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DoChara's Ireland Blog: Ireland For Visitors
Random Writings about Ireland and the Irish
Shop around - there are bargains out there
Sunday, July 6 2008
We are apparantly staring recession in the face. Food and fuel prices are soaring, jobless numbers are rising, nobody is buying property and visitor numbers are down. It's all doom and gloom, or is it? Not if you are one of those somewhat rarer... [More]
Great Idea or Pie in the Sky?
Thursday, August 2 2007
A cable car high over the River Liffey connecting Hueston Station and the Docklands, giving tourists panoramic views over the whole city. That's the proposal that a private consortium have submitted for planning approval. They are apparantly planning... [More]
Is this the best value in a restaurant in Ireland?
Thursday, August 2 2007
Finding good value in Irish restaurants can be a bit of a thankless task. For sure the food on offer has vastly improved, but it often comes with a very high price attached. So Key Largo in Kilkenny, where I ate yesterday evening, is a rare gem that... [More]
Vikings Return to Dublin
Monday, July 2 2007
On the 14th of August this year, if all goes well, a Viking longship will sail with its crew up the River Liffey and into Dublin. On this occasion the people of Dublin be out with flags, music and a very friendly welcome, quite a different reaction to... [More]
Holidaymakers Come, but Mostly They Go
Tuesday, June 19 2007
For the first time people leaving Ireland for a holiday abroad exceeded the number arriving here on vacation, according to figures released to-day by the Central Statistics Office (PDF). Apparently 1.47 million people visited Ireland, up 6% on the same... [More]
12 Things to do in Ireland
Thursday, May 17 2007
Hopping from one tourist attraction to the next, in the company of other visitors, is not a good way to experience any country. This list is not about famous place, just suggestions for some things to do in Ireland that will make for fascinating experiences... [More]
Why I Love Kilkenny
Monday, April 30 2007
I came to Kilkenny 21 years ago last month, taking a job I intended to stay in for a year or so before moving on. My plan then was to eventually settle somewhere with a view of the sea, close to Dublin and all its theatres, galleries, shops and... [More]
Too much of a Good Thing?
Thursday, April 26 2007
A friend of mine just won a weekend away at a luxury spa hotel in Ireland. Another person I know won a similar prize two weeks ago and I won a day at a hotel spa last month. Remarkable co-incidence? No, it's just that there are so many of these... [More]
Cheaper Transatlantic Flights to Ireland
Wednesday, April 18 2007
When Ryanair express their intention to enter any market, the incumbants had better sit up and listen. Over the last 10 years their no-frills bargain flights, mainly to secondary airports, have seen them grow from a small regional airline to one of Europe's... [More]
Around Dublin by Bike
Wednesday, April 11 2007
Visitors to Dublin this year will have a new option for getting around the city - a rickshaw! Far from the traditional kind, these are Velotaxis - sleek, modern machines, built to be ecologically friendly, safe and fun to travel in. They are already... [More]
Sell out? I'll pass on that thanks
Tuesday, April 10 2007
Success, even in a small way, brings strange things in its wake and not just nasty emails. This site isn't exactly a world beater, but it has certainly grown far more popular than I ever imagined it would. Which occasionally raises interesting... [More]
The Streets of Dublin
Monday, April 9 2007
Browse through Flickr on any Ireland related subject and you are sure to come across photographs by William Murphy, aka infomatique. He is engaged in a fascinating and ambitious project to create a photographic record of the Streets of Dublin and... [More]
The Burlington Hotel is Sold
Tuesday, April 3 2007
It's really not just a hotel the Burlington, it's an institution and for both Dubliners and regular visitors to the city it has been a meeting place, a home from home and a centre of social life for years. The cast of characters... [More]
No Smoking - Three Years Later
Tuesday, April 3 2007
Time was when an evening in an Irish pub meant a dense smoky atmosphere and smelly clothes the following morning. When the smoking ban was introduced just over 3 years ago it seemed incomprehensible that it would actually work, that pubs would have... [More]
St Patrick wouldn't recognise it!
Saturday, March 17 2007
I remember just about very St Patrick's Day of my childhood as being spent standing in the rain watching marching bands, American majorettes with legs blue from the cold and lorries bearing fairly tacky commerical 'floats'... [More]
Same Old Dublin, Different View
Tuesday, February 20 2007
Last Saturday I boarded an early train from Kilkenny, heading off with my 8 year old to spend the day in Dublin. I lived there for half my life, I know it extremely well, and if I'm in Dublin these days it's generally for... [More]
Cliffs of Moher Centre is Open
Thursday, February 8 2007
Well, to-day Bertie cut the ribbon on the new Cliffs of Moher 'Visitor Experience', and the cliffs are now officially and comprehensively commercialised. I have not exactly been a raving fan of the whole concept of an Interpretive Centre... [More]
Speeding You Back to the Airport
Friday, January 26 2007
It's not that we are keen to see visitors leave you understand, but the opening of a new bypass around the town of Ennis will see them on the way from Galway to their flight in Shannon Airport in a greatly reduced time. For years... [More]
Proof: Good value good food is possible
Thursday, January 18 2007
Dnugarvan in Waterford isn't a place that gets vast amounts of tourists but lot's of Irish people make what is a virtual pilgrimage there to eat at the justly famed Tannery Restaurant. If you want a special evening with excellent food... [More]
Discovering another Ireland
Monday, May 22 2006
I am just back from a 2 week holiday a few days of which I spent happily exploring a part of Ireland I had never visited before, the area around the Ards Peninsula in Co Down. It's something of a secret this area - known and loved by many who live... [More]
I'm no friend to Kerry, apparently
Tuesday, January 10 2006
The results of our survey, the Best and Worst of Ireland, have caused quite a stir. This week I have spoken about it on several local radio stations and answered queries from a number of local newspapers, but nowhere has the interest been more keen than... [More]
Eating Scenery
Saturday, October 1 2005
Years ago, I hesitate to say how many, I worked for a time in the South Galway/North Clare area in a job that brought me into regular contact with local farmers on their land. I recall pausing on one particularly gorgeous late Spring day to look at a... [More]
Thank goodness for Irish Weather!
Friday, September 23 2005
With the media camped in the Gulf Coast region of the USA, where the weather really is a huge issue with terrible tragedy associated with it, we have good reason to be thankful for the kind of weather we get in Ireland. It may be grey and miserable for... [More]
Sweet Dreams
Saturday, July 23 2005
Statistics just released reveal that stays in B&Bs are down almost 20%. Not long ago this was a booming sector of the accommodation market in Ireland, so what went wrong? There are excellent B&Bs in Ireland, ones that I am happy to recommend... [More]
Wild, elemental, exhilarating and ....... indoors?
Wednesday, July 6 2005
Have you been to the Cliffs of Moher? If you live in or have ever visited Ireland the answer is probably yes, more than 750,000 people a year visit them. On a sunny day there is nowhere more lovely and the views out to sea and over the Aran Islands to... [More]
Don't make us hate you!
Wednesday, June 22 2005
We get lots of tourists in Ireland, almost 3.5 million of them in 2004. Every May it's like a flock of migratory birds return, taking up residence in our towns and cities, filling the streets, hotels and pubs until mid-September when they fly away... [More]
Rescuing Tourists
Sunday, June 19 2005
I seem to have developed a little side line in rescuing lost tourists this past few days! This evening I drove down to the shop to buy milk and there met a German couple who were becoming distraught, having spent almost an hour looking for the B&B... [More]
Don't visit Ireland....
Tuesday, June 7 2005
.... just yet. At least not if you are planning a once in a lifetime trip. Wait. Go to the Caribbean this year, leave Ireland for another time. Now, before the Irish Tourist Board read this and dispatch hit-men, I'd better explain myself fast!... [More]
Ireland of the (conditional) Welcomes
Sunday, May 22 2005
Ireland is lucky on the tourism front. For a small country with mostly horrible weather, architecture that is not a patch on other countries in Europe, a lousy transport infrastructure and an out of the way location we have done very well. Sure we have... [More]
Tipping Here and There
Tuesday, April 12 2005
It was announced today that from May 1st the minimum wage in Ireland will be increased to €7.65 an hour. For American readers that is about $9.80 per hour. I mention this because it reminded me of an evening during a recent trip to the USA when... [More]
