THE IRISH DANCER'S MOTHER LIZ CUNNINGHAM

"As a mother you think that they don't need all that gaudy stuff but seeing them up on stage, you realise that with all the lights, they do need the dress and the right hair and make-up" Spending your Sundays in draughty GAA halls scattered around Dublin mightn't seem like the cosiest way to spend the day, but Liz Cunningham says that Irish dancing is like any other sport or activity your child wants to pursue, whether it's bringing them to the swimming pool first thing in the morning or driving them to trials for horse-riding. "It's lots of fun and we really enjoy it. It's great when you win but it's not the end of the world if you don't, " she says.

Her daughter Charlotte, now 15, started dancing when she was nine years old, when a neighbour's daughter introduced her to it. She was a relative late starter. "It was only when she started bringing home trophies that I realised how good she was, " Liz says, who admits she didn't even know what a feis was.

"Initially, I didn't understand any of the grading system but you soon realise that it's like piano or elocution grades. It becomes quite interesting but to an outsider, at the start, it's just like double Dutch."

Nor did she understand the importance of the dress, or that Charlotte would need her own. The costumes, which can start at 800 and go up to 2,000, average out at 1,200. The school Charlotte attends, the Hurley School of Irish Dancing, fundraises for the dresses. Olive Hurley, the director, is the sister of Red Hurley, and he usually does a night in the Burlington for the cause.

Attending feises can be a lengthy process . . . up to five hours sometimes . . .

and although Liz brings a Sunday newspaper or magazine, she rarely gets to read it because she becomes too engaged in watching out for good dancers and new dresses, which are immediately spotted. New dresses are necessary, she points out, not for the sake of the newness but because the girls grow out of them so quickly.

"As a mother you think that they don't need all that gaudy stuff but seeing them up on stage, you realise that with all the lights, they do need the dress and the right hair and make-up."

Water, some fruit, the dresses, the shoes, the sock glue (to keep the socks up) also form part of her arsenal. Dancing, she says, has opened up lots of horizons for Charlotte, who is dyslexic and finds school work difficult.

Competing and doing so well in dance competitions has made a huge difference to her confidence, as well as introducing her to people who have made dancing their career and travelled the world with various troops.

"It's modern, it's accessible and the costumes are fabulous and she really enjoys it, " Liz says. "I'm only following her as opposed to trying to push her."

THE SPORTS FANATIC DARRELL KAVANAGH

"Although sometimes there are many people out there on the sea with you, surfing is a lonesome activity. You choose the wave, you choose the moment and then you have the individual experience" "I do like the Sunday papers from time to time, I can't deny that, but I'm into my sports: soccer, snowboarding and surfing, " says Darrell Kavanagh, director of design and film consultancy outfit Image Now. Obviously soccer and surfing are his two primary sports at this moment in time because you can do them in Ireland, while the snowboarding is seasonal.

"I'm 37 now but up until a couple of seasons ago, I would have gone three or four times a season for long extended weekends, starting from the October weekend and probably ending around Easter. There'd be a couple of guys and we'd just bail into a car and we'd all have our own snowboards, our own gear . . . we'd fly to Zurich and we'd rent a car; choose where we wanted to go from there."

He hasn't gone with such regularity this year for two reasons, he explains. "One, getting a little bit older. Two, I got married in the summer and that kind of puts some sort of straightjacket on running out with the lads the whole time.

Although that said, I'm just trying to teach her and I've brought her on a few trips away and she's slowly but surely getting better and hopefully when she gets a lot better, we'll be able to go away for weekends as well."

He first learned to surf when he was 20, on the west coast of the US, and now surfs mainly on the west coast of Ireland, particularly around Kilkee, where he has a house. "I'm okay, I used to be an awful lot better, " he says of his level of expertise. "What happens when you learn when you're younger is that you're on a shorter board where you have lots more movement and mobility and you can do more interesting things like cut backs and fly around the place. But as you get older, your board gets longer . . .

you're more in tune with the water and you watch the waves with a view to having a gentle surf into the beach. It's much more relaxing and a bit more introspective, somewhat similar to yoga." For him, it's a solitary pursuit. "You are on your own. It's just you and the board and the sea, " he explains. "Although sometimes there are many people out there on the sea with you, surfing is a lonesome activity.You choose the wave, you choose the moment and then you have the individual experience."

When he's not surfing or snowboarding, Darrell is playing soccer with the Image Now FC team, which is part of the Night Owls League. He practises on Sunday and will play Saturday afternoons, if given half a chance.

While he does work over the weekends . . . two or three hours on a Saturday afternoon . . . Sundays are sacrosanct. "My wife works in retail so she gets Sundays off as well and she'll come and watch me play football, or, if I'm surfing she'll happily go for a walk on the beach, but that's different to me coming in on a Sunday and taking the laptop out."

THE KNITTER HELEN FINCH

"I spent too much time playing Solitaire on the computer and thought if I had to do something mindless, I might as well have nice clothes to show at the end of it" Knitting is extremely hip right now. Thanks to the rise of groups like Stitch and Bitch in the US (there's now also an Irish group) and a general return towards creative arts, whether that's in the form of scrapbooking, embroidery or cake decoration. For Helen Finch, a PhD student, knitting appeals on many levels. "It's very soothing;

it keeps your mind focused, particularly when I'm reading, actually. I find it stops my attention from drifting." Which begs the question, how does one knit and read at the same time? "I've a little thing called a book chair which props up the book . . . it's very handy, " she laughs.

"It's a nice thing to do with your hands; it calms you down. It uses a very functional part of your brain and it's a bit like playing computer games, except that you've nice clothes at the end of it. My initial inspiration was that I spent too much time playing Solitaire on the computer and I thought, if I have to do something mindless I might as well have some nice clothes to show at the end of it."

Helen will knit at home on a Sunday but she'll also take her knitting with her to the pub. "If I'm meeting like-minded people in town, I'll have my knitting with me but not if I don't know whether or not they're knitters as I think that's a bit rude."

Making your own clothes is brilliant, she says, but not economical. "I would spend about as much on a nice cardigan as I would spend in Marks & Spencer.

I'm definitely not undercutting the market here.

And if I was going to start selling on my knitting it would actually become prohibitively expensive if you started factoring the hours of work."

Although people tend to come out of the woodwork and admit to liking or doing knitting when Helen professes her own interest in it, the Stateside knitting revival hasn't reached Ireland to the same extent, in terms of the patterns or yarns available. "It's still very much a mothery/ grandmothery thing to do and people feel if they don't have to knit, if they can afford to buy their own clothes, why would they bother?" she says.

The kind of jumpers you see in trendier shops like Oasis are actually very boring for an accomplished knitter to make, says Helen. "I think there's an interesting thing that happens once you start knitting. You do start getting more into the techniques and what you can learn. You do start looking at fancier and more ornate clothes and think 'Gosh, that looks interesting to knit', whereas you'd never actually buy them for yourself.

"Possibly it is a slippery slope so patterned jumpers wouldn't be something I'd ever buy for myself but sometimes I look at them and think they'd be so interesting to do."

THE AVIATION ENTHUSIAST MATTHEW MCGRATH

"You can make it as time consuming as you want; you're not tied down to any time.

Aviation is effectively 24 hours a day" Matthew McGraw first got into aviation in 1961 and his interest over the wears has increased and not waned. Watching the planes descend and take off, from the vantage point of a lay-by on Dublin airport's ring road, it's not difficult to comprehend the strange and compelling appeal of air spotting. It's quite fascinating and exciting, especially when the Egyptian prime minister's massive craft touches down. Not that 'air spotting' is the right term at all.

"We're aviation enthusiasts, " Matthew explains. "People think that we wear green coats and anoraks and all that, but there are so many facets to the hobby that you can become involved in." His own area of interest is photography but others' might be following business jets or helicopters, and aviation art has become an increasingly popular aspect.

Why aviation, is a question that he's often asked. He has two answers to that.

"One is a question. Why fishing? I can't understand why people want to go out fishing; perhaps they can't understand why I want to go out air spotting. And the thing about it is that it's a hobby I get pleasure out of, so that's why I do it." But he still can't pinpoint what it is exactly about it that he likes so much. "I can't explain the attraction to it. You need to be involved in aviation to understand the kick you get out of that."

Binoculars and a camera are essentials, as well as a radio which allows him to listen to air traffic. He also listens to HF radio, allowing him to listen to aircraft going across the Atlantic and further afield as well. Routes, new aircrafts, colours and colour schemes all interest him and over the years, he's seen Concorde in Dublin a few times and in Shannon, the AN225, a Russian cargo carrier, which is the largest and only one of its kind in the world. It's in great demand and can carry very heavy loads and outsize cargo.

Some airports, he says, are nicer to visit than others, simply because of the facilities that are laid on for the enthusiast. Dusseldorf is one airport that is exceptional in relation to facilities for the enthusiast. They have an outside viewing deck, which is very close to the actual runway, making photography easy.

Frankfurt is another example and he likes Heathrow, even though it doesn't have any viewing facilities.

"It's got to be done on the road, around the perimeter of the airport. There's a field beside the airport and I spent an entire afternoon there during the summer time and you just stand there and take your photographs."

While he did some flying lessons a number of years ago, it's quite expensive, but it's something he'd like to get into again and hopefully, eventually get his provisional pilot's licence. He's kept everything aviation related over the years and says, as you can imagine, his attic is full. As a hobby, it can take up as much of your time as you allow it to or desire it to.

"You can make it as time consuming as you want; you're not tied down to any time. Aviation is effectively 24 hours a day." He'll often call a friend to let him know when he's on his way out to the airport; a night's entertainment might be having people around for a cup of tea, glass of wine and a slide show. "I started to take slides in 1971 so it's interesting to take them out, sit down with a couple of friends and see the changes, the airlines and the colour schemes that have come and gone. We just find it interesting, no other reason."