Sepp Tieber and Eamonn Donnelly have been good friends for over 25 years. It wasn't long before they started playing Irish music together, eventually forming the band, Boxty. Besides having a shared interest in music, they and their families have shared a lot of good times together over the years. Eamonn was born in Keady, Co. Armagh, but has lived in Austria since 1990. In the last year, he came up with the idea of 'The Long Walk Home' (leaving Hitzendorf in southeast Austria and walking home to Ireland) to help raise awareness and much needed funds for dementia research. The reason is, sadly, all too easy to explain. Several years ago, Eamonn's mum, Margaret passed away after suffering from a rare and extremely aggressive form of dementia. Frustrated and feeling helpless that nothing could be done to alleviate the symptoms let alone cure this cruel disease, it became apparent that much more needed to be done to understand and tackle it. 'The Long Walk Home' is a very small step along the way to doing just that, while also honouring the life of an amazing wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Together the men hatched the idea of this expedition and they have been planning and training for it over many months. They will be trekking, climbing and camping all the way to Keady covering a total distance estimated to be over 2500 km (1500+ miles). This will see them cross Austria, Germany, France, England and Wales, before they get the ferry to Rosslare, for the final leg home through Ireland.  As music continues to play such a central role in the boy's lives they also hope to play some impromptu gigs along the journey - as long as they can borrow a guitar from some friendly locals - given the strict weight restrictions in their backpacks.   They set off from Hitzendorf (near Graz) on 18th  June and are aiming to arrive in Keady at the beginning of September.It promises to a be an eventful journey with many trials and tribulations. They hope you will be interested in following it though their blog on https://thelongwalkhome.wixsite.com/thelongwalkhome or on Twitter @DementiaWalk. They hope that people may feel inspired to donate to this very worthy cause, where all the money will go to support dementia research, in Austria, Ireland and Northern Ireland.