David Marshall
words · music · craft
mind · art · hand
I work across words, music and craft, the things you can see, hear or hold. Behind them sit mind, art and hand, the quieter pattern that shapes how I think, do, and make.
I am an essayist. Working not merely to document or report as a journeyman, but in the literary tradition of the essay as a formal choreography of thought. While my work has also been described through roles including author, journalist and publication architect, my central practice remains exploratory. Through essays, publications and other projects, I inhabit the tensions within questions of society, culture, ideas and practice, tracing the pathways of attention before an argument ever hardens into a conclusion. You may already have encountered my work.
If you’ve arrived here looking for the mathematician, the IT specialist, or the Christian apologist in China, you have found a different David Marshall entirely. The same applies if you are seeking the Distinguished Professor of English at UC Santa Barbara- or, indeed, David the Dublin hairdresser (for whose salons I still occasionally receive phone calls requesting appointments). You have landed instead with the literary essayist. If further disambiguation is necessary, you may go here: disambiguation
Essayism
Essayism
essayism.org is my exploration of essayism: the essay as method, practice and way of seeing. It considers not only my own work but the wider essayistic field, examining essayists, essays and traditions of essaying in order to better understand how significance is discovered, organised and shared. It is both a workshop and an observatory, a place where the practice of essaying itself becomes the subject of attention.
An Essayist’s Notebook
The first step in the possible emergence of an essay. Ad hoc notes on essayism as method: observations, tensions, fragments and working ideas from an essayist’s notebook. Part reflection, part workshop, it offers readers and aspiring writers a glimpse of how my essays begin, develop and find their final form.
The Essayist
Essayist, essayist.ie, is where I introduce my own approach to essaying. It is a map of the ground on which I stand, what that position allows me to see, and the ways in which I make sense of it. It explores my method and my honesties. If essayism.org explores essaying in general, Essayist explores one essayist in particular. For now, I’m mostly observing myself at work.
Letter from an Essayist
Letter from an Essayist is an invitation to conversation. Bring a question, a tension, an observation, or a problem. Occasionally there may be a letter from an essayist. Just as often, it is a chance to send a letter to one.
Essays
On society and the shape of life. Slow-arriving, slow-forming essays rooted in observation, reflection and the patient accumulation of thought. Each essay is a resting place in a longer process of inquiry, a moment of attention made public.
The Essay
Every second month, I publish a single literary essay at The Essay. This space is designed for slow reading and singular focus; each new piece completely replaces the previous one, leaving no archive behind it. If you choose to subscribe, you will receive exactly six essays a year- nothing more. There are no announcements, no advertisements, and no administrative communications. Subscription is entirely free, offering nothing but space to breathe and an opportunity to reflect.
Margins & Other Texts
The Review
Reduced obfuscation, re-used punctuation, recycled commentary & sustainable argument. A place for essayistic output on view: commentary, reflections, fragments, reviews and re-workings from the wider practice of writing. Not everything here becomes an essay, but everything here belongs to the work.
An Activist’s Notebook
A working notebook for people who organise, speak up, and try to make things happen. To steady confidence, sharpen judgement, and help you see the ground you’re standing on.
The Marginalia of Sigi
Notes and stories from the margins of The Chronicles of Sigi. The place where side-notes, spin-offs and unexpected discoveries from the fictional canon are allowed a life of their own.
Sediment
Me at the workbench, trying to make sense of the world, mostly for myself. The deeper sediment beneath the essays, where earlier questions, observations and reflections still remain.
INQ
Unfiltered. Unboxed. Unbordered. Not everything fits neatly into an essay, a notebook, or a recognised theme. INQ is where I follow questions wherever they lead: the overlooked, the ordinary, the mildly puzzling and the unexpectedly revealing. A place for observations that refuse to stay in their box.
Governance
Marshall On Policy
Independent Irish policy analysis and commentary. Policy Briefings examine energy, housing, health, governance and public administration, exploring both individual policy domains and the ways they interact to shape Ireland’s future choices. Particular attention is given to the tensions, trade-offs and institutional relationships that often sit between policy silos and shape outcomes in practice.
Field Notes
Field Notes is the public notebook behind the essays and briefings. A place for observations, evidence and lines of inquiry gathered in the field, before they settle into essays, commentary and other publications.
Brief Me
Brief Me is an information utility for understanding complex issues. Each topic is organised as a structured progression from awareness to understanding, allowing readers to move from essence to evidence at their own pace. Designed for those who need clarity rather than noise, it provides practical briefings that help make sense of important issues before opinion takes hold. Launches 1 November 2026
Home & Spaces
These are the places where conversations happen — about writing, music, making, and the shifting world we move through.
Projects
My Guitar Project
Best explained by exploring the project. This link brings you to an overview of the spaces it contains and helps you find your way through them.
Ukulele
The project is young and vibrant — much like the instrument itself. This link will steer you toward an overview of the spaces it gathers and help you find your way through them. (development pending)
Walking
Walking is changing now. After decades moving through landscapes, hills, mountains, nature, and the built world — and delivering it to the page — the project is entering a new phase, reshaping itself as my movement through it changes. (pending)
go.beswalks.ie/walking-project