How Tradfest is rehabilitating Temple Bar
Now in its fifth year and Luring punters who may rarely venture into the area during the rest of the year, this traditional music festival has done much to rehabilitate Temple Bar. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Cyril Byrne

Another first for Sea the Stars as painting odds-on for a big sale
An historic moment in the annals of Irish racing is captured in a painting that is expected to cause a stir of interest among art and racing aficionados alike when it comes up for auction next month. For more details. please click Irish Independent.

Best to be celebrated through music and dance
Belfast-based Maiden Voyage, a multinational dance troupe,is planning to bring George Best's incredible biography to the stage by depicting the Manchester United and Northern Ireland superstar through music and contemporary dance. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.

Geldof and John O’Shea to reap Avatar rewards
Bob Geldofand Manchester United star John O’Shea are among the Irish investors and a raft of celebrities who are set to make an average €58,000 following the runaway success of Avatar. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Monsters & Critics

February 3
Savings boom as 40% of adults in Ireland debt free
A just-released survey reveals that a new savings culture has taken hold, with three quarters of all adults putting away an average of €283 a month for a rainy day and one in 10 adults are completely debt free. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.

Boldly going forward... Belfast man on Oscar trek
Peter Devlin has been nominated for his work on Star Trek. Mr. Devlin, who is also a former BBC Northern Ireland soundman, is among a number of Irish contenders for the Oscars. For more details, please click BBC.
Related Story: A vintage day for Irish film with five Oscar nominations

Britannica errors spark unholy row
That most scholarly of tomes, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, offers a farcically inaccurate version of the Irish Civil War, describing it as a conflict between Catholics in the south and Protestants in the North. For more on this story, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia

BBC search for Irishmen of 1950's documentary
The prgramme followed Irish railway workers in London and showed the men describing their feelings about having to leave home in rural Ireland and travelling to urban and alien Britain. For more details, please click Irish World.


Booker Prize to honour ‘lost’ novel
In an attempt to plug a near half-century old literary plot hole, organisers of the Man Booker Prize have established a new one-off award for 22 works which slipped through their net, including Christy Brown's Down All The Days. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Kenny's Books

Rival airlines launch price war
Ryanair and Aer Lingus are to go head-to-head this holiday season with both firms unveiling directly competing summer schedules. Aer Lingus announced its largest ever programme from Cork Airport, but Ryanair quickly hit back. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo Credit: Daily Mail/©PA

Six Nations: Ireland team to play Italy announced
Kevin McLaughlin is the one new cap named in the Ireland team to play Italy this Saturday in Croke Park. The 25 year old Leinster player will start his first international alongside David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Julien Behal/PA Wire

February 2
Robbie Keane makes shock move to Celtic
One year after leaving Liverpool, Tottenham striker Robbie Keane moved again on mid-season transfer deadline day, this time signing a loan deal with Celtic. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.

Go-slow in Dublin 'feels like elderly aunt pootering to Mass'
How slow is 30km/h? Call it for what it is in imperial measures which everybody understands. It is 18 miles an hour, slower than a cyclist maintaining a brisk pace, and slower than a tractor pulling a full trailer. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Most Irish mothers read to their children nearly every night
That's according to a new survey commissioned by Kellogg’s Rice Krispies to coincide with a new promotion of Irish children’s books involving The O’Brien Press and Hughes Hughes book stores. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo credit: Cyril Byrne

Charlie Bird to cut Washington 'madness' short
'I'm a homebird,' admits Charlie Bird who is to quit his job as RTé Washington correspondent and return to Ireland. It is believed the vacant post will be filled. For more details, please click Irish Tribune.


Pamela Ballantine axed by UTV
After working as a reporter, presenter, continuity announcer and company ambassador, UTV has decided to axe Pamela Ballantine, one of Northern Ireland’s most famous faces. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.

Drive to rebuild burned-out 'Boyne' cottage
An independent Louth councillor has started fundraising to rebuild his landmark thatched cottage after an insurance company refused to pay him because of a mural depicting the Battle of the Boyne on the building. For more details. please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Tom Conachy - before the cottage was destroyed

'Ambient' sausage rolls?
Consumers were confused and it caused much amusement. A spokeswoman for the Co-op said that labels for in-store bakery items are printed in the store and it was an administrative error. For more details. please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo credit: A Brit different. For illustration purposes only.

February 1
Regional round-up from Antrim to Wicklow
All the news that probably won't make the national headlines: Warrenpoint, Co. Down considering relocating a two-hundred-year-old windmill; Longest pedestrian bridge in Ireland opened in Co. Limerick; and a new look for an Old Cross in Co.Monaghan: To read these news items and many others, please click Irish Emigrant.
Photo Credit: Irish Times/Frank McDonald

Kilkenny group revives old tradition of making St Brigid's crosses for charity
Margaret McGrath, a retired primary school teacher who lives at Boherkyle, outside the north Co Kilkenny town of Castlecomer, is determined to maintain the custom. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: ©Gillian Nott
Published with permission and may not be reproduced without contacting the photographer for approval.

Irish animators drawing international attention
Two Irish animated films on the shortlist for Oscar nomination, and two more shown at Sundance Film Festival.But aside from earning plaudits, the Irish animation sector is also earning its keep. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Footie fans feast eyes on 3D match
Football fans watched Arsenal and Manchester United kick off the world's first live 3D sports broadcast put on by Sky Sports which filmed the Gunners' Premier League clash using the latest polarised 3D method. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo Credit: Irish Times/ Cyril Byrne.

Historical Ulster: Ardglass
One hundred years ago it would have been a familiar scene: dozens of 'gutters' handling the herring catch on the harbour at Ardglass. Today the picture is a very different one. For more on this feature story, please click Belfast Telegraph.

Brainy Hayley doesn't like the WAG tag
She's one of Dublin's leading models and has just scored herself a footballer boyfriend - but Hayley Ryan is adamant she won't be battling it out with Claudine Palmer for the title of Ireland's top WAG. For more details, please click Irish Herald.


Robbie Williams to reunite with Take That for Haiti single
The 35-year-old singer is to record with his former band mates for the first time since he quit the group in 1995 after signing up for The Sun newspaper's Helping Haiti single. For more details, please click Breaking News Ireland.

January 31
Fachtna Ó Hannracháin, RIP
Tributes have been paid to Fachtna Ó Hannracháin, founder of RTÉ’s first orchestra, who has died, aged 89. He died unexpectedly 10 weeks after the death of his wife Gertie to whom he had been married for 63 years. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: RTE

University College Cork researching Irish Latin legacy
About 1,000 printed books in Latin were written by Irish authors between 1490 and 1750, and a vast manuscript corpus of Latin writing by Irishmen also survives from this period. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Librarything/For illustration purposes only

Judge visits Yeats's grave before inspecting Lissadell rights of way
A High Court judge stopped off at the grave of WB Yeats on his way to the ancestral home of Countess Markievicz to cast his own eye on disputed rights of way. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Castlebar

Mother reveals conjoined twins' touching secret
Angie Benhaffaf revealed how a scan taken at 24 weeks showed her sons were holding hands. The twins made an appearance on the Late Late Show last night with their mum who told of her relief to learn that they had separate hearts following a scan. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Sky News

Grafton Street decline claims iconic jeweller
West of Grafton Street Ltd once proudly proclaimed a royal warrant as watchmakers to Queen Victoria and the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The queen even purchased two exact copies of the Tara Brooch, crafted 160 years ago by the goldsmiths and jewellers of West's. But that illustrious history counts for nothing in these hard-headed days of recession. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

Magee crowned European champion
Belfast man Brian Magee won the vacant European super-middleweight title with a seventh-round stoppage of home-town Mads Larsen in Aarhus on Saturday night. For more details, please click BBC.


Saoirse is a step ahead in artist Nina's shoes
Dublin-born painter and designer Nina Divito scored a massive fashion coup after The Lovely Bones star Saoirse Ronan donned her distinctive purple shoes for the VIP premiere. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Showbiz Ireland

January 30
Aggie the Labrador becomes Jack's helpmate
Jack Caldwell from Ennis, and golden Labrador Aggie were brought together under a scheme operated by the charity Irish Dogs for the Disabled. Last night, they graduated. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Cyril Byrne

Take me to the island
Nadim Sadek, owner of Inishturkbeg island in Clew Bay, Co Mayo, invited seven artists to visit last summer and make work that would capture the island’s moods. It is to become an annual event with an exhibition in London. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Dylan Thomas and John Dalgety

Holiday in Ireland? Why not look up your ancestors
A former Durham University student has set up a tour package company to help people from around the world trace their Irish ancestors. Howard Kingston from Co. Wicklow came up with the idea while studying for an MBA in Britain. For more details, please click Irish Post.
Photo Credit: Irish Genealogy

Northern Ireland 'neglected' by TV broadcasters?
A Coronation Street in Antrim, an east Belfast Eastenders or even a Holywood Oaks? Northern Ireland needs a drama that can depict everyday life, a report on TV broadcasting has said. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo Credit: Andy Welsh - for illustration purposes only

UCC student makes Vogue magazine shortlist
Jennifer Foley has been branded one of Vogue magazine's 'New Faces'. She came fifth in 'The Model Agent' reality show on RTÉ last year. However, she is now become the only one of the competitors to be added to the style bible's list of 23 international fashion models of the future. To read this news item in full, please click Breaking News Ireland.
Photo Credit: RTE

Putting the world to rights
Most of us have been there - sat in the pub with a few mates putting the world to rights and all of a sudden all of you become self-professed experts on every drunken topic under discussion. For more details, please click BBC.
Photo Credit: Keewi Photography

Delight as city set to benefit from rugby tie
Many Northampton supporters, just home after last Saturday’s game against Munster at Thomond Park, are preparing for a return to Limerick for the Heineken Cup quarter-final tie. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Darragh Cottages

January 29
Brace yourself for St Brigid
February 1st is nearly upon us, a date otherwise known as St Brigid’s Day. That’s right, Brigid, aka Bridget or Brid, one of the country’s patron saints, though the lack of parades and a national holiday might lead you to believe otherwise. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Tesco bans shopping in PJs
In parts of Belfast — pyjamas are de rigueur not only for sleeping in, but for shopping in as well. A growing number of female citizens have no fear of braving the elements in brightly coloured, often stripey attire. To read more, please click Belfast telegraph.


Brewery archives give fascinating insight into Cork history
The archives of Murphy's, one of the country’s most famous breweries, went live on the internet yesterday giving a fascinating insight into the lives of its workers, Cork’s merchant princes and the industry itself. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit & Related Details: Neil Danton/Irish Independent

Jameson Dublin Int'l Film Festival launched
Brendan Gleeson and Nora Jane Noone, two Irish actors from different generations, were on hand last night to publicise the programme for the eighth Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Dara Mac Donaill

Clean bill of health for teddies
Up to 1,000 of them visited the Teddy Bears Hospital in Galway just in case they might require attention for sore tummies, broken arms, ear-aches and even the collywobbles. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit & Caption: Joe O'Shaughnessy/Irish Times Images of the Day

Block Party - an animation featuring Legos
Sock On The Hill productions, a teenage media enterprise from Northern Ireland, have put together a video for the NI band Key Of Atlas.It took months to put together and that's no surprise when you see it. For more details, please click BBC.

How our spending got guilt-edged
The Irish have always worn guilt well but while we used to keep it in the closet, the boom and bust of the past 15 years might have forced us to wear an entirely new angst-ridden cloak. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Daniel Munoz/Reuters

January 28
Grafton Street rents no longer in top five
It will be a humbling drop for a street once credited with having the fifth most expensive rental costs on the planet, right up there with New York, Paris and Milan and, significantly, ahead of London and Tokyo. For more details, please click Irish Tribune.
Photo Credit: Philip Greenspun

Cork library pulls off a Joycean coup
The Macroom Library in Co. Cork pulled off a major coup in acquiring a rare first edition of 'Ulysses' that is worth more than €300,000 and which comes complete with the signature of its author, James Joyce. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Martin Argles/Guardian

We hope it's downhill from here...say our Olympic bobsleighers
Ireland's first ever female bobsleigh team Aoife Hoey, and brakewoman Claire Bergin qualified in 20th place at San Moritz in Switzerland and will travel to the games in Vancouver at the weekend. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Times

Six Nations Championship launched
Declan Kidney and Warren Gatland shared a conversation yesterday Gatland knows what it is like to defend a Grand Slam having led Wales to success in 2008. Kidney is about to find out, having inspired Ireland to bridge a 61-year gap last season. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Billy Stickland/Inpho.

Dinosaurs get a fresh new look
An investigative team that includes scientists from University College Dublin has found a way to identify the colours displayed by 125- million-year-old feathered dinosaurs. One species in particular was an out-and-out ginger, complete with an orange and white-ringed tail. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Seen that house before? Not at this price
Fairlawn House in Dalkey has been for sale since June 2007. It started out at €6.25 million but this week, the price had been cut to €2.2 million – a staggering 65 per cent down from its boom time valuation. For more details, please click Irish Times.

City park for Menlo Castle site?
The preserved ruins of Menlo Castle could be set to be the centrepiece of a new city park. The creation of the new amenity is one of the main objectives of a development plan now under consideration. For more details, please click Galway Independent.

January 27
A city imbued with civic pride - O'Higgins would be proud
All across Chile, which this year celebrates the bicentenary of its independence, there is reference to General Bernardo O'Higgins who is revered as the “Father of the Country”. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Go South America

Viking settlement unearthed in Dublin
Dublin's Northside is revealing its own Viking past with the first evidence of 11th-century Dubliners choosing to settle on the north shore of the Liffey emerging in the past week. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Dara Mac Dónaill

Irish role in solar camera
Shown, the blazing inferno of the sun's atmosphere crystallised into a blue corona and green gas- just is one of the images captured by a new state-of-the-art camera designed in conjunction with a 12-strong team of scientists from Trinity College. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

"Unbelievable collection" of George Best memorabilia found
Mike Preston found photographs, thousands of negatives and a strip belonging to the footballer when he was clearing out his late father's house. For more details, please click BBC.


O'Driscoll to retain captaincy
Ireland coach Declan Kidney will today confirm Brian O'Driscoll's retention as captain ahead of the team's Grand Slam defence and the Six Nations opener against Italy. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

Same red carpet but home soil makes difference for Saoirse
Red carpets, interviews and autographs have become a regular part of life for Saoirse Ronan who was in in Dublin last night for the premiere of her latest film, The Lovely Bones. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Croke Park offers venue for ultimate match: the wedding
Gaelic Games followers will be well familiar with the concept of the GAA widow, whose husband spends every spare hour in pursuit of glory for club or county. Now here comes the GAA bride. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & Related Story (sort of!): Drumanagh's Journal

January 26
Giant humpback whale filmed off Wexford coast
In remarkable scenes captured three miles off Hook Head, the whale treated wide-eyed spectators to a show of ‘breaching’ — something which many people can normally only dream of seeing in real life, For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Times/Pádraig Whooley/Irish Whale and Dolphin Group

Passengers get first view of soaring new terminal
From today, passengers departing from Dublin Airport will be greeted with dramatic views of "T2" thanks to a new access route which will take them through the centre of soaring expanse of metal and glass. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Dublin Airport Authority

Ireland's sail training vessel Asgard to go on display
National Museum of Ireland director Dr Pat Wallace says conservation will be finished by maritime expert John Kearon in May – four years before the Asgard's centenary. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Plaque to mark Belfast playwright
A plaque marking the birthplace of playwright Sam Thompson will be unveiled later at the location of the house where he was born. The east Belfast man, who was a keen observer of the community in which he grew up, died in 1965. For more details, please click BBC.
Photo Credit & Related Details: Culture of Northern Ireland

Couple refloat careers via Ireland’s first cruise-dive business
Graham and Anne Ferguson from Nohoval, Co Cork, have purchased the former 24-metre tender which is currently being refitted with six twin cabins and new crew quarters. For more on this story, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Crredit: Home Exchange in Co. Cork - for illustration purposes only

Sports-mad Roscommon girl lands dream job thanks to her silky accent
Rachel Casey's dulcet tones will be heard far and wide in over 800 Betfred stores. And the 25-yearold is delighted to have been picked for the role from hundreds of hopefuls. For more details, please click Irish Post.

Another little outpost of Ireland in New York
In March 2009, Cathal Queally opened the first Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Café in the US. It os a success story at a time when success stories are few and far between. For more details. please click Irish Times.

January 25
Regional round-up from Antrim to Wicklow
All the news that probably won't make the national headlines: Windfall from windfarm for farmers in Co. Clare; Humes, the oldest pub in Portlaoise, Co. Laoiscloses; and St Brigid to be celebrated in Dundalk, Co. Louth. To read these news items and many others, please click Irish Emigrant.
Photo Credit and related story: Leinster Express/Lynda Kiernan/Humes

Iraq-bound US troops in unexpected Cork stopover
US troops en route to Iraq said they were overwhelmed by the welcome at Cork Airport after an unexpected weekend landing. Their plane was due to refuel at Shannon Airport but was diverted to Cork due to fog. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Indymedia Ireland - for illustration purposes only

Family activities at Temple Bar TradFest
An expanded family programme will be introduced at this year’s Temple Bar TradFest which begins on Wednesday. This is the fifth year of the Irish music and culture festival which will run for five days in Dublin’s cultural quarter. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Forgotten Irish soldiers get a voice on new Chieftains album
Liam Neeson has joined forces with The Chieftains on their new album which tells a little-known story about the Saint Patrick's Battalion who fought as part of the Mexican Army against the United States. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Crredit & related Story: Pip Wilson

Veteran seafarer receives sailing honour
Submarine Commander, yachtsman, adventurer and author Bill King has been awarded one of Ireland’s most distinguished sailing awards as he approaches his 100th birthday. The Fastnet Trophy was presented to Cdr King for a “lifetime of outstanding achievement". For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Joe O'Shaughnessy

London? No, it's Belfast!
The filming of a new movie entitled "Killing Bono" which linked to the Irish supergroup U2 is being made in and around the city over the next six weeks. Part of the the city centre has been dressed to portray a vision of London in the late 1970s. For more details, please click BBC.

Launch of Fleishmann centenary celebrations
President Mary McAleese visited Cork to launch the Aloys Fleishmann Centenary Celebrations at Cork City Hall where spoke of the late Dr Fleishmann’s "immeasurable contribution to the cultural life of the country". For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Cork Examiner

Ireland contains more bog land, relatively speaking, than any country in Europe, except Finland. For people in rural areas, turf cut from the bog is still a natural source of heat. Turf cutting begins in spring and then the turf is spread and rickled . Rickled means to pile the turf up in small mounds. By summer, the turf is dry and it's time to bring it home. Everything has to be prepared before the winter comes, or even earlier, because the rain would wet the turf too much. It has to be dry and in the shed before Autumn. Then and only then, can an irish country family look foreward to the cozy warmth of "a turf fire in the cabin."

Resources: The Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape
Image: Spirited ireland

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