My range of local activity books were inspired by my own family and their friends who would love their areas but mostly know schools, pizza places and - perhaps - a library. I wanted to bring more local knowledge to the primary school kids in a fun way. My recent Raheny Junior and Clontarf Junior Activity books are for the youngest children of 3-6 years old; the rest are aimed for 6-12 year olds, and are very local to North Coastal Dublin. Particularly to Raheny, Clontarf, Portmarnock and Howth/Sutton.

Each book is part educational with a bit of local history and some big local "thing" - like Bull Island in the Clontarf Junior Book, the Howth Road milestones in the Raheny book, the old Guinness mansion and Millenium Arboretum in the St. Anne's Park Fun Book, an introduction to the Clontarf art scene in the Clontarf book, Aideen's grave in the Howth/Sutton book, and some history of transatlantic flights in the Portmarnock book. They are also highly entertaining with age-appropriate puzzles like wordsearches, crosswords, some fun facts about local history and wildlife.

All of my books are community projects. I involve local children through art competitions. For example, for St. Anne's Park Fun Book I ran an art competition in Scoil Aine in Raheny, and the 4 girls who won it made all the illustrations. By now I have found and published 12 young talented artists from local schools (and collaborated with 7 "grown-up" artists). One of the books - the Raheny Nature Colouring Book - was done together with Raheny Tidy Village Group as part of their Biodiversity programme, and is sold as a fundraiser with all money going directly to Raheny Tidy Village for new tools and plants.

Books are available at several local shops around Raheny, Clontarf, Portmarnock and Sutton, and in this online shop.