Clive and Murray on the Grannies on Safari coming to Ireland

Okay, we'll admit we had never heard of the Grannies on Safari until this morning ...

Clive and Murray were waiting for the school bus in the playroom ...

They like to sit beside Mom and have a look at the papers online before Murray goes to school. His Mom tries to find something to catch his attention to discuss with him.

Well, the Grannies on Safari really got his attention this morning!  Read the article from today's Irish Times here!

He loved them!

They are in Ireland at the moment filming ....




Next year in Ireland we have The Gathering Ireland 2013 - a huge series of events to celebrate Irish culture, history and genealogy.  Lots of Irish Americans are hopefully going to come to Ireland next year to join in the celebrations.

We know lots of our blogging friends live in the US ....

We've had several come visit .....

We had Jane here last September and Murray and Clive loved showing her around Dublin - "When Jane came to Ireland ..." and Jane even printed a book on her Irish adventures for us!

Last week, we had several of Jane's friends over here golfing and they had a fantastic time playing golf all along the east coast up to Northern Ireland.  We recommended they visit the Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge between golf games and they did take time out from their golf to visit!  It was their second golfing holiday in Ireland so they obviously like coming over here from South Carolina ....

So, if you're thinking of holiday plans for next year ...

As, Murray said this morning - "Even Grannies go on holiday"

- Clive & Co

Clive on Cohen ...

Leonard Cohen played Dublin for four nights - finishing on Saturday night!

He was sublime ....

The whole house here are huge fans of Cohen ...

Murray's Mom & Dad love him so much they are going to Lisbon in two weeks time to catch the last night of his European tour ....

No, they are not taking Clive!!

He's not happy about that but in the meantime, here's Leonard with U2 ....

A great day at the Niall Horan Golf Classic in aid of Irish Autism Action and T.E.A.M

Clive was at the Niall Horan Golf Classic in aid of Irish Autism Action and T.E.A.M. (Temporary Emergency Accommodation Mullingar) yesterday at Mullingar Golf Club...

It was a fantastic day - organised to raise money for two very deserving charities - autism and the homeless. Plenty of celebrities lended their support to the day including Keith Duffy, Ken Doherty and One Direction's Niall Horan, who celebrated his 19th birthday by playing golf and helping IAA and TEAM.

Clive thoroughly enjoyed himself - he waited patiently in his buggy for his fellow players ...

But people kept asking for photographs!

He here is with Glenda Gilson, TV presenter and Keith Duffy, Boyzone member and patron of Irish Autism Action.  Sorcha spent the day with Clive as a special treat as there was a very special golfer there that she wanted to see ....

Sorcha is fantastic with Murray - it's not always easy having a sibling with autism - so she was allowed the day off school to go to the golf course and she arrived at the 1st tee just in time to see One Direction's Niall Horan tee with his fellow players.  She was thrilled!!

Afterwards in the Club House she met the boxer John Joe Nevin who won a Silver Medal in the Olympics in London last month.  John Joe had very kindly donated a pair of signed boxing gloves for the auction at the end of the evening.

But really the person she wanted a photograph with was .....

You guessed it, Niall!!

The prize giving and auction was great fun!

Keith Duffy kept everyone amused with his comments - especially about the long drive prize!

He reluctantly handed it over to the winner!  He had thought he had won it himself!!!

Niall then helped out at the auction ....

A pair of his signed boxer shorts sold for over €200!

A signed Darren Clarke golf bag went for €550!

Biggest earner of the night was a signed Rory McIlroy t-shirt that made over €1,000!

But the auction was only a small part of the overall day and more than €50,000 was raised yesterday in aid of Irish Autism Action and T.E.A.M.

John Joe showing Clive his Silver Medal!

John Joe's boxing gloves (modelled by Niall) sold over more than €350!

Just before Niall left to celebrate his party at a big fundraising party at the Mullingar Park Hotel - Sorcha got the chance to get another photo with him ...

and Clive wanted to make sure he was part of the photo too .....

It was a great day in aid of Irish Autism Action and T.E.A.M and Sorcha was thrilled to be able to be part of the day and get to meet Niall Horan.  Murray was at school but happy to know that Clive was there -

He loved all the photos last night when we came home and wanted to tell the boys in school today who Sorcha met so hopefully all these photos will help prompt him in class today!

Many thanks to everyone we met yesterday for ensuring that Clive and Sorcha had such a good day!

We very much appreciated it!

- Clive & Co

The boys - watching the football together ....

Murray and Clive went along to support Sorcha in her football match at the weekend ....

It was a great match and they were very good supporters!

Sometimes however they got a bit distracted ....

Like when Clive wanted a belly rub!

But mostly they were very good watching the football ....

They tried to follow all the play ....

They really wanted Sorcha's team to win!

Well, not this time, but maybe next week ....

We hope you are all having a good week!

- Clive & Murray

Keeping Murray happy .....

Murray went to a water park on his holidays in Spain ....

He really loved it ....

Which was fantastic for his family to experience because for a long, long time visiting somewhere like a water park was very difficult for Murray - too much noise, too many people!

But Murray has really come on in the past few years and is doing things that we would never have thought possible ....

Like spending a day in a packed water park and really enjoying it ....

In fact, enjoying it so much that he kept wanting to go back and do the rides over and over ....

He keeps watching this video clip that his sister took of him diving into the pool - over and over again!

So we promised to upload it onto Clive's blog for him!

Of course, he should have dropped into the water earlier but that's our Murray! He loves that he didn't and he loves that his Dad is calling out to him to do so!

We hope you enjoy the video of Murray diving just as much as he does!

 - Clive & Co

Meeting up ten years later - a rather special day ......

Ten years ago in 2002 Murray was in Spain with his family and went to visit Selwo Marina.  He was only four years old at the time and had little speech.    Lots of things would upset him and he found many things difficult.  But one thing he loved was dolphins.

At Selwo, we spoke with the dolphin trainers and explained about Murray.  At that time. the trainers would take a young child on a little boat out to meet the dolphins.  Murray really wanted to meet the dolphins but we were concerned about him following instructions and understanding what to do.

The trainers that day in Selwo were amazing with Murray.  They were so gentle and understanding with him and he really loved meeting the dolphins.  That photo has had pride of place on his bedside locker ever since and he always mentions about kissing the dolphins when he sees dolphins on the television.

This year, in August 2012, we were back at Selwo Marina and we had brought the photo from 2002 with us.  We were amazed when we went towards the dolphin pool and immediately saw one of the trainers from that 2002 photo.  We went up and introduced ourselves and showed him.   The trainer was delighted, amazed to see himself in a photo from ten years ago but more magically he remembered us and most especially Murray.

It was a very special moment.  Gabriel told us where the other trainer is now working and where the dolphins in the photo with Murray from 2002 are now living.  He explained that the dolphins there today are their babies.

So, Murray went to meet the dolphins .....

Ten years later, Murray is a changed young man in so many ways.  But still the trainers there and Gabriel in particular took great time with him, explained very carefully to him what to do and were only an arms-length away from Murray.  But Murray was wonderful, he listened carefully, was very gentle with the dolphins and did exactly what he was told.  He was so happy to be back in Selwo Marina meeting the babies of those dolphins he first encountered in 2002.

We want to say a huge thank you to Selwo Marina, to all the staff there who looked after us on our visit, the dolphin trainers, the sea-lion trainers and particularly Gabriel.  You all made sure that Murray and his family had a very special day out.

- Clive & Co

The boys are back home .....

The boys are back home in Dublin ...

They came home Tuesday ....

School started yesterday ....

They were not happy to be separated!

Clive was miserable when Murray left for school!

But they had a great summer in Spain!

Many thanks to everyone who helped make their summer so special ....

You know who you are!!  We really appreciated it!

We have lots of photos and stories to share from the boys summer in Spain!  We had terrible internet connection in Spain so now we are back in Dublin we can't wait to catch up properly with all our friends and to share properly some of our adventures from our summer in San Pedro!

In the meantime, the boys are getting used to the much cooler Irish weather, getting back into school routines again and getting ready to support DUBLIN at the weekend!

Some things never change .....

- Clive & Co

ps-many thanks for all the birthday wishes for Murray - he was really delighted to read them all with his Mom!

Happy Birthday Murray!

Today is Murray's 14th Birthday!

He is super excited ....

He got to go to his favourite places with Clive ...

He couldn't be happier ....

One special dog and one very special young man celebrating Murray's 14th birthday and six years working together this summer!

Happy Birthday Murray!

Love from Clive, Mom, Dad and Sorcha

Clive and Murray go to the Roman baths ....

After Murray took his friend American Jane to the Roman baths at Manilva whilst she was visiting us here last week, he really wanted to go back with Clive.

Clive didn't go with us the first time because it was a very hot day but it was cooler and overcast last Friday so the boys went back ...

Did they love it? You bet they did, they had such fun in the river, covering themselves in mud and watching the rest of the family do likewise!

Murray's cousin Soline is visiting from Poitiers so she came along too and even though she didn't like the smell of the sulphur baths, she persisted with the rest of the gang.  These Roman baths have been here since the 1st century BC and Julius Caesar is rumoured to have bathed in them!

The girls enjoyed the mud but were very happy to wash it all off ....

Clive and Murray, they didn't want to leave though  ....

;

Enjoying the Roman Baths at Manilva ...

Murray loved showing Jane the mud at the Roman baths in Manilva .....

Murray really enjoys getting covered in mud ...

He thinks he looks just like Shrek!