About ten minutes drive from where I live is a fantastic natural resource called “Peatlands Park”. I try and get out to it at least a couple of times per week.  The peat here has been forming for about 10,000 years. The site was acquired in 1978 from the IPDC (Irish Peat Development Company) and the Park was officially opened in 1990. Visitors can explore the 680 acre site on foot along its many paths and wooden walkways. In fact there are over 10 miles of paths leading the visitor through the many and varied habitats within the Park.  Within the park are two National Nature Reserves, declared in 1980 for their unique flora and fauna species, many of which are found nowhere else in this part of Ireland. Annagarriff (meaning rough bog) is a 77ha reserve comprising of wooded drumlin hills separated by areas of regenerating cut over bog. Of the four wooded hills, one is a very ancient site with no record of ever having been cleared for farming. One of the most interesting sites in Annagarriff must be the huge mounds of plant debris up to 1m high and 2-3m across. These hills have been built by Wood Ants and are the only Irish site for this species.
Mullenakill (meaning church on the hill) is a 22 ha uncut remnant of a much more extensive bog which has been growing here for over 8,000 years. Core sampling carried out on the bog indicates that the peat is 9m deep.

This is Killyman Ancient Order of Hibernian’s Hall or more widely known as “Corr Hall” It was built in 1907 by the local lodge of the AOH and opened by the Irish Parliamentary Party MP for The Falls constituency Joseph Devlin or “Wee Joe” as he was known.  Devlin was president of the Hibs from 1906 until he died in 1934. For many years it was a popular dance and ceili venue in the locality and proved a big hit with American soldiers stationed at the airfield at Ardboe during WWII. It fell in to decline during the late fifties and had been derelict for many years until recently when a local family restored it and now use it for social events including traditional irish music sessions by the local branch of Comhaltas. Despite the name we have no family connection with “Corr Hall” it is in fact a reference to the town-land in which it is situated.

I had to make a presentation in this building today and was more nervous than usual as the audience included my work colleagues.  This is The Peace Factory Project which was established in 2006 and is  based at Sunnysides House Coalisland Road Dungannon. The Peace Factory offers support and services to those affected by conflict in the South Tyrone Area. Originally the house used to be where the manager of the nearby Tyrone Brick Factory lived.

This is my wife Kierna with three of our four nieces from Portaferry Catherine, Louisa and Melanie Buckle with whom we spent a lovely day on Sunday in Coalisland.

A sign at the gates of a local grave yard. “One thing about life, we are not getting out of it alive”

Watch out TV chefs Ramsey, Oliver, and that guy who stole the cheese and wine, there is a new kid on the cooking block. Man of many talents Micky Carolan rustling up a mean Chinese stir fry for lunch in the Craic Theatre

This is Gerard Quinn from Pomeroy a very talented actor who has appeared in a number of Craic Productions including “Inheritance” by Mark Shields and “A Scull in Connemara”  by Martin McDonagh

1. Stare at the red dot on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds
2. Turn your eyes towards the wall/roof or somewhere else on a plain surface
3. Keep blinking your eyes quickly!
4. What can you see? (Click on Photo to make bigger)

This is an optical illusion which shows the power of the brain. If you feed it enough information it can fill in the rest. I took this picture on a shoot at the recently opened Catch Light studio at Conway Mill Belfast. The studio is run by award winning  photographer Ross McKelvey.

This is our cat “Emma” We’ve had her eleven years and she is very much a part of the family. Emma can shoot a look of disdain like no other creature I know as much as to say “would you ever wise up”

This plaque was erected on Dorman’s Chemist shop in Coalisland in 1996 to commemorate “The Cinema” which had perviously been on that spot. Up until it closed in 1985 Coalisland Cinema was the oldest existing “Picture House” in Ireland and Britain. It was founded as “The Picture Palace” on 15th December 1922 and four names that appear on the original company articles of association were James Joseph Canning (Butcher, also my great uncle on my mothers side) John S. Lytle (Grocer and Spirit Merchant) Edward Byrne (Chemist) and John K Stewart (Mill owner) The witness to the company documents was John Corr (Solicitor, a grand uncle on my fathers side) Those were the days of the silent movies of Chaplin, Keating etc and the music for them was played live in the cinema by Paddy Hughes who lived in Main Street. Some controversy surrounded the early days when the local parish priest and some “good citizens”, worried about the images of scantily clad ladies on the big screen, campaigned against the cinema and as a result the catholic members of the Picture Palace Company withdrew. In 1929 two brothers originally from London via Waterford, Bill and Albert Bernard (but called the “Barnett” brothers by many in the town)  ran the now renamed “The Cinema” until the mid 80’s This was a magically place which showed four main features every week. My friend Ronan McSherry writes about “The Cinema” in his recently published book “Ronan’s Rants”