2.5 million images of Irish births, deaths and marriage records from the General Register Office are available online

In September 2015, over 2.5 million images of Irish births, deaths and marriage records from the General Register Office (GRO), were released online for the first time. The images, available on www.irishgenealogy.ie, date back as far as 1864. Among the records are the birth, marriage and death register for Tom Crean, the Antarctic explorer. Crean’s grandson Brendan O’Brien joined the Irish Government Ministers Heather Humphreys and Leo Varadkar at the release launch event at the National Library. The online database also includes death register entries for the Leaders of the 1916 Rising, including James Connolly, Thomas Clarke, Padraig H Pearse, and Eamonn Ceannt.

Mullingar has been selected as the venue for Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2020, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

Mullingar has been selected as the venue for Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2020, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann announced on Saturday. The event will take place from August 2nd-9th next year. This year’s event in Drogheda, Co Louth attracted around 400,000 visitors to the town with up to 10,000 musicians taking part. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann founded the event in the Co Westmeath town in 1951 but the event has not been hosted there since 1963. “We are very proud to be part of this mammoth endeavour and have pledged that all necessary resources will be made available to the organising team,” said Pat Gallagher, chief executive of Westmeath County Council. Chairperson of […]

Two Irish cities – Dublin and Cork – have made it into the top 50 friendliest cities in the world

Two Irish cities – Dublin and Cork – have made it into the top 50 friendliest cities in the world, in a survey carried out by Big 7 Travel. Dublin is in sixth position and Cork is at number 17. The popular travel website asked its ‘travel obsessed’ social audience of some 1.5 million followers to decide on the friendliest cities around the globe. To view the results, click here. Welcoming the news, Siobhan McManamy, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Markets, said: “I am delighted to see two of our cities appear in the Big 7 poll of friendliest cities around the globe. It is another well-deserved accolade for Dublin and […]

WALK …….BRAY HEAD, CO.WICKLOW

Walk … Bray Head, Co Wicklow This linear walk of about 7km, along a path that contours gently under Bray Head, is one for any day and in all seasons. Okay, it hasn’t the heart-stopping beauty of sea and rock experienced on, say, Slieve League or Glen Head in Donegal or Croughaun on Achill Island. Its pathway occupies a much more benign space: one probably more for chatty morning strollers and joggers, picnickers and coffee shoppers, even mountain-buggy pushers and dog walkers, than for hard-core hikers. Still, on the east coast resident’s score sheet of accessibility and gentleness of climate versus the wilder, more elemental beauty of the east, the […]

the new Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) opens its doors

If walls could talk, they’d whisper stories, putting tales and characters into your head: which is, of course, exactly what a good book does. Books inspire, provoke, inform, excite. They set down histories, and make markers for their times. So, as the new Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) opens its doors to the public on Culture Night, what exactly will it do that a good book can’t? When you’re lost in a book, the characters come alive. We all know the feeling, when a TV or film adaptation just doesn’t cut it. The hero’s hair isn’t how you imagined it. That’s not the street you pictured. Jane Austen was clever: […]

Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture. These are just some of the highlights

Some 2020 highlights include: A Connemara mountain landscape will be illuminated as an epic spectacle by Finnish light artist Kari Kola. Druid Theatre takes Ireland’s greatest 20th century one-act plays to towns and villages across Galway county. American artist David Best, of Burning Man fame, will create a major new work with young people from Derry and Galway. Giant Mirror Pavilion by Irish artist John Gerrard, set first in the Claddagh basin and later in 4,000 year-old Connemara bog. Dramatic new interpretation of literary epic Gilgamesh by Galway master storytellers Macnas, written by Marina Carr and designed by Julian Crouch. Margaret Atwood as part of t International Women’s Day celebrations. […]

Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture

Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, the largest and most complex cultural event held on the island of Ireland, will start on February 1st with a week of “fiery celebrations” in Co Galway towns and villages. Events throughout the year will involve more than 1,900 events across 154 projects, 170 partnerships and collaborations with local, national, European and international artists and cultural organisations from more than 30 different countries. The opening week will include a large public spectacle in Galway city on February 8th, produced by Water Works, a company which has created events for the Olympics, including London’s. The opening will involve a community cast and creative director Helen […]

From Malin Head to Moville – Edgy eats and Ireland’s most northerly pub on the Inishowen Peninsula

A whistlestop tour of Donegal’s Inishowen Peninsula on the Wild Atlantic Way Sitting at the table beside us in Farran’s bar, the most northerly pub in Ireland, was a group of tourists from Atlanta, Georgia. Like us, they had come for comfort food after exploring the breathtaking scenery on a blustery day in Malin Head. One tells the server: “I ordered a chicken and ‘tomayto’ sandwich.” “Tom-Ato, you mean,” quips the friendly barman as he lays the dish in front of the American. “You won’t find any tomaytos ‘round here…” It’s this inimitable Irish charm that makes our brilliant little island one of a kind… After a little chuckle to […]

Tucked away in one of the most remote parts of Ireland

What does Achill Island have in common with Tahiti, Iceland, California and the Seychelles? What does Achill Island have in common with Tahiti, Iceland, California and the Seychelles?The answer lies on the western end of the island and glorious Keem Bay which was last week selected by renowned travel writer Pól Ó Conghaile in his list of ten breathtaking beaches around the world.Keem Bay was the only Irish beach to make the shortlist, joining exotic locations like Matira Point in Tahiti and Anse Source D’Argent in the Seychelles.Pól Ó Conghaile compiled the list for last Thursday’s Irish Independent and said the following of Keem: “Achill boasts five Blue Flag beaches, […]

Fab Fermanagh: Is this Northern Ireland’s best-kept secret?

Fab Fermanagh: Is this Northern Ireland’s best-kept secret? Year of Food & Drink 2016 5Finn Lough’s transparent domes. From delicious cafés to domes under the stars, Lorraine Courtney says Fermanagh makes a super short break. Fancy seeing the heavenly bodies peppering Fermanagh’s ink-black skies from one of Ireland’s quirkiest new hotel rooms (above)? I spent a January night counting shooting stars in the middle of a Fermanagh woodland – and all while snuggled under the duvet. Designed by Belleek’s Ronan Lowery, Finn Lough’s transparent domes are very snazzy with four-poster beds crafted from local oak, a Nespresso machine, two cosy armchairs, fluffy robes and a telescope for gazing at the […]