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Jennifer Murnaghan

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Jennifer Murnaghan is the editor of The Brothers Trimm, a website dedicated to celebrating boyhood. Born and raised in Ireland, she now calls Australia home, sharing it with her New Zealand husband and two spirited, but very handsome, young boys. If she had spare time and lots of cash, she would take her whole family to Tuscany, push Ireland and Australia closer together and rid the world of plastic swords.



Contributor's Stories


    Activity: Reel Time

    Posted on May 31st, 2011 by


    Inspired by a blog post from the enviably inspiring Joel Henriques, my three year old son and I tried our hand at a little Stop Motion animation. With my newly acquired iPhone, I quickly downloaded the Stop Motion Recorder app and set about creating a rather silly sequence in our little back yard.

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    A Theory of Relativity

    Posted on November 2nd, 2010 by


    Art by Rob Ryan

     

    In the next issue we’re going to explore…SCIENCE (cue: mad maniacal laughter).

    Maniacal laughter? More like widespread panic. What on earth? I. AM. TOTALLY. HOPELESS. AT. SCIENCE!

    In school, I failed Biology miserably, couldn’t even manage the ‘try’ in Chemistry. And Physics? Please, I might as well have been studying Fizzicks.

    So what to do? After much keyboard tapping, pondering, head scratching and pencil chewing, I was distracted by an exciting trip overseas. I was about to embark on nine days of family celebrations all by myself. No husband, no children, for the first time in four years.

    My older sister was getting married and we would be celebrating both in London, and Latvia, where we would meet the new ‘in-laws’. The wedding was a precious moment, small and intimate, with the bride, simply stunning. However it was our trip to Eastern Europe that will remain a deeply humbling experience. With no common language to share stories, thoughts or feelings, the two families sat down to the ultimate social experiment. We could only connect through smiles, tears and lots of hand gestures, but the underlying message remained clear; a message of hope for the newlyweds, joy for their happiness and love for them both.

    For all the excitement of reuniting and celebrating with my parents, two dear sisters and lovely new brother in law, not having my own precious family to share the moment with divided me in two. And that got me thinking. Sitting in my tiny seat on that very big plane for a whopping 23 hours, I decided to do something I hadn’t the luxury of doing for a while. Think. And so I did. And it came to me. Family.

    Old and new. Immediate and Extended. Related by a labyrinth of genetics and ancestral patterns, family is what makes us, sometimes breaks us, but ultimately creates society, carrying us all from one generation to the next.

    The apple had dropped, my Eureka moment! I had found my science, the science of family, a social science of gigantic earthly importance. So significant and unique that one could nearly say it can take its seat beside the Divine. Science and Religion, together?! Absolutely. Isn’t it where biology holds hands with a miracle? And after giving birth to two big, beautiful boys, I can certainly vouch for that.

    So with this in mind, I realised that it is ten years since I altered my family’s makeup and created great physical distance by emigrating to Australia. From a tiny corner of a quiet suburb in Dublin, our family now spans three countries, four nationalities and a combined geographical distance of 17, 210k kilometres. Hey, you could just about call us the mini United Nations!

    Little did I realise the impact though that I would have on the social structure of our particular family unit. Now with my very own to nurture and nourish it has made me understand and realise the force of that decision on the future of those five, now nine people. So knowing that boys will never call their mothers and only come home to do their laundry I think I need to start my ‘please stay in the same country’ campaign now, in the hope that they will never do what I did to my poor parents all those years ago.

    So with nine days away from my busy daily life, I think I managed to consider quite a lot. And after ten incredible years of adapting, coding, hypothesising, micro analysing and theorising the universe and all its measures, I now know that where I came from, my origins and the roots in which I am firmly fixed will forever call me. And so will be the case for our children, and our children’s children. But if we, as parents, do our job right, those roots will spread thick and fast, hold them steady and allow them to flourish. And when it’s time for us to say goodbye, they will become their own scientists, discovering, and unfurling the mysteries of life all for themselves.

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    Game On?

    Posted on August 4th, 2010 by


    I quite fancied myself as a Sport Billy growing up. Netball, field hockey and sailing saw me through school and university, ticking all the boxes in the team building, confidence boosting, friend gaining department, with the added bonus of keeping me fit in the process.

     

     

    Rugby Union was also a firm favourite. Not to play, but more as a visual work-out, especially when the local schoolboys were playing! Every year, just before Easter, Dad and his pal Mikey would religiously head off to Lansdowne Road, sneaky hip flask in pocket, to watch our beloved Ireland play. Perched in front of the TV, we always hoped to spot the two familiar faces in the crowd and pray that our men would come home victorious. Continue Reading...

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