Ah, the pub. Cornerstone of community, culture and craic. Den of shoulder rubbing and bad joking. Where live music and lively chat intersect at a smooth mahogany bar. It’s more than occasionally true that our version of ‘one-horse’ towns are in fact ‘one-church one-shop three-pub’ towns. And it’s always the pubs that will be full, noisy [...]

Dublin is in for a shock. A real culture shock. Visitors and locals alike will be chewing their lips in indecision at how to choose between an entire galaxy of cool events. Here’s what I’m looking at… Jameson Dublin International Film Festival First on the line-up of fabulous distraction is this 10-day film festival, kicking [...]

Barm Brack can contain raisins, sultanas, and even statues of the Virgin Mary. But it always contains a good helping of Irish tradition. Lot of people who grew up in Ireland have found memories of eating Barm Brack at Halloween, praying for the slice that contained the penny or ring. But you can enjoy it [...]

Big things, Giant things, Titanic things are afoot in Northern Ireland. The biggest celebrations in its history are lined up for 2012, and it’ll take a whole twelve months to get through them all. From festivals to concerts, great unveilings and grand openings, the calendar is packed to the brim. Here’s why yours will be [...]

Christmas means… family, presents, chocolate, consuming triple our usual daily calorie intake, fake smiles unwrapping another box of bath salts, cooing over new babies, shaking our heads at how the others have grown, watching Jimmy Stewart tell us It’s a Wonderful Life for the fiftieth time. Christmas means something different to every person. So we [...]

It’s winter, it’s cold; which means if you’re David Fallon, you go on frost-edged walks around Northern Ireland. However, your other trusted blogger has very different plans for the shivering season. For me, winter means a guilt-free Bailey’s Coffee by a big fire, watching snow fall through a tinsel-edged Georgian window and humming along to [...]

Considering these sky-splitting steel structures are from the shipyard that built the Titanic – the largest man-made object ever moved back in 1912 – I shouldn’t be surprised at the size of the Harland & Wolff cranes. These huge machines tower over Belfast’s skyline so dramatically you’d think their bulky arms could lift the entire [...]

Ah yes. The grip of the steering wheel. A gust of country wind tousling your hair. Sheep staring at you from the roadside, munching grass in a slow, thoughtful way that says, ‘You sir, are so, so, so lucky’. Our recent post on the most scenic drives in Ireland was one of our most popular [...]

You know how Hollywood movies always portray Halloween as this amazing city-wide fiasco? Perfectly-carved pumpkins flicker grotesque grins, candy appears by the bucket-load, ghosts and goblins creep out of every corner and every character has an amazing costume (the studio costume department probably helps). How sad that life is never how it appears in the [...]