Ruairí McKiernan

Ruairí McKiernan is a campaigner, charity founder, podcast host, and best-selling author of Hitching for Hope – A Journey Into the Heart and Soul of Ireland which was published internationally by US publisher Chelsea Green in 2020, right at the start of Ireland’s very first lockdown. Despite the challenges of bookstores being closed for several months, Hitching for Hope became a number 1 non-fiction bestseller and has attracted praise from readers and reviews around the world with the Irish Times describing it as ‘a perfect match for these unprecedented times’. Ruairí has spent the past twenty years immersed in community work and campaigning. He founded the SpunOut.ie national youth organisation back in 2005 and has since gone on to found and co-found numerous organisations, campaigns and cultural initiatives. He’s the host of the Love and Courage podcast and the Creative Souls of Clare podcast, he’s a Fulbright scholar, a former Presidential appointee to the Council of State, and he’s currently training as a Counsellor and Psychotherapist. Ruairí is originally from Cootehill, County Cavan and how lives in Lahinch, County Clare with his wife Susan Quirke, who is a musician and meditation teacher. www.ruairimckiernan.com