Ireland In Focus - Our Passion
A personal story of how photography, heritage, and a deep love of place inspired the creation of Ireland In Focus.
A Deep Connection to Place.
I’ve always felt very connected to the landscape of Sligo. As a photographer, it just becomes part of your day-to-day life.
With a background in history, I am naturally drawn to the ancient places scattered across the region -stone circles, fairy forts, forgotten ruins, and a tale of folklore at every turn.
Growing up under the shadow of Queen Maeve’s Grave on top of Knocknarea Mountain, and a mile from Carrowmore, the biggest Neolithic cemetery in Europe, it was hard to escape the links with our distant past.
Welcoming the Diaspora
My parents both come from West Cavan. Like many rural-based Irish families, their aunts and uncles emigrated to the US in the early 1900s, mainly to the East Coast.
So, growing up, I became the one who welcomed the never-ending stream of cousins that came to Ireland to see where the family came from. I showed them around, brought them to places they had only imagined seeing for the first time. Over time, I realised how much I enjoyed it. Not just the guiding, but getting to see Ireland for the first time through someone else’s eyes.
There’s something about that quiet pause when someone sets foot in a place where their parents came from, and which up to that point had only existed in stories.
Photography as Exploration
Without knowing it, all those visits over the years left their mark. They made me think more deeply about how people connect with place - how land, memory, and story can come together in a meaningful way. Photography became my way of exploring that idea.
Through my photography, I have also been part of an amazing craft network, Made in Sligo.
There is a very tangible link to the past in watching these artisans in their studios, practising an art form that, for the most part, is largely unchanged throughout the millennia. But while the craft itself has changed little over time, they are producing and selling it in a very modern context.
I find the juxtaposition of the two fascinating.
The Birth of Ireland In Focus
Eventually, all of these threads wove themselves into Ireland In Focus. The tours are neither a photography workshop nor a historical lecture.
They are small, intimate group experiences, designed to help people slow down, take in their surroundings, and reconnect - with creativity, with place, and with themselves. It’s a form of travel that values presence over pace.
No rushing from one hotel to the next. No packed schedules. Just one carefully chosen location, explored in depth, with space to reflect and engage.
A Remarkable Setting
The phrase ‘a truly unique experience’ can be very overused and has nearly become somewhat of a cliché.
However, when it comes to our base for the full duration of the tour - Temple House Estate - I think it’s very apt.
Temple House is a 300-year-old Georgian manor set within a 1,000-acre private estate. It’s been in the same family for generations and still feels like a lived-in home rather than a commercial venue.
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We are not staying at a luxury 5-star hotel, there are no spas or golf courses. Instead, we are guests of the 13th generation of the Perceval family to be custodians of the grand house: Roderick and Helena. It’s a total house takeover.
There are very few places like it in Ireland, where you get to call somewhere your home for a week. On the estate grounds are the ruins of a 13th-century Knights Templar castle, standing watch over a quiet lake.
The house itself is full of character - elegant yet relaxed - with an on-site chef and plenty of room to unwind. There is that sense of history at every turn. It provides the kind of setting that encourages guests to settle in and really feel part of the place.
Flexible, Intentional Travel
Each tour is rooted in the northwest of Ireland, primarily Sligo and neighbouring counties. However, no two tours are the same.
While I do have a suggested itinerary available on my website, our route will constantly shift depending on the group dynamic, the weather, and the energy of the week.
That flexibility keeps things fresh and allows for authentic, shared experiences. We visit castle ruins, graveyards, holy wells, and some better-known sites—but we also meet real people along the way. Blacksmiths, potters, and woodturners in their studios. Local seaweed harvesters. Storytellers around a firepit. We may hear from the Yeats Society or explore a centuries-old graveyard where time seems to stand still.
If I’m honest, I like not having a set itinerary - I find it liberating. We live in a world where everyone feels they need to know everything all the time. Google ahead, check reviews, find out what the Insta moment is.
Whereas I think we get more joy out of just sitting back and allowing ourselves to be more open to a sense of wonder.
A Different Kind of Experience
What I hope we offer at Ireland In Focus is a counterpoint to both ends of modern tourism. It isn’t the 52-seat tour bus that races hundreds of miles from one key ‘must-see’ landmark to the next. But it’s not the stress of planning it all yourself either, trying to do too much and missing what matters, in the pursuit of the ‘Perfect Experience’.
We offer something quieter. More intentional. A chance to escape, reconnect, and experience.
Who Comes on Our Tours
The response so far has been fantastic. Our 2025 season booked out early, and 2026 is now open. Many of our guests are solo travelers, often women, seeking something that feels meaningful and safean experience that balances structure with freedom.
The Moments That Matter
The most rewarding part of Ireland In Focus is watching people become immersed. Seeing someone stand quietly in a centuries-old ruin, maybe with a camera phone in hand, but really taking it all in.
Not rushing to capture the perfect shot, but pausing to feel the place and the energy that comes from the old walls. It’s those moments - calm, reflective, grounded - that stay with you.
A Personal Journey
Putting Ireland In Focus together has been a very fulfilling project for me. There is just no way I can possibly describe it as ‘work’.And perhaps most of all, it’s a reminder that travel doesn’t have to be frantic to be meaningful.
Sometimes the best experiences come from simply roaming, absorbing, and giving yourself the space to really be there.Operating a boutique tour company brings together things I really care about: the landscape I grew up in, Ireland’s history, creativity, and the joy of sharing it with others.
One Simple Goal
I have one single goal—if people come on an Ireland In Focus tour, and leave with an appreciation of this part of Ireland, feeling personally reconnected, and having made lots of enduring memories, then we’ll all have had a good tour.
Ciarán