The last time I visited Belfast, it was more a City in recovery, than the vibrant Metropolis it is today. Within hours of reaching the heart-beat of N.Ireland, it was clear that multimillion £’s of British and foreign investment in the City has put the Bzazzz...
A professor of Spanish and a professor of Gaelic met at a conference and began discussing the relative merits of their respective languages. ‘Tell me,’ said the Spanish professor, ‘do you have a Gaelic equivalent for the Spanish phrase manana, manana?’ The Hebridean professor thought...
On the east bank of the River Barrow is St Mullin’s, a place of history and of legend. A monastery was founded there in the 7th century by St Moling, a prince, poet, artist and artisan, as well as a priest. It is said that...
In the middle of Lough Derg is a solitary, uninhabited, 49 acre island whose atmosphere takes visitors back to the golden age of Irish Christianity. St Caimin founded a monastery here in the 7th century. It grew to be a large establishment, the well preserved...
Kilkenny Arts Festival is Ireland's oldest multidisciplinary arts festival programming classical music, music, theatre & dance, street, literature, visual art, craft & family events to an audience of over 45,000. The Kilkenny Arts Festival is committed to the presentation of a unique, distinctive and inspiring...
The 144th playing of The Open, golf’s oldest championship, will be played over the Old Course at St Andrews. One of the great occasions in world sport, the Home of Golf will provide a unique atmosphere as the game’s best players challenge for the Claret...
Seagulls swirl around the trawlers entering the port of Killybegs, one of Ireland’s major fishing harbours. It is a rough and dynamic place, where foreign ships tower over the quayside, and the smell of fresh fish fills the air. Though the town looks typically Victorian, it...
Culloden Battlefield The Battle of Culloden in 1746, the last pitched battle ever fought on British soil, saw the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the end of the Jacobite dream when 1200 Highlanders were slaughtered by government forces in a 68-minute rout. The duke of...
The ruins of Caerlaverock Castle, by Glencaple on a beautiful stretch of the Solway coast, are among the loveliest in Britain. Surrounded by a moat, lawns and stands of trees, the unusual pink-stoned triangular castle looks impregnable – in fact, it fell several times. The...
This tiny island, surrounded by a salt lake and cut off from the sea by a sand bar, has been a place of pilgrimage since pre-Christian times. It was St Ibar who absorbed it into the Christian Church and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary....