What I Do

Golfers used to underestimate me for my disability – not any more

What I Do: Brendan Lawlor (26) is one of the top disability golfers in the world

‘You have to be mad to be a conductor ... We’re a weird breed’

What I Do: Elaine Kelly is a resident conductor with the Irish National Opera

I kidnapped a priest, now I make currachs with other ex-convicts

What I Do: Seamus O’Brien is workshop manager at Meitheal Mara, a community boatyard in Cork City

‘I started off with three sheep, bought a spinning wheel and taught myself how to spin’

What I Do: Sandra King is a wool crafter in Co Clare who spins and dyes her own yarn

Collecting ferns was like an addiction, I just kept collecting

What I Do: Billy Alexander is a rare tree fern cultivator and owner of Kells Bay Gardens in Co Kerry

‘I’ve probably got more from the lifeboats than I have given’

What I Do: Eithne Davis is a helm with Sligo Bay RNLI

‘So many people say to us, I would never have interacted with a Muslim, a girl who is in a headscarf’

What I Do: Tibrah Bazama is a baker and owner of Munch cafe at the Balally Luas stop in Dublin

‘Seeing one of my concertinas being played, that’s a buzz. I’d be sitting there hoping it doesn’t break down’

What I Do: Musician and maker Sean Garvey crafts concertinas and still enjoys a session

‘I’m a Lego artist. People say your work can’t possibly be art because it’s Lego, but art is art’

Jessica Farrell struggled to find her medium until her hobby turned into her career

There’s a lot of depression in the veterinary industry. There’s a lot of dealing with death

Emma Martin left her veterinary job to set up a cattery and small pet boarding business which she runs full-time in Kildare

Divine intervention: ‘If someone wants help finding water, you go and have a casual chat’

What I Do: Gerry Cremin is a water diviner

‘If we lose this way of life in this part of the world, Ireland has no chance to keep its culture’

What I Do: John Bhaba Jack O’Chonghaola has dedicated himself to preserving an Ireland slowly fading to the history books

The hospital teacher: ‘Every school day here is like the first of September’

What I Do: Annette McGuirk is a hospital teacher at Our Lady’s Hospital School, Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin

‘I was a child actor in the 1970s. Now I could be the last generation of projectionists. Only a few of us remain’

What I Do: Paul Markey works at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin

‘Drugs are everywhere you go now. It doesn’t matter if you are in Dalkey or Ballymun’

What I Do: Seán O'Reilly is a barista at Rise at the Cove in Greystones, Co Wicklow, a cafe linked to the Tiglin treatment centre

‘It really bothered me watching children crying and sometimes getting sick in the barber’s chair’

What I Do: Maggie Radecka provides a hairdressing service for children with sensory issues, to help take the fear out of getting a haircut

These ice-dancing siblings compete for Ireland. Their big obstacle? No rink to train on

What I Do: Laura Hegarty and her brother Kevin, who are Ireland’s only ice-dancing pair, have to practise mainly off the ice, in their runners

‘I swapped factory work to make weapons for film and TV ... Braveheart was a baptism of fire’

What I Do: Tommy Dunne has made props for Braveheart, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Game of Thrones and more

‘I was so intrigued by street theatre and circus. It just blew my mind’

What I Do: Kim McCafferty, street performer, maker and director

‘I’m the only female pilot serving in the Air Corps at the moment’

What I Do: Lauren Cusack, flight officer in the Irish Air Corps

‘The typewriter demands you focus - it’s just paper, ink and your imagination’

What I Do: Leo Molloy is on a mission to restore and rehome as many vintage typewriters as possible

I’m a third-generation lumberjack. I was always into chainsaws and timber

What I Do: Wesley Monaghan has little chats with the trees as he’s cutting them down

The psychiatric nurse from Wexford who quit to join the circus

What I Do: Ciara Grey performs as an aerialist in the big top with Circus Gerbola

‘I fell in love with the idea of conserving art on a school trip to Italy’

What I Do: Louise O’Connor is a conservator at the National Library of Ireland

The nine-year-old Ukrainian drummer playing gigs around Ireland

What I Do: When Mark Kosinsky was one, he became a refugee when his family lost their home during the war in Donbas

‘To make wine in Ireland, you have to be a little bit crazy’

What I Do: David Llewellyn grows grapes in Lusk in north county Dublin to make red and sparkling wine

‘A big whale came in when I was diving. The surface crew panicked because it went over the top of me’

What I Do: David McGloin is a commercial diver based in Donegal

What I Do: ‘I always said I’ll go to college, get a proper job. But thatching opened up a whole new world’

When Dutchwoman Marika Leen arrived in Galway 40 years ago, she learned the art of thatching from three farming brothers almost by accident

When I’m dancing, anything I’ve experienced in my life, whether it’s good or bad, I just let it go

I’m originally from a small town in Ethiopia, and I came to Ireland to study dance

What I Do: I’m the fourth generation to harvest seaweed for our family’s baths in Sligo

Cain Kilcullen is a seaweed harvester in Enniscrone, where his family have run a seaweed bath house for four generations

‘Growing up, ‘bog man’ wasn’t a compliment, but the bog was always part of me’

What I Do: Brian O’Loughlin is a bog oak sculptor who makes art from 5,000-year-old wood from the Bog of Allen

What I Do: ‘I learned how to tinsmith from my father’

James Collins is one of only two Traveller tinsmiths left in Ireland

What I Do: ‘When I saw the job for a goat herder in Howth, I couldn’t make sense of it’

What I Do: Melissa Jeuken is a goat herder with the Old Irish Goat Society, which provides a grazing service to prevent wildfires on Howth Head

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