Psalms on Croagh Patrick. As planned met Chris Killip at top, 2003

The elderly lady in the plastic mac is one of many pilgrims who climbed the 2,507ft mountain on the annual ‘Reek Sunday’. It was grey and raining constantly on the way – then suddenly the clouds parted and the land lit up. Two minutes later the rain had returned. Irish Work by Tom Wood is available to pre-order through RRB Photobooks

A Camera, 1986

All the pleasures of this image have nothing to do with me. I just lifted the camera to my eye, changing shutter speed and distance instinctively. There’s another good picture of the children just after this where you can see the father with a baby on his lap in the front seat

Standing Tall on Gráinne, 1975

This Charolais cow had 17 calves and lived to be 21. All you need to know is the title. One of my earliest pictures in Ireland. A snapshot that’s iconic for some people. Another identical picture, taken 11 years later, appears in the book

Wiring, Nephin Beg Range, 1986

Driving past abandoned Morris Minors in a remote area. We stopped further on and walked back as an elderly man came to the door to wave. Around this time I began bringing the video camera with me as another way of capturing the landscape, or a chance conversation with a farmer I might meet

Violet in blue, (having to sell the land), 1991

For most of the year my father worked at the Morris Motors car factory near Oxford. He lived for the annual returns to his farm and dreamt of retiring to Mayo. But his old house was in disrepair and the only way he could afford to build a new house was to sell his land. He had hung on to it for all these years, refusing my mother’s entreaties to sell

Annual Migration, 1996

Getting lost after a detour on the journey to the west. This is a double-page spread in the book, but designer Padraig Timoney reversed the two pages so the image of Ruari and Ciaran is on the left and my wife Lorna – the only driver – moved to the right. Until recently most of the roads outside of Dublin were windy and uneven, the kids often car sick and the journey would take all day. Most years my father would be in the back alongside the boys

Coastline near Renvyle, 1987

Can’t remember anything about even taking this, just pleased I had colour film in the camera – but colour film and processing were expensive and a lot of the time I would shoot black and white because that was all I could afford

‘I’ll be back in 20 minutes’ Scots Ground, 1979

Lorna asleep while waiting for me. The start of a mantra … I won’t be long … Typically, my wife has been long-suffering as regards the bi-annual trips to Ireland. But why would I want to go anywhere else for a holiday? Going home. My emotional connection to the land, people and family. In the west everything seemed to have meaning, I would photograph constantly. I couldn’t find that in Italy or Tenerife

The Passing Show, 1996

I photographed this small-scale travelling fair over a period of years. A perfect time of the day for the light; sun just gone down but dark enough to show up the fairground lights. More people would arrive later in the evening, maybe dozens. (The title is a nod to Ronnie Lane’s touring musical circus)

Intelligence of sheep, Portacloi Bay, Ceathrú Thaidhg, 2017

On the very tip of the north-west peninsula of County Mayo, one of the remote areas designated ‘Gaeltacht’, where the Irish language is still predominantly spoken. It’s further along the coast from the Neolithic Ceide Fields, much of the area is covered with blanket bog and the weather can be wild. But this was a glorious day, a Mediterranean sea, the sheep turning its head and the bird (perhaps even a small bird of prey, a Merlin?) also looking towards the camera. It was taken from a moving car down a rocky road, kind of miraculous