Peg O’ Mahony from Kildare.

Just turned 80 but still full of beans, Peg puts us all to shame with her enthusiasm and joi de vivre, especially when we moan about the difficulties of dealing with our own kids and then remember she reared EIGHT of us.  A Rebel County native who moved north after marrying fellow Corkonian, the late Michael, she’s long considered Kildare home-sweet-home and now wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else.  Together with her small but close-knit coterie of local merry widows she continues to live life there to the full.  And as her many grandchildren will testify, her Sunday morning breakfasts are still a particularly tempting treat, and to hell with the cholesterol.

Written by her son Pat O’ Mahony.

About Joan

In 1939 her sister founded the Emerald Girls’ Pipe Band and in their hay day they were very popular. In 1945 they were to tour for 7 months with Duffy’s Circus. As they were a piper short they asked my Mom to go with them, she was just 15. She had also played with the Dublin Youth Orchestra as a violinist up to that. In 1956 when Mom was Pipe Major, the band won the World Pipe Bands Championships in Belfast. And in 1962, they travelled to the US for the St. Patrick’s Day parade…a big deal then and she played in Carniege Hall, whilst there. I could go on forever but you see you have a colourful character there!

Written by her daughter Alison O’Donoghue.

Here’s a really nice short story we stumbled across by Thomas M. Ledin.

The Family Portrait

Christmas day, 1977 my family posed for a picture taken by Mr. Bellows, our next door neighbor. That photo has become the benchmark for all family portraits taken of my family since, not a single one has equaled its magnificence. In that wonderful picture my family is much smaller than it is today, there are no sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, or grandchildren, just my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, and me. We’re all sitting up amazingly straight, and our smiles are so perfect they almost look drawn on. This photo is entirely beautiful in its simplicity, and truly impressive in its rarity.

I admit that a good family portrait doesn’t seem like anything to get too excited about, but consider the fact that every year since 1977 my poor mother has tried unsuccessfully to improve upon that masterpiece. My mom has that picture hanging in an ugly gold frame, large as life, opposite the front door in her house. It hangs there as a trophy for all to see. “My perfect little family,” she says every time I follow her in the front door.

I can recall with more than a little guilt the years my mother tried to corral us into neat little two rowed formations for a photo, and the grief we all gave her. We never made it easy on her, whether it was bunny ears behind Julie’s head, or Josh pinching the sensitive part on the back of my arm, or my dad’s favorite, passing gas a second before the picture was snapped. From 1977 on, no picture that contained my entire family came out well. We got some nice pictures of individuals, even a group of two or three, but when any more than that were told to sit still and smile somebody inevitably messed it up.

Read the rest of this entry …

The above image of the Kirby family won ‘Best Family Image’ at the Awards, and it is particularly special and poignant to us that this is the image that was chosen. We were deeply saddened to learn that Ruadhán Kirby passed away recently.

It means a lot to us that we had the opportunity to capture a stunning image of a precious and real family moment, and that it was recognized as such by the judges at the National Photographic Awards.

We have photographed Ruadhán from when he was a little baby, through to toddler-hood and on through the little boy years. He was a beautiful and happy child and we would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the Kirby Family at this time.