 of all and when you look through and you see all the beautiful photographs you can understand the the title if you if you didn't already and it captures amazing landscapes and seascapes, mountains, laws, waterfalls and churches other places of interest as well around the county. The man behind it is Ender Hughes and Ender now joins me in the studio. Ender good afternoon to you. Good afternoon John. So obviously photography is a labour of love and you decided to put it to good use for a number of good causes. First of all tell us about the what's what the book's in aid of? The book's in aid of really three charities that are close to my heart obviously Donnie Gaul Hospice doing excellent job helping people in this county. Also the Planet Youth is a drop-in centre for young people in Balboffay associated with the youth service and Kunav which have done consistently good work helping families through difficult times in the Stranora and Balboffay area. Okay now the collection of photographs how did how did you come about putting a book together with a collection of photographs which involves a lot of work and I presume that you had some of them already gathered. Well I did have an extensive portfolio of photographs in Donnie Gaul but it was during the Covid pandemic really I decided to have a instead of driving everywhere just walking about and you'd capture scenes that people would just probably miss. I mean one of my one of my friends said to me said I walk around drumbo woods every day said I don't see what you see so he said that was like the kind of compliment you like. Well he summed it up because drumbo woods has never looked as good as it does in this book and a lot of places around the east of the county I'm thinking about you know Balboffay, Stranora or even at the Glen Finn that you know they don't often feature in books like this. I think they're overlooked and they're understated in a lot of ways. It's a beautiful area of the Finn Valley and a lot of visitors come to Donnie Gaul town which is a lovely town by the way but they should come a bit further north and have a look at Balboffay in the Finn Valley and they will be surprised. There's some very beautiful places here. Yeah absolutely and many of them feature in the book and look fantastic but then all of it there's a lot of places as well down the south and the southwest of the county and you venture north as well but there is there's a focus on your on your own hinterland. Well naturally I'm from Balboffay and I'm gonna be a little bit biased for the Finn Valley but it's understandable but I did want to encapsulate the whole of the county that's why I named it Donnie Gaul the pride of all because a lot of people say that Donnie Gaul is the forgotten county but actually Donnie Gaul is the unforgettable county and once you go to Donnie Gaul it will steal your heart. Yeah and I mean you photograph a lot of the really well known places you know Balboff Bay and well one of the lesser known places actually I suppose are Brady Guller's cottage in Crecelaw but then there's you know there's views at Glen Bay and Ards and you know the Glenneven waterfall and there's only when you flick through a book like this and you go from you know one one page with a wow photograph to another one with an even more beautiful photograph that you realize just how beautiful a county we live in. I think Donnie Gaul is very underrated and I really what this book is hoped to do is get people to get out and have a look at the county and appreciate what they've got because they live in the most beautiful part of Ireland you know and that Donnie Gaul is the pride of all. And you could take a small section in an area or a town or whatever and do it at a while of a Saturday or a Sunday and then somewhere else you know the next week of the next month and you might never get around. That's right yeah yeah I basically did a circle you know south southwest and north along the Wild Atlantic way some absolutely fabulous places. And then and there's some and there's some you know very artistic touches in in in the photographs as well and once you realize that you were taking them then for a book did that give you a pep in your step? It gave me a little bit more incentive because you're also trying to sell a book and you're also trying to make as much money as you possibly can for the charities that will benefit from it. Yeah absolutely. OK so the book's widely available and I know you had a list of outlets but too numerous to mention but widely available and I suppose all it's going into more all the time. Yeah it is everybody's been really supportive of it and I have to do a book signing next Saturday on the 15th of July bookmark in the Letty Kenney Shopping Centre have asked me to do a book signing between one and three so if anybody wants to purchase a book I'll be there to sign it for you and one very interesting story. I was going for a cup of coffee and I just pulled up in a little road called Church Lane and I was just crossing the road and I saw this bookshop I think it's called Universal Books and lovely guy David probably wasn't it? David I just something entirely different it was all corangs and empires. Yeah but anyway it was a lovely shop. He was very accommodating. Oh I just said to him I'm doing a book and he said what's it for and I said well it's a hospice among other project he said you've said the magic word he says how many have you got I said I have 20 he said give me them he said I'll sell them I won't charge you any commission he said I just want you to do me one favour. I said what's that David he said just sign them I said I'll happily do that and he took the 20 straight away and I thought it was a lovely gesture and that really sums up the people of Donegal. Well that's nice to hear and three causes again Donegal Hospice, Planet Youth and CUNA and Strangorder and the book is called It's Out Now and a good selection of bookshops all around the county it's called Donegal the Pride of All. I end the queue the best look with the book. Just one last thing John I'll have an official launch tomorrow on Thursday the 6th of July at 6pm in the Villa Rose in Ballet Buffet this Thursday this Thursday in the Villa Rose yeah the 6th of July yeah thank you and welcome there everybody's welcome yeah everybody's welcome thank you very much