I met MJ O’Brien in her home in the middle of Dublin City Centre, her back garden is the canal dock, which makes for a wonderful vista.

She’s funny, charming and flirting with my sound engineer/partner who is recording our podcast today.

MJ leads with “I got into some trouble” with a little smirk on her face, the kind that tells me there was a man involved. She starts telling me about her nursing college in the UK and how it was located near a U.S. Army base. How they would send bus loads of soldiers over for dances. MJ would wait all night for “ladies choice”, describing herself as a bit of a plain Jane who was constantly looked over. It was at one of these dances where she’d meet Al and fall madly in love with him.

“I was 17 and I thought he was the second coming. He was lovely and of course, he was a different shade”.

As I look around MJ’s apartment, the family photos come into focus, and the smiling faces of all different skin tones start to make perfect sense.

MJ has worked hard her whole life, living all across America for the last 43 years, from New Jersey to New Mexico, bringing up her two sons.

She has come back to Ireland to get to know her siblings and friends again, now as an adult. Sitting with me here today she reminisces about the life she’s lead and the choices that she’s made.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, she has faced all kinds of hardships, losses and injustices, but MJ feels it’s important to forgive those who’ve done you wrong or even inadvertently hurt you. However, it’s most important to forgive yourself, something she has only learned to do later in life.

Come back tomorrow for another podcast/story/portrait. We’re interviewing and photographing people from all over Ireland, collecting their stories and sharing them daily. You can be a part of it too, just follow @ruthlessimagery online for more details.

x R

Sin Scéal Eile - That's Another Story was hosted and created by Ruth Medjber, with sound by Ronan Lally. The podcast is produced by Dee Reddy at Poddle Audio with original music by Elaine Mai.

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