About
👋Hello.
I’m Darren M, a web developer and software engineer from Ireland, and with over two decades of experience in web development, I’ve been working with WordPress since the early 2000s — building, customising, and managing client eCommerce projects across a wide range of industries. Alongside my business and agency work, I’ve worked in my software engineering role in Belfast, contributing to various industrial client projects in Ireland and UK; ESB Group, Bord Gáis Energy, Transport for London, Met Police London, South West Water and ScottishPower Energy to name a few. My background combines deep technical expertise with practical, real-world implementation, helping businesses create reliable and scalable results.
I earned my degree, a BEng in Software Engineering, from the Bachelor Of Engineering Faculty from Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT), now Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), in the Republic of Ireland.
Looking back, I can confidently say I love what I do. Every project is an opportunity to learn, grow, innovate, and create something meaningful for the client or a user. When you’re deep in the trenches of a development project, my mindset is simple: just keep iterating, perfecting and keep going!
So why ‘Activity Log Pro’ ?
I originally built Activity Log Pro as a lightweight tool to track activity events across my own client websites. The need arose from building and managing a specific client project; a high-traffic, multi-user eCom site where unexpected changes kept appearing, and no one could pinpoint their source. With my more simplistic, original version of Activity Log Pro in place (around 2014? 😯), every user action and system action was logged, giving us full visibility into who made changes and when. What started as a simple solution to a real-world problem quickly became an indispensable tool for maintaining accountability and control. My clients really loved it.
Over time, I knew it was going in the right direction, so I chose to rewrite it from the ground up. It grew into a powerful, feature-rich solution for monitoring and recording user actions on WordPress Admin. So after refining its performance, tightening its security, and polishing its UI, I decided to release it publicly to help other site owners gain clear visibility and control over their website activity.
Me & My Life
I’m married to my amazing wife Nicola, and together we have two wonderful kids — our little girl Leah and our wee boy Shéa. They’re the heart of my world and the reason behind everything I do.
Outside of work, I’ve always been passionate about staying active, especially trail running, which has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I’ve completed countless 10-mile and half-marathon races, as well as several triathlons and adventure races. Running isn’t just about fitness for me — it’s my way to recharge, clear my head of code and technical issues, and stay balanced.
Thanks for reading and your interest.