The Coveney household at Minane Bridge, Co Cork, has fallen quiet. This tends to happen when five of your six children take off on a round-the-world sailing trip. A successful businessman - one of the brightest politicians produced in Cork - Hugh Coveney is an old sea dog. He sailed for Ireland - he came through the Fastnet Race disaster of some years ago when many lives were lost.
It was, if not inevitable, not unnatural that the Coveney clan, steeped in this tradition, should embark on a great seafaring adventure. And that is what has happened. The four Coveney brothers and one sister are on their way around the world on the trip of a lifetime. En route, they plan to raise money for the Chernobyl Children's Project in Cork.
Now that Ms Adi Roche has got the presidential election off her back, she is working once again with the project and anticipating the huge funding that could come from the Coveneys' trip. She regards it as one of the most significant fund-raising efforts ever undertaken on behalf of the stricken people of Belarus, near the radiation zone caused by the Chernobyl nuclear calamity.
So what happens in a big family when most of it sets sail? It gets lonely, a little bit less frenetic, according to Mrs Pauline Coveney, and suddenly there is more time on hand. Mrs Coveney, however, has decided to fill her time. She has become a full-time student at UCC, studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree. While the other members of the family are negotiating the might of the oceans on board The Golden Apple - the family yacht - Mrs Coveney takes her son, David (13), to school in Cork each morning, and then heads for her lectures at UCC.
Meanwhile, Simon (25), Ron (23), the twins, Adam and Tony (20), and Rebecca (19), are on the high seas. At present, they are on a 2,700-mile haul to St Lucia in the Caribbean, where their parents and younger brother will join them for Christmas. As part of the festive season, the united family will get in some pleasure-sailing, then it is back home for three of the Coveneys while the other five head out to sea again on a memorable journey.