Latest happenings

In early September we went down to Overcombe with friends for a spot of scuba diving off the beach. Jamie and Elaine are old Cousteaus so we were in safe hands. We saw a lobster but couldn't catch it, some wrasse and pipefish. It was a great experience.

It was Jessica's birthday party at the end of September. There was a medieval theme so our two dressed up as gallant, and well-armed knights.

We went for a walk up Hambledon Hill one Sunday afternoon. Hambledon Hill is an Iron Age fort set on a steep-sided chalk hill over-looking the R. Stour in Dorset. It has concentric ramparts around the sides of the hill that were cut in and built up by the iron age Dorset-folk. No mini-diggers back then.

Then in November myself, Fiachra and Oisín went back to Cork for the weekend to visit Grandad and Nana. We had a great weekend, met up with all the family and managed to get down to Kenmare for Cathal's 2nd birthday party.

Cian showed his budding photographic skills by taking this great shot of myself, Fiachra and Aoibh.

Fiachra and Cian then had the great idea of lining up all the cars around the kitchen table. They were very proud of their creation.

Summer visitors and starting school

Lucie and Kieran visited us for the weekend at the start of August. We spent the weekend chilling out on Dorset beaches, driving around in our borrowed VW camper and tasting some local ciders.
On the Saturday evening we called into the Square and Compass at Worth Matravers only to find that there was a food festival taking place and a Congolese band entertaining the crowd.


Brenda, Sal and Lily called in to us for a few days at the end of August. We went camping with them over at Durdle Door for a couple of nights. We did some cycling and some more lazy beach days.


Fiachra started school today. He was dressed up to the 9s in his uniform and new shoes. He scootered up to school with Mum and Oisin. At school the teacher read a story about an octopus who was rescued by a crab and they played hide & seek with teddy bears.

Fiachra's 4th birthday

Fiachra is now 4 years old. To celebrate we had a Dastardly Pirate Party on the 'notorious shores' of Overcombe, a haven for smuggling, treasure-burying and other under-hand pirate activities.

There was much swigging of grog and ravenous unmannerly gobbling-down of cakes and sausage rolls. Our party was even attacked by a small, but mean, band of rival pirates who were courageously held off and ultimately defeated in a bloody sword-swishing exchange.

A good time was had by all.

Holidays on Ile de Ré, France

We took the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg; calm crossing thankfully, and then drove through Normandy that evening to a campsite near Dol de Bretagne for an overnight stop before continuing south through Brittany, the Loire valley and the Vendée to La Rochelle. We crossed the long hump-backed bridge conecting Ile de Ré to the mainland and arrived at our campsite in the pine woods behind the beach at Gros Jonc.

We spent most of our time either cycling around the island or down on the beach. We had a couple of lazy days where we just hung around the campsite, swam in the pool. Fiachra and Oisín loved heading up to the playground and trampolines. The site was quiet so they often had the place to themselves.


Just across the island from Gros Jonc was the small town of La Flotte. It had a small harbour, nice market and a beach. This was probably our favourite of all the islands villages & towns.
Just outside the town was the ruins of a 13th century Cistercian abbey and a 17th century fort (a look-out for Pirates!!). The town also had an old-style carousel which the boys had a spin around.


Our longest cycle was 30km to the western end of the island to the Plage de Conche and the Phare des Baleines. The beach had three German-built WWII gun bunkers still in place. We went up to the top of the lighthouse for a look around. Fiachra climbed all the way up by himself.


Around the island, the road-marker poles and fence posts were often covered in snails. I'm not really sure why they gathered up high off the ground like this. Maybe it was cooler on the posts than on the ground?


The weather in the second week broke up a bit and we had a one stormy night and a few showery days.


Our friends Jamie, Elaine, Ollie and Finn arrived at Gros Jonc for the last few days of our holiday. We had great days on the beach at La Flotte and Gros Jonc, building and destroying sand-castles, and surfing.

Fiachra cycled his own bike (without stabilisers) for the first time while we were in France and by the end of the holidays he was nipping up to the loos on his bike and he even went for cycle into the nearest town to play in the park there.


We left Ile de Ré for Cherbourg on the Monday night. After some panic, as we drove around on the last vapours in the tank looking for a petrol station that was open and would accept our credit card, we headed off at 2230 hrs on the overnight drive. We reached the ferry port at 0530 on Tuesday morning and were back home by noon.

Ireland for Easter

We went back to Ireland to visit the family for the Easter weekend. On my last night we very fortunately managed to bump into Sam Maguire in a pub in Scartaglen. He didn't mind stepping in for a photo.

Rebecca and the lads stayed on until early May. Here are a few photos from their travels...
Fiachra takes a spin with Grandad Murphy.

Breakfast picnic on Clonea Strand Easter Sunday morning.

Fiachra displays his motorbike cool at Bartlemy on Easter Sunday.

Grandad reads bedtime stories to Oisín and Fiachra.

Oisín with Granny and Lucie at Lismore.

Nana and Grandad with the boys at Garryvoe.

John and Kieran entertain a stunned audience.

Oisín auditions for The Waltons.

Granny, lost in thought, looks over the R. Blackwater.

Weekend in Looe

We spent the weekend in near Looe, in Cornwall, with our friends. Stayed in a caravan site. We were lucky with the spring weather; it was bright and sunny most of the time and even a little bit warm once you were out of the breeze.


We spent some time at Talland Bay building a dam across the stream and climbing over the rocks to see a shipwreck.


We visited Looe beach, where we made a sand crocodile, and Polperro, where we went crabbing without much success.

Morning run

Got up early on Mother's Day and Rebecca went for a run along the seafront, pushing Oisin in the buggy and with me and Fiachra cycling alongside, like the trainer in Rocky. There was no dramatic flight of steps for Rebecca to run up at the end though, so instead she did some warm-down stretches with Fiachra.


Later, at home, Rebecca was working in the garden, with Fiachra and his friend Ollie supervising from their bike seats.

The sand pit

For once it wasn't raining in the afternoon so the boys went out into the garden to muck around in the sand pit. Being an early spring day, it was warm when the sun was out but quite cool when the clouds came over.

Earlier in the day we went for a cycle down to the beach, Fiachra on the back of John's bike and Oisin on Rebecca's.

Following Ireland's crushing defeat of England yesterday, we couldn't resist putting Oisin in his Brian O'Driscoll rugby top.