Their sparkling rep came from using pot stills for distilling, and not using peat to stoke malting fires like the Scots (leading to a less smokey and smoother flavor). Jameson was the first to try distilling whiskey three times, now a signature feature of Irish whiskey.

The first still stands on the north side of Dublin City. It’s more of a museum nowadays, but it still celebrates the golden liquid on the site with lessons on the distilling process and tastings to take the edge of the ‘learning’ part. We sent Brit McGinnis to hear the story.

If Mr Jameson were here, he'd say, 'you look thirsty, come on in!

The Jameson Distillery tour

Now, it’s not every day you tour a distillery. It’s not every day you fill your head (and your mouth, but I’ll get to that) with whiskey’s back-story, bang in the middle of Dublin City’s cobbled core. I’ve done my time on the other side of the bar in the past, so I reckoned I was already pretty well-versed about Jameson’s popularity. As it turned out, I had a lot more to learn.

In addition to being Latin for ‘Without Fear’, Sine Metu is the motto of the Jameson family. Should you have been pottering around Dublin City circa 1770, you would have heard of John Jameson. At the time, Dublin was to whiskey what the Champagne region is to, er, well, champagne. Dublin was where whiskey got tasty, and it says a lot about the man and his tipple that we’re still sipping his stuff in a wee dram or piping hot Irish Coffee today.

Dare we say... It's barrels of fun?!

This liquid luminary distinguished himself from the other distillers by developing a ‘triple distillation method’, revolutionary for the time. Jameson was famous for his intense attention to detail and being finicky about ingredients – even down to the barley seeds he sent his farmers. He once threw a salesman out of his house because he tried to sell him a tonic that would artificially age his whiskey. Safe to say, this was a guy who didn’t believe in shortcuts.

Of course, when Jameson gets to us it’s either in a shiny green bottle (bigger the better, thank you!) or a glass, but what really hits you while walking around the old distillery, is a sense of how much care went into making Jameson back in the day (and still does now). Threshing (quite literally separating the grain from the chaff), mashing (where the malt is ground into coarse flour and mixed with hot water), fermentation (add yeast and wait)… we’re talking a lot of work! The tour showed how the factories were specially heated to make the barley produce sugars, replicas of behemoth water wheels that helped turn the machinery, and the enormous washbaths cleaned by workers who arrived late to work that day. No snooze button for the Jameson employees, anyway.

Discovery of the Day: the Big Ginger cocktail

Even though I knew that the tour ended in a tipple or a short I was genuinely so caught up by all that went before that it slipped my mind. So when we were told it time to sample the merchandise, it was a rather nice surprise. And it wasn’t just one – at the classy but funkified Jameson Discovery Bar, out came one of four different Jameson cocktails (I recommend ‘Big Ginger’ for both taste and name). The real aficionados threw themselves into the whiskey tasting, cleansing their palates with water after each sip giving me the sneaking suspicion that they’d done this before… hmmm.

When you think of Ireland, lots of images come to mind – but they’re joined by various tastes, too. Creamy butter on whopping thick slices of soda bread, salty oysters slipping down your throat and meaty mussels bathed in white wine. Possibly the most cherished (for us over 18!!!) is a wash of oaky nectar bringing our tongue and tastebuds to life. Jameson Whiskey is one of the many fabulous tastes of Ireland. And after seeing all the hard work, heart, love and precision that went into invent this little tipple… I don’t think l’ll ever mix up a Big Ginger in quite the same way again.

Whiskey isn’t not the only liquid history you can taste. Follow our blogger on the Guinness Storehouse tour, in St James’ Gate Brewery in Dublin.

So what lies beneath all the hype of the Guinness Storehouse? With a deep breath and a long sip, I went to find out.

The Guinness Storehouse - history to Gravity

One of the first things I see stepping into the Storehouse is Arthur Guinness’ smirking portrait. You’d be smug too, if you’d just secured a 9,000-year lease on which to build a porter empire (a copy of the lease is another one of the first things I see – under my feet behind inches of glass).

There’s no doubt about Arthur’s business acumen and vision; taking a sizable inheritance and investing it into the sprawling 26-hectare site that about 8 million people have visited to date. The Storehouse is as much an homage to the man and his vision, as it is a bells-and-whistles multimedia celebration of the velvety black stuff itself.

Guinness Storehouse - not on fire, don't worry

Bells, whistles and a seven-storey pint glass if you don’t mind. The exhibition tells the Guinness story from the ground up; roasted barley and grinning Arthur at the bottom, all the way through early advertising and marketing, to toasting its current position as a global megabrand on top of the world (so to speak) in the Gravity Bar.

One of my first nuggets of chin-stroking info is that when Arthur stepped into James Gate in 1759 and demanded his science-fiction time lease, he wasn’t the one to actually invent stout. He sure did perfect it though, and the first floors demonstrate the simplicity of his recipe – just four ingredients – barley, hops, yeast and water. This is a full-sensory tour too – prepare to get a noseful of hops and crunch roasted barley between your teeth before sipping the stout itself.

Next I stroke my chin at the brewing process section; “10 days you say?” while craning my neck at brewery equipment, some as big as my house. In the Tasting Room, I horrify my guide by holding my pint with my pinky finger outstretched.

You can - Toucan! (but only if you're over 18)

Each floor has its ‘Did you know’ moments. How does Guinness gets its malty flavour? Taste the roasted hops on level 1 for a mystery solved. In the Tasting Room, I’m told to hold my glass up to the light and see Guinness is actually a ruby red colour. I silently remind myself not to order a pint of the ‘black stuff’ at a bar again.

In the advertising section, I resist the urge to break into the famous Guinness dance from 1995. Toucans, ostriches, and award-winning surfers parade the iconic advertising of the brand over the years. I certainly did not know that the harp logo was used by Guinness long before it became national emblem of the Republic of Ireland.

My homework on the history and ingredients covered, it’s time for my first exam. I line up at the bar and get instructions – from 45 degree angles to nitrogen bubbles – on how to pour a pint. As the ink dries on my ‘perfect pint’ certificate, I take my new skills and pint upstairs to the equally perfect views of the Gravity Bar.

The most famous part of the Storehouse experience, the Gravity Bar has had many famous faces clink their glasses there over the years. Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, Susan Sarandon, Adam Sandler, Sean Penn, Beyoncé, Pink, and recently with quite the global media following, Queen Elizabeth II.

Take a sip and appreciate the gravity of the situation

The sunlight-soaked bar is easily the climax of the tour. Perched 46 meters above the city, the panoramic views stretch from rooftops to parkland, steeples and mountains. As I wait for my pint to settle and survey the scene, the massive scale of the brewery reveals itself, and I appreciate how what’s brewed here supplies the entire world with Draught Guinness.

Just imagine what it’ll do for the other 8,747 years.

Taste more success with a sip of Guinness Stew or our Guinness Bread recipe.

There are plenty more tasty tours around Ireland. Our blogger visited Jameson’s Whiskey Distillery in Dublin. In Kilkenny, take a tour of Ireland’s oldest operating brewery and taste the sparkling Smithwick’s Ale.

The Palace Bar, Dublin

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 with debate shouted over a guitar, darts hitting cork boards and the crack of pool balls being hit. Sometimes the pubs elbow into the ‘shop’ territory, lining half the bar with tinned foods and newspapers, and, you might even say with a raised eyebrow, venturing into church territory with their own open-air confession boxes.

We don’t need to convince you to visit an Irish pub on your trip to Ireland but we do want to give you a little taster of the experience. How to stroll in, pull up a pew at the bar and order like a local. And what to say when someone cops your accent (that’ll take about 10 seconds) and ask ‘and whatya doin’ around here so?’.

The hum of pub harmony at Belfast's Duke of York

A liquid literary legacy

Alright, it’s no secret that Dublin’s wordsmiths fancied a pint. In their selfless search for the meaning of life, they would perch themselves on the finest stools in Dublin’s finest watering holes and philosophize. And when we swan in the doors of pubs like Neary’s or snag the snug in the rugged charm of Toners (apparently the only pub in Dublin where W.B Yeats took a drink) we begin to understand. Joyce couldn’t write a book in Dublin without including a pub (take a bow Davy Byrne’s) and whether it’s rumour or not we like the idea of Gulliver’s Travels author (also Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral) Jonathan Swift sipping a wee dram in the Brazen Head. Possibly, though, the mother of all Dublin’s literary drinking dens is the Palace Bar on Fleet Street. Step inside and taste the air (and the pints) that once nourished the comic genius of Flann O’Brien, the devil-may-care charm of Brendan Behan and the poetic perfection of Paddy Kavanagh. Sure, it’s enough to fill a novel *wink wink*.

How to decide? Let us talk you through it...

I’ll have a…

Surprising as it may be, it’s never easy choosing your drink in the pub. Your first few minutes inside the door are spent, arm over counter, scanning the lovely liquid and mumbling, ‘Ermmmmm. I’ll have aaaaaaaaaa…’ Don’t worry, though, because that’s all part of the fun. Will it be a glistening pint of porter with a thick head of cream just peeking over the glass, or a whiskey beside a peat fire with all that oaky, woody goodness charming your throat and your soul?

If your visit to the pub has been preceded by a long walk, and maybe a chill in your fingers, we’d highly recommend the reliable tummy warmer, an Irish Coffee. Bailey’s Coffee is a sweeter, creamier alternative. Both are so delicious you’ll think they were made by the hands of angels, not that beefy barman behind the counter.

When life gives you lemons…

Of course, we also have beverages of the non-alcoholic variety. Those of you who aren’t tickled by tipples should try a sparkling glass of our iconic red lemonade. Irish people are only crazy about the stuff. Is it because it reminds us of our childhood (birthday parties meant gallons of it) or that it can’t be found anywhere else and is consequently the thing we miss as much as our own mother when we leave Ireland? Have a sip, and tell us you understand our hysteria. In Northern Ireland, it’s all about the brown lemonade. Then there’s white, naturally, which is what everyone else around the world knows well. Yes, we’re probably the only island in the world where you need to specify a colour when ordering lemonade.

You heard right, there's a session goin' on

Session Seeking

So you’re sitting on a stool, swishing your whiskey/lemonade or combination of the two, and suddenly you’re jerked out of your daydream by a bearded fellow in an Aran sweater giving a bodhrán a right bang. A fiddle, banjo and a tin whistle later, and you’re front row at your first traditional music session. Hours later as you wave goodbye and shut the pub door behind you, you say to yourself – ‘I’m not sure what just happened, but I liked it’.

So “where, WHERE??, do we find such a session”, you ask. Every corner of the island, to be honest. Some particular notables are Dingle, and the rest of , County Cork next door, County Clare, and County Antrim and its hopping Glens. This map of every pub that holds a trad session, with times and costs, is invaluable. For Northern Ireland, you’ll find a list of the pubs here.

Pub Particulars

Let’s face it, if we had the time we’d visit all the pubs in Ireland. Life, though, gets in the way and our holidays can’t last forever. So, considering that you’re not able to check out every single pub, we know your next question is going to be, which one should you most definitely NOT miss?

Ah, don’t make us choose! See there’s a pub for every mood, whim, fancy for music and taste in wallpaper. A consensus in the office was simply impossible, so we let each person have their say:

The Crown Bar Saloon in Belfast

Aileen: For gas-lit gorgeousness it’s Belfast’s .

David: For those who like their pubs hidden in one of Ireland’s pretty side-streets it’s ; and for those who like their pubs with a little bit of literary history it’s Dublin’s .

Orla: It’s gotta be  in Kildare. I tend to squeeze myself into a snug for a cosy catch-up and when it’s about that time, drag my friends onto the dancefloor.

Jonny: The Bodega on the Coal Quay is always good for a night out. It’s got really high ceilings and a fancy décor, which set it apart from your average Cork City late bar, nice mix of music too not just constant dance anthems = Win.

But, don’t just take our words for it. Pop over some time and find your own local.

Wondering what the coziest pubs would be? We’ve got the best pubs in Ireland for long winter nights.

You know those maestros behind the bar? Irish bartenders are a breed of themselves, as one cocktail shaker told us.

Oh, and the Irish landscape is littered with ancient castles and hidden gardens that echo with forgotten love stories. Romantic Ireland is alive and well. Sure, the remains of St. Valentine himself lie in Dublin’s own .

In honour of this most heartfelt of days, this Irishman has decided to share the most romantic stories that ever played themselves out in Ireland. Perhaps they’ll even inspire your own Irish romance.

Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey

It’s often said that romance is tragedy in disguise, and the words seem to echo the high walls of  Nestled at the foot of the Druchruach Mountains in Galway’s Connemara, Kylemore’s history is as tragic as the castle and grounds are beautiful. A man by the name of Mitchell Henry began building the 13,000-acre castle and estate in 1867, after he took his ladylove Margaret to for their honeymoon. A vast inheritance from his cotton tycoon father funded the construction of the fairytale castle, which Mitchell intended as a testament to his love for her. However Margaret died suddenly in 1874, never seeing her castle fully complete. Today it’s visitors who fall for the gothic romance of the walled Victorian gardens and lush woodland walkways, all shadowed by the vague melancholic reminder of a tragic lost love.

The so-beautiful-it-hurts Mournes Mountains

Legendary Lovers

Ross and Rachel, Kate and William, Cú Chulainn and Emer. Ok, well you might not know much about the last couple – but you’re about to! Cú Chulainn is a regular in Ireland’s myths and legends, but this love story was centered in the province of Ulster. Cú Chulainn fell for the beautiful Emer the instant he laid eyes on her. Emer was the daughter of the wily Forgall Monach (the original disapproving in-law), who hated Cú Chulainn and sent him to train with the warrior-woman Scathach, certain the brutal training regime would kill him. How wrong he was. Cú Chulainn’s love for Emer imbued him with inhuman strength and he returned to Ulster victorious. Still Forgall denied him his daughter’s hand. Cú Chulainn had had enough – he stormed Forgall’s fortress, scooped up Emer and robbed all of Forgall’s treasure to boot. Emer and Cú Chulainn wed soon after, and though there’s no info on where they honeymooned, we’re picturing the lovely Mourne Mountains!

No, not Paris. It's Dublin's thoroughfare of romance Grafton Street

Dublin: A city for lovers

With all its cute cafés, winding streets and cosy hotels, you’ll forgive us for claiming Dublin rivals Paris for a romantic encounter.

Patrick Kavanagh ponders his lover by the Grand Canal

Perhaps Ireland’s greatest love poem, Raglan Road, was written by the late poet Patrick Kavanagh after he spied a girl that stole his heart on Grafton Street. A hand-in-hand walk along the banks of the Grand Canal will bring you to where his bronze statue sits today, brooding out over the water. In more modern times, Grafton Street was where the characters of the Oscar-winning film ‘Once’ proclaimed their love to each other by… eh, busking (it’s more romantic than it sounds, promise).  Just a couple of streets over, the remains of Saint Valentine himself sit in . Each year on Valentine’s Day, betrothed couples drop by the church to bless their rings, insuring a long and happy marriage.

Claddagh, Galway

The Claddagh Ring from Abbey Celtic Jewelery

With the famous heart in the centre, the Claddagh ring is synonymous with romance. The origins of the ring are a little vague, but most accounts point to Galway native Richard Joyes as creator. In the mid 17^thcentury, Richard left his love and ancient fishing village of Claddagh for the West Indies to seek his fortune. Disaster struck when Algerian pirates waylaid his ship and Richard was sold into slavery. Sold to a wealthy goldsmith in fact, who trained him in his craft. It was years later, when King William III demanded all prisoners be freed from Algerian custody, that Richard was able to return to Ireland and his long-lost love.

The Claddagh Museum, Galway

Using his new smithing skills, Richard established his own goldsmiths in Galway, and his very first creation was a ring for his bride to be. He crafted the heart for the love he bore her, the hands for the friendship they shared, and the crown for his wife’s loyalty during his imprisonment.

It’s a lovely story to relive in Thomas Dillons , the cosy jewelers-cum-museum in Galway today. These guys have been in the Claddagh business since 1750, even making rings for royalty.

So if all this talk of romance has you hankering for a very special ring, you know where to go.

And where to get married? Sure Ireland of course! We even do a nice line in honeymoons! 

In 1986, The Bee Gees and Eric Clapton recorded a charity single called ‘We’re the Bunburys’ about a bunch of rabbits that played cricket. The song crashed out of the charts pretty quickly. But it continued to be a hit in our house for many years. ‘Everybody wants to be a Bunbury, don’t delay, don’t delay’ was the uplifting chorus.

I grew up in a big dusty house at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains called Lisnavagh. It lies close to the village of Co. Carlow, in a landscape bound by overgrown ringforts, a defiant dolmen and the last crumbling traces of an Augustinian abbey.

Genealogist and author, Turtle Bunbury outside his family home of Lisnevagh in County Wicklow, near the village of Rathvilly in County Carlow.

The flagstone corridors of our house were lined with gilded portraits of poker-faced men sporting snow white wigs and sullen women in sombre shawls. As a youngster, those portraits petrified me. Their penetrating eyes chased me all the way to the safety of the kitchen.

I’ve always been obsessed by the past. That’s the legacy of having a good history teacher. If your teacher just drenched you with dates, the chances are you grew up thinking history was the dullest subject ever invented.

I struck lucky and had several good teachers. But it was family history that caught my attention most and, well, specifically my family.

Who were all those people in the portraits?

Turtle and one of his ancestors. See the resemblance?

In 1988, aged sixteen, I was idly rummaging through the attic at Lisnavagh when I plucked out an old scroll. It turned out to be a family tree, tracing the Bunburys back to 1066 when a Norman described as ‘a younger brother of the Baron de St. Pierre’ arrived in England and was granted the lordship of ‘Boniface’s Borough’ in Cheshire.

As my finger trawled through the generations, I noted that the family had adopted the name ‘de Boneberi’ and, by the 14th century, the family head was a guy called Roger de Bunbury who was marshalling English troops against the French during the Hundred Years War.

In the 17th century, the tree split into the English branch and the Irish branch. It told me the Irish descended from Benjamin Bunbury who arrived in Ireland in the 1660s.

The tree stopped in about 1830 although someone had tried to pencil in a few subsequent generations. My father was about to turn 50. So I thought ‘Geronimo! I’ll give him an updated family tree for the occasion’.

And that’s the moment I became hooked on genealogy. It is the greatest jigsaw ever made. It’s deeply indulgent and utterly fascinating and it gets bigger, and juicier, every time you find a new piece.

Working out what actually happened to anyone in the distant past is a hugely speculative business. All you have to start with is a person’s name, sex and maybe his or her date of birth or death. So what do you do from there? It can be a daunting prospect.

In Ireland, we’ve evolved our genealogical research skills enormously over the past decade. There are many extremely talented genealogists operating in this country, solving family puzzles for Irish people and people of Irish origin all over the world.

The online 1901 and 1911 census have also done much to enable people to work out the townland or street in Ireland where their forebears lived 100 years ago. Such resources as Griffith’s Valuations, the Tithe reports, the Latter Day Saints archives, the Irish news archive and the specific church records are also very helpful. Add in the wonders of Google, and the possibilities for researching one’s family history are expanding at an extraordinary rate.

I specialize in producing upmarket family history books, illustrated and leather bound, profiling each generation in turn. It’s all about keeping the history flowing and well-informed, and peppering it with detail about the main events, places, professions and people that shaped their lives.

Lisnevagh House, Turtle Bunbury's family home on the County Wicklow/Carlow border

Ideally, I get as many family members involved as possible as you never know which cousin has the vital clues and images pasted into a scrapbook or a family bible or framed upon their kitchen wall.

I had an advantage over other families because much of our history was written on our walls. Most of the portraits were named on the back, so I was able to work out who those people were and what they did with their lives. Now when I look at the portraits, I know them nearly all by name and they no longer scare me at all.

About the author:

Turtle Bunbury is a best-selling author, historian and TV presenter based in Ireland.
His books include the Vanishing Ireland series, Sporting Legends of Ireland, The Irish Pub and Living in Sri Lanka. On the weekend of 9-10 June 2012, he will host the inaugural History Festival of Ireland at Lisnavagh House, Rathvilly, Co. Carlow.

Here’s what I’m looking at…

Clive Owen being interviewed at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2009

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

First on the line-up of fabulous distraction is this 10-day film festival, kicking off on 16 February. The focus is on good, old-fashioned storytelling, with a programme ranging from Irish premieres, contemporary world cinema, documentaries, masterclasses and special talks.

And doesn’t my calendar looks like the diary of a Hollywood agent! On Monday, I’ve penciled in (ok, massive glitter pens) legendary actor Al Pacino and the Irish premiere of his new documentary Wild Salome about Oscar Wilde.

Thursday, I’ll be charmed by Martin Sheen as he introduces Stella Days, the Ireland-shot story in which he plays a parish priest.

Friday I’ve just about managed to squeeze in Mark Wahlberg as he introduces Contraband.

Along with hundreds of other movies, throw in masterclasses on screenwriting and producing, and photography exhibitions, and you’ve got a recipe for a pale-skinned, wide-eyed, star-gazing week!

If the movie stars and popcorn don’t ice your cake, don’t fear, Dublin has a lot more up its sleeve, and a very roomy sleeve it is too…

Fun at the Dublin Book Festival at the National Library

Dublin Book Festival

Next on the agenda is the Dublin Book Festival from 2–6 March. This UNESCO City of Literature has had more writing talent in the past 100 years than is scarcely believable. And we’re still churning them out, with a catalogue of Ireland’s contemporary writers, poets and children’s authors taking part in the festival’s free readings, interviews, debates and book launches.

Trotting to the events will be a pleasure in itself, as the buildings will be as grand as the authors they’re hosting, including the National Library of Ireland and City Hall, and trendy Temple Bar spots The Project Arts Theatre and The Gutter Bookshop.

2012 One City, One Book Choice: "Dubliners" by James Joyce.

Dublin: One City, One Book

Even after all that, Dublin still won’t let you file away your bookmarks. The month of April brings the Dublin: One City, One Book Festival, an annual event celebrating one book around the city. The book for April 2012 is Dubliners by James Joyce, a book of short stories depicting fictional Dublin people living life (full of epiphanies, of course) at various stages. Unfortunately Mr Joyce won’t be able to give a reading himself, but there will be plenty of city events all focused around the book and its culture. The whole city will be reading it together, after all!

Still in culture shock? Join the club!

Now for the science bit: The Aurora Borealis occurs when ionised particles from the sun hit the Earth’s atmosphere and react with gases, in this case oxygen, which gives the red and green colours. It normally is seen over northern Norway and Sweden but in recent years it has crept further south to illuminate Ireland.

And now for the first-hand accounts from the local photographers who were there to see it:

Martina Gardiner: Aurora chaser extraordinaire

Photographer Martina Gardiner became fascinated with the Aurora Borealis last March when she realised it could be seen from Ireland and “since then I’ve had an interest in finding out more and eventually photographing it.” And that she did. Come January 2012 Martina was informed by local astronomy enthusiast Brendan Alexander, the weather forecast and @aurora_alerts that the time had come.

The Aurora Borealis - captured by photographer Martina Gardiner

Both of her photos (one below and the other is our lovely header image) were taken on Ballyliffen Strand, Inishowen on Sunday night, 22^nd Jan 2012.

I left my home under complete cloud cover on Sunday evening armed with camera and tripod and hoping for clear skies. Then, we could see the stars appearing from the east and by the time we had our cameras organised we could see a brightness in the sky to the North. Before long I began taking photos and knew that this was something special. It really has been a fantastic week chasing the Northern Lights and its exciting to think that there’s plenty more to come.

Bren Whelan captures the Lights

Bren Whelan was another witness to this natural phenomenon as he stood on Pollen Beach, Inishowen. His photo was taken on 23rd Jan at about 1am and required a 20 minute exposure on the camera. Bren was looking at the view out over the sea towards the lights of Malin Town and Malin Head, also visible in the frame is Glashedy Island, which is located about a mile off shore.

The name ‘Glashedy’ translates to ‘The Island of the Green Cloak’, a name which suited this special January night as Inishowen lay beneath one of nature’s most beautiful solar cloaks, the Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights, a spectacular and rare event in this beautiful corner of Ireland, lay an emerald green aerial siege to Ireland’s most northerly town (Malin) and bombarded its sleepy landscape with beams of energised natural beauty whilst residents slept soundly underneath mother nature’s warm and glorious embrace.

Bren Whelan's view of Glashedy Island

Kathleen Gill from VisitInishowen says:

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks in Inishowen since the first sighting of the Northern Lights off Pollan Bay in Ballyliffin. We have some excellent local photographers who captured this natural phenomenon on film and uploaded on to the internet which resulted in it getting picked up by national newspapers on the 22^nd January.

Inishowen is the most northerly point of Ireland and therefore ideal to gaze at this natural wonder. This isn’t the last of them either, according to Kathleen. Astronomy Ireland have predicted that the Northern Lights will be visible well into March and will occur for the next three years during the winter/spring period.

By Adam Porter

Of course we can’t ignore that particularly green hue over Ireland, can we?

For the next star-gazing expedition to Inishowen, admire the scenery on the trace some ancestors at the , play a few rounds at the or get your walking boots on for.

Like a vastly superior version of those home makeover shows where everyone ends up crying with joy at the reveal, the Landmark Trust have taken Ireland’s battered, ruined, crumbled properties, seen their potential and announced, smug with experience, ‘everything’s going to be okay’.

These remarkably restored and heavenly historic places to stay are the result.

No.63 Merrion Mews, Dublin City

Merrion Mews, Dublin City

Rocking that urban-chic 18th century townhouse vibe , Merrion Mews is quite the stylish city slicker. This is the kind of place you’d expect to see Oscar Wilde swanning out of (he did live near here as a boy), dressed to the nines and off to sniff his way through the  Merrion Bar’s wine list. Our imaginations may have gotten away with us there, but it really is a handsome spot. And crikey, didn’t the ILT do a wonderful job? Almost inspires me to go fix that window hinge in the kitchen. Almost…

Salterbridge Gate, County Waterford

Salterbridge Lodge, County Waterford

At a push, I’d have to put Salterbridge Gatelodge at the top of my ILT wishlist. So attached am I to this chunky little pile that my eyes moistened when I saw the crumbling mess above. Dating from the mid 19th Century, this blocky gem is plonked amid the Blackwater Valley (a swathe of glacial valleys cut through by a snaking and elegant Blackwater River) in . Good to see the little guy looking so well… *wipes tear from eye*.

Triumphal Arch Gatelodge, County Fermanagh

Triumphal Arch Lodge, County Fermanagh

If The Triumphal Arch Gatelodge were a man, he’d be a model for sure. Check out those chiselled features and that tough, rugged exterior. Also, gatelodges (this one is part of the Colebrooke Estate in an area of outstanding natural beauty in) were intended to provide arriving guests with a handsome view to prepare them for the main house, making modelling the ideal profession for this stylish stud. Of course, like every model, he needs a touch up to make him look a little sharper (as seen in the before and after snaps). Right, I think I’ve taken that metaphor far enough. Let’s move on.

Annaghmore Schoolhouse, County Sligo

The Schoolhouse in Annaghmore, County Sligo

The Schoolhouse in Annaghmore, was built in the 1860s to educate local children. From the ‘before’ picture, we can tell that, at a certain point, either the pupils or the teachers stopped turning up for class. After years in the undergrowth, the ILT did their homework (get it? School? Homework? Never mind) and turned the schoolhouse into the kind of fairytale spot where you’d expect to see Snow White leaning out the window, chomping on an apple with a suspicious look on her face. If you can, bring a fishing rod with you and drop it (the line, not the whole rod) into the Owenmore River that runs by the house. You might pick up something fresh for dinner.

Did we mention there’s more where that came from? Because there is. Just think of back-from-the-brink lighthouses, weed-strewn-rubble miniature castles and righteously renovated cottages. All were lost, but all were found. And for that, we owe the Irish Landmark Trust a rather thundering round of applause.

I’m talking awe-inspiring landscapes, beautiful stately homes and a very important pub – all of which can be enjoyed at a wallet-friendly price.

Castletown House

Celbridge’s hidden gem, the Palladian style , has been lovingly restored so that us civilians may marvel at its grandeur. The Guinness family rescued it from ruin in the 1960s and restoration work has been carried out ever since. The guided tours and café reopen in mid-March, until then you can wander about the demesne, follow the walks by the River Liffey, and admire the beautiful exteriors of the house and the temple specially commissioned by Lady Louisa in the 1760s. All for free!

If coming by Dublin Bus, you can access the house from the Celbridge main street by strolling down the tree-lined avenue. And if you’re really impressed with the place, the  at the entrance gate is now a guesthouse!

Cost: Free to wander the demesne and grounds of the house, €4.50 for a guided tour.

Imagine coming home here after a long day's work?

The great landscape

St Brigid's Round Tower built on holy land

The Curragh is where all the action is in Kildare. There’s the  for some nail-biting, equestrian fun, and the  that traces Ireland’s military activity from the 1640s up to now. In fact, the Curragh is still an Irish Army base and military training centre, which will explain all the fellows walking around in camouflage and the distant echoing bangs from the shooting ranges.  was built on sacred land; so much so that the Dalai Lama visited it last year. Kildare is famous for its flat landscape, and the seemingly never-ending Curragh Plains starred as the backdrop for the movie Braveheart, doubling up as Scotland in the ‘Battle of the Stirling Bridge’ scene.

Cost: all free, unless you want to place some bets on a fine Kildare filly.

Hollywood sparkle

 means simple, elegant jewellery and homeware all in polished, dazzling silver. Kildare is the home of shiny stuff HQ, but even if you’re not in the market for new bling, you can still visit the flagship store and its fabulous Museum of Style Icons.

This collection of memorabilia is one of the best in the world, while the icons and fashion muses in the title are the real deal. We’re talking Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Jackson, Judy Garland, Princess Diana and Marilyn Monroe. Admire Audrey’s adorable pink dress she wore as Holly Golightly, Grace’s gorgeous Givenchy gown, that corset from Madonna’s 1985 Pepsi ad and my personal favourite, Tippi Hendren’s green suit from The Birds. She looked terrified throughout the film, but always so chic!

Cost: free (unless you get tempted by the spiffy silverware!).

Some fabulously famous items at Newbridge Silver

A lovely lunch

Outside the lovely The Bay Tree

Get yourself to  for lunchtime at The Bay Tree. The bargainous lunch menu for €5 promises to fill you up nicely, ranging from pasta dishes to pitta breads.

And did you know Arthur Guinness was a Kildare man? He was born in Celbridge town, in fact. The site of the Guinness family’s first brewery (Arthur would eventually leave his brother in charge when he bought )is in Leixlip, in what is now . Where better to have a sip of the black stuff than their Arthur’s Bar, the original site of Guinness?

Cost: €5 lunch and €5 pint, not bad.

Traditional Tunes

A good ol' session in Clancy's

Clancy’s pub in Athy is a little bar with a massive musical heart. Every Thursday the place is swarmed with musicians and punters all set for a session. The performances have been running for 45 years so that kind of guarantees they’re musical maestros at this point. Their reputation for traditional music nights has grown so much that they now host a trad music weekend in May. It’s completely free so the price of a pint or two should get you through the night.

Cost: Free admission and prices of drinks should start from €4.

Other Kildare-tastic places : serious bargain hunters need to get to the  where designer goods are sold at discounted prices, explore the gorgeous woodlands of , learn about our winged friends at the  in Straffan and have tea at Eric Clapton’s former castle – .

We got this pro in to give us the low-down on some of Ireland’s most noted archaeological sites.

Trim Castle

Trim – County Meath

The original monastery, reputedly founded by a disciple of St Patrick, has vanished, but you can still make out the form of the original monastic enclosure in the town’s curving street pattern. The monastery was chosen as the site of a Norman town, dominated by a majestic stone fortress, the largest – perhaps the earliest – Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland.

And we know the is a little daunting, but how about crossing one made seven centuries ago?

That bridge crossing the Boyne River was made in the 14^th Century. And that steeple soaring skyward to the northeast is the beautiful ‘Yellow Steeple’, the belfry of a 14^th century Augustinian and the tallest medieval building in Ireland.

Glendalough – County Wicklow

– stoney brilliance plonked in the middle of one of Wicklow’s cracking, glacier-carved valleys. This monastic marvel has quite the backstory according to a certain archaeologist:

Glendalough (Gleann Dá Loch – ‘glen of the two lakes’) is an early Christian monastic settlement founded in the 6^th century by St. Kevin, a towering figure in Irish history and mythology who chose the area as a place of solitude.

And didn’t he choose well! The builders (well, the religious pilgrims, really) have been in since then and, as Donal explains, the site is now blessed with round-towered elegance:

Glendalough's Round Tower

As you enter the enclosure through a ruined 12^th century gatehouse, your eyes are drawn to the 30m high round tower built before 1100; these uniquely Irish monuments served as belfries (cloigteach), sanctuaries and places of refuge from invaders including the Vikings.

Further churches lie to the south including ‘St. Kevin’s Kitchen’ with its heavy stone roof and miniature round tower and the Priest’s House which served as St. Kevin’s tomb shrine. Actually, the landscape is dotted with 120 early medieval sculptured crosses and cross-slabs.

Glendalough is a wonderfully so bring your boots and make for the name-sake lakes. Keep your eyes peeled at the Upper Lake, though:

Make your way through the dense woodland above the lower lake, past stone crosses marking stations for pilgrims, to the upper lake where St Kevin overcame ‘a horrible and strange monster…which wrought frequent destruction of dogs and men’.

Quite a man was St Kevin and Glendalough is quite a legacy.

We got up to some impressive things in the Bronze Age

National Museum of Ireland, Dublin City

Donal highly recommends stepping into the on Kildare Street for an unmissable insight into Ireland’s fascinating ancestors:

In the main hall glitters the material splendour of the Bronze Age in Ireland; elaborate gold ornaments and elegant, beautifully wrought bronze weaponry. In the corner, a doorway leads you into the shadowy mysteries of the Iron Age, a dark and obscure period in Irish prehistory.

Certainly sets the scene anyway…

The ‘Kingship and Sacrifice’ exhibition centres on several bodies discovered in bogland, preserved like polished leather. Forensic analysis has identified their height, their age, their last meal and how they died. These men may have been ritually murdered and deliberately deposited in boglands on tribal boundaries, in rituals associated with kingship and territory.

Tougher times back then, clearly. So what do we know about these poor fellas?

Clonycavan Man (392-201 BC) was a small man, with an elaborate hairstyle held in place by imported resin, suggesting high social status. He was slain by repeated axe blows to the back of the head and may have been disembowelled.

Gruesome, but fascinating. And the other chap?

The hand of history: Oldcroghan Man

Oldcroghan Man (362-175 BC) was a towering 6’4 in height, his fingers carefully manicured and showing no wear, again suggesting high social status. He was stabbed, decapitated and cut in half.

Not for the faint-hearted, these bog bodies.

Visitors may be both moved and disquieted by his large perfectly preserved hand reaching out in supplication from a headless, legless trunk.

You just have to experience it for yourself.

Dun Aengus (Dún Aonghasa) cliff-edge stone fort

Dún Aonghasa, Inis Mor, Aran Islands

Now brings to mind epic Atlantic scenery and some nagging memory of druids, but we’re guessing there’s more to it…

Dún Aonghasa (‘the fort of Aengus’), a magnificent Bronze Age stone fort lies on Inis Mór, the largest of the . The fort has a spectacular location on the edge of a sheer cliff 87m high, facing out into the Atlantic Ocean. Its four dramatic stone enclosures were originally defences, covering an area of fourteen acres.

So Bronze Age, how old are we talking?

The site was occupied from at least 1300 BC until the end of the Bronze Age, c. 600 BC and excavation has identified ten houses with extensive evidence for bronze casting and a hoard of bronze rings. Built not merely for defence but also as an ostentatious display of power, the fort may have later become a royal site of the Eoganachta dynasty.

Well we reckon a photo of that place in your holiday album would be quite the display of power these days. Spectacular stuff.

So, there you have it – Ireland’s history is as fascinating as it is ancient. We wonder if Indiana Fallon needs a side-kick on his next adventure? We’ll go ask him…

How about actually visiting or even taking part in a live research archaeology excavation of a wonderful 13th century Dominican frary in Trim?  Easier than you think…

Or make it a holiday into history with the Irish Archeology Field School where you can earn credits for college while on a proper dig!

Have we got you hooked? Our blog has more about Ireland’s History and Hertiage