The Irish Open, which has taken place over the past four days, despite the rain, attracted over 100,000 spectators to the magnificent Royal Portrush.
The crowds were hoping for an Irish winner on the last day and were willing on Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, Darren Clare, Graeme McDowell and Pádriag Harrington to take the title.
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3. The Castles
From restored masterpieces to untouched gems, Ireland has plenty to offer when it comes to castles. They are plenty of castles scattered around the country but the most famous would be Blarney Castle in Blarney, County Cork (where you can kiss the Blarney Stone), Ross Castle in Killarney, County Kerry and St. John’s Castle in County Limerick.
2. The Festivals
We won’t go into too much detail on this one because we cover this area so heavily in other posts. Ireland has countless well-known festivals covering music, sport, art, film and literature.
The Earagail Arts Festival is a bilingual – Irish and English language – arts festival that takes place throughout County Donegal. Now in its 24th year, the festival will take place between 7th and 22nd July 2012.
Situated only 20 minutes from Cork city and on a direct road from the airport, Kinsale is the gateway to West Cork. This delightful harbour town with its narrow winding streets, colourful quaint houses and rich history and culture proves very popular with tourists on vacation in Ireland. Nestled in West Cork, Kinsale is known as the gourmet capital of Ireland and has some of the premier eateries and gourmet festivals in Ireland.
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Kinsale is a town steeped in history and colour and a popular tourist destination. Kinsale was the battlefield site where the English forces defeated an Irish/Spanish force in 1601.
Charles Fort, which is a now a popular location for events, dates back to 1677. Charles Fort is a fortification that guards the entrance to Kinsale harbour – naturally it was built to protect the harbour from enemy attacks from France and Spain. On the other side of the cove you will find James’s Fort near the Castlepark peninsula. Continue reading
From the 27th July to the 5th August, the popular tourist destination of Killarney will be the place to be as its annual SummerFest takes place. A festival programme packed of events for all the family and a fantastic range of outdoor pursuits set amongst the picturesque lakes, hills, valleys and mountains of Killarney.
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This weekend in Wexford, thousands of visitors are expected to attend the two day festival to commemorate one of its most famous sons, Commodore John Barry, the founder of the American Navy.
Wexford-born Captain John Barry offered his services to George Washington at the beginning of the American Revolution in the support of liberty and independence.
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Beginning in 1978, the Galway Arts Festival has become the largest international arts festival. Galway city is an old one where you will find streets, squares and waterways dating back to medieval times. It is located on and was located on the west coast of Ireland – making it the perfect county to host an arts festival.
The Festival spans across a variety of genres from around the world and the Irish talent and includes music genres such as popular, contemporary, jazz, world, classical and traditional. Theatre, visual arts, dance, talks, discussions, family events and comedy are also heavily represented.
Dublin will soon get a new restaurant, as top celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is set to open a new Italian themed restaurant this autumn in Dundrum Town Centre, creating approximately 75 new jobs for local people to join their team of chefs and front of house staff.
Oliver, who opened the Taste of Dublin festival last weekend at Iveagh Gardens, has a great fondness for Dublin City, and his team are indentifying food suppliers and producers as they look to source lots of Irish produce for the new restaurant.
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For Ireland there was very little to celebrate at Euro 2012 but despite losing the game and coming last in their group one of the players had something to celebrate – a personal milestone.
Damien Duff won his 100th cap for Ireland last night against the Italians. The Dublin born winger made his debut in 1998 against the Czech Republic alongside Robbie Keane and has 8 international goals to his name. Arguably, Duff’s talent has never been tested to the max on the world stage despite successful club football. However, Duff caught the world’s attention in 2002 thanks to his World Cup display in 2002 at Korea and Japan.
