is necessary to speak openly and honestly about. My recent episode with Andy Campbell on The Sharon Fitzmaurice Podcast was one of those. A deeply soulful, open-hearted dialogue that was less of an interview and more of a communion between two souls who understand the raw, often silent language of pain.

Andy’s story is unimaginable. As a young boy, he experienced sexual abuse. He watched his mother bravely battle cancer for 11 years before she passed away far too young. Estranged from his father, and now navigating his own journey through stage four pancreatic cancer, Andy has known suffering at depths that could easily consume even the strongest of spirits. But nothing could prepare him - or any parent - for the devastating loss of his son, Heston, who died by suicide at just 18 years old.

As we spoke, Andy shared how they knew from when Heston was only nine that the world felt too overwhelming for him. Despite the love, the support, the daily effort to help him choose life, the decision was ultimately out of their hands. There was pain, yes—deep, soul-aching pain - but also anger, helplessness, and a hollow sense of having to keep moving forward in a world where their son no longer existed physically.

In his grief, Andy speaks to Heston. He asks him for help in easing the despair, in somehow mending the heartbreak that now lives in him, his wife, and their three other sons. His new book Overcoming Life’s Toughest Setbacks is both a legacy of healing and a lifeline to others who may find themselves at the edge of their own despair.

As Andy shared, I felt a familiar echo in my heart.

I, too, am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. And for a long time, I carried the belief that I was only meant to know pain. That somehow, love, joy, and peace were not mine to claim. There were times I truly believed the pain would only end if I did. And there was a moment - one that many will never speak of -where choosing to stay felt like the most painful decision of all.

But I stayed.

And staying meant I had to learn to walk alongside the pain, not run from it. It meant holding space for the wounded parts of me, not burying them under smiles and silence. It meant breathing through the nights I thought I wouldn’t make it. And, slowly, one step at a time, I began to believe that healing was not only possible—it was sacred.

In my conversation with Andy, there was a deep resonance between our stories. Two people shaped by trauma, carrying invisible scars, yet still choosing to show up for life, for love, for others. Still choosing to believe that healing is not a betrayal of our pain, but a devotion to our spirit.

We cannot always change what happens to us. But we can transform how we move through it. We can speak, we can share, we can write, we can walk hand in hand with others who are just beginning to find their way through the darkness.

If you are reading this and your heart feels heavy, please know - you are not alone. Your pain is real, your story matters, and even if it feels impossible right now, there is a path forward. Maybe not a painless one, but a path nonetheless. One where meaning can be made from the broken pieces. One where love lives on. One where peace, slowly but surely, returns.

From Andy’s story and my own, I offer this: stay if you can. And if you do, know you are loved.

Sharon Fitzmaurice

Author, Speaker, Holistic Wellness Coach & Podcast Host