FMFabien McQuillan

1. Article · Sep 26, 2026 · By Fabien McQuillan

   Fabien McQuillan: Badgers in your garden? Here’s what to do... (opens the original)

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   I have a pretty limited knowledge of the flora and fauna in the countryside, you will not be surprised to hear, but I have made it my business to learn a bit. Fionnuala tries to point out the trees and bushes as we walk along with the dog, although it all tends to become a greenish blur. However, I downloaded an app that listens to the birds singing and then identifies them, and I am now apt to bore people with my new-found fakepertise. It’s amazing. It tells you the Latin genus as well, so I

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2. Article · Aug 1, 2026 · By Fabien McQuillan

   Fabien McQuillan: We laughed when he scraped into university. Now he’s a top lawyer (opens the original)

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   John Finlay, the man with the too-big grin and the trendy shorts and t-shirt combo, was waving loo roll in my face at the caravan toilet window. I had forgotten about him in all the madness and excitement of the trip up to Donegal. He owned the beautiful mobile next door to where we were staying, and had been in and out of our caravan all the time during our brief holiday last summer: a super-confident, super-successful solicitor who, on the surface, was also super-generous. “It’s what we al

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3. Article · Jul 25, 2026 · By Fabien McQuillan

   Fabien McQuillan: A week in a caravan in Donegal, and a lesson in letting go (opens the original)

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   Around this time last year, Fionnuala’s well-to-do cousin lent us her beautiful mobile home in Marble Hill, and the same offer came this July. She works in some finance job and her husband is a chemical engineer and they are both very humble by all accounts – Fionnuala says you wouldn’t know they have a penny – and because they are touring Asia this summer (Asia, like), we fluked another week’s holiday in Donegal. But the packing nearly made it not worthwhile. I don’t mind packing. I

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4. Article · Jul 18, 2026 · By Fabien McQuillan

   Fabien McQuillan: The Portaferry tractor man and the day-trip of doom (opens the original)

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   As I stared up at the driver of the tractor, with an enormous boat somehow strapped on top, I thought why in God’s good earth was he driving on such a tiny road? Not only was there barely enough room for one vehicle, there was a drop on the left, with rocks and the sea below, and hedges on the right and no lay-by anywhere to be seen. The nearest entrance to a house was about a kilometre back, so that was no use. And to make matters worse, a car pulled up behind me and then one behind the tract

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