Three years ago, he and three other friends decided to rent out a gallery space which could be used to display their own works and also as a classroom. It's called Gallery 75 and is in O'Connell Street, in Limerick city centre. His fellow-partners are Tom Greaney, Sarah Marshall and John O'Brien. As he and the others were already teaching art they had no problem getting the classes filled.

Previous to setting up this gallery space, he had been one of the four members of the Adare Studio Group - a group which met weekly in Adare to paint. The group held annual exhibitions and was considered to include some of the best representational artists of Limerick. One of the group members, Cyril O'Ceirin, was also accomplished as a poet, writer and translator. He worked centrally as part of the Burren Action Group. He translated Mo Sceal Fein and co-authored a book with his wife, Kit, called Wild and Free - a book of recipies from plants, herbs etc easily found in the Irish countryside. His paintings were what one would call poetic - atmospheric evocations of obscure landscapes or penned portraits which transmitted rugged personal interiors. He, unfortunately, is no longer with us. To me personally, he was an inspiration, as is my father.

My mother paints in whatever spare time she has. I am constantly trying to encourage her to paint more as I believe she has a naturally fine sense of colour. She has sold paintings on various occasions also. Click on this thumbnail to see fuller version of one of her paintings.