Journalist/Broadcaster/Author
Most of the travel articles and reviews here have been written for the Irish Times and Cara (the Aer Lingus in-flight magazine).
Brighton? Isn’t it full of spivs with ‘Kiss Me Quick’ hats tipped at a jaunty angle? Old habits die hard, as do old impressions handed down through a legacy of grainy, clichéd black’n’white movies and postcards, a world of working class civilians taking in the bracing sea air for a saucy weekend of single … Read more Weekend Break: Brighton, UK
Some chefs have reputations they don’t deserve; others definitely so, and when word got around that Jian Carlo – initially the pizza maker at County Louth, Drogheda’s La Pizzeria, when it opened about 25 years ago, and subsequently the owner/chef – was quite likely the grumpiest person ever to stand behind a food counter … Read more Review: La Pizzeria, Clogherhead, Co Louth
We have been to smaller restaurants but usually they’ve been located in much larger cities than Dublin; hideaways in side streets and alleyways in Paris and New York spring to mind, but we have yet to visit one as downright charming and quirky as Vintage Kitchen (which can seat, at an all-too obvious squeeze, 30 … Read more Review: Vintage Kitchen, Dublin
The first things you notice are the baseball caps. They hang down from the ceiling – over 3,000 of them – in neat rows, looking for all the world like multi-coloured bats. Hats from the locality, hats from around Ireland, hats from across the globe. Each hat has been donated by customers, who have … Read more Review: The Snail Box, Ashbourne, Co Meath
Born and bred Dubliner Eileen Dunne met Italian Stefan Crescenzi in the early 90s, married, moved to Dublin from Rome in 1995, and started stocking and selling fine Italian produce and wine from a tiny shop in Sutton, north of the city. In the late 90s, the husband and wife team opened up their city … Read more Review: Dunne & Crescenzi, Dublin
Whether paying customers know it or not, some restaurants have a lot of memories attached to them. Your reviewer, for example, recalls spending more time in the Winding Stair second-hand bookshop/coffee bar throughout the 80s and 90s than was good for the bank balance. Your reviewer, also, is very much aware that part … Read more Review: The Winding Stair Restaurant, Dublin
Santiago de Compostela, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984 and Galicia’s greenest city, is a place of pilgrimage for many people – the discovery of the body of the Apostle James transformed this city into the most important focus of religious worship in Europe during the Middle Ages. These days, many thousands of people … Read more City Break: Santiago De Compostela
Think Turkey and you automatically think of the summer tourism resorts of Bodrum, Antalya, Marmaris, Fethiye and Alanya – just several of the hot spots that pepper the Aegean shores. It was far from these resorts I experienced when I arrived in Turkey some years back as part of an international delegation of journalists … Read more Travel/Adventure: Turkey