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 [...]
Sitting just outside the capital county of Dublin is Kildare, with its strong horsey and golfing ties. However there’s more to the lily white county than just magnificent stud farms (deemed worth a visit by the Queen of England, no less) and award-winning links courses… I’m talking awe-inspiring landscapes, beautiful stately homes and a very [...]
They told her it couldn’t be done: driving from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher, then to Galway and Donegal and back to Dublin. All in one weekend. And on the wrong side of the road. Seattle student Caitlyn Johnson recounts her roadtrip of a lifetime around Ireland… It began, in our minds at least, [...]
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 [...]
Christmas in Ireland sounds like this: “We’ll see ya in Mooney’s after midnight mass. Wait’ll you see the bar staff covered in tinsel, I got a piece of it in my hot whiskey the other night!” “Ah, Sean, all the way from Boston for Christmas! Bet your mammy’s delighted.” “After the size of Christmas dinner [...]
We’ve got castles, cemeteries, churches and pubs that stretch back centuries, so it’s no surprise that, every so often, things go bump in the night. Come to think of it, it’s a good thing we’re not easily scared! Tales of ghosts, ghouls, devils and gravediggers are ten-a-penny, so in the spirit of Samhain and all-things [...]
Don’t you just love the feeling of discovering a new little spot, off the beaten track? Dublin, Belfast and Kerry are big hitters on the tourist trail, but venture a little further onto a less-beaten path and you’ll find a hideaway of inviting countryside and twinkling adventure. The Northwest, that’s counties Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal, [...]
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 [...]
You’ve probably been hearing about Belfast lately. I know I had. All ‘Snow Patrol’ this and ‘Duke Special on the Waterfront’ that and ‘Oh that’s just Rihanna shooting a music video’ – it felt like it was about time I listened up. My iPod ticking with appropriate soundtrack (Snow Patrol, Two Door Cinema Club, Cashier [...]
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