About Us

Hi, hola, bonjour, ciao, hallo, konnichiwa

If you are looking for a big fancy house with swimming pools and chandeliers, fancy games room, and a personal cleaner, good luck my friend, carry on searching, this isn’t the house or family for you, lol. Well not unless I win the lotto 🙂 .

But if you are looking for a house with a large family, full of laughter, fun and good company, keep reading. You will be treated as one of the family and when you come home from school or a trip away, there will always be someone to ask ‘how was your day?’ 🙂

Welcome to the O Donnell Family 🙂 .

We are a family with 6 children. The eldest child is 12, the youngest is 5 months (as of Feb 2017). We have been hosting students for the past 6 years, all of whom are still in touch with us and some have even come back again. We are a happy, relaxed family who like to have fun and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. .

Our 7 bedroom house is located in a nice quiet country location in Co. Tipperary, over 1km from the small town of Borrisoleigh and 12km from the larger town of Thurles. Next door to our house is Fairy Fort Farm which is owned by Derry’s father. It is open to visitors during the Summer (for us all year round 🙂 ) and has a wide mixture of animals such as ponies, goats, ducks, hens, geese, rabbits etc. www.fairyfortfarm.com.

Outdoor activities are a favourite pastime here. It could be just a nice walk around the farm next door, feeding the animals or a hike to the top of the nearby Devil’s Bit mountain close by. You can see what it is like on this video:-

Trip to Devils Bit Mountain video. Much better in real life though! .

We have a 9 seater car/ mini bus for transporting us all around and like to go on excursions to woodland walks, lakeside locations or various festivals. .

The kids have their own ponies and also love horse riding and pony trekking in a nearby pony trekking centre www.timotrec.com. My eldest daughter bought her 1st pony called Paddy from the trekking centre owner Clare. Paddy is great with my other children as they have grown up 🙂 .

Free Wifi at Home

Most important to students is the availability of FREE Wifi at home.

 

For bookings email: hello@stayandlearnenglish.com

 

Now the most important part of your school year is school, yes, lol, school .

The local secondary school is a small school with a real welcoming atmosphere from students and teachers alike. The principal gets to know every single student individually. The school has a great reputation and always competes well in academic and sporting competitions. It has won several prizes in national competitions such as the annual Young Scientists Exhibition.The school website is http://www.stjosephscollege.ie/ and most importantly for your parents lingooninja.com has a great package .

Before you have a look at your new school, I want you to answer a question? Do you want to be in an overcrowded school and just be a number with your photo on a page or come to St Joseph’s College, where the numbers are smaller, but the principal knows your name, welcomes you with open arms and will be in contact with your home school. The Irish students welcome the foreign exchange students really well and really make them feel a part of the group .