Musings, ramblings and thought provoking articles from our team of talented writers - all views expressed are their own!
Theach Mhucrois is the Irish name for Muckross House which is a Tudor-style mansion situated near Killarney, Ireland. It was built in the 19th century for Henry Arthur Herbert and his wife Mary Balfour Herbert. Henry was an affluent politician in the British Parliament. He was Anglo-Irish which put him in a very favorable social […]
Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery has long been on the itinerary of tourists who are real history buffs, but in recent years the famous graveyard has gone out of its way to be more accessible and appealing to visitors. It is home to the remains of more than a million Dubliners, including many who shaped Ireland’s political […]
Killarney House was a vision and quite a good one. The landscape surrounding the area was such a treasure that the then Earl of Kenmare decided to build a large property in the vicinity of Lough Leane. The result would be Killarney House. Lough Leane stands for ” the lake of learning” and is the largest […]
This Halloween there will be an army of princesses hitting the streets in search of sweets, with no small number of witches and ghosts and ballerinas joining them. Fairies, butterflies and a fair representation of the animal kingdom will be out as well. But if you have a little girl who wants to embrace a […]
Brigid is a famed mythological goddess of the Celts with not just one key attribute but three distinct ways in which she ruled the ways. Her skills were in healing physical ails, poetry and smithcraft. This would make her the perfect goddess symbol for Shanore, for she would have appreciated the fine metal working that […]
In-laws are the butt of many jokes, but most of us are just annoyed by a few quirks and perhaps some unwelcome advice about housekeeping or child rearing. Few in-laws really live up (or down!) to the jokes, but one Irish wife found herself amid a trio of brothers so dysfunctional the family found itself […]
Although Newgrange’s spectacular display at the winter solstice gets all the attention, it isn’t the only astrological event or the only amazing prehistoric cairn in the Boyne Valley. Tuesday, 23rd September was the autumn equinox, the period when the day and night are equally long. Perhaps it gets less attention because we generally dread the […]
Anyone who has ever been remotely involved in planning a wedding can attest to the stress involved these days. The happy couple can get quite tense worrying about all those details. What if the cake is decorated wrong? What if the invitations have a typo? What if the flowers get wilted? What if Uncle Shay […]
At first glance, there is not much mystery about who the Vikings who invaded Ireland were. They settled here, intermarried with the locals, had a profound influence on Irish life and left hoards of artifacts including weapons, tools and jewelry. The National Museum of Ireland has one of the best collections of Viking artifacts from […]
Brian O’Nolan (aka Flann O’Brien) declared the pint of plain as your only man in his famous verse The Workman’s Friend, which is in his 1939 novel At Swim Two Birds. And the classic pint of Guinness has long been iconic. The Guinness Storehouse at St. James’s Gate on the quays of the River Liffey […]
