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My time was running out - I still had a number of people to meet and interview, was having difficulty fitting them in. Hardly time to panic, but the pressure was on.

I drove from Dublin to Limerick on a dark, rainy day. It wasn't a long trip, but made slow by the weather, and of course my wish to see as much as possible and not get lost. It was a most interesting drive, and a shame that I had so little time to stop and explore.

Limerick is on the west coast, on the River Shannon and the gentleman I was to see was quite elderly. In the rain, I missed a few signposts, but fortunately always found someone helpful to point me in the right direction and I soon arrived at my destination.

He was absolutely wonderful and had prepared quite a feast for me - not that I needed extra calories. I had intended to divest myself of some extra baggage, but hard when hospitality is so generous! As well as telling me some of the information I had come to seek, he told me of his wonderful life. He'd worked on two jobs in quite diverse industries and somehow managed to keep down both of these jobs for a very long time. Workaholic I suspect. He has some wonderful memorabilia as he'd come into contact with some very famous people in his life and had the photos to show.

I spent several hours with him, and as it came time to leave the skies opened up and the rain was very heavy. He was quite concerned for me - driving in unfamiliar territory in heavy rain. The traffic was awful - it was bumper to bumper all the way into Limerick and across the bridge over the Shannon. It was odd, as it gave me time to reflect on what I had read about life in Limerick.

I guess the most famous of the books would be "Angela's Ashes" written by Frank McCourt. One of the images I had after reading the book was of a dark, wet, miserable place - and it surely was on that day! Slowly I followed the traffic into and through the busy city area, and out the other side.

The little car was great and soon I was out of all the traffic chaos and on the open road to Mitchelstown again.

Where I stayed was out of range for my mobile phone and it wasn't until the next morning that I was able to ring the kindly gentleman and tell him I was safe. He had apparently been worrying about me all night!

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