For a week back in summer 2005, Tina and I visited our pal Barry in his native Ireland.

It was a great visit, especially seeing that although I've been round the world, I'd never visited the country before.

I must admit I was a little wary on arrival: I was sure that Barry was going to invite me to some barren farmhouse to have a chat with several large red-bearded men about the whole "400 years of oppression" thing, but fortunately I was wrong. He was a very courteous host who happily did all the tourist stuff with us around Dublin and his hometown of Carlow.

During the short visit we managed to get drunk in Dublin (not tricky), get lost in Carlow (surprisingly easy), and learned that really, really, really deep down that Barry actually has a soft centre of niceness. Not that he'd ever admit that though. Ever.

Anyhow, here are the photos; choose between Large and Thumbnails