Máire O'Higgins

My life has been informed and nurtured by young people who have been marginalised by poverty and social exclusion. 

I am inspired by playwrights, philosophers, poets, novelists, the visual arts, theatre makers, sacred scripture, and the sea.

I am particularly drawn at the moment to the works of John O Donohue, Paulo Friere, Joanna Macy, Thich Nhat Hanh, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira, Brian Friel and the New Testament. 

Meditation is a consistent nourishing companion and practice in my life.

I deliver mindfulness programmes for young people, educators, theatre makers, and social and community workers.

I especially enjoy engaging with and teaching the ‘reluctant meditator’. 

I run a Silent Lunch initiative with young people where they come to eat a meal in silence and do a sitting practice, during the school day.

I co-create and offer weekly online meditation practices with frontline workers engaged in service to marginalised communities. Participants are drawn from  health, social justice, youth work, and education. 

I offer MBSR courses to educators and artists. 

I began my working life as a theatre actor and director in 1989 with a groundbreaking Theatre Company that advocated for those on the margins of Irish society. This Company was Passion Machine Theatre Company.

I trained to become a secondary school teacher and I taught Religion, Drama, Italian, and English, in north inner city Dublin. 

I trained to become a Chaplain in 2002 and I have worked in a school as a Chaplain since then.

I developed the first ever Learning Through Arts Partnership Junior Cycle Programme in Ireland in 2003. 

A commitment to partnership, social justice, the arts, and spiritual development has strengthened my work as an educator. These pillars in education have helped young people to experience and embody learning and to flourish, and to become fully present to themselves and to others. Young people have learnt how to deepen their connection to their inner selves and to their community. 

I have worked in education in a secondary school for thirty-four years.  My work has always been love centred. 

I met the Buddhist mindfulness teacher Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 in Plum Village. His way of being and his teachings helped me to move away from a focus on intellectual engagement and words in my spiritual practice, towards a deepening awareness of stilness and easeful silence in my life.

My mindfulness practice has become more heart-centred and self compassionate in recent years. The rigour of my daily practice supports and nurtures my capacity to live mindfully and authentically. It has helped me to strengthen my work as a meditation teacher. 

MBSR Course with educators and climate justice activists (Sandymount Dublin)

MBSR Course with community leaders in Elder Care, the Church, Youth Clubs and Early Learning Centres (NEIC Dublin)

Pop-up meditations with young people (Larkin Community College) 

Silent Lunch with young people (Larkin Community College)

Mindfulness and Wellbeing Programmes with adults transitioning from Factory work (City of Dublin ETB)

Weekly meditation practices with educators (City of Dublin ETB)

Weekly meditation practices with frontline workers of YPAR (Young People At Risk) in North Inner City Dublin

Harvesting the Wellbeing of Educators Courses with Educators (online)

Accessing midnfulness in Educational Entrepreurship Courses (The Innovation Academy University College Dublin)

Meditation workshops for the Blackrock Education Centre (Dublin), the Teaching Council (Limerick), the Carmichael Centre (Dublin), Trinity College Nursing Conference (Dublin)