Learner Dad: I can feel myself becoming more like my father

'I’d always seen myself as the opposite of my Dad. He was cautious and wore a shirt and tie every day, I was reckless and wore second-hand jackets just to annoy him.'

'In Beara, I became the man who points things out to a carload of people who don’t care.' Picture: Dan Linehan

My father always said we’d never win anything in a raffle. He came from that generation who grew up in 1930s Ireland and preferred to err on the side of pessimism because it usually turned out to be right. And in fairness, we never won anything in a raffle.

That was until last week when it felt like we won the lottery. Not money, but a staycation we booked in March that managed to coincide with the best Irish heatwave in ages. I mean, what are the chances? Our staycation last year was far more 1930s Ireland – there was a lot of Nintendo and movies as the rain did its thing outside.