Cork woman: Painting has seen me through difficult health challenges

A Cork-based woman who stopped painting after her first husband’s death less than three years after they were married, turned to it again two decades later in a bid to manage her own crippling pain.

And not only did it help distract Marie McInerney from health challenges that saw her almost housebound, it also brought her a successful new career and a new-found sense of worth.

A self-taught artist, and referring to herself as an ‘accidental artist’, Marie now has two solo exhibitions both celebrating the Irish coastline and local beaches that are a huge inspiration for her.

Originally from Donegal, Marie’s first husband Colin tragically died from cancer, leaving Marie widowed just after her 27th birthday.

“While Colin was going through his treatment for cancer, he loved to watch me paint. 

I would sit on the floor and he would just watch. I think he found it relaxing.

“It was only a hobby and no-one ever really saw those pictures. But I stopped after his death in 1995 as I found it too painful,” re Marie.

In 2004 her ‘life started again’.

“I returned to 3rd level education doing Health & Safety in UCC and also got married that year to Dave, a widower with two young children, and we went on to add two more children to our family,” said Marie.

Life was busy but good until, in 2014, Marie, who lives in Ballinhassig, had a fall in her kitchen which left her practically bedbound for over 10 months.

“One evening, the youngest two children were setting the table. Their older siblings were away so they had Dave and I sit across from them. The legs of the chair I sat on were loose and when I turned to talk with the lads, it just collapsed beneath me. 

I felt ‘shook’ and a bit sore but other than that I felt fine.

“Two days later, I was in a shop in town and I can only describe it as a sensation that my spine and pelvis wouldn’t hold me up, and the pain was horrendous.

“My husband and eldest boy managed to get me into the car and home to bed. I’ve suffered from back problems on and off since my early 20s and thought this was just another episode and I’d be up and going, back to work in a week or two, but I only deteriorated rather than improving.

“With doctors at a loss to understand why I was not recovering, I was sent for pain management attention which involved over 14 spinal injections, none of which helped. I was now using crutches, a wheelchair and walking sticks to get around.

“The pain was unbearable most of the time, even with high doses of the strongest medication I was given. 

I was no longer able to work, participate in family activities, our lives really just stopped.

For seven years, Marie was unable to make the journey to her home place in Killybegs, and a trip to Dublin would leave her bed- bound for days.

“My meals were eaten lying down as I couldn’t sit at a table for any length,” she said.

As the cause of her pain couldn’t be diagnosed, medics didn’t want to refer Marie for physiotherapy.

“Eventually I found a physio therapist who would take me on as a patient. He began working with me twice a week. It was tough, sore and exhausting. After a session I would just sleep but gradually I began to see an improvement. I was able to drive again and began to get some of my life back.”

Even though the physiotherapy helped her mobility, Marie still suffered huge setbacks.

“On two occasions I became paralysed from the neck down. Taken by ambulance to hospital I discovered that a disc was bulging in my cervicale spine causing the paralysis. 

This would happen in bed, I would just wake up unable to move. It made no sense.

“In 2017 Dave suggested that I try to paint as a distraction, and I honestly thought he was mad. I could barely sit at the table for dinner table, but that didn’t stop him. He bought me an easel that moved up and down so that I could change position and gradually I was able to sit and paint for intermittent periods.

“Some days I would get so immersed in the painting that I would forget the pain but also forget to take breaks and rest. Then I would spend another day or two lying flat on my back to recover, but I always returned to the easel.

“A neighbour called for a coffee one day and I got the courage to show her my paintings, she was amazed and got my husband to make me a Facebook Page, and it’s all gone on from there,” said Marie.

Eventually, after seven years of searching and huge medical expenses Marie was diagnosed by a rheumatologist with having an autoimmune condition called Axial Spondylarthritis, and three years ago she was started on weekly injections.

“I am being looked after by the rheumatology department in CUH. They are trying different medications to try and halt the progression of arthritis which has spread to my hands and feet. My hands swell and I am unable to hold a brush, these are the dark days but I know they will ,” she said.

Marie has work in several galleries in Cork and Dublin and she has sold pieces to customers in the United States, Australia and throughout Europe. She has also exhibited in and hopes to have an exhibition in Dublin in the coming two years.

“I paint when I can but there are long periods where this just isn’t possible and I find this so frustrating, however, with the wonderful of Dave and my four children who I must mention because without them none of this would be possible,” said Marie.

In April ‘23 she had another obstacle to overcome when she needed major surgery in her right shoulder, her painting arm.

I could no longer paint or swim, the two things that were keeping me sane. It was a very slow recovery but after almost 18 months I am now back in the pool and have returned to painting.

She remains stoic about her challenges.

“Disabilities can be limiting, and we may have to change our thinking on what we thought our lives were going to be, but sometimes new doors are opened to us that we would never otherwise have gone through. That is certainly true for me and my painting. I think having the exhibitions is a way of proving to myself that there is still more that I can do.

“I think many of us identify and value ourselves by the job that we are doing or raising our family. When I could no longer do either I was lost, I didn’t know who or what I was anymore. I felt I didn’t have a value.

“Looking back, any time I have had hardship in my life painting seems to have brought me through.

“Maybe painting is what I should have been doing all along, but I know it is what I will be doing going forward for as long as I am able.

“For a small island nation we have an abundance of artistic talent and I am delighted to finally have the confidence to call myself and artist.”

Marie’s exhibition ‘Oiléan na dTrá’ (Island of the Beaches) is running at The Grey Heron, Bandon during October.

The second exhibition will run for the month of December in the Quay Co-op restaurant, Cork city.