We arrived in Girona on a blisteringly hot day. The temperature display in the car said 39C. We had to park in an area without shade, but whenever we could, we walked in the welcome shade of the buildings of this beautiful Spanish city.

In the midst of a housing crisis and buildings up and down the country are left empty and rotting away. Follow Frank O’Connor and Jude Sharry on Twitter. The Derelict Ireland hashtag is full of photos of crumbling or boarded up buildings all over the country. Meanwhile, people live, 6 to a tiny room, in…

The lights of Llafranc in Spain shine brightly near 1am in the morning after a wedding ceremony in a nearby hotel. Swimming there was a highlight of the year for me. Lovely calm and warm waters. As it’s the Mediterranean, there was barely any tide, so you could be sure how much beach was there…

One dog wants to be friends, the other one isn’t quite so sure!

A passer-by checks the front page of the Chicago Tribune in a neighbourhood kiosk, July 2003. I can’t imagine those kiosks are still there, considering the financial troubles newspapers have gone through in the last 19 years since this photo was taken.

Ned, a donkey that lived in the grounds of Blarney Castle, in 2016.

Enjoying ice lollies in Coventry on a hot June afternoon.

An Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita [*] in the grounds of Blarney Castle yesterday. It’s a poisonous mushroom found throughout temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, according to Wikipedia. It’s also poisonous, but these days death from ingestion is rare. It has psychoactive uses too, and it’s…

Some of the old boats that used to sit on the quayside on George’s Quay a few years ago.

Stuck in a moment on Liberty Street, Cork.

Mounted police in Chicago direct crowds along a street after the fireworks.

Kids and grown-ups waiting for the July 4th fireworks in Chicago many years ago. The kids in this photo are in their twenties now.