Freckle Magazine
In Autumn 2013 I moved back to the North of Ireland / Northern Ireland from Switzerland, where I had been living for a few years. I set myself a task that winter: to research all the things going on to do with peacebuilding, sustainability and creativity. I found lots of people, places and organisations doing amazing things, but they were hard to find: you didn’t hear about them in the mainstream media. In fact, it took a lot of digging. As many people from here will tell you, I both loved and hated this corner of the world: the beauty of the land, the humour and the people, and the fear and separation that comes with a post-conflict society.
In the Autumn of 2014 I joined forces with an environmental lawyer, an academic, a writer and a Buddhist community gardener. The five of us started an independently published magazine called Freckle. It aimed to be an antidote to the fear-based, problems-based media that we were all being exposed to. It was our response to a deep dissatisfaction with the stories we fill our heads and hearts with in this corner of the world.
We crowdfunded enough money to print the first issue, and told stories that celebrated our sense of place. Of the people, landscapes and livelihoods of this place; of people living sustainable, peaceful and creative lives. We practiced slow journalism, documenting and delving into the spirit of our times. We hoped that one day Northern Ireland wouldn’t need Freckle, but in the meantime, we published sporadically, with a growing group of volunteers, working around our other jobs. The first three issues were designed on my laptop mostly sitting on my bed.
We packed every publication full of nourishing articles and independent media, free from any advertising, and six years and nine issues later, we had shone a light on almost two hundred stories. Each issue involved more than forty contributors giving their time for free – hundreds of photographers, writers, poets, copy editors and volunteers, using all their ingenuity to get the best stories possible. It was an absolute joy curating these stories, these lives so often hidden from view.
In 2021 we closed the last chapter of Freckle, with huge gratitude to the friendships, community and support from all the people who showed up, loved and encouraged Freckle through the years. Freckle was, above all, a love letter to this place. It remains an ode to the true stories that are unfolding around us – stories of courage and determination, imagination and grit, patience and non-violence, curiosity in our encounters with those we may once have seen as ‘the other.’ The memories and friendships will last a lifetime.
Here are a few kind words from readers:
“I am savouring it slowly to make it last. It is hard to put in to words how I have felt about it. It is as if a friend with the same outlook and interests as me has been writing to me. It is an inspirational delight from the natural texture of the pages, to the beautiful photos and the stories of people working to make a difference, appreciating and caring for the people and places around them.”
“thank you Freckle for reminding us that it is possible to live differently.”
“My family and I love Freckle magazine. It is thoughtful, beautifully produced, and a very necessary antidote to the babble and glare of most of the media in Norn Iron.”
“thank you for such a beautiful, intelligent, thought provoking, inspiring and most importantly tasteful magazine about Northern Ireland. We live in such an amazing place - which is continuously badly represented - and at last, I have something to read which relates to the place where I live.”
“… I am completely and utterly enamored with this magazine. The stories in it are meant to inspire and uplift; locals with vivid dreams and big hearts that endeavor to enrich their surroundings using their honed abilities. The photography is astounding, and the writing captivating. It’s all of my favorite things about art and humanity rolled up into one beautiful journal.”
“[I’m] offering my thanks for a great step forward for everyone in Northern Ireland.”
Find out more about Freckle on its website.