THE BEST OF COUNTY CORK – RING OF BEARA

September 22, 2021.Reading time 45 minutes.

I’ve romanticised the Beara Peninsula ever since watching Deirdre Purcell’s Falling for a Dancer with the gorgeous Liam Cunningham many years ago – for him I’d forsake the city and go live in the wilds!!! Whilst familiar with the major tourist sites at the ‘mainland’ end, I’d never ventured out along the peninsula itself – […]

PULL UP A SEAT PHOTO CHALLENGE 2021: #22

May 28, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

A PHOTO CHALLENGE OF PLACES WE SIT…OR MIGHT SIT…OR ART ABOUT SITTING This is a set of prisoner weighing scales in Spike Island Prison, Cork, Ireland. Dating from the late 1800’s, they represent a shift in penal policy towards reform rather than punishment. Prisoners were weighed upon arrival and again when they were being discharged […]

The Best of County Cork – Healy Pass

November 4, 2020.Reading time 9 minutes.

Fancy getting away from it all for a while? – I mean REALLY getting away from it all. Then you will love it up here! You’ll be forgiven for thinking at times that you’ve actually left the planet – this is a desolate, harsh landscape but stunning in its bleakness. A mere 13 km in […]

The Best of County Cork – Garnish Island

October 28, 2020.Reading time 21 minutes.

Just picture Ireland’s west coast – bleak rugged landscape, windswept rock, wild Atlantic Ocean and next stop the USA. The last thing you’d expect is a paradise island with magnificent gardens and lush exotic trees, shrubs and flowers. Throw in a Greek temple and an Italian villa and you’re convinced that you’ve fallen into a […]