About
I’m 29 – pushing on 30 this year (2011), but we won’t dwell on that. I’m originally from Kilkenny in Ireland’s “sunny south-east” – a Trade Descriptions Act-defying local tag that I believe gifted me my finely-honed sense of irony.
I studied and lived in Cork for three years – BA English and History in UCC – then moved to Dublin in 2003 where I did an MA in European Studies in UCD. Qualified for nothing in particular, I then temped in various jobs: a tourist info centre, AOL, and a bank – before giving into a long-held desire to become a professional word monkey.
I graduated with an MA in Journalism from DIT in 2006, and during my course I worded it up as a book reviewer and feature writer for Gay Community News (GCN), a film reviewer for The Event Guide and the website frankthemonkey.com, an all-round intern for The Dubliner, and sarcastic smart-arse for The Spanner. I even managed to convince the lovely literary editor of The Irish Times to let me review some books for the paper of record.
Towards the end of my journalism MA in the summer of 2006, I started working as a news and features sub-editor for the Irish Daily Star, where I stayed, and learned just about everything I know about journalism, for 18 months. At the same time I started writing freelance for the Irish Independent, namely for its Friday entertainment magazine Day & Night.
I left The Star to go full-time freelance in February 2008, and since then I have continued working for the Irish Independent, writing entertainment, lifestyle and human interest features for Day & Night, Weekend magazine, Saturday Review, Health and Living, and the paper’s daily features pages.
I also write features for the Irish Examiner, and have also flexed my typing fingers for the Irish Daily Mail, the now defunct Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Independent, UCD Today, UCD Connections, Cara magazine (inflight magazine for Aer Lingus), Lonely Planet, and for different titles in the River Publishing house in London.
I’m occasionally known to pop up on The Last Word on Today FM and on various shows on NewsTalk 106-108FM, such as Tom Dunne, Lunchtime with Eamon Keane, The Right Hook, Culture Shock, and Weekend Blend, and have also made censors nervous on Spin, Phantom, RTE 2FM (Dave Fanning’s show, The Colm Hayes Show) and Radio 1 (Tubridy, Derek Mooney). I’ve made some inroads into TV, appearing on The Morning Show with Sybil and Martin, and Midday (pre-Sisterhood takeover), both on TV3.
In July 2010, I upped sticks and moved to London where I continue to freelance for the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, and movies.ie, and anyone else who’ll pay me. And I mean anyone. As Monica Geller once remarked in an early episode of Friends: “I got no morals and I need the cash”.
You can contact me at declan.cashin (AT) gmail.com
Follow me on Twitter : @Tweet_Dec