Michael Hegarty is nothing if not a man of diverse and disparate passions; the former banker-turned-psychotherapist loves writing, fishing, walking, choral singing, sport and – as his upcoming exhibition beautifully demonstrates – painting.

And he does all this while living with his diagnosis of terminal cancer.

Not just that, he has gone through the trauma of losing his beloved partner, Brenda Brennan, to cancer; indeed, both were diagnosed at virtually the same time in December 2020.

And while others might pull up the drawbridge after such a double blow, Michael took a different route.

He decided that day to write a book – and Gateways to Psychotherapy was published 18 months later, in June 2022. Brenda was at the book launch but, sadly, she died just two months later.

It was another chapter in a time of great trauma for the affable former banker, because he’d also suffered the end of his 36-year marriage in 2008 – something that led him into the world of therapy.

“Before I went to therapy, I had no idea what my emotional needs were,” he has said in the past.

“I had no understanding of psychotherapy, how it worked or how it helped. Indeed, like many, I always had a keen interest in psychology and self-help but baulked at the thought of going to talk therapy.

“We are particularly slow in Ireland to share our deepest fears and hurts with anyone, using the mantra that there’s no point in looking to the past.

“What I hadn’t realised in my own case, is that your past never leaves you and can haunt you if you don’t confront and deal with it.”

His career in banking was perhaps inevitable because he was following in his father’s footsteps. And that also took him on a tour of Ireland before arriving in Galway in 1981 and settling in Moycullen.

Throughout his childhood, the Hegartys had moved many times to accommodate his father’s banking job which resulted in Michael changing primary schools five times.

He was born in Nenagh but lived in Westport, Tullow, Enniscorthy, and Kenmare, County Kerry, before he himself joined the bank straight from Leaving Cert at 17.

He subsequently lived and worked in Castletownbere in West Cork; Doon, County Limerick; Dunlavin, County Wicklow; Dunmanway, West Cork; and Cork City before arriving in Galway in 1981.

These days, he continues to live with his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis, but it hasn’t stopped him returning to his passion for art, as his first exhibition – taking place next month at the Galway City Library – clearly demonstrates.

The exhibition comprises 19 paintings with the shared theme of reflecting the beauty of the West and its waters – from Diamond Hill to dilapidated cottages in Porridgetown, close to his own home; from the Flaggy Shore in Clare to Roonagh and the evening ferry to Clare Island.

He readily admits that he has drawn inspiration from the lakes, seas, mountains and hills and touches also on the human imprint left on this amazing landscape over the centuries.

His aim was to capture all the seasonal colours of the West of Ireland – and Connemara in particular – in a creative display in a wide portfolio of ambitious and colourful works.

There are famine cottages, lakes, waterfalls, seas, sunsets, boats, grasses, heathers and thatches.

His own life story also reads like something of a portfolio of talents. Many will know him from his days in banking and finance in Galway city before trained as a psychotherapist.

Michael works with adult clients from all backgrounds, walks of life and with many and varying issues. His principal area of therapy work is trauma.

He continues to combine this career with his multitude of passions for writing short stories, poetry and painting, as well as his hobbies of rugby, fishing, boating, hill walking and choral singing.

He has fished all the sea trout lakes of the region as well as being a regular angler on Lough Corrib. His hill walking has included most of the Twelve Bens, the Maamturks, Partry Mountains and the Mweelrea range.

“When I was young, I was never encouraged to draw or paint though I got honours in Art in my Leaving Cert,” he says.

“I distinctly remember the first time I was told I was creative – I was 61, in an Art Therapy group while training to become a psychotherapist, though I had written poems, songs and short stories through my life.

“Way back, when we had a seanfhocail like “Mol on oig and tiocfaidh se” (Praise the young and they will flourish) the reality was, in my childhood, praise for young children was a commodity as scarce as four-legged hens,” he adds.

Mike started serious painting in the 1980’s under the direction of Daniel Armour Barrett, the American artist who lived for a while at Knockferry, beside Lough Corrib – but life took over and art was put on the back burner.

Mike came back to art around 2019 when his late partner, Brenda Brennan, gave him a present of all the equipment needed to fully furnish his own studio, and she gave him the confidence to relaunch his art career.

Since then, he has produced an impressive body of work.

“Having worked alongside some amazingly talented artists over the past six years, I feel deeply humbled, and hugely honoured, at being invited by Caroline to display some of my paintings here in the Galway City Library.

“I dedicate this exhibition to the memory of Brenda,” he said.

■ The exhibition, To the Waters and the West, will run at Galway City Library from September 1 to 13, with the official launch taking place on Tuesday, September 2, at 6.30pm.

Pictured: Mike Hegarty…drawing inspiration from across the west. Photo: Mike Shaughnessy.