My name is Marty. I was born in 1957 in Belfast. I've spent my life thus far living and working in Northern Ireland. I think it's a great place and it offers a lot to the outdoor person. It especially provides wonderful scenic motorcycle runs, all within a fairly compact area. In a very short time you can be away from the city boundaries and in the countryside amongst lakes and mountains. This whole island has much to appeal to the tourist. Do come!

I love the outdoors and I have a real passion for hillwalking. I've walked many hundreds of miles through the Mourne Mountains in the past ten or so years and even moved house to get closer to them. Walking in the wilds far away from the hustle bustle of daily life is a fantastic way to unwind. I go as often as I can. If I can't spare a full day to walk through them, the next best thing is to ride my bike around them and admire the views.

Photography plays an important part in my life too and I've been actively involved with it since I could first hold a camera. I've been influenced by the work of photographers like Bert Hardy and Cartier Bresson but my real hero has got to be the great Ansel Adams. I also treasure a modest but growing collection of lovely old cameras and I make sure that each one gets an outing every now and then. (Am I sad?)

I'm a music lover and began piano lessons at 8 years old. I've built up a wide ranging collection of CDs. On the Classical side I guess I'd put names like Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov and Brahms in my top ten. I also enjoy Jazz & Blues. Big heroes for me would include names like Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman.. the list could get very long! In the last couple of years I've extended my listening and collecting to include "World Music" and it's quite an adventure.

The last, but as you might guess, not least of my interests is motorcycling. I've been a biker since 1973 and have owned many weird and wonderful mounts. Once biking is in the bloodstream it stays with you for life. My present bike is a Centenary model Harley Davidson Dyna Super-Glide, which is just plain gorgeous. My motorcycling career started in 1973 with the humble Honda CD 175.