Belmullet – A Special Place

This is one of my favorite views to photograph and I don't make any apology for it. It is nearly an abstract landscape, with big shapes of colour that have a timeless quality. Buy Now

The linear field boundaries stretching for hundreds of meters are evidence that many more people lived off the land here in earlier days than do now. Today, this patchwork pattern enhances its impressive beauty. Two miles to the south lies Achill Island dominated by Sliabh Mór and the towering cliffs of Achill Head. Buy Now

One of the secrets you discover when you grow up is that September can be a really beautiful time of year . . . when the weather is good. A lovely still September morning. Buy Now

There is a special light on a September morning, stillness and a quietness, maybe because those who go to school are gone and have left the streets to themselves. Dark skies and dramatic shafts of light and an interesting streetscape. Buy Now

Waterspouts are formed when cold air travels over a body of water that is warmer than the air above it. This was a lucky shot because this mini tornado lasted all of 90 seconds. Buy Now

Something you strive to do when creating photographs is to capture the sense of movement. In this picture it was not hard to capture this movement with the waves dancing obligingly in front of me. On this particular day they seemed to be rolling. If you are familiar with the jig tune The Rolling Wave, I challenge you to recall it to mind when you look at this picture and you will see where the inspiration for the tune came from. Buy Now

The wide tidal sweep of Sruwaddacon Bay,where the Glenamoy River enters the sea. There is an impressive panorama looking south east along north Mayo. Buy Now

The evening sun creates a maze of light and shade along the shore of Tullaghan Bay. Apart from its famous rowing club that shares the name, there are two types of salt meadows here, Atlantic and Mediterranean, and both support a wide variety of plant and wildlife. Buy Now

Up until recently, single room houses were quite numerous but in recent years the generation of people who lived in them may have died out and what used to thought of as quite adequate housing for a single man would no longer be thought suitable now. These building were built to a reasonable standard and their construction may have got support from the local authorities. If anyone knows anything about when they were built, I would be interested to find out more about them. Buy Now

The first time I came to Broad Haven Bay was as a deckhand on a trawler out of Killybegs in 1972. We were fishing off the Stags and the weather turned very bad. The skipper thankfully made the decision to put into Broad Haven. As the last man to join the crew, I was the cook and had to keep the guys fed. I had literally fallen asleep while I was standing and had wedged myself between a press and the side wall of the galley and one of the crew tucked a coat around me. I don't remenber much about the landscape but I know I was glad to be out of the storm. So Broad Haven is a good place in my book. Buy Now

Two lone pine trees stand guard as the shadow of the clouds race across the Nephin Beg mountains. Buy Now

The coast of west Mayo has it all. It is truly a dramatic landscape. Clare Island appeared as if it were on stage and the curtain of cloud had just been pulled back. For good measure the silhouette of Rosturk Castle also made an appearance. Grace O'Mally, the pirate queen, picked her locations well. Buy Now

I have to admit I have had a lifelong interest in architectural heritage. In fact, I brought out a book on Irish clay houses, which I intended as a campaigning book to save the existing stock of clay houses and to promote clay as a building material. I am happy to say the book, Ireland's Earthen Houses, was effective. I am fascinated with this house. It is the very picture of traditional hearth and home, sturdy, well maintained and with an essential windbreak. I don't know but I think this style of house dates from the 1930s and was built with the support of the local authority. If anyone know more about this, I would be very interested to learn more. Buy Now

Looking west along the Atlantic coastline of the the west of Ireland always rewards the viewer, especially in Clew Bay. The tidal channels between the islands carry your eye to the bright horizon. Buy Now

On the northern shore of Broad Haven Bay with its back to the wild Atlantic, the community of Carrowteige has its back to the prevailing winds. Buy Now

From the post office in Blacksod, the Sweeney family used to record the weather every hour throughout the Second World War. They sent their observations to the Irish Met Service in Dublin and these were then forwarded without their knowledge to the headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force in England. Buy Now

Broadhaven Bay has given shelter to countless numbers of seafarers over the years. When the waters of the north Atlantic turn cruel and merciless, many a brave sailor was very glad to make it into Broadhaven Bay and wait out the storm. Buy Now

It was a very overcast day with plenty of intermittent showers and all I was doing was scouting for possible locations for good pictures that I could take another time. Luckily I had the camera ready and just as I was looking at this location a gap appeared in the clouds and sent searchlights of sunlight across the mountain and bog. Buy Now

Ireland has eight per cent of the blanket bog on the planet and most of these bogs are found in west Mayo and west Donegal. Small pools found here contain a range of mosses that are essential feeding habitats for wetland birds. Buy Now

I freely admit that I always wanted to become a painter. Two of my sisters, one older and one younger, are very good artists. I realized early in my teens that they were able to convey what their eyes saw via the hand that held the brush to the page and I did not have that gift. Shortly after that I discovered photography and I record my vision through this medium. Buy Now

Cut of from the rest the country and surrouned on all sides by the wild North Atlantic, by impressive mountain ranges and by vast area of bogs, Erris is a very special place and the people there are very special people. Buy Now