WISDOM With Whiskers is the brainchild of Tweed resident Conal Healy. Born in Ireland in 1960, Conal left Dublin in 1987 to live and work in London for the Daily Telegraph (UK) group of newspapers. In 1988, Conal emigrated to Australia with his then wife, Anna. The couple lived initially in Ipswich, Qld, with Conal working for the Queensland Times newspaper.
Conal and his family moved to Tweed Heads in 1993, where he took up the position of Chief Sub-Editor of the Tweed Daily News – and was responsible for the production of the company’s daily/weekly newspapers.
In his almost-thirty year career with the organisation, Conal worked to preserve the history of the Tweed region through many historical publication, 115 Years of Local News and 125 Years of Local News, promote the Tweed region, through tourist magazines Trekking the Tweed, Take Time Out, as well as capturing many of Tweed’s natural disasters as a news photographer.
As an award-winning Multi-Media Digital Director with the Tweed Daily News’ parent company, Conal was responsible for the design, layout and production of local newspapers stretching from Coffs Harbour to Mackay and west to Dalby, Charleville and St George in South-West Queensland.
“My job was to develop relationships with people to help them achieve their goals – (getting their newspaper to the printers by deadline) with as little stress as possible,” said Conal.
He was made redundant in June 2020, a month before his 60th birthday.
In 2021, Conal studied for a Diploma of Counselling, He graduated in February 2022.
* Conal is registered with the Australian Counselling Association.
* Conal has completed a Art Therapy for Positive Wellness course.
In a previous life …
De la Salle?hello from cian
Greeting Cian. Yep, that’s me. Email me at wisdomwithwiskers@gmail.com