"I was at a book launch about three years ago and I was talking to a man afterwards about boats and the Shannon Estuary. After an hour or so he stopped me and said, 'You should write a book about your life', so I did."

Pat Doran is an extraordinary man, not because he has just published that book or began running marathons in his late 40s following a heart scare. He's extraordinary because he is, as the old saying goes, "the last of a dying breed".

There isn't a stretch of the Shannon Estuary he doesn't know after spending over a half a century in the River's many nooks and cranny's fishing, dreaming and even poaching at one time.

"I couldn't die without telling my story and there are a lot of funny stories, tragic stories and stories of hardship," Pat says.

'Pat Doran, A Clune's Lane Fisherman. My Life as a Shannon Estuary Fisherman & Boatbuilder' is available at all good book shops around the country priced at €20 and already it has received great acclaim.

From the age of four years, Pat Doran was brought out onto the Shannon with his father so he could get a feel for what would eventually become his legacy-Boatbuilding.

"Gandloe Boats pronounced with a silent 'D', originated in Venice and are associated with Italy. I built my first full one when I was 17. Michael Farrell was the first Irish Gandloe boat builder and my father served his time with him.

It's a unique process that is largely dying out in modern Ireland and in Limerick, where sky scraper-like buildings reflect off the Riverside where once there was just sky.

"The craft itself is unique to the Shannon Estuary, but I've been asked to build them all over the country for different people including farmers who needed to transport their cattle over rivers," says Pat.

Whenever Pat mentions 'the craft', there is a deep pride in his voice. And while he is a man his family can be proud of too, there are moments in his life he has apologised for.

"The book is very close to the bone. I praise my parents and I slate a lot of people including myself. When I was young I was brazen and wild. If anything happened in Clune's Lane (Limerick City) I was blamed."

"There is one story in the book I tell of an old woman whose husband had died. She used to lay out a place for him at her table after his death and we would shout in at her that he would be coming home for dinner. I also upturned rocks in her backyard, which she had whitewashed to scare her. I've apologised in the book for things like that," says Pat.