We girls, six of us, had a really fun night on Thursday June 21, Midsummer, glamping in the new tents at Dromquinna Manor.  Arriving by high speed RIB from Kenmare it was  an exciting start to our adventure.  The weather was a bit wet, but hey, the sound of the rain on the canvas was lovely.  So were the beds, proper comfortable hotel beds with luxury linens and hotties if we needed them.  

At Taste of Dublin, the organisation TastingSpain.com brought three chefs from Lanzarote, San Sebastian and Cambrils to share some of their favourite recipes with vistors.  There was also wines from the various regions.  It was a lovely event and well attended.  There was plenty of food for everyone to taste and certainly gave everyone an urge to go to Spain. 

I was on the Marian Finucane Show on Saturday June 9, and was talking about travel by train for holidays.  I covered a very extensive range of trips from Ireland alway to Beijing and Australia.  You can listen back on http://www.rte.ie/radio1/marianfinucane/  and I have put my notes here under Articles, where you will also find a feature I wrote about my trip on the Blue Train in South Africa. 

Carlingford saw an invasion, yet again, when Queen Maeve's army marched over the mountain into the village looking for the Brown Bull of Cooley.  On the village green the two heroes, Cuchulainn and Ferdia fought it out in front of the army and villagers to much merriment.  A far cry from the original event many hundreds of years ago.  

Welcome to United UA127 which arrived in Dublin this morning just a few minutes late.  This  is the first direct service from Washington Dulles Airport to Dublin and will be welcomed by business, politicians and holidaymakers.  It was a very pleasant ceremoney this morning with the DAA's Oliver Cussen, Bob Schumacher of United, Minister for Transport and Tourism Dr. Varadker and the US Ambassador, Dan Rooney all making welcoming speeches.   The Ambassador was then taking the flight back to Washington today - the service will make his life a lot easier now.  I met some J1 students in the departiure area who were delighted to discover that they would be on the inaugural flight.  They were also happy to share the champagne and pastries. 
From Your House to the White House - an excellent catch phrase.  Good luck United.

The Bavaria City Racing came to Dublin with a showcase of F1 and high performance cars and bikes.  The weather was terrible, wet, windy and miserable.  The displays by the cars and bikes were fantastic and it was amazing to see so many high performance vehicles in one place.  However, it did bring the city to a standstill and how much business did it disrupt.  Did city centre businesses know that the racing would virtually lock down the city centre from Saturday evening (after the Firemen's Parade - and who knew about that) to Monday morning?  How many people were stuck trying to get taxis in the lashing rain?  And how many taxis lost business on Saturday night by not knowing  what bridges and streets were closed?  The event management was good, even impressive, the racing displays were fantastic, but the interface of communication between punters, businesses and citizens of the city fell down.