The Old Head Golf Links in Kinsale, County Cork has been ranked by Links magazine as the most spectacular golf course on the planet (Spring 2011 edition). Truly one of the most unique golf courses ever conceived in the history of golf, it is built on a diamond of land jutting out over two miles into the Atlantic Ocean. The links and practice area occupy 180 acres and the … [Read more...] about The Most Spectacular Golf Course on the Planet
Travel
Sláinte: Oysters Galore
Edythe Preet explores the history of Ireland's favorite bivalve, from Mesolithic times to today's Galways Oyster Festival. Opening an oyster can be a daunting task. Those little critters clamp their shells shut tight as a bank vault and don’t take kindly to being pried open with a sharp blade. Not only that, but wielding an oyster knife is an easy way to slice off a thumb, … [Read more...] about Sláinte: Oysters Galore
A Taste of Ireland
Ireland's Food Revolution We Irish have had a fraught relationship with food for far too long. Generations were raised to see it as a crime to leave even the tiniest morsel on our plates. Instead of being encouraged to develop a taste for good food, we were told to consider ourselves lucky to have any food at all. Is this a legacy of our past? For centuries, British landlords … [Read more...] about A Taste of Ireland
A Glimpse of Ireland Past
Sharon Ni Choncuir discovers that 'Romantic Ireland' is still alive. ‘Romantic Ireland is dead and gone. It’s with O’Leary in the grave.’ This was Yeats’ lament in the Ireland of 1914 and it was often repeated during the Celtic Tiger years. In our frantic quest for materialistic modernity, Ireland and its people were said to have forsaken the traditions of the past. But how … [Read more...] about A Glimpse of Ireland Past
A Year on Croagh Patrick
By Sheila Langan, Deputy Editor
Matt Loughrey, the man behind Croagh Patrick 365 Matt Loughrey had just finished his 218th consecutive climb of Croagh Patrick, the third-highest mountain in County Mayo, when I spoke to him on a recent Saturday evening. “It’s cold up there now,” he said. “We’ve been getting temperatures of -17˚c, -18˚c up on the top. We’re climbing in ice and snow at the moment, it’s a … [Read more...] about A Year on Croagh Patrick