We've been so busy here recently that we've barely had time to breathe, let alone blog!

July was an incredibly busy month for us here, with another outdoor TV Mass broadcast, this time quite literally from someone's back garden!

The Owens family in Strokestown very kindly opened their home to allow us to broadcast a Station Mass from their house on July 1st; and along with PP Fr. Eamon, some local talented musicians, and their beautiful dog Cindy, we celebrated Mass on an overcast but calm and quiet Sunday morning. The garden was filled with family and friends, neighbours and parishioners, and it brought back memories to many of Station Masses in their own localities over the years.

We also had the privilege of covering the Maynooth University Summer Soirée, to mark the 21st birthday of the University. It was a wonderful evening with beautiful musical performances from M.U. Alumna Eimear Quinn, along with the Maynooth Chamber Choir amongst others; as well as an interesting conversation between M.U. President Philip Nolan, director Lenny Abrahamson, poet Michael Longley, and Eimear Quinn. You can find a flavour of the night here.

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Our radio crew were out on the road again in Limerick, as well as having the opportunity to broadcast a little closer to home when they worked with the students of the Divine Word School of English on a beautiful Mass from the small chapel here in Maynooth. They'll be broadcasting live Mass again from Cherry Orchard on the first Sunday of August, and you can listen to it, or indeed, any of the previous broadcasts of Mass online at www.rte.ie/radio1/mass

Towards the end of July, we had the opportunity to work with our neighbours St. Patrick's College as they hosted the 2018  International Federation of Catholic Universities on their beautiful campus in Maynooth - videos of the conference will be online shortly.

We had an interesting month following the World Cup, as colleague was pitted against colleague in our World Cup office draw, culminating in the final which saw the only two people in the building who share a office take on each other! Ita has decided that Croatia are now her second team for life, as they share the same colours as her beloved Sligo Rovers, whilst the victorious Ger has a new found love for all things French.

If you're near a TV screen for the first few Monday evenings in August, the new stunning documentary series The Game, (some of which was filmed here in the Kairos studio) airs on RTÉ 1 at 9.30pm - you can catch the first episode here. It was produced for RTÉ by the independent production company Crossing The Line, and directed by the dedicated cameraman, gentleman, all round wonderful man (oh, and former Kairos man!) Gerry Nelson.

As August gets underway, we're looking forward to working in the beautiful Church of the Annunciation in Rathfarnham on August 12th to help celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Church. It will be our first indoor TV broadcast in several months, but we'll still be hoping for the good weather to help in the celebrations!

Finally, preparation for the WMOF has gone into overdrive for us here - we're really looking forward to the week; and especially to hearing this beautiful piece , which will be performed as Pope Francis is welcomed to the WMOF. It's composed by Irish composer Ronan McDonagh, and the choir will be directed by John O'Keeffe, who we've had the pleasure of working with on many occasions - it promises to be a great week; hopefully we'll see you there!