Paul

Thanks to everyone who left kind thoughts after the last post. Paul died peacefully in his sleep during the early hours of Monday morning. It was a great surprise to us all. I wish you could have met him. I think that like me you would have come to love him. He had so much energy - so much natural zest for life - so many passions such as his violin and recently he even taught himself Greek, becoming quite fluent in a relatively short time. He was naturally gregarious and seemed to know just about every other citizen in the small county of Clare in western Ireland. "Hello there Paddy! How're ye doin?" He leaves a lovely but utterly distraught wife behind - poor Josephine - and his two handsome teenage sons - Michael and Kevin - plus his daughter Katie - now in her early thirties and Cait - his two year old granddaughter.

Here's Paul at Katie's wedding in 2006:-

When people die, the Irish don't hang about. Paul's wake in Ennistymon will happen tomorrow evening and he will be buried in a small rural cemetery known locally as "The Island" on Wednesday morning. Today has been about communication and making travel arrangements and printing things off - all so hectic - that I hardly had time to properly think about Paul. He was my friend as well as my brother and I still can't really believe that he has gone. A world without Paul just doesn't seem right.