Joe Armstrong’s memoir In My Gut, I Don’t Believe has been acclaimed in the national media in Ireland.
The Irish Times on Joe Armstrong’s In My Gut, I Don’t Believe
In his substantial review in The Irish Times, Tim O’Brien wrote a comprehensive and insightful analysis of this important memoir concluding his excellent piece calling for a second volume: ‘Volume 2 please.’ Click here for the full review or here for a summary of it.
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RTE 2FM’s Jennifer Zamparelli interviews Joe Armstrong 26 April 2021
https://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/share/2fm/21944528
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The Irish Examiner goes big on Joe Armstrong’s In My Gut, I Don’t Believe
Joyce Fegan did a wonderful interview with me which was published in The Irish Examiner on 27 January 2021. She really got to the kernel of me and of the core decision of my life. A great picture taken by professional photographers Simple Tapestry extended from above to below the fold on the broadsheet newspaper page – the first and last time a picture of me was some eight times bigger than a picture of Colin Farrell in the same issue of the newspaper! You can read the full interview by clicking here.
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The Sunday Independent published an in-depth interview with Joe Armstrong by top journalist John Meagher
The Sunday Independent did a big piece with spectacular pictures by photographer © Fran Veale in their Life Magazine on Easter Sunday, 4 April 2021. The interview and pictures extended over three pages of the magazine. In the lead photograph, Joe Armstrong has his back to an ancient Celtic cross in Kells, with the famous round tower to his left.
Leading journalist John Meagher grasps the essence of Joe’s story: ‘His memoir, In My Gut, I Don’t Believe documents his journey over a near 10-year period in which he wrestled with doubts about the existence of God and his place in the world. It’s a disarmingly frank account of a young man’s search for himself and it draws from journal entries that he wrote at the time. “Some of them are terribly embarrassing to read back on,” he says, “but they really capture what was in my mind at the time.”‘
While there is a slight inaccuracy in that I left religious life six months before my ordination to the priesthood, I did sit in the pew during what was to have been my ordination to the diaconate. It was the time that I realised that, in my gut, I did not believe. Thanks, John Meagher, for a wonderful article.
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Joe Armstrong interviewed on Newstalk’s ‘Lunchtime Live’ on 9 April 2021
‘In My Gut, I Don’t Believe’ Humanist celebrant on life in a Catholic seminary
Clare McKenna did a brilliant job interviewing me on Newstalk radio on the Lunchtime Live programme on 9 April 2021. She really grasped the book and its title. Joe talked about the value of doubt, and how doubt is valued in science but discouraged, or worse, within religions.
Joe: Doubt seemed a fairly scary thing. And in my book I wanted to look at doubt and faith wrestling with each other for the nine years I was in the seminary. And I had to learn the hard and the slow way to come to trust myself. Because it was kinda scary because you think the Church has sorted out all these things, the meaning of life, and your identity is tied up with it.
And the idea of trusting yourself and trusting your doubt. Like in science, if you doubt you might win a Nobel prize. But within a religious faith, when you doubt you’re actually undermining the collective belief of so many other people. So it’s a scary thing, so doubt isn’t encouraged. It’s actually frowned upon.
In fact, as we know from the history of the church and religions, people who doubt, they’re the infidel. And in the past they were burnt at the stake or drowned or beheaded. All that’s still going on in some religious communities…
By staying as long as I did, I became strong in myself. I realised that it didn’t matter what anybody else thought or advised. What mattered was I and I alone had to make this decision.
Presenter Clare McKenna: ‘And that’s why you’ve named it ‘In my Gut…’ and you just started to listen to your own intuition and your own voice, and make your decisions around that.’
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LMFM radio’s the Late Lunch Show. Gerry Kelly interviews Joe Armstrong author of In My Gut, I Don’t Believe
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Naming ‘unacceptable’ feelings about a difficult parent essential for adult maturity
In this interview on the Moncrieff Show on 5 May 2021 on Newstalk, Tom Dunne interviews Joe Armstrong about his difficult relationship with his mother. It can be hard to admit even to oneself negative feelings about a parent. But there are no unacceptable feelings. Feelings are neither right nor wrong. Daring to admit to oneself, and then to others, how one feels about a parent, especially if it was a difficult relationship, is important. Accepting how you feel is necessary to accept yourself and become an adult.
