About IAmBaldish

Photographer, web developer, heart attack survivor, and occasional loud voice on things that matter in rural Ireland. Based in Boyle, Co. Roscommon.

Who I Am

I'm Rupert Davis. I've lived in and around Boyle in Co. Roscommon for years, and most of what ends up on this site comes directly from that life — the community events I photograph, the roads I walk every day, the health battles that changed how I think about everything, and the technology that either helps or frustrates along the way.

The name IAmBaldish started as a bit of a joke and stuck. It does the job.

The Blog

IAmBaldish.com has been running in various forms since around 2008. For most of that time it ran on WordPress, which worked until the overhead of maintaining it outweighed the value of having it. Earlier this year it was rebuilt from scratch — a clean, fast static site with no unnecessary moving parts. Seventy-seven posts, loads in under a second, runs on standard shared hosting.

What gets written here falls into a few broad areas:

Photography — Community events, parades, road races and local life across the West of Ireland. I photograph the Kilmovee 10K & 5K every year, the St Patrick's Day parades in Ballaghaderreen and Gurteen, and anything else worth pointing a camera at locally.

Health — This one is personal. I had a STEMI heart attack — a full blockage, the serious kind — and it changed how I think about food, lifestyle, and what the Irish health system does and doesn't do for people living outside the cities. A lot of the health writing here comes from that experience: what I've learned about heart disease, diet, the gaps in public information, and why Ireland does so little to prevent what is still the country's leading killer.

Opinion — Rural Ireland gets a bad deal. The cost of living is higher, the services are fewer, and the political class tends to notice only at election time. I write about that, about fuel prices, about the Irish banking system, about the things that affect ordinary people in ordinary places.

Technology — Security scams, privacy, things worth knowing if you spend any time online. No jargon where it can be avoided. Written for people who use technology every day but didn't sign up to become experts in it.

Reviews — Honest takes on products, places and services. Coffee shops, walking boots, smartphones — whatever's been used recently and is worth a word or two.

The Walking

I walk every day. Three to six kilometres, usually more. It started as cardiac rehabilitation and became something I genuinely look forward to. The roads around Boyle and Roscommon are good for that — quiet enough to think, interesting enough to keep going. A lot of the opinions on this site get their first draft somewhere between the front door and the turn for home.

The Web Work

Alongside the blog, I build websites — mostly for community organisations, events and small Irish projects where the brief is "make it work properly without costing a fortune to maintain."

Current projects include:

Diidum.com — An event registration platform built for Irish community organisers. Clean, simple, honest pricing. The first live event is the Carrowholly 5K in June 2026.

KilMovee10K.com — The official site for the Kilmovee 5K & 10K Road Race, held every Easter Saturday since 2010. Chip-timed, community-run, raising funds for Mayo Roscommon Hospice and Kilmovee Shamrocks GAA. Next race: Saturday 27th March 2027.

RunJogOrWalk.com — A free community calendar of running, jogging and walking events across all 32 counties of Ireland. A companion site covers Great Britain.

WheresTheMarket.ie — Ireland's directory of car boot sales, craft markets, farmers markets and fairs. All 32 counties, free to browse.

Get in Touch

For photography commissions, web projects, collaborations or just a conversation — the contact page is the right place. I'm based in Co. Roscommon and work across Ireland.