Over a six or seven-year period his thoughts on the subject crystallized into a series of songs that eventually became The Voyage album.

After exposing the raw nerves of the marriage struggle in many of the other lyrics – and maybe because he was open enough to give full expression to these familial difficulties - he felt empowered to write and sing of the more positive side of the marriage adventure with deep conviction and sincerity.

When the chorus of the title song "The Voyage" came to him out the blue, it took his breath away, mainly because he felt that it got to the nub of what family life is ultimately about - children.

In 1989, the first of many covers of the song "The Voyage" was made, some consider as the definitive, certainly the most famous version by Christy Moore.

This echoes Christy Moore’s assessment that the song is destined for a high place in the cannon of "folk standards".