Media attention was one aspect of west Clare life that David and Ann Gibson had not counted on.

"I discovered, in all the time living down here and the few bits and pieces that we did down through the years, I definitely am not a man made for television or radio," says David.

Eight years ago, they left their home in Swords, Co Dublin. Last month, they moved into a new house of their own in Kilbaha from a neighbouring parish. A five-bedroom house on a hill overlooking the village and the Shannon Estuary, it makes a move to the country appear like a well-kept secret.

David, a bricklayer, has found himself in demand in recent years in the nearby towns of Kilkee and Kilrush. Ann, a childminder, also took a number of seasonal jobs over the years. "We were happy in Swords but I always wanted to live in the countryside," David says. "I used to fish in various parts of Ireland and, after a while, I began to realise what was bringing me to those places, as much as the fishing, was the peace and quiet of the countryside."

He heard Jim Connolly being interviewed about the scheme, read a newspaper report on it and applied. They arrived in west Clare on a Friday night in November.

"Saturday morning we got up and it was teeming rain and we could not see anything, and the place looked miserable. Then on Sunday morning, the sun was shining and when I walked out of the back door of the house we were renting, I could see, looking straight across the Shannon, into Kerry, and it was absolutely beautiful."

They have three children. Two daughters, in their early twenties, have left home. Their son, John, aged 16, has now spent half his life in west Clare.

"He has integrated here," says Ann. "He plays Gaelic football, he does it all. He has his friends here. Everything about him is here."