The Irish Goodbye


You have probably heard the term or witnessed “The Irish Goodbye” in action.

People often associate that style of departure as a sudden disappearance of a person without a word. Just poof! Well, that’s not my form of The Irish Goodbye. I follow in my parents’ tradition of circling the room to say goodbye to, and chatting with, each person one by one. We kids would plead, “When are we leaving?!” Our parents would stall by responding, “Get the coats.” We kids knew that meant we were at least one solid hour away from actually putting the coats on and walking out the door.

Over the past nine years, I’m pleased to say there are too many people in “the room” to say goodbye to each of you individually. We have such a wonderful group of writers and readers and creative minds in this region—that I’m sure I will be bumping into each of you for one reason or another in the weeks, months and years to come. We know each other now. The Room to Write acted as a gracious host and brought us all together with one shared interest: words!

For that, I am forever grateful.

Officially my last day in the role of Director of The Room to Write is Friday, May 23rd. Friday feels more like a “Get the coats” moment. I’m departing, but not disappearing.

TRtW’s Board of Directors has not found a new Director and has voted to shift our organization into hibernation mode as we weigh the options going forward. No matter what direction the future leads our beloved organization in, I would like to take the opportunity to thank those who were champions for our mission from the start and supported our programming over the years. As a small organization, we have made a pretty big difference in the communities we serve all because of one particularly effective superpower: collaborative spirit.

Our ability to look honestly at what we lacked and generously at what we could offer forced us to leverage our resources efficiently and creatively while having a good excuse to reach out and meet new people, partner with local organizations, and support local businesses in ways that always added an extra spark of enthusiasm.

The Irish Goodbye goes on a bit longer, if you’d like to read the blog I wrote on my author site, visit: c. t. kavanagh - deardiary. As a tribute to my Irish heritage, my pen name is under my maiden name, which is Kavanagh (with a “K” and no “u”). So, as I wrap up my service with The Room to Write, I hope to make room in my life focusing on my family as well as some sorely neglected writing projects of my own. I hope to work on a middle grade novel, currently in progress, and projects that have been simmering on the back burner. And poetry!

If you would like to keep up with me in the future or beyond The Room to Write, please feel free to visit ctkavanagh.com or email authorctk@gmail.com.


May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

Until we meet again --

Colleen (Kavanagh:) Getty

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