11  April 2025

There was an interesting article in the Sunday Times about the Irish author, Maggie O’ Farrell. Emily Prescott was writing about the author’s stammer which she has had since childhood. Although  she speaks fluently for most of the time, the impact is lasting.

‘I don’t think you ever don’t have a stammer,’ she said, ‘you’re always a recovered stammerer and I know that it’s there.’ She habitually asks her husband to make phone calls for her because as Prescott says, ‘her stammer makes her think words will fail her’.

One of the worst sounds she has to make is the letter ‘m’ – and, of course, her name begins with the letter ‘m’. When someone asks her to tell them her name, she uses some subterfuge to ensure she doesn’t begin with the letter ‘m’ and says, ‘You can call me Maggie.’

As she says, ‘You are performing semantic gymnastics inside your head all the time, thinking ahead and editing yourself, re-editing yourself and rewriting, already a writer inside your head.’  Remarkably, O’Farrell believes that it was her stammer which encouraged her to become a writer.

Having to think of creative ways to say things in order to cope with her speech impediment enabled her to explore different ways of writing, thinking and creating. It was the negativity of her disability which became the very instrument of her creative success. This was her vocation.

When St. Paul asked God three times to remove his disability, his prayers went unanswered. ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ was God’s response to his prayers. Through the negativity of his disability, he was led into the heart of the Gospel where he was able to accept it.