Tony Cuckson

Tony Cuckson was born on 20th March 1950 in Milford, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, the second son of twins. Milford is very close to Navan Fort, the ancient seat and sacred site known as Macha's Height. The legendary goddess Macha also birthed twins unexpectedly.

Born prematurely he and Jeff were known as the Miracle Twins of Milford. Tony survived by his granny's native wit. She knew how to nurse orphan lambs and promptly built up the turf fire, nailed a thermometer to the wall, installed the two cots before the hearth and rigged up an incubator with blankets and an ability to get by for the first three months of their lives by dozing beside the fire and maintaining a room temperature of 21C or 70F. Without Sarah Dobbin's determination they undoubtably would not be here today. Belfast was the nearest large city and even in 1950 did not have an incubator.

Tony grew up, fished, played football and eventually trained as an accountant, first at Belfast City Polytechnic and then moving to Manchester in 1971. He took a career break in 1979 and travelled as as a spiritual seeker in India. He returned to England in 1980 and met his American partner at a local poetry circle. They have been together since 1982, first living in London and then moving to Leeds to work together in an accountancy partnership serving small businesses.

Following his sister Mary's death from cancer in 2000, they moved back to Ireland and settled in very rural West Cavan in 2001. Working on the land, he made deeper spiritual connection and began to write daily.

Irish Blessings Matter was born out of Tony's writings on Ireland's unique contribution to the world's spiritual heritage. Ireland has more blessings than all the other country's put together. He wrote meditations on Old Blessings and then evolved this spiritual practice by writing new blessings for contemporary Ireland. This evolved into an ezine Blessings for YOU. A course was developed from the encouragement given by his subscribers and a sincere desire to companion others on their spiritual journey.

This was the basis of his growing soul friendship via the world wide web. Anam Cara is the Irish for soul friend. The latest website, www.anamcaraexperience.org, includes guidance from Celtic spirituality, but also shares the poetry from Sufis, stories that are pan-cultural, and artwork that inspires deeper meditation on spiritual subjects.

Tony continues to write daily as a spiritual practice and soul sustenance, in front of a turf fire. The circle is complete.