Dzogchen Beara is a Tibetan Buddhist Retreat Centre located on the Western tip of the Beara Peninsula in West Cork. I took these photographs early one morning in 2006, while Jason was attending a retreat. The place is breathtakingly beautiful (as is every nook and cranny of West Cork) and very, very peaceful. We went back down for a week in 2010 and picked out several houses and locations that would be ours when we win the lotto. In lieu of that big lotto win we’ll just have to visit on a more regular basis. We’re bombarded with misery here in Ireland on the radio, on the television and in the papers, it’s nice to know peaceful places and scenes like this exist in little pockets throughout our beautiful country.

In the garden, there was a lovely horse, behind him is a not-so-lovely wall and behind that is the sun coming up over the Atlantic.

This is a view of the centre, which overlooks the sea.

Farther to the left are views of the cliffs along the coast, and to the right (below) are lots of houses dotted on the landscape.

It’s always great to meet artists and musicians at the start of their careers. I think this young dude will go far.

Lisa Hannigan is one of my favourite musicians and singers. We went to see her in the Riverbank Theatre last Friday night and her show was fabulous. The whole band are amazing and an absolute pleasure and joy to watch and hear. The show was opened by John Smith (who also plays in Lisa’s band), who has one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous voices I’ve ever heard. He was such a treat. If you haven’t heard him sing before check out his website which has some videos – Winter is particularly beautiful.

This photograph was taken at the end of the night when the band took their bow.

Went to see the super-brilliant Dolly Parton at the O2 in Dublin last night. The show was hugely enjoyable and Dolly spoke quite a bit about her early life in the Smokey Mountains and sang a fair few hits.  Here you come again … ah, love that one.

This was one picture of a few I took before I was asked to stop taking photos with my “long lens”.

Here’s a few pictures from a photo session with Martina, Liam and their completely gorgeous baby Maria.

The family that wears stripes together, stays together.

In the future all trendy dogs shall wear them.

This was taken late in the evening on the beach at Maspalomas in Gran Canaria. I always think the beach looks loveliest first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening before the sun goes down – usually when the number of people on it is sparse.

A reverse bungee jumper on the seafront in Brighton.

A couple of weeks ago myself and Jason went to visit his family in East Sussex in the south of England. It’s a really beautiful part of the world. This old church is in Hellingly near Hailsham and was in walking distance from his Mam’s house and was surrounded by a semicircle of very old houses – all occupied. It was incredibly peaceful and seemed like a gorgeous place to have a house, even if it meant having some gravestones in your front garden. You can see more from this set below, just click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

Taken at the barber’s shop in Barcelona, Spain.