Meet Declan Mills. He’s a Ghost Guide on the Ghostbus, a revamped double-decker that’s been haunting the streets of Dublin for over 10 years. He’s agreed to talk to us just before the spookiest event on Ireland’s calendar: Halloween. The cynic in me has to immediately ask him, does anyone ever actually see anything on [...]

“Rain is…very difficult to film, particularly in Ireland because it’s quite fine, so fine that the Irish don’t even acknowledge that it exists.” – Alan Parker, director of “The Commitments” Poor old Ireland, continually painted as the rainy isle where you’ll get drenched running from car to door. Always keen to bust a myth or [...]

As much as we love a good knees-up in Ireland, we enjoy our downtime just as much (maybe even more). Take weddings for example – we’ll be the last to leave the dancefloor but we’ll know just how to wind things down afterwards. So with such a knack for relaxing, maybe Ireland would be a [...]

Now you all know us Irish are humble to the bone, and are loath to ever mention our accomplishments.   So naturally you know we’d hate to make a fuss, or call attention to ourselves, but we thought we’d quietly point out that the holiday coming up on the 31st October, the second biggest celebration [...]

We asked green-fingered writer Fionnuala Fallon, author of The Urban Farmer for the Irish Times and proud horticulturalist, what the ‘must-see’ gardens on the island of Ireland were. Needless to say, it wasn’t an easy task. This is what she said: “Could you write just a few hundred words on gardens in Ireland?, I was [...]

Davey has worked in Irish bars since he was 15. Here, he explains why the Irish make the best bartenders, why it’s probably the best job in the world, and what the pub really looks like from the other side of the taps. ‘Oh hi, um, are you guys open yet?’ came the soft Southern [...]

Picture it: Thirty men, each built like a Spartan warrior, puffed up with adrenalin and national pride, stalking their side of the pitch and eyeing each other cautiously over a painted white line in the grass. This is a modern pitched battle where the fifteen men clothed in deep green lock horns with their challengers for 80 tense and torrid [...]

Photographer and author Kevin Dwyer has produced three books of aerial photography of Ireland and is based in County Cork. Here he describes the waiting and celebrating experiences that comes with being an aerial photographer in Ireland, and how he captured the stunning image that became the cover of his latest book. In 2007, I [...]

Bet you thought all the best Irish festivals happen during the summer. And bet you thought live Irish music was mostly Céilís and Bodhráns, with the odd sell-out U2 stadium affair or screaming-tweens Westlife gig. Well have we got an October for you. The tuxedos and sparkling gowned-ticket-holders tottering around town will be your first [...]

This year journalism student Julie Basque left her home in Oregon to spend a summer as an intern in Dublin, with some dashes of travelling around the rest of Ireland as well. Here’s her story of a memorable and not-at-all-as-wet-as-she-expected summer: “Hello, what are you doing here in Ireland?” the poised and reserved man in [...]