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Category Archives: Tourist reviews
A slow news way – the art of sending postcards
Despite their much-heralded demise, wherever you go, you’ll always enter at least one shop during your holiday that sells postcards. People must be still buying them. Who bothers these days, you ask, when images or information about anywhere is readily … Continue reading
Postcard from a Tuscan vineyard
The Chianti region of Tuscany seems the natural choice of oenophiles for vineyard visits in sun-soaked Tuscany. But in the province of Grosseto there’s an alternative map of cantine. When we ring Rooca di Montemassi, a wine producing farm near … Continue reading
Shedding light on the bank with few windows
For most visitors traversing Dublin’s city centre, the building opposite the main Trinity College entrance is striking for its smooth granite exterior and alcoves where windows might have stood. Tourists discover that it’s a bank, formerly ‘Grattan’s Parliament’. Yet it … Continue reading
Going to print, over time
For almost two thousand years, man has printed on wood. Each written language transcends boundaries and time, bound by a unique code of letters, numbers and symbols, and materials that connect pages of the printed word. The printing presses and … Continue reading
Capital gains
When a visitor reaches the top of Dame Street, the tourist attractions suggest an area of the city that once possessed great power and prestige. Dublin Castle, administrative centre of British rule in Ireland, stands near Christ Church, Ireland’s most … Continue reading
Six of the best at Christmas
If you find yourself in Dublin on one of these dark, damp, but cheerful evenings before Christmas, you might discover some large groups marauding through the city streets, bedecked in retro Christmas jumpers. Some may be singing and roaring. Others … Continue reading
Tower power
The return of the Dublin Book Festival this weekend reminds one of Dublin’s most famous novel, Ulysses, and its iconic landmark. James Joyce only stayed there for five and a half nights, yet no other home has become so synonymous … Continue reading
Posted in Tourist reviews
Tagged Forty Foot, James Joce Tower and Museum, James Joyce, Sandycove
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Keeping the best for the guests
Have you ever wondered how the Irish State ensures its official symbol is never confused with the Guinness icon? Did you know that when Ireland gained independence in 1922 over half of government revenue was derived from the Guinness family’s … Continue reading
Posted in Tourist reviews
Tagged Benjamin Iveagh Library, Farmleigh, Guinness family, Phoenix Park
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Getting back to the books
The days are getting shorter, the students are back in school or college, and tourists are looking for somewhere warm. Among the top ten, most visited, free attractions in Ireland last year was the Chester Beatty Library, and maybe now … Continue reading
Ireland's Eye 