Blog
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 18
Monday 30th March 3.00pm I have put together a Lockdown Art Kit for my brother Mal. He is a very able sketcher (most people are...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 17
Sunday 30th March 2.00pm My daughter Liv (15) looks rather 19th-century and somewhat wan sitting in my rocking chair, and I sketch her as fast...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 16
Saturday 28th March Most of the Day I am organising, editing and sending images for my new book on drawing people to my publisher. My...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 15
Friday 27th March 10.00am Paddy (18) hangs the washing on the line. It’s whites, and consists of sheets, towels and a few socks and pants....
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 14
Thursday 26th March 3.00pm I am upstairs in my home, about to get ready to go out for a walk. Liv (15) and I coo...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 13
Wednesday 25th March 7.00am I’ve had a disturbing dream. I am looking out of the window into the back garden. It’s dark out. Before my...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 12
Tuesday 24th March All day I’m sewing in my studio. I cut and iron and pleat. I’m stitching away when Paddy (18) comes down to...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 11
Monday 23rd March 9.00am I’m supposed to be on my way into the Natural History Museum on Merrion Square in Dublin to sketch with a...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 10
Sunday 22nd March 8.30am It’s Mother’s Day in Ireland and I’m in bed, but I have to get up soon because I’m meeting my friend...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 9
Saturday 21st March 10.00am I’m up at nine, ready to broadcast the Instagram Live video that I promised to the kids I teach, and anyone...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 8
Friday 20th March 9.00am Liv (15) is up and ready. “I can’t wait to get out and do some gardening!” she says. I follow her...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 7
Thursday 19th March 10.30am I host a Zoom session with my husband Marcel, Paddy (18) and Liv (15). The idea is to find a way...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 6
Wednesday 18th March 10.00am The government is showing great leadership. Yes, the “lockdown”, such as it is, could have come a bit more quickly, but...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 5
Tuesday 17th March 1.00pm It’s St. Patrick’s Day. It’s raining. With the best will in the world I just can’t muster enthusiasm to go out...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 4
Monday 16th March 9.10am I sit down to breakfast. Paddy (18) already has the books out on the dining table. Liv (15) is his study...
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The Lockdown Blog, Day 3
Hello folks! I will start by saying thank you for your effort in getting here: my links to this blog on the various social media...
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The Lockdown Blog: Days 0, 1 and 2
Thursday 12th March 1.00pm The Irish government announces that all schools are to close from the next day, Friday, and will remain closed 13th-29th March....
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Texaco Art Competition – and Lent Starts Today
Today was the last day the kids I teach could submit the paintings they had done for the Texaco Art Competition. This competition has been...
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Sorry For Your Loss
They say we do funerals very well in Ireland. Well, my mum says it, because she’s Canadian, and maybe they don’t do funerals as well...
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Sorry For Your Loss
They say we do funerals very well in Ireland. Well, my mum says it, because she’s Canadian, and maybe they don’t do funerals as well...
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Capture Your Family In Sketches
One of the most satisfying things I do as an urban sketcher is to capture my family in sketches. While I’m not one for putting...
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Sketching Is Getting Me Through January
January is awful, weather-wise, and this year is no exception. However I’m cheering myself up with a good bit of sketching. Technicolor in Neachtain’s After...
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Getting Attention Will Make You A Better Artist
I saw this TED Talk the other night, and I had a few thoughts that I’d like to share with you. Joseph G-L seems like...
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Happy New Year!
30th December 2019 My students are so full of enthusiasm for sketching in 2020 that it has inspired me in turn, so I am making...
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The Christmas Blog Post
Christmas Eve It’s Christmas in Kilcolgan, in our little corner of windswept west of Ireland. On Christmas Eve my daughter Liv and I went up...
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Festive Fun in Dublin City, and a Grudge Match
A Christmas Shopping Safari One crisp, cold winter’s night a few weeks ago, in Dublin on a sketching trip, I came to the end of...
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Creativity – All Day To Do It
“There are 35,000 people coming in and out of University College Dublin every day,” my colleague Michael Brennan told me the other evening. Michael is...
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Compostela Ilustrada! Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 8th-10th November 2019
I have just returned from the beautiful medieval city of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, where I attended the fabulous Compostela Ilustrada sketching event....
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At The Barbershop (Again)
Back to the barbershop to sketch. One of the reasons I love to sketch there is that because I have done it so often I...
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Some Flowers, And A Request For Advice
I have wonderful friends who live nearby. We get together a lot – walking our dogs, swimming in the sea – and we eat together...
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The Future Of Creativity Is Safe
I think of people driving through my village Ballinderreen on their way somewhere. Ballinderreen is not usually the destination, being a “blink and you’ll miss...
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He’s Just Not That Interested In Me (I Need A Nice Stick)
I was telling my girl Liv about my book sales. “Is it a bestseller?” she asked. She knows it is, but she also knows I...
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Summer Days in Galway
Back from Amsterdam last Sunday. Dublin Airport and a Citylink bus at 9.15pm. A Dublin cocky lad gets on the bus and asks the bus...
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The 10th International Urban Sketching Symposium, Amsterdam, July 24th-27th 2019
The 10th International USk Symposium has just wrapped up. It took place in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. The 9th USk Symposium was held in Porto,...
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A Week in Sweltering Amsterdam with My Family
This year, I brought my family with me to the Urban Sketching Symposium. It provided a nice balance between work and relaxing. My family is...
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A Watercolour Sketching Workshop in Haarlem, 19th-21st July 2019
I was in Porto, Portugal, last year when this year’s Urban Sketching Symposium location was announced. It would take place in Amsterdam. “You should consider...
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It’s All Go In Galway
I’ve had quite the week. They come along like that every once in a while. Last Saturday week I met with members of Urban Sketchers...
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Beautiful Blossoms, Beautiful Youth
I was to draw a card for a relative. We have a beautiful orchid that lurks greenly in a corner, and then pounces into a...
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Capturing the Summer
It’s cold these days. Cold for June. For the first time in a long while, Irish people keep expecting a heatwave to arrive, like we’ve...
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Channelling Rembrandt
You know how it is – you put a proposal in for something, it gets accepted, you’re all “Hurray!” – and then you have to...
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Sketching the Best Boys
Sometimes sketchers visit other towns and look up the local sketchers. We meet for a drink or something to eat and do a bit of...
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Good Days in Galway
Last night I made a trip to Connemara in the company of Breandán and Colm from my Ciorcal Cómhra (Irish language conversation circle) in our...
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Let It All Go
Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to a small country town in Galway where my daughter does Taekwon-Do. There’s not a huge amount to do...
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The Hunt For Convenience Continues…
or, Great Things Urban Sketching Kits Come in Small Packages All urban sketchers love mini sketching kits. We crowd around the person with something ingenious...
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Water & Waves In Watercolour…
It’s May and it’s paradise here in Galway. It’s hard to find a place that is so totally unspoiled this close to action, but we...
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Channelling Hogarth
Last week I went to the south of Portugal. I was teaching a six-day watercolour sketching workshop: the idea was to share techniques that would...
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Ain’t Nothing But A Husky Digger
Last night was Taekwon-Do night in Gort for my youngest. I usually spend the evening in a combination of aimless driving and aimless wandering the...
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My Dad Says I’m A Hagfish
Until yesterday, I couldn’t have sketched my dobok, the white uniform you wear when kicking around in a taekwon-do session. But I hurt my hamstring...
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Help – I’ve Been Paintjacked!
Before we left the house to go to town this morning, I picked up my orange bag that I carry all my sketching stuff in....
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Ten Thousand Hours (Some Of Them In Barbershops)
I was stuck indoors today: I have a chest infection and a broken, well, bum (see yesterday’s post about a flying high kick in Taekwon-Do...
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Taekwon-Do Part 2: Perseverance (When You’re Banjaxed)
It couldn’t last. Five classes in to my new favourite sport, Taekwon-Do, and I’m injured. What did I expect? I’m 51 years old and I’ve...
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The Journey Is Everything
At Taekwon-Do last night, the instructor took us though kicking moves. He explained the stance we should be taking and the part of the foot...
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Silver Linings
Last week I realised I only had ONE tricolour in my collection of sketches for my upcoming book. One! I am a passionate patriot and...
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Follow Your Bliss
“Follow your bliss.If you do follow your bliss,you put yourself on a kind of trackthat has been there all the while waiting for you,and the...
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Taekwon-Do – Part 1
Yesterday I did an urban sketch with no purpose. I include it here by way of an illustration for this blog piece, which is about...
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Making A Silk Purse Out Of A Sow’s Ear
I go to a sleepy country town two evenings a week. My daughter Olivia does Taekwondo in Gort, a small town in south Galway. Not...
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Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control and Indomitable Spirit
My youngest, Olivia (Liv), took up Taekwon-do a few months ago. The classes take place twice a week in a boxing club in Gort, a...
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A Warm and Woolly Welcome
When I’m out and about sketching, I’m struck over and over again how nice people are to each other. I find it inspiring and it...
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Role-model-istic
I had a few minutes to wait for a meeting in Dublin last Monday. It was cold but very sunny so I did a quick...
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Get Out There And Sketch!
Sometimes it’s a big effort to go out at night. You’ve had dinner, you’re tired, a glass of wine sounds nice. But as a sketcher...
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Urban Sketching in Sheridan’s Cheesemongers
I really love cheese, but when you are raising teenagers you’re not going to buy fancy hand-made cheese at fancy prices. They would have it...
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Cheese, Wine and Good Cheer
On Saturday I went into Galway to get on with amassing sketches for my new book, An Urban Sketcher’s Galway. I wasn’t too happy to...
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Meditation Music in Galway Must Be On Special
I am collecting sketches for my new book, An Urban Sketcher’s Galway. Being January, I try to identify indoor locations with big windows. This plan...
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The Earth is Beautiful in Our Mind’s Eye
It was the 1990s. I’d just completed my first year in the university of Galway. It was time to choose the subjects for the next...
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A Nice Seat in Neachtain’s…& Goodbye to Jazzy Blue
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...
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Galway: Destroyed With History, Alive With Music
I’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...
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Eavesdropping
Last 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...
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Foreign Relatives Enrich Your Life
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...
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Postscript to 2018
My 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...
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An Austrian-Flavoured Christmas
I 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...
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There’s Always One
Tuesday 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...
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Thank You For Your Company
I 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...
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At The Edge Of Europe
Galway 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...
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Through A Glass Darkly
Yesterday members of Urban Sketchers Galway got together in Neachtain’s for an aul’ afternoon’s sketching. There were about eight of us in total, sitting in...
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Not Always That Bad Being A Teen
I’ve been a bit of a grinch of late. Christmas comes around and I get a bit sullen. There are lots of reasons for this,...
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What Is This, Art For Ants??!!
Every year around Christmas, the visual art group of which I am a member holds a fun exhibition. Each member can submit up to five...
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A Winter’s Morning in Galway
Sketching outdoors in Galway in December isn’t easy. It’s cold and damp. So I decided to sketch some pub interiors and went into Galway City...
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Snug as a Bug in Moran’s Across The River
Cleaning your daughter’s bedroom is hard on the psyche. I did that today and I needed a restorative pint of beer afterwards, along with a...
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Art Is Your Playground
I attended the second day of a workshop today, given by some students doing their Masters in Fine Art from the Burren College of Art....
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Chasing Magic (and running from the rain)
This is my son Paddy, making bread one evening recently. We had just returned from the barbers, and my very quick watercolour sketch gives a...
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Machines, Mathematics And A Monkey – It’s An Enigma
A few days ago my son Paddy came back from school, his eyes shining with excitement. His class had gone on a trip to NUIG...
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(Christmas) Market Day In Galway
The nicest way to enjoy Christmas…by sketching! Look at this loveliness…!! One of the lovely sketchers from USk Galway arranged a sketch-out today. She had...
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Soothing The Senses in a Candlelit Café
I had to make a long drive yesterday evening. A friend of mine lost her mother two days ago, and it meant a lot to...
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Today’s Blog (Feat. Alizarin Crimson)
Here is a sketch of my girl Olivia, or Liv, which I did on Sunday morning. The sun was streaming in through the window and...
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Beautiful Art And A Paper Heart
This is the Palace Cinema, where I went to see Call Me By Your Name yesterday with my pal Lorraine. It’s very tall and thin,...
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Reality Is Sooo Boring
I started a new children’s art class today. Like yesterday’s new class, it’s one I haven’t taught for many months. This time it’s in the...
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Never Always Work With Children And Animals
(Never) Always Work With Animals And Children Yesterday I saw some beautiful beech leaves that I wanted to paint. There was something so magical about...
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Geology: A Symphony Beneath Our Feet
I met my fellow artists, USk Galway, today for a sketch-out under the archways of National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). We huddled together from...
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My Girls Are A Force Of Nature
Anyone who has followed my work for a while will know that I have always been very discreet when it comes to posting pics of...
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Reuben Isn’t Waterproof
There’s a beech hedge at the bottom of my drive. Over the last few weeks it has been a riot of flame-coloured leaves and every...
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Viva España! A Spanish Vibe in Galway’s Film Fleadh
I occasionally teach Spanish to young people. It’s hard to get a fun vibe when you’re teaching a language outside of the country where it’s...
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Hurray, It’s Time For Irish
Every schoolchild in Ireland must learn Irish. You can only be excused if you arrived late into Ireland from another country, maybe 10 years old...
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As Sweet As…Salt?
I’m a terrible woman for heading for Dr Google when something is wrong, real or imagined. It’s a mistake, I know, we all know it,...
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Making A Bad Drawing Is Good
I love sketching at the bus stop while I wait for the kids. No one can disturb me. The car is tiny but it doesn’t...
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“I don’t care what he looks like – I fancy him.”
Sixty years seems like an eternity to a child, but in reality it's practically yesterday. The Battle of Britain Museum is a place to stir...
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Kent Workshop Registration
€250.00 – €1,185.00
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Dublin Urban Sketching Workshop
€100.00 – €360.00
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The Fishery Watchtower, Galway
€40.00
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The Long Walk, Galway
€40.00
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Blackrock, Salthill, Galway
€60.00
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