Yesterday was Gloomy Monday, the most miserable day of the year. That made sense. I went into Galway City yesterday to get on with a sketch I need to do, and I sent a text to my husband that read “You cannot imagine a more crappy and miserable day in Galway. Pouring rain, freezing cold…
DetailsI’m working intensely to finish a book for the end of February, and so I find myself in Galway City a lot these days. “An Urban Sketcher’s Galway” will be the Galway that I have come to know over the years since I arrived here in 1991, in words and pictures. In the twenty-seven years…
DetailsLast night I had an hour and a half to kill while my daughter did her Tae Kwondo class. There aren’t many places to go in Gort on a cold January evening, but I like the Lady Gregory Hotel. Sure enough, there was a nice cosy atmosphere in the hotel bar and soon I had…
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Marriage brings all kinds of benefits. If you have married into a family sprinkled with other countries of origin, your life can be enriched in many ways. I feel very lucky to come from a family of mixed origin – my mum is Canadian, my grandparents English – and to have married into a British…
DetailsMy family and I had the pleasure of the company of my brother on St Stephen’s Day. We went for a walk along the Flaggy Shore, Co. Clare. To get there you drive south from our house in Kilcolgan, through the village of Kinvara, then after a bit you take a side road along the…
DetailsI am proud of my family’s international heritage, which has enriched us more than words can say. My mother-in-law Erika is an Austrian who has lived most of her life in London, and she has contributed the most charming and wonderful things to our extended family. There’s her lovely accent, a pretty, elegant tongue that…
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I’m hoping you’ll join me in the Algarve region of Portugal next spring for a whole week of relaxing, painting and great company…
DetailsTuesday night in Gort My youngest, Liv, has started Taekwon-do in Gort Boxing Club. This means that between drop-off and pick-up I spend a couple of hours in a town that is more or less asleep, and certainly pitch dark and freezing cold out in the street. What to do? There’s only so many things…
DetailsI was to meet my eldest, Honor, in Galway City to give her money I owed her. We arranged to meet in McCambridge’s on Shop Street at 4pm. Her younger brother Paddy and I decided to go there early, have a pot of tea for two and a cake, and a sketch (me), while we…
DetailsGalway is one of those places where everyone celebrates how it’s a thriving, exciting 21st century city. Scratch the surface, though, and its true character is right there. I watched a busker today in Galway City. He’s a guy I’ve seen a million times. His pitch is opposite Eason’s bookshop; sometimes he’s on his own,…
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