In a boom of creativity and a poof of great smells, a new breed of Dublin restaurants, cafés and gastro bars have sprung up all over the city. The new arrivals range from hip bars and grills to groovy cafés, and pop-up restaurants to fashionable fast food. Along the way, the city’s culinary champions have [...]

In Ireland, we celebrate St. Bridget’s Day on February 1st – the first day of spring. Her legacy is a cross of reeds, but there was much more to the woman and myth than we know. Author Felicity Hayes-McCoy unravels St Bridget’s story of Irish legend, tradition and girl power. As a child in Dublin [...]

Ireland is famous (ok, notorious) for its ever-changing skies. Clouds can darken in a flash, rain pours down and before you’ve even had a chance to put up your umbrella, the sun is shining again. It’s the type of carry-on that would frustrate many landscape photographers – except Derek Smyth. His images embrace the cloudy [...]

When  gardening author and journalist Fionnuala Fallon and her photographer husband Richard (and their twin babies Milo and Finn) travelled the country in search of Ireland’s kitchen gardens, they were searching for the pick of the planting bunch. Here, she tells us of the more modest, but no less intriguing tale of Ireland’s spring flower: [...]

I’ve accidentally developed a hobby of offering lost-looking people with unfamiliar accents directions and advice when I pass them in Dublin city. Like most locals, I’m genuinely delighted to help (Dubliners are terrible know-it-alls). Not too long ago, I walked through Trinity College and saw people queuing all around the square for entrance to the [...]

As if County Kerry wasn’t spectacular enough with hotspots like Killarney and Kenmare, the Skellig Islands come along with their own ‘wow’ factor It’s said from any point on the Ring of Kerry, these pinnacles can be seen standing stoically against the ravages of the Atlantic Ocean. From very far away, they look like oversized [...]

While we were all singing Auld Lang Syne and shaking the last drops from the supermarket champagne bottle on New Year’s eve, Derry-Londonderry became the first ever UK City of Culture. In times past on the blog, we have whisked our minds to the medium of song in order to convey a hint of the [...]

Before you even consider the January blues, get yourself a ticket to Dublin’s Tradfest (22-27 January) and let the toe-tapping fun begin What better way to survive the Christmas come-down than a festival with a six-day schedule promising over 200 free events and performances by some of the best known faces (and voices) in traditional [...]

Let’s be honest, we’re all recovering from the festive season of plum puddings, hot toddies and cheesy movies. There are times I almost feel like a pudding myself. Which can only mean one thing; it’s New Year’s resolution time again. But what if this year, you combined something light-hearted, like ‘have more fun!’, with a [...]

Iain Miller is a mountaineer living, working and playing in County Donegal’s outstanding mountain ranges. Over the past three cold Irish winters, he has been exploring the frozen mountain ranges of County Donegal, seeking out and climbing as many previously unclimbed frozen waterfalls and ice cascades as daylight and minus temperatures allowed. He has written [...]