Fergus Finlay: Home is where the heart is and I love my wife and family dearly

'It will be another week or so before I can boast that the most long-suffering woman in Ireland has put up with me for half a century.'

Did you ever hear of Godwin Swift? No, nor me neither, until I stayed in his house this past weekend. And I have to admit I’d never heard of Longwood either, where Godwin’s house is located. As the saying might go, it’s an hour from Dublin, but actually miles from anywhere. A lovely little village, a couple of miles from Enfield, with a supermarket, an antiques and curio shop, and one of those hardware stores where the boss can never take a day off because she’s the only one who knows where everything is.

Anyway, the house, and Godwin. It’s called Lionsden House, it’s Georgian, and it’s “associated” with the Swift family. Deep in the bowels of the internet, you can find a connection between the house and Godwin Swift. In my stupidity, I assumed he must an ancestor of the famous Jonathan, but Godwin died in 1815, and Jonathan 70 years earlier. So I’m guessing, and no doubt one of you will prove me wrong, that Godwin was actually descended from Jonathan Swift’s uncle, who was also called Godwin (you’re with me so far, I hope!) And he left behind Lionsden. Bedrooms and bathrooms all over the place, wonderful fields all around it, a huge big tatty and gorgeous dining room, and the atmosphere of a never-ending house party throughout. It was as cold as the Baltic Sea when we arrived but two huge wood-burning stoves soon fixed that. And brilliant for kids — all the room in the world for them.