Paintings of Ireland by Tom Rickman

Ireland has always been on the periphery of my place map. Being in the west it seemed the logical place to gravitate to. But it has only been recently that I have discovered its charm and beauty by way of purchasing a 1926 Cornish Lugger sailing boat, a boat I first saw in my home village of Mousehole 20 years ago. So it was this circuitous route that led me to West Kerry.

I was instantly seduced by its gentle grandeur, and aghast at the sheer magnitude of the Blasket Islands floating with ultimate presence in the big Atlantic Ocean. It was as if some kind of connection had been waiting for me there for years. I only had to find myself there to realise it, for it to speak to me and to awaken something, a place within me.