Many strings to his bow

While Bailieborugh man Bobby Coote may have shot to fame through his exploits in learning to pilot a plane, but the octogenarian is by no means ready to fly off into the sunset.

Bobby's journey of learning to fly a plane was made into an award winning documentary in called 'The Man Who Wanted to Fly' in 2018.

However, last week he recently opened an art exhibition of his own paintings and woodworks in Bailieborough, which will run until the of July.

Bobby explained that he took up painting again after initially enjoying it as a hobby almost 60 years ago.

"I started painting again around ten years ago. I first took it up in England when I was in my mid-20s which I made and gave to my sister Phil. I'm home from England for over 40 years. The exhibition was powerful, I had 29 paintings on show."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, painting is one of the many crafts that Bobby can turn his hands to, as he also repairs clocks, makes fiddles, and is also a talented musician.

"The accordion is my main instrument I make a bit of noise with the fiddle, but you wouldn't listen to me", he jokes.

"I made my first fiddle 40 years ago, I've made about 27 of them since then and sold them. It's a lovely interesting bit of woodwork to make them. You don't make them for money you make them as a hobby."

For Bobby, there are a lot of similarities between paintings and fiddle-making, as both require a clear fresh mind to make.

"When I'm making a fiddle, I leave it and go back to it. You don't start it and stay at it. It takes 40-50 hours to make one. It's the same with a painting. You do it for a few hours, stop and when you're fresh again you go back to it. You can get tired or confused if you stay at it for too long. By doing it that way you can do more of it. It takes 15 hours to make a painting."