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 […]
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: […]
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. […]
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 […]
Visit “Craggy Island” & Father Ted’s House, Co Clare It’s hard to believe that more than 20 years have passed since Father Ted burst onto our screens. It’s even harder to find someone who doesn’t have a soft spot for the series, which is why catching a glimpse of the parochial house is such a thrill. The house itself is found alongside several other locations in the Burren (including the Ailwee Caves), and the owners do a lovely cup of tea and cake (€10pp). Superfans can up the ante with a ticket to Tedfest, the annual festival on Inis Mór. It’s mad, Ted – NB While you’re at it: Swap […]
Climb a sea stack off the coast of Donegal New frontiers are hard come by in travel. So when an email lands telling you of a place fewer people have visited than the moon, you take note. Ireland’s sea stacks are among the least-visited nooks in the land, and more than 100 of them sprout from the sea off Donegal. I drove to the edge of the earth to meet the man behind that email (Ian Miller of Unique Ascent), and he took me on a nerve-jangling taster up Berg Stack, near Glencolmbcille. There was zero signal on my phone, but I never felt more connected – PÓC
See wildflower season in the Burren, Co. Clare There’s no landscape quite like the Burren. At just one glance it’s lunar and sparse, but peek again and it’s teeming with life. When the wildflowers poke up between the wrinkled rocks (typically in May), it makes for a scene that could have been lifted from a postcard. Continue the floral theme with a visit to The Burren Perfumery, where you can stroll through their herb garden and enjoy a pot of tea. Don’t leave without driving along the Flaggy Shore, reciting Seamus Heaney as you go Postscript by Seamus Heaney And some time make the time to drive out west Into […]
Ride a horse on the beach With so many beautiful beaches around our coast, it’s an exhilarating experience to gallop along the water’s edge and feel the salt spray in your hair. If you’re not at that level, fear not – you’ll find beach-riding treks for all ages and experiences. It was while we were trotting on the beach at Murrisk Bay at the foot of Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo on a drizzly day, that, as if the backdrop of the mountain on one side and Clew Bay on the other weren’t enough, a double rainbow appeared. While you’re at it: Climb Croagh Patrick – allow about two hours […]
Take a seaweed bath in Sligo Nothing beats the feeling of sinking into a piping hot bath. And if that bath is filled with seaweed harvested from the shore that morning? All the better. A visit to the Voya Seaweed Baths in Strandhill will leave your skin silky soft and your mind struggling to remember exactly what “stress” is. My tip? Skip the fancy shampoo and dunk your head back into the mineral-rich water – your hair will dry in perfect, beachy waves – NB While you’re at it: Take a bracing walk along Strandhill beach, then pop into Shells Café for their unbeatable chicken burger.
Drive the Causeway Coastal Route It ticks everything off the checklist of scenic drives – sheer cliffs on one side, the lush green Glens of Antrim on the other, rock arches to drive through, heritage villages along the way (Cushendall and Cushendun) and the ruins of a mysterious castle on a cliff’s edge (Dunluce). Throw in forest parks and an unusual rock formation of 40,000 basalt columns (The Giant’s Causeway) and it’s no wonder it’s often voted one of the world’s top drives. While you’re at it: To calm the nerves after Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, drop into the Old Bushmills Distillery for a tour and a tasting – YG