Ryanair wants passengers to put their own bags on plane
CEO Michael O'Leary has detailed proposals where customers would pass all of their bags through security checks, currently used just for hand luggage, and then carry them through terminals to their flight. For more details, please click Irish Independent.


Irish Derby Preview
The online preview show will include visits to the stables of John Oxx and Aidan O'Brien and will have a report on the influence of Coolmore Stud on this great race. O'Brien will be aiming to win this prestigious race for a fourth consecutive year.For more details, please click RTE.

Irish judiciary among highest paid in the world
Comparisons with other international courts also show that John G Roberts, Chief Justice in the United States is paid €157,120 a year - just over half the amount of John Murray, Ireland's Chief Justice. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: The Spire

Stars say goodbye to Danny La Rue
Celebrities including Eastenders' Barbara Windsor, Ronnie Corbett and Roy Hudd gathered to say farewell to the Irish-born female impersonator whose successful career spanned some 60 years. For more details, please click Irish World.
Photo Credit& Related Story: BBC/Getty Images

Lunny the teacher ready to have a Blas
Embarking on a year as artist in residence in Limerick, Dónal Lunny tells the irish Times that the qualities required to teach music are in some ways the reverse of those needed to play it. For more details, please click Irish Times.


Book Review: The Last Irishmen by Jeremy MacDonogh
The Last Irishmen takes as its subject the last stand of the old Gaelic order against some of the most vicious and terrifying generals Elizabethan England could throw at it. It’s a story that will take you away from the goggle box and firmly place you at the heart of medieval Ireland. For more ddetails, please click Irish World.

June 23
Big Wheel drama in Belfast
Belfast's Big Wheel ground to a halt last night after a man climbed to the top and perched on the edge for several hours. The drama unfolded shortly after 6.30pm as commuters and city centre shoppers made their way home past the iconic landmark. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.

Newcastle is named Ireland's best kept town
The all-island competition also honoured Ennis, Co Clare, as the Ireland’s Best Kept Large Urban Centre; Loughgall, Co Armagh, as Ireland’s Best Kept Village; and Glenties, Co Donegal, as Ireland’s Best Kept Small Town. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Martin Doheny

Humpback whale freed off Wexford coast
In a collaborative rescue involving anglers, divers and lifeboat volunteers, a humpback whale which became tangled in lobster pots off the Co Wexford coast has been released. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Chris Maguire and Kevin McCabe

A Tentative Hope Breaks Through?
Are the much heralded 'green shoots of recovery' a misguided illusion or a definite sign that the economy is coming out of the doldrums? The irish Tribune asks some workers and business owners what they think. For more details, please click Irish Tribune.

O’Hara to donate memorabilia for €5m centre
One of the world’s most famous actresses is to donate priceless memorabilia to a group which is planning to develop a €5 million centre in Glengariff, West Cork to honour her achievements. O’Hara bought a holiday home in the village 40 years ago and now spends almost all her time there. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit & Info' about Glengariff: Cork Guide

Writer Claire Keegan wins €25,000 Davy Byrnes award
Claire Keegan was last night announced the winner of the €25,000 Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009 for her short story Foster. The presentation was made in the Dublin pub made famous by Joyce.For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Kenneth O'Halloran

Dublin's Gresham Hotel drops cost of cuppa and cake by 30pc
The tea, which was a hefty €25 in the past, has been reduced to a more affordable €18. But they still serve it it on a three-tier cake stand laden with traditional fare from 2pm to 6pm every day. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Shiny Katie/For illustration purposes only

June 22
Regional round-up from Antrim to Wicklow
All thenews that probably won't make the national headlines: Famous diamond on display at Belfast Linen Hall Library; Bluebells to return to Bluebell in Dublin; and Wexford church celebrates 150 years. To read these news items and many more please click Irish Emigrant.
Photo Credit: Go Ireland/Bluebells

No winner in Saturday night's lottery drawing
It's a fantasy of ours that one of our readers will scoop a massive jackpot which is heading in that direction as the estimated prize for Wednesday's draw is € 6 Million Euro. But you can't win it, if you're not in it. To play on line from the comfort of home, please click Irish Lottery.

Call for memorial to citizens killed in Rising
Dr Anne Matthews called for a memorial to the 345 citizens who died during the six days when those living within the vicinity of the GPO found themselves “centre stage of a theatre of war”. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Time

Gallaghers light up Slane like a champagne supernova
Fifteen years after their debut album Definitely Maybe provided the soundtrack for a generation, Oasis returned to Slane Castle to find a new generation digging their music. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & related Story: Irish Independent

Ireland's first surfer rides the waves again
Joe Roddy, who was born in Roches Point lighthouse, yesterday took to the sea at Tramore accompanied by up to 50 pupils of the surf school. He said it was his first time surfing in around 57 years. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

A cheesy design or world's greatest building?
Dublin's Sean O'Casey Community Centre shaped like a block of Swiss cheese has been shortlisted for the title of "Best Building in the World"and is against international heavyweights such as Beijing's iconic 'Bird's Nest' Olympic Stadium. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: BD - The Architect's Web Site

Yeats was really a hippie?
Indeed he was. That's according to Bob Geldof speaking at the National Library of Ireland's 'Celebration of Yeats' series. The former Boomtown Rat insisted Ireland's greatest ever poet was in fact the rock star of his time. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo credit: John Bilotta

June 21
A short walk through Dublin on longest day
A summer solstice celebration connecting Dublin residents and spanning the ages and distance between Ireland and South America is taking place today. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Frank Miller

Diaspora celebrate Mass for victims of the Great Hunger
Scotland's National Shrine to Our Lady resounded to the strains of Hail Glorious St. Patrick as the congregation processed to the Famine Memorial after Mass at the Irish Pilgrimage Day. For more details, please click Irish Post.
Photo Credit & Related Story: BBC

Too little, too late for the Lions
The powerful Springboks had battered the Lions into submission to take a 26-7 lead after just 46 minutes. The Lions hit back in a defiant final 20 minutes, it was too little too late. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit & Related Story: RTE

Rangers celebrate 40th anniversary
Eleven of the 12 men who took part in the first selection course returned to the Curragh yesterday to recall their pioneering role in the group, which evolved into the Ranger Wing. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Matilan/For illustration purposes only

Elysian: the final resting place of the boom
Ireland's tallest apartment block was to be the height of luxury. Now it's all but deserted. Just 35 of the 211 units have been sold at the €150m project launched last September as the ultimate in Celtic Tiger living.For more details, please click Irish Tribune.

mum was right when she said eating carrots is good for your eyes
Research teams in Belfast and Waterford discovered antioxidants found in fruit and vegetables may slow down sight loss in the elderly. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Lulu in Philly

Stop being nasty to the rich
So says U2 drummer Larry Mullen who believes rich and successful people are being unnecessarily humiliated when coming in and out of Ireland, describing this as "part of a new resentment of rich people in this country". For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: MTV News

June 20
Surge in births places Ireland at top of EU
A report by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on children and young people shows that Ireland had the highest proportion of children aged nine years or younger across the European Union.For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Vaccine Ireland/For illustration purposes only

Irish gifts to the world of food
While long mocked for not having offered much to global cuisine, Ireland has in fact produced some unique delicacies over the years, from cheese and onion Taytos, to Mikados and Golly Bars. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Irish Shop

Ulysses chemist shuts after 100 years
Leopold Bloom, one of the main character's in Ulysses, stopped off at Sweny's pharmacy on December 16, 1904, to purchase a bar of lemon soap for his wife Molly. Now, this Dublin landmark has closed its doors. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Photo Zen

Big-hearted Irish builder wins $41m in New York lottery
Friends and family were yesterday celebrating the luck of Kildare native Donal Finnan who went to the US in search of the American Dream and landed a huge win in the New York Lottery. For more details, please click Irish Independent.


First part of 38km Dublin mountain trail opens
The route links Tibradden, Kilmashogue and Cruagh forests and marks the initial stage of a trail that will eventually stretch from Shankill in the east to Tallaght in the west. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Frank Miller

First Irish surfer takes to the waves 60 years on
Joe Roddy, will ride the waves again to mark the 60th anniversary of his first surf off the Irish coast. "I haven’t been up on a board in maybe 57 years, so it will be interesting," said the great-grandfather and joint owner of the Skellig Boat Trips. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Des Barry

Dublin's Pubs and clubs vet job candidates for 'beauty'
In a bid to attract dwindling customer numbers, pubs and nightclubs across the capital are now demanding photos alongside job applications to vet the 'good looks' of potential employees. For more details. please click Irish Tribune.
Photo Credit: Maximum Mitch/For illustration purposes only

June 19
Poet was 'determined to grasp once again love' before his death
Historian and biographer of WB Yeats, Roy Foster, and actor Fiona Shaw were at the National Library for a talk marking the 60th anniversary of the poet's death. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: : Alan Betson

Yeats makes Gold Cup history
Since its inauguration in 1807, only Yeats and Sagaro in the 1970s had managed to visit the winner's enclosure three times, but Aidan O'Brien's veteran broke the mold in emotional scenes under Johnny Murtagh. For more details, please click RTE.
Photo credit & related Story: Irish Independent

Collective footfall is causing mayhem with the mountains
The annual Mourne Wall Walk was a very popular event in the last century but after increasing concerns about the amount of damage being done, the event was abandoned in 1984. Ironically, since then the numbers using the Mournes for recreation have blossomed. For more details, please click BBC.

Harry the hound survives two-day cliffhanger
And they say that cats have nine lives. Harry the hound dog is now safely back in the arms of his owners, having surely used up a few of his lives in a two-day ordeal trapped high on a ledge of a 400ft cliff. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Bassett Buddies/For illustration purposes only

Golfer makes two holes-in-one during round
Monaghan golfer Tommy Doherty beat odds of 67 million to one when he scored two holes-in-one in the same round at the Nuremore Golf Club in Carrickmacross. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo Credit: Chef Tonio/For illustration purposes only

Pensioner’s shark tale takes bite out of records
When 70-year-old Joe Waldis went fishing off the Loop Head, he never expected to have an experience every bit as thrilling as Hemingway’s Old Man And The Sea yarn. It was "the fight of my life" in landing the sixgill shark weighing almost half a ton, Joe said. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: & Related Story: Irish Times/ Luke Aston

Geldof comes home to remember boomtown rat
The Live Aid campaigner will make a rare appearance in Dublin to pay tribute to David McHale, a schoolfriend and saxophonist with the Boomtown Rats, who lost his battle with cancer last month. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Getty Images

June 18
No winner in Wednesday's lottery draw
That means the jackpot for Saturday nights draw will be at least € 6 Million Euro. But, as they say in Ireland, you can't win it if you're not in it. Play from the comfort of home and avoid the inevitable queue for tickets. Please click Irish Lottery.

'Chippers' nationwide mourn loss of spice burger company
Traditional Irish cuisine has been dealt a blow with the demise of the company that invented that staple of chippers nationwide, the spice burger which has been on the Irish market since the early 50's. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Tribune

Lotto winner pays tribute to honesty of Centra worker
Dermot Finglas from Drogheda, Co Louth, who left his ticket in the shop where he bought it, has collected his €350,000 prize. He was tracked down by Tom Heavey, who works in the McDonnell’s Centra store in the town. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Independent

Communities unite to save townland names
Government and postal agencies are reluctant to accept townland names as the most fundamental element of an address, insisting that road names and house numbers must instead be used. This has raised fears that the traditional Irish addressing system could disappear. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.
Photo Credit: Ulster Ancestry

Census data since 1926 available to all on line
The historical census volumes from 1926 to 1991 have been scanned in and published on the website of the Central Statistics Office which said it expects the volumes to be of “immense value” to researchers, academics and the public at large. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Talk of disease ‘is a load of old Blarney’
Bosses at Blarney Castle in Cork have defended their precious stone’s cleanliness after a US-based travel website cited it as the world’s most unhygienic tourist attraction. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Miss Knits

Michael Collins film outfit makes £3,120
The long green military coat and accessories worn by Ballymena-born Liam Neeson in the title role of 1996 biopic Micahel Collins were expected to raise about £400, and sold for £3,120 at an auction in London. For more details, please click BBC.

June 17
Prehistoric gold source traced to Mourne mountains
The mountains of Mourne may be fabled in song but now they have a new focus as scientists believe they were the source for most of Ireland’s prehistoric gold. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Pjoo Credit: Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen's University, Belfast

Clonard Novena expected to draw thousands
People from all over Ireland flock to the west Belfast monastery to take part in the services, which are open to people of all faiths, and are also broadcast on the Clonard website. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.


UCD bestows its highest honour on writer Friel
He has been described as Ireland's greatest living playwright and an “honourable heir” to JM Synge and Sean O'Casey. Yesterday, the worlds of academia and the arts joined together to pay tribute to him. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

Joyce and Bloomsday capture 'soul of a people'
In Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square hundreds to hear readings, songs of the period and poems dedicated to James Joyce. In Sandycove, stately plump Joyceans mingled outside the Martello Tower. For more details, please click Irish Times.


Ulysses: "blooming hard to swallow?"
Many of those bedecked in their finest Edwardian dress to mark Bloomsday were eager to inform that they had, dare they say it, made it through 'Ulysses' from cover-to-cover. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

A change of image for Shankill murals
The new murals, designed to chart the social, cultural and industrial heritage of the lower Shankill, were officially unveiled yesterday following a nine-month project. For more details, please click Belfast Telegraph.

Get over it: New bridge opens
Dublin commuters have been given a boost with the news that the new Luas Spencer Dock bridge has been completed and is now partially open to traffic. The bridge was able to accommodate westbound traffic exiting from Spencer Dock from yesterday evening. For more details, please click Irish Herald.

June 16
Aer Lingus to offer €80 fares to lure US tourists
Airfares from as low as €80 will be offered to to lure Americans to Ireland in one of the toughest years yet with visitor numbers from North America down almost 5% during the first four months of the year compared to last year. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.

Tornadoes...in Ireland?
Residents in the town of Ennis in Co. Clare could not believe their eyes when the mini twister appeared over the Showgrounds area at around 4.40pm.
Shocked onlookers say that the freak weather happened in both Clare and Roscommon. For more details, please click Irish World.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Independent.

Bloomsday honour for playwright Brian Friel
Mr Friel, who turned 80 last January, will be presented today with the UCD Ulysses Medal at an awards ceremony on the university's campus. The medal is the highest honour the university can bestow. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: UCD - for illustration purposes only

Search is on for Ireland's most weird and wonderful trees
The Tree Council of Ireland is appealing to the public to share their photographs and stories of unusual trees in their local estates, back gardens, parks and streets as part of its Heritage Tree Hunt unveiled yesterday. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

Yeats on course for historic fourth Gold Cup
Aidan O'Brien's superstar has won the two-and-a-half-mile championship at Royal Ascot for the last three years - equalling the record of Sagaro - but the doubts loom large this time after a disappointing reappearance at Navan. For more details, please click RTE.

Record number of towns 'litter free'
A record 41 Irish towns have been declared 'litter free' in the latest survey by Irish Business Against Litter. Wexford is Ireland's cleanest town, ahead of Ennis. But Irish cities do not fare so well. For more details, please click RTE.
Photo Credit: Discover Ireland

Film-makers put out the call for public phone-box anecdotes
Aideen Ó Sullivan and Ross Whitaker are collecting anecdotes about public phones for a short documentary on the huge, but often understated role played in Irish society by the phone box. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: David Henderson

June 15
Regional round-up from Antrim to Wicklow
All the news that probably won't make the national headlines: Derry people urged to wear oak leaf to mark feast of St. Columba; Carrick hotel in Leitrim awarded country's first "Flower;" and climber from Wicklow becomes first Irishman to scale Artic's highest mountain.
To read these news items and many others, please click Irish Emigrant.
Photo Credit: Pica_Productions

Celebrating Bloomsday at the Joyce Centre in Dublin
This year the centre celebrate Joyce's epic novel Ulysses from 13 - 16 June with traditional Bloomsday Breakfasts, Readings & Songs, fantastic Films, Talks and Walking Tours. For more details, please click James Joyce.ie


Human hourglass symbolises climate countdown
More than 1,000 demonstrators formed a human hourglass on Sandymount Strand in Dublin on Saturday afternoon in an effort to send a message to the Government that time is running out for agreement on a new treaty on climate change. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Brenda Fitzsimons

A travel itinerary that appeals to geeks?
John Graham-Cumming has put together a quirky guide for those interested in sights off science’s beaten track. Included is the Royal Canal walkway at Broombridge in Cabra, Dublin, which is where 19th century mathematician William Rowan Hamilton came up with quaternary equations. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Brenda Fitzsimons

Brides clamoring for Cinderella style carriage
Dozens of Irish brides are still clamouring for Katie Price's infamous 'pumpkin'-style wedding carriage, despite her split from husband Peter Andre. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Jordans

A huge task: getting an Irish player inside today's tennis top 100
For a country that has made such an historical contribution to tennis, two decades without an Irish player inside the top 100 ATP or WTA rankings seems a scant legacy for Ireland’s 1896 Olympic Champion Cecil Parke and twice Wimbledon winner Joshua Pim. For more details, please click Irish Times.

Charlene McKenna a winner in Monte Carlo TV Festival
McKnna was named Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series for her performance as a young mother in RTÉ Television's factually based drama 'Whistleblower'. For more details, please click RTE.

June 14
Pilgrims keep the faith as religious holidays flourish
It seems more and more people are putting their faith in God. According to Ireland’s leading tour operator, Joe Walsh Tours, pilgrimage holidays are becoming increasingly popular. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo credit: Pinoy Travel/Lourdes

Sextuplets 'are a gift from God'
Austin and Nuala Conway, the parents of Ireland's first set of sextuplets have said they were given the medical option to abort some of the foetuses. "But we knew without discussion what we both wanted." For more details, please click BBC.
Related Story: The Belfast Telegraph
Photo Credit: The Daily Dust - for illustration purposes only

No winner in Saturday nights Lotto drawing
That means the jackpot for Wednesday's game will be t least 5 Million Euro. But, as they say in Ireland, you can't win it if you're not in it. To play from the comfort of home, buy your ticket on line! Please click Irish Lottery.
Photo Credit: Cavendish Lottery/For illustration purposes only

Mystery winning ticket owner identified
The mystery winner of €350,000 in last Wednesday's lottery draw has been identified. 35-year-old Dermot Finglas from Drogheda was caught on CCTV as he left his winning ticket behind in a shop and forgot that he had bought it. For more details, please click RTE.

Green Dragon takes third place on Leg 8
It was celebrations onboard Green Dragon as they held onto a podium spot of the Volvo Ocean Race from Galway to Marstrand.This marks two successive podium finishes for the Dragon. For more details, please click RTE.

President launches mapped archive of Cork place names
The president has paid tribute to a Cork toponymist and his team of researchers on their achievement of compiling the first mapped archive of placenames for any county in Ireland. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Rootsweb

Street performers line out for contest of the bizarre
Betty Brawn, from Brisbane, Australia the "Strongest Lady Alive" carries US break dancers Anthony Rosa and William Sanchez on her back at the launch of the AIB Street Performance World Championship. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Frank Miller

June 13
Irish ticket wins €29m in Euromillions draw
In last night’s Euromillions jackpot draw, there were two winning tickets sharing the top prize of over €58 million. One was sold in Ireland and the other ticket was sold in the UK. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Herald

Aer Lingus’s New York route saved by Delta decision
The airline had been expected to announce yesterday that it was cutting the service but a decision by Delta to cease its service in October after 13 years made the airline rethink its plans. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: It's a Thrall World

General honoured on retirement
Hundreds of soldiers took part this morning in a farewell parade in Dublin for tLieutenant General Pat Nash who commanded European troops in Chad over the last 18 months. He is retiring after 45 years in the Defence Forces. For more details, please click RTE.

Derry principal awarded CBE Queen's birthday honours list
sabel McNally, from Fountain Primary School, was given the honour for her service to education. She was among 72 people who received honours. For more details, please click BBC.
Related Story: Belfast Telegraph


Forgot your €350k winning ticket?
It could be you! If you bought a quick pick lottery ticket in Drogheda on Wednesday afternoon and left it behind you on the counter, you could be €350,000 better off and not know it. For more details. please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Independent
ED. NOTE: Late breaking news: The mystery winner has been found. He is identified as Dermot Finglas Junior of Greenbatter in Drogheda.

Celebrating 90th anniversary of remarkable aviation feat
The world's only formation wingwalking squad, Team Guinot, will strut their stuff high over Connemara as they celebrate the first transAtlantic non-stop flight of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown who touched down in Clifden 90 years ago. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

Galway bakery to create new muffins for Tesco
Brogan’s Bakery, of Glenamaddy, Co Galway, hopes to create 15 jobs after landing the €14m contract with Tesco which involves creating four new types of muffin for 2000 stores across the UK. For more details, please click Irish World.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Galway News

June 12
Biggest drop in cost of living since 1933
According to figures released by the Central Statistics Office,
consumers are still paying more for insurance, alcohol and childcare but food, electricity, gas and rent prices have plunged over the last year. For more details, please click Irish Examiner.
Photo Credit: Free 'n Easy/For illustration purposes only

Aer Lingus cuts back on USA winter flights
The airline's direct services between Dublin and Washington and Dublin and San Francisco will stop from 25 October. Services between Shannon and Chicago will also be suspended over the winter period, from 1 September. For more details, please click BBC.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Irish Herald/Getty Images

Roll of honour for Irish WWII soldiers
More than 3,600 soldiers from the south of Ireland died on active service during WWII. Their names join those of almost 3,900 fallen combatants from Northern Ireland on a roll of honour being unveiled at Trinity College Dublin. For more details, please click BBC.

Cavan man Brady in US Nationals final action
David Chapman, regarded by many as the best handballer of his generation, and Paul Brady, the one who stole his champion crown, go head to head today in the Men's Open final at the US Nationals in California. For more details, please click RTE.


President praises important role of Cork Opera House
Its importance to the cultural and artistic life of the city was highlighted by President Mary McAleese at a gala to mark the completion of a €2.15 million refurbishment. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo credit: MacSweeney/Provision

'Quiet Man' myths examined in new book
Rituals, myths, and representations of gender in John Ford’s epic The Quiet Man are examined in a new book on the film published this week by two NUI Galway academics. For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit & Related Story: Liffey Press

Dolores quits Ireland so children won't face pressures of showbiz
Cranberries star Dolores O'Riordan has decided to quit Ireland for good.
The Limerick singer has revealed that she will shortly be leaving her plush Howth home and making a permanent move over to Canada. For more details, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Getty Images

June 11
Landmark country hotel sells for just a third of the price
Moyglare Manor in Maynooth, Co. Kildare, which has hosted guests such as Robert Redford and Hillary Clinton, was sold for €3.3m to a group of 10 Irish investors - €6.7m less than the original asking price. For more details, please click Irish Independent.

Irish defibrillator inventor to be honoured
A portrait of world famous heart doctor and war hero Professor Frank Pantridge by Belfast-based artist Martin Wedge will be unveiled at an event in the Canada Room at Queen's University. For more details, please click BBC.
Photo Credite: Heart Sine

West coast oil discovery is first in 30 years
Oil has been found off the west coast for the first time in over 30 years, a discovery which could spark a new rush of exploration drilling. The discovery was made by a small UK company Serica Energy, which was drilling for gas. For more details, please click Irish Independent.
Photo Credit: Wind Watcher

Historic coastguard cottages saved
Seven historic cottages used by coastguards on Antrim’s north coast almost 150 years ago were today saved from the wrecking ball. Officials will now carry out further research on the cottages’ significance with a view to obtaining permanent protection. For more details, please click Breaking News.
Photo Credit: Coleraine Historical Society. For illustration purposes only

Dublin-born Spanish Civil War volunteer honoured with citizenship
At the age of 96, Paddy Cochrane still burns with the passion that inspired him to sign up in the 1930s for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. “I regret nothing and would do it all over again if the opportunity arose.” For more details, please click Irish Times.
Photo Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Dublin youngsters plant city garden
hildren living in Dublin's inner city may soon be giving celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin a run for his money. Top horticulturalist Fiann O Nuallain has taken a number of youngsters under his wing to teach them about native plants in their own special city centre garden. For more on this news item, please click Irish Herald.
Photo Credit: Ray Cullen

Clannad singer to host music show in US
Clannad singer Moya Brennan is to host a major new series on Irish music for American TV.Sinéad O'Connor, Glen Hansard and the Chieftains are among the big names already lined up. For more details, please click Irish Tribune.
Photo credit: The Ark Cultural Centre for Children

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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