For over 11 years, I've poured my heart into my business, The Gallery, creating a space where people connect, share stories, and feel at home. It's been a tremendous ride. I'm lucky enough to use my business to promote social, environmental, and political issues and ways in which we might be able to create balance in our world.

I am truly thankful for all my guests and how they appreciate the warm and welcoming space I've created - check out my TripAdvisor and Google reviews and see for yourself.

After a chance meeting in late summer 2022, when I hosted a couple (Lauren & Micheal) through the Couchsurfing app. Michael told me how he'd built a small website that predicted football players' performances—and how it brought him steady income.

That conversation hit me hard. That moment planted the seeds for PROJECT 5K.

I realized something: if I created a vision, I could rally people to support it. Together, we could build something that adds real value to the world—a community united by a shared vision to create something lasting and good.

Tom's grand vision unfolds in two main parts: he wants to create a space that can accommodate around 18 people, a place for slow travel, with a WTMG (Welcome to my Garden) camping area, plenty of space for outdoor, educational and healing workshops, and a regenerative garden to grow fresh organic produce.

The space will focus on promoting and sharing the values of inclusivity and solidarity through physical action, the YouTube channel and a podcast. Tom aims to find land in a picturesque locale and transform it into a self-sufficient community space, with supporters of the project and through groups like WOOF, Workaway and so on. His dream is to provide guests with an immersive experience in nature, while also promoting cycling and fostering a healthy, slower lifestyle, focused on connection with our inner and outer worlds.

This ties in with the development of his app ecosystem. This is in the development stage so is under-wraps until its launch, circa late 2026.

Tom plans to raise the capital through storytelling, sharing his vision and promoting it on his YouTube channel, as well as through kick-starter and funding campaigns. Once the app is released the project will self-fund and then begin the journey into helping others with their dreams.

As Tom traverses continents and cultures, he ignites conversations and building a global network of supporters through workshops, talks, and social media outreach. Each interaction brings him closer to his goal, as he shares his passion for cycling and slow living and natural wines with diverse audiences he meets along the path.

Through the highs and lows of his journey, Tom remains steadfast in his commitment to realising his vision. With every donation received, he inches closer to establishing a sanctuary for travellers (aren't we all?) seeking adventure and sustainability and healing.

My aim is to buy and restore a property and turn it into a space for creativity, adventure, discovery, and healing. Not too hippie, not too chic—just honest, simple, and real. A place for building genuine connections: to the land, to each other, and perhaps most importantly, to ourselves.

But it's more than that.

The goal is to share the journey, mentor local businesses, protect our planet, and raise awareness for indigenous peoples, refugees, and marginalized communities.

I see this as a partnership, not just a fundraiser. Your support comes with a shared purpose—and a responsibility for me to live up to it. The me becomes you, becomes us.

Together, we can make something meaningful happen.

Tom is a former life skills trainer and qualified assessor, a social development manager and has decades of experience leading, coaching and nurturing a wide range of groups. From spirited young people and adults, to trainee outdoor activity instructors and managers, corporate groups and even high security prison inmates, across the educational sector, outdoor pursuits, conservation, ecology, community regeneration and fields of urban arts.

He has over a decade of experience of running the Gallery, a business that has blossomed into one of Ireland's most hidden gems, Ireland's first member of Kiss The Ground and Raisin and #3 on TripAdvisor for nearly 10yrs, no mean feat doing it solo.

He has featured live music, board game events, wine tastings (it's Ireland's first natural wine bar), sewing workshops, poetry and open mic events and more. He hosts some of the world's finest classical musicians, alongside big name DJ's, it is frequented - under the radar - by film directors, TV and movie stars and a plethora of internationally renowned musicians, despite this, Tom remains humble and humorous, and quietly spins his beloved vinyl on the warm homemade sound system for his guests.