Eager to dispel the notion that there’s nothing to do in Cork, a number of key, local tourism providers have come together to help the people of Cork to re-discover their home county. Mary O’ Keeffe spoke with one of the people behind this new project, Stephen Ryan from Fota Wildl... read

The recession has had a dramatic impact right across the Irish economy and nowhere has the fallout been more dramatic than in the tourism sector. In a grim report on the performance of tourism in 2009, Failte Ireland confirmed what many employers in the sector already knew; 2009 was bad, v... read

When Cork songwriter, Niall Connolly, poked his begging letter to Santa Claus up the chimney of his New York home a couple of weeks back, he wasn’t asking for much. ‘A publishing deal and five songs on the new Twilight soundtrack’. Surely not an outrageous request for the bearded r... read

Sandra O’Mahoney rose just after midnight at basecamp on Kilimanjaro, ready to begin the final trek to the summit. Except she wasn’t really ready at all. Despite the minus 20˚ temperatures, she felt hot and began to take off her gloves and hat. Altitude sickness was finally kicking in b... read

A group of humanitarian activists from Cork are set to drive a Red Cross ambulance 4,000 miles across Europe and the Middle East to assist the inhabitants of Gaza who they see as being ‘under seige’ for nearly a year now.
The group have been fundraising for several months and were g... read

Ireland's rocking rip off: It seems not a week goes past these days without a major rock group or pop star playing to sell out crowds right here in Ireland.

From our own U2 to Beyonce; from Oasis and Blur to Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen or Tom Jones, chances are that ... read

As introductions to countries go, being met at airport arrivals by a TV crew wanting an interview in Chinese can not be at the top of the list. I had been travelling for more than twenty hours and was a bit stumped by the first question: “How do you feel about being in Beijing”; g... read

“Buen Camino!” the old man trumpets, rattling your senses. And your reply is lost as he rat-tat-tats his pleasantries and shoots you a Camino tale from his youth. Each syllable punched, he strides past with uncanny fluidity. He’s seen thousand’s of you, and he’ll see pl... read

Sealdah train station, Kolkata, 2am: The Hope Foundation’s Night Watch ambulance eases its way through the crowds towards the main entrance of this huge, benign building. Millions of people every year arrive and depart from Kolkata from this point. Combined with its sister station, Howhra, ... read

When I first heard of the Hope Foundation’s plans to walk the beaches of Goa, India, in mid-April with a hearty bunch of Irish walkers, I figured that they had gone a little bonkers. By April, the climatic rise towards the monsoon is well underway with temperatures hitting forty degrees and al... read