About twenty years ago my cousin Kevin Dwyer put together a rather magnificent family tree. It is a huge roll of paper, eight foot long by about two foot high.
My brother Ted has had a copy framed and it hangs in all its glory in his (very large) office in City Life in Cork.
I always had plans to do something similar but haven’t ever had the space.

All that is of course changed now since the acquisition of Le Presbytere.

I mentioned to Clive that as he was coming out to France with me he might bang together a few pieces of skirting or something to make a frame for the tree.

Clive then got The Kiwi to make something really lovely in Cherry wood, we fitted it into the van with some difficulty and brought it to France, with the intention of acquiring the huge piece of glass necessary here.

Sile and I were responsible for ordering the glass in Beziers, handing over the piece of paper on which Clive had written the measurements to do so and the following day Clive and I collected it.

It was 600ml too short, we were caught with a cruel trick as the French Glaziers had interpreted the 7 in the measurement for a 1 as it had not been crossed in the French fashion.

Clive then heroically agreed to cut down the frame to fit the glass, which he did, but wishes the resulting frame to come with a disclaimer from him because the corners no longer fit as snugly as they did.
Disclaimer delivered.
To me it looks absolutely perfect and now hangs triumphantly in the hallway.

So now for the first time I can get to have a look at it, it was never something easy to read when in its roll.