This is the post in the blog

this is the post itself, my dog is a great fellaWhen Meath were last in the Leinster final one young fan thought it would be a great idea to PAINT h...is cat GREEN!!! His mother was very,very upset - naturally .And so to retrieve the situation the young fella decided to wash the cat IN THE WASHING MACHINE..( FYI The door does'nt open until the cycle comes to a complete halt !! ) Unbelievably the cat survived and was suffering from fluid on the chest and exhaustion when we examined him..LUCKY will be around on Sunday for the big game against Louth

Lucky the cat and Michael and Colman Burke

Funny job for The Examiner today of 'Lucky' the cat, his brilliant vet Colman Burke and Colman's brother - the superb Meath Senior Footballer Michael Burke who will miss this weekend's Leinster SFC final against Louth. Michael broke his leg playing against Laois in the quarter final and as sore and uncomfortable as it was and still is, perhaps not as bad as what poor 'Lucky' had to endure, the story (by vet Colman Burke of Royal Pet Vet) is after the photo:


When Meath were last in the Leinster final one young fan thought it would be a great idea to PAINT h...is cat GREEN!!! His mother was very,very upset - naturally .And so to retrieve the situation the young fella decided to wash the cat IN THE WASHING MACHINE..( FYI The door does'nt open until the cycle comes to a complete halt !! ) Unbelievably the cat survived and was suffering from fluid on the chest and exhaustion when we examined him..LUCKY will be around on Sunday for the big game against Louth

Examiner Front Page again

Great fun assignment last weekend for The Examiner - the annual culchie festival held this year in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan. Went out on the Friday and took a few photos of one of the first culchies to arrive in McCabe's Bar, Ballyjamesduff - Patrick Smith from Castlepollard, County Westmeath. The festival seems to be great fun and for the October Bank Holiday Weekend something different to do.

The Virginia Pumpkin Festival was also held the same weekend in the nearby town of yep, you guessed it - Virginia. After reading some of the info on the festival lineup I decided to concentrate on culchies arriving from Ballyjamesduff to Virginia to pay homage to the Pumpkin so I got there early on teh road from Ballyjamesduff to Virginia which is a great long straight stretch of road. They were to arrive on hundreds of Honda 50's, in the end it turned out they arranged to meet in the town of Virginia, unbeknownst to me or the stewards I was talking to on the Ballyjamesduff road.

Ireland at the best of times can be disjointed and disorganised and in my line of work you just have to accept this, once you do things go smoothly enough, no point having a hissy fit when you can't control events.

A warm enough day I had planned to stand in the middle of the road and get shots of bikes flying past me, this could have been a foolhardy venture but for the fact that I had large hi vis jacket in the jeep, these luminous garments infuse the wearer with great powers it seems, especially the ability to stop traffic, which I did when I saw Elvis arrive on his trumped up Honda 50, I was delighted with the photo I took of him and it ended up on the front page of The Examiner - good result all round.

If I could paint...

I am not an artist and could never draw/paint/sketch or do anything with oils/acrylics/charcoal but if I could I would probably paint something like this image I took of the sea looking out over the mountains at Carlingford, County Louth. The image hasn't been touched up or any special effects added to it, it was a 1/8 second exposure at f22 and I really like it, taken at 1 minute past 6 last Sunday (13th September) I love the colours and sense of drama. Incidentally, to th e best of my knowledge I got a C in Art in my LeavingCert, the highest mark for my art theory where I wrote an essay eschewing the virtues of a work of art entitled 'How to Explain pictures to a dead hare' by German sculptor Joseph Beuys, which all sounds pompous and pretentious, the fact is at that time in school students had to pick their favourite painting and write an essay about it for the Leaving Cert state exam.

I didn't like art at the time and certainly had no favourite painting so I scanned quickly through a book of modern art and found the aforementioned piece and figured if I wrote about it rather than the Mona Lisa or Picasso's Ice Cream I stood a better chance of getting noticed and therefore getting a higher mark for originality, I reckon it worked.

HSE Community Games 2009

The 2009 HSE Community Games Finals were interrupted by atrocious weather this year and I got right and royally soaked whilst photographing them, but the games seem so well loved by all involved that the rain failed to dampen spirits and appeared to generate more smiles than frowns. These kids amaze me they are so focused, photographing from the edge of the track I was so lucky to witness first-hand the determination these athletes muster. At one stage I swung around to avoid a particularly nasty shower I spotted Orla Brady from County Clare 'on her marks' and it made one of my favourite images from the day, a sentiment it seems was shared by The Irish Examiner who I was working for that day. Although in many ways there are technical issues with the image, including the omission of her feet I think her emotion, the rain, her number hanging off her, her sagging clothes etc. etc. don't detract at all from the photo.

My other favourite from the day is here:

LeavingCert exam results

Photographed students in St Olivers Community College in Drogheda, County Louth today for The Irish Examiner.

The reason I am blogging is twofold, 1. to unburden my thoughts back to when I got my results (I managed 5 passes, 5 d's that is) from almost no study, certainly an underachievement but my late Mum Judy was delighted that I had at least passed and gave me 5 quid for every pass I achieved, 25 quid (in circa 1987) for doing nothing isn't a bad return by any standards.

Reason 2. The Leaving Cert isn't the be-all and end-all, so for any students that might not have got the results they were hoping for out there that happen to google their school and my blog turns up - take heart and don't be upset.

I am one of the lucky ones that after a pretty appalling participation in the Irish education system with a failed 'inter cert', (ask your grandparents what that is!) and a very ordinary pass in the Leaving cert as well as the notoriety of being the first prefect in St. Patrick's Classical School in Navan to be expelled, I have done okay.

I have been in the UK, Iceland, Germany (twice), France, Hong Kong (3 times), Hawaii, Malaysia (twice), Japan (worked there as a software engineer for 4.5 years), China, America (twice), Dubai, Oman, Austria (twice), Australia (twice).

I have photographed bands from Green Day to Coldplay, Massive Attack to Paul Weller, and REM to The Foo Fighters, I have photographed Tiger Woods playing in the Ryder Cup and photographed Chinese Premiers in Aras and Uachtarain, Sumo champion Wrestlers ringside (with a GAA photo pass!) as well as having the privilege of photographing kids in my locale that were champions in their own right and I have over 60 book covers to my name (ironically most of them used to illustrate educational textbooks!).

I have had images printed in almost every national newspaper in the UK and Ireland and other publications all over the world as well as front pages and even a photo in Newsweek magazine of an image from the 50th anniversary of the cultural revolution in China depite being told I wouldn't allowed within a 10 miles radius of Tiananmen Square.

Where am I going with all this? Well, I did all the above armed with a camera, self-belief, hard work and a little chutzpah, if you didn't get the results you wanted, try harder, try again, try again and try harder, believe in yourself, don't screw anyone over and you will get there - sermon over...

One boy and his dog

As a dog lover and regular contributor to The Examiner I am feeling a
little proud of today's front page, Here is a copy of the Front Page itself. The organisers of Boardsmill Community Games were even taken aback when I told them I was covering
the games for the local paper - The Meath Chronicle, there were about 40
spectators at best, and the volunteers collecting the voluntary
contribution at the entrance were using a plastic box that would just
about hold 4 Jacobs Cream Crackers! The photo of a boy and his dog was also singled out for praise on today's Gerry Ryan show on 2FM. To see more photos from the assignment click here...