Activities

If you’ve wandered this far, you already know I’m not brilliant at sitting still. I like projects — the kind you can hold in your hands, or walk across, or tune by ear. This page is a loose map of the things that fill my days when I’m not working, writing, or making coffee for whoever has just walked through the door.

None of this is meant to impress you. It’s just the stuff that keeps me sane, curious, and occasionally out of trouble.

Guitars & Sound

I’ve been playing for years, mostly acoustic, performing sure, but playing mostly for myself. I like the feel of a well‑built instrument — the way a good top vibrates against your ribs, the way a note blooms when you get the attack right. I’m not chasing perfection. I’m chasing that moment when the guitar stops being an object and becomes a voice.

And yes — there’s a place where my two obsessions collide: writing and playing. You’ll find it at My Guitar (gtr.ie), and on Instagram at @myguitar.ie. It’s the gear shed for most of my thoughts.

Walking, Mountains & Weather

I like being outside. Not in the “Instagram summit photo” sense — more in the boots on, head clear, let’s go listen to what the landscape has to tell us today, sense.

That might be a ridge line, a quiet harbour, the feel of the wind on the back of my head in a long fast reach, or the hum of a bike on an empty road. I like the small things: the change in the wind, the way a coastline shifts with the tide, the quiet you only get when you’re a few kilometres from anything man‑made. Mountains and sea are good for the soul. So is a long walk on a cold day. I don’t need a reason to go — the going is the reason.

DIY & Travel

I’ve never been great at packaged anything — holidays included. I prefer to build trips the way I build everything else: slowly, deliberately, with a bit of curiosity and a willingness to get lost.

Tents and bivi‑bags, home‑stays, van‑sized campervans, small boats (I love sailing — especially solo, though a good crew is a joy too), small roads, odd detours, places that don’t appear in brochures — that’s more my speed.

And once upon a time, motorbikes — long days, light luggage, and the kind of freedom you only understand when the engine is warm beneath you. I don’t own a bike anymore, but I still think about something vintage — maybe an old Triumph, like the Daytona I had when I was much younger.

If you want to see the occasional photo (on the rare days I remember to post), you’ll find me on Instagram at @bivibox — the fun account, not a funnel.

Wildlife & the Quiet Stuff

I like noticing things. Birds, bats, the way the light changes in late summer, the sound of the sea when the wind swings north. A European mink scurrying along the tread ahead of me. None of this is formal — I’m not a scientist — but I am a naturalist and I pay attention. There’s a kind of companionship in knowing what lives around you.

If you ever want to talk about the bats in the Mont Saint‑Michel marshes, the vultures over the western Pyrenees, or the seals along the Skerries coast, I’m your man.

Writing

Writing has been a constant throughout my life. From the early days of developing evidence and argument for social and statutory policy, through journalism, education and campaigning, to commentary, notes, essays and observations. In all of that I have always sought to make sense of the world. And writing is how I share that journey with others.

These days, I think of myself chiefly as an essayist, and most of my publications now take that form , (The Marshall Review). But there is another current running alongside the essays: The Chronicles of Sigi, a series of novellas in progress. Fragments, spin-offs and other matter from the Sigi canon can be found at sigi.ie, should you happen to have a little time to fill.

House Projects

There’s always something being fixed, built, painted, or improved. I like the rhythm of it — the problem, the plan, the doing, the working with wood someone handled almost a thousand years before me. Then standing back at the end with a cup of coffee thinking, “Yes, that’ll do — those old guys would be ok with that.”

Some people meditate. I plane things.
Some people meditate. I sand things.

If you want to keep going…

There’s a quieter page after this — the work, the thinking, the politics. You can head there if you ‘ve a mind for it: ⟶ Commitments