Its Christmas time again and the seasons have turned another turn. The land and its people are paused, and poised, at a point to look back on seasons past and forward on seasons to come. It is a great spot for reflection on values and importance. I have a neighbour, an important and valued neighbour, who has inspired me over a lifetime. He has never owned a car, never sat in a plane, never been on TV - though his lovely wife Peggy was on Winning Streak last year - but is, in all important respects, the most successful man I know.

Values

Bred from a strong line of those men and women who were essential to farming until pushed aside by big tractors and milking machines, Sean worked with farmers from boyhood. At 27, he was a man of purpose that caught the eye and imagination of the 10-year-old boy, that was me. Working hard on farms during the day, he used his evenings to grow Sugar Beet on small parcels of land he rented here and there, around the parish. Everything was by hand. Each plant was handled six times: at thinning, at pulling, at crowning, at banking out, at loading the road trailer and at loading the railway wagon. Often working by the light of a bicycle lamp, Sean was a master at his job. His beet money bought bags of cement to hand mix with horse drawn sea gravel, to fill timber casings and build the walls of his marital home. Eventually topped off with a roof of galvanised sheets, it protected the cradles of his thirteen children and saw them each grow strong and wise in the ways of their parents.

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"The Pro"

When farm work disappeared, he got a job on the roads and cemented forever his title as " The Pro". Subsequently being left a snug little place by an Aunt, he has gradually made it into a model and a marvel for neighbours and passers by. He has lovingly collected and restored the tools of his life's work and displays them proudly around the yard built from stones he quarried in one of his own little fields. His other little fields give sanctuary to other redundant farm workers - his donkeys. Yet other little fields have supplied neighbours with potatoes for decades. Spare time will find him on his smokey Dexter tending and masterminding the local graveyard.

Only one of his children emigrated, all the others have settled within cycling distance, making their home always vibrant with visiting grandchildren. Measured by important values, his five little fields are among the most productive in the land. Sean and Peggy Monaghan have given me, and their neighbours, a lifetime of inspiration and good neighbourliness. They never saw a hair of the Celtic Tiger, but they became, and remain, the most successful couple I have ever met. Isn't it right to give thanks to good neighbours at Christmas?

Happy Christmas one and all!