Tots to Teens: Bugs and beasties for nature lovers
These interactive events start tomorrow, July 23, and continue weekly until August 27.
First up is a 'Biodiversity — Bugs & Beasties', which will introduce children to the bugs and creatures found in various habitats in the gardens.
Next is the 'Budding Botanist', which will involve an expedition through the gardens and learning how to identify and collect various plant specimens.
They will then press these plants in a flower press that they construct themselves.
The third event is 'Pond Dipping', which will teach children about the weird and wonderful diversity of insects that live in and around the ponds in the gardens.
The fourth event is the 'Bird Safari', during which the bird author Glynn Anderson will bring children on a guided walk through the gardens, pointing out all the different birds he spots along the way.
There's another 'Biodiversity — Bugs & Beasties' event on August 20 and a 'Budding Botanist' one on August 27.
All of these tours are suitable for children aged eight and up. Tickets, €5, can be booked online via eventbrite.ie.
Woodies fundraiser
Woodies' Heroes.
Woodie's has announced the return of Woodie's Heroes, its annual fundraiser in aid of Irish children's charities.
The DIY, home and garden store has held this fundraiser since 2015 and has raised over €4.1m in that time.
This year, the Woodie's Heroes campaign will run from now until August 9, and every cent raised will be donated to Childline by ISPCC, Down Syndrome Ireland, Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland, and the Cancer Fund for Children.
Supporting the campaign is easy. All you have to do is donate at the till in any Woodie's store or contribute online at donate.ie/event/woodiesheroes251.
Adventuring in Ireland
My Irish Adventure
My Irish Adventure is a great book to pack in the suitcase if you're planning on taking a trip anywhere in Ireland this summer.
It was written by five-year-old Eoghan Corrigan and his mum Carol, and reading it will encourage children to discover more of what this country has to offer.
The book follows Eoghan as he journeys across Ireland. Each page is devoted to a different county and features colourful illustrations as well as Eoghan's favourite facts about that particular part of the country.
On the page devoted to Cork, for example, he mentions the Blarney Stone, Cobh and its association with the Titanic and how Spike Island was once the world's biggest depot for convicts.
My Irish Adventure is widely available and costs from €10.
Summer schooling
Top of the Class
The Irish summer can be hit or miss weather-wise. One minute, the kids are happy playing outdoors in the sunshine. The next torrential rain can force them back indoors, where they are likely to complain of having nothing to do.
The 'Top of the Class' board game is a great thing to have on hand when such complaints arise.
It's an Irish general knowledge and trivia game suitable for all ages from six and up.
To win, participants must answer questions based on English, maths, history, science, geography and general knowledge they will have learned at school. They must also avoid hazards, handle the principal's instructions, and pass their summer tests.
This board game can be purchased from topoftheclassgame.ie for €34.95.
M&S back-to-school
It's never too early to plan for the children's return to school, especially if there are special offers available.
Marks & Spencer has announced that it is keeping its prices locked at 2021 levels for another year and is currently offering 20% off its back-to-school range.
Parents can now avail of deals like two cotton unisex polo shirts for €6. Offer lasts for a limited time only.
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Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Donegal and Kerry showcase football's Wild Atlantic Way
Eleven years ago, the same year both Donegal and Kerry previously contested an All-Ireland final, the Wild Atlantic Way route was launched. On a comparatively shoestring budget, Fáilte Ireland had to come up with an initiative to rebrand the splendour of the west coast in the hope of boosting a tourism industry still reeling from the economic crisis. Then chief executive Shaun Quinn went back to his homeplace in Raphoe in Donegal and conjured up the phrase. The wave-shaped acronym that became the logo followed and after that it was a case of agreeing on the route. Launched in April 2014, it was initially deemed gimmicky. The rusty stop signs were maligned as eyesores and the new road signs dismissed as the proverbial lick of paint. By the time Donegal and Kerry faced off that September, the sneering and cynicism was on the wane. Hotels in counties like Donegal were reporting bookings up by as much as 40%. Last year, it was revealed the Wild Atlantic Way has led to a 58% increase in revenue, which now totals €3 billion per annum. Not bad for giving a new name to something that was already there. Finn MacDonnell, owner of the famous Dick Mack's pub in Dingle, told this newspaper last year its creator should 'be given a trophy'. Aisling Arnold-Kelly, owner of Arnolds Hotel in Dunfanaghy reported the promotion was transformational for her business. 'We were opening on St Patrick's Day and closing after Halloween,' she told the Irish Times. 'As a result of the Wild Atlantic Way, we are now open six months full-time and five days a week in the off-season, from November to February…' A lot of what the Football Review Committee (FRC) started 10 years on from Fáilte Ireland's great marketing campaign can be likened to the Wild Atlantic Way. The product is still the product, football remains football as FRC chairman Jim Gavin had intended, but the packaging is a damn sight better. In almost every GAA field in the country, the FRC's lick of paint has amounted to two partly-elliptical arcs and a dotted halfway line. The skill of a long-range point has been flagged literally and figuratively. The quick free is quicker in the form of the solo-and-go. If the 2,500km route from Kinsale to Malin Head fuels nostalgia for ex-pats and second and third generation Irish about the old sod, the four back, three up restrictions is a nod to how the game used to be played. Like the paintings of Paul Henry and postcards of John Hinde that sold the idea of Ireland as a destination in the early half of the 20th century, there is romance to the rules. The allure of empty space as portrayed by those artists is what the FRC have advertised to footballers. Gavin may be a self-proclaimed fan of 'east coast football' but within the parameters he and his group have set, the west are this year's winners. The tropes about Donegal being too wedded to their running game because of their geography and their management's allegiance to it has been disproven by their progress under these new game conditions because they have excellent kickers. To a lesser extent, Kerry's presence in this final is notable when they seemed for a large part of the season to be slower than most to catch the hang of two-pointers, a point Jim McGuinness referenced after Donegal's All-Ireland semi-final. Both have moved with the times. The aggregate 27 points, the 2-21, the pair accumulated between themselves in the 2014 All-Ireland final could be matched or surpassed by half-time on Sunday. It's inflation but, unlike what those holidaying in Ireland are experiencing, it's the good kind. Just as the ruggedness of the west has been re-imagined, the GAA have realised that when you rebrand it, they will come. Novelty or not, attendances were up 21% for this year's group stages compared to last. Crowds for the 13 knock-out matches will exceed 430,000 and could be as much as 23% higher than 2024. That's not to say the fare from the preliminary quarter-finals has been great. It's been pretty underwhelming, in fact, after some electric group matches. The average winning margin has been 7.8 points compared to the group stages where the average gap was 5.6. Consequently, there is some pressure on Sunday's final to showcase all the good that the FRC has brought to the game before the permanency of the rules are voted on in early October, but finals are often fraught affairs and it's been six years since a stone-cold classic was delivered on this stage. But it doesn't need to be wonderful to establish that the tweaks have been a success. As those living in the Donegal and Kerry beauty spots on the Wild Atlantic Way can testify, a shower is never too far away.
Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Getting to Ireland's UNESCO treasure Skellig Michael was like a Star Wars saga
There's a case to be made that Maureen Sweeney was the most important Irish person in history. If you don't know, Maureen was the Kerry weather woman who won the war. Her innate west of Ireland grasp of isobars and wind directions saved the D-Day landings from being one of history's most spectacular military catastrophes. Without Maureen's weather forecast from Blacksod Bay in Co Mayo in June 1944, the invasion and liberation of Europe would have crashed and burned and, as the gag goes, we'd all be speaking German. If we were, we would probably be speaking a lot about 'Das Wetter' appropriately enough - or the Weather if you prefer. It's our one true national conversation. And recently it has become my mild obsession and the reason I found myself sitting in a Killarney hotel room earlier this month channelling my inner Maureen Sweeney. In recent weeks I had become a citizen forecaster, looking up wind speeds, 'falling slowly' pressure systems and high tides. The madness is fuelled by another slight obsession. In the morning I'm due to embark on my fourth attempt to set foot on Ireland's mystical national treasure island, Skellig Michael. The Skelligs have long held an allure. The two islands form the jagged edge of Europe and are among the most breathtaking landscapes on earth. Skellig Michael also has a rich human story dating back over a thousand years to a group of mad monks who somehow decided it was the perfect place to build one of the most unlikely settlements in human history. A modern equivalent might be setting up home on Pluto. The islands also provide a sanctuary for 80,000 gannets and a haven for one of nature's rock stars, the Puffin. A puffin guards its nest on Skellig Michael (Image: Irish Mirror) For centuries their mystique has captured the imagination of poets, artists, storytellers and moviemakers. Most recently as a location in the Star Wars saga. But if the monks found it hard to get there in the 6th century, my own pilgrimage has honoured their perseverance - not to mention the islands' recent movie heritage. Episode I: In 2017 a first attempt fell foul of a ticket sellout. Just 180 people can land on Skellig a day from May to September. Episode II: Last summer we stayed for three days in the village of Portmagee, the gateway to the Skelligs, our landing tickets secured well in advance. But on the morning of our departure a two-metre Atlantic swell made docking on the small island jetty treacherous. We headed out in hope but by the time we crossed the 12 kilometres to Skellig Michael the OPW had closed the island. Episode III: Having booked again this summer I opened my email inbox one morning to see I had been snared in the phantom menace of a High Court injunction. My boat operator was one of two that had been refused a licence for the season, sparking a legal battle which stopped all access for several weeks. Episode IV: Not to be deterred, I rebooked with a company that did have a licence. The court injunction eventually lifted like an Atlantic front. And so now here I was sitting in a Killarney hotel room ready to embark in a few hours. Then another email landed. It darkly warned of a high tide that meant the OPW was leaving any decision on opening the island until 10am tomorrow.. Following a restless night's sleep I awoke to grey skies and sheets of west Kerry rain. I drove the 75 minutes to Portmagee but about 10 minutes out another e-mail dropped: 'Unfortunately today's landing tour has been cancelled by the OPW as conditions at the island are not good enough for visitors.' Skellig Michael (Image: PA Photo/Nick McAvaney) With a mood as black as the rain I parked and strolled down to the harbour to look uselessly at the boats. By chance, or fate, the boatman from my cancelled crossing was also there. He looked disconsolate too. If cancelled crossings are frustrating to tourists, they can be existential to those whose livelihoods depend on them. But when he discovered I was a 'party of one' he brightened and said, 'I've one spare seat tomorrow and looking at the forecast we will 100 percent be going, do you want it?' One hundred percent eh? By now I had learned that was no such thing when playing poker with the Atlantic. A quick conflab back to my Killarney HQ confirms the other half has no problem spending another day in the spa or around the town. So I book again for the next day. Episode V. Later that evening I've got mail again: 'Tomorrow's landing tour is… GOING AHEAD AS PLANNED (I added the Trumpian all caps). The following morning I am back on the road to Portmagee, casting anxious looks at the sky and the clock as I drive. Then, rounding a Ring of Kerry bend outside Caherciveen, the traffic suddenly grinds to a halt. Garda checkpoint. I run through a quick panicked checklist to remind myself I'm not wanted by the law and haven't had a drink in about 12 hours. Irish island made famous by Star Wars is under attack by drones The bored Garda stares quizzically at the windscreen. 'Your tax?' 'Yeah?' 'It's two months out of date.' Now, to anyone who knows my approach to the 'to do' list, this is akin to Noddy Holder forgetting 'It's Christmas'. But somehow he's right. No tax. I laugh ruefully thinking he is going to impound me here 10 miles from my destiny. He must see the uncomprehending look on my face. In the manner of Obi Wan Kenobi, my air seems to persuade him I am not the lawbreaker he is looking for today. I'm sent on my way with the instruction to get it sorted. A short while later I'm back on the pier in Portmagee where the atmosphere has transformed since yesterday. Boatmen are busy checking equipment and tickets. Excited tourists from all across the globe are realising their numbers have come up in this little Skellig lottery. It is the first sailing in five days. And one of few at all so far this troubled season. We set out from the harbour and within minutes are past the shelter offered by the rugged Iveragh peninsula. After around 40 minutes the jagged beauty of the Small Skellig lies before us. OPW reveal its most popular tourist attractions in Ireland The sky is dark with swooping gannets and furiously flapping puffins. It's an opera of natural sound that confirms you are now far from what Samuel Beckett called the 'fatuous clamour' of the world. A few minutes later our boat is bobbing in front of Skellig Michael itself -a shock of green vegetation on sheer cliffs after the blackness of its little sibling. Then, after several years and five attempts, just like that we are docked and ashore. We begin the pilgrims' climb up the 600 feet and 618 steps to the monastery which sits in the shelter of one of the island's two towering peaks. There is a climb of 618 steps to the monastery at the top of Skellig Michael (Image: Irish Mirror) Despite warnings, I've no difficulty with the arduousness of the climb. Mostly as it's impossible not to stop every three steps to take in the 360-degree beauty around you. There is also the distracting sense that the hills are literally alive. Inches from your face on the plunging slopes there are nesting puffins everywhere. And hidden beneath the defiant foliage that clings to the rock are their constantly cooing chicks. There are so many that the island surface literally seems to breathe and murmur. This stairway to the heavens that follows in the footsteps of the monks is not for the faint of heart. You will need your head for heights. At the dizziest spots there are some chain rails. But the steps most of the way are open on one side and the walls of the cliffs plunge away to the sea just feet away from where you step. I feel an unusual sensation, gratitude to the OPW for closing the island during yesterday's heavy rain. At the top, the first sight of the iconic beehive huts made famous by monks and movies appear as only the supporting cast to the extraordinary vista of the Atlantic, Small Skellig, the Blasket islands and Kerry beyond. Neil Leslie at Skellig Michael (Image: Irish Mirror) It's not hard to let your imagination conjure what those sixth century holy men might have felt. They surely thought here was a place close to the heavens. To their west was the edge of the known world, the horizon of God's own country. There are wild places and wonders that often disappoint some visitors. I've heard them at the Cliffs of Moher or the Giant's Causeway complaining: 'Is that it?' My own philosophy is that you sometimes need to sprinkle a little of the magic dust of your own imagination. To help the majesty of it all along with an inner sense of awe. But Skellig Michael does all the work itself. If you're not impressed by the sculpted beauty, or the epic ingenuity of its human story, or the wildlife…you may need to check yourself for a pulse. Later on the return to Portmagee I watch the rocky pyramid perfectly framed from the back of the boat like the end credit sequence in a movie. I feel no need for another episode. Once you visit somewhere like Skellig it stays visited. Like the monks who left their bones layered on top of the 385 million year old sandstone, you leave a little something of yourself behind too. And in exchange you take away a small part of that allure that brought you there. Something 'of the silence of which the universe is made' to quote that man Beckett again. The only sequel required now is a pint of Ireland's other UNESCO treasure at the Moorings Bar in Portmagee. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here
Extra.ie
3 hours ago
- Extra.ie
Dawn O'Porter reveals she's ‘always broke' despite Hollywood life with Chris O'Dowd
British writer and television presenter Dawn O'Porter has revealed that despite being married to Hollywood actor Chris O'Dowd, she is 'always broke' and lives 'pay cheque to pay cheque' The author and TV presenter, 46, who wed the Irish star back in 2012, made the stark admission in a recent interview, revealing she works hard to cover bills and rent. 'I work pay cheque to pay cheque,' said Dawn. 'I'm always broke. My card got declined last week. I'm like, what the f*** is happening? When will this end?' British writer and television presenter Dawn O'Porter has revealed that despite being married to Hollywood actor Chris O'Dowd, she is 'always broke' and lives 'pay cheque to pay cheque' Pic: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast, she explained: 'I've never seen myself as a celebrity. Even though I'm married to Chris, who is quite a well-known actor, I don't think either of us have ever seen ourselves as celebrities. 'I guess if I was a celebrity, I'd get paid lots of money to do things that aren't necessarily my job or don't really feed what I do, but I don't. My job is writing, with the occasional little ad on Instagram to pay the rent.' Last Summer, Dawn returned to London with Chris and their two children; Art and Valentine, after eight years in Los Angeles. The author and TV presenter, 46, who wed the Irish star back in 2012, made the stark admission in a recent interview, revealing she works hard to cover bills and rent. Pic:for THR The star recalled meeting Chris just as her own career was collapsing, adding: 'Everything had fallen apart.' 'My TV career had just gone. I was so poor. I was so upset. I had zero confidence. I didn't know what I was going to do. I'd just met Chris, and he was on this trajectory up. I thought, well maybe this is just it. I'm just a girlfriend, and that's it.' Dawn's first ever red carpet was the 2011 premiere of Bridesmaids, the film that inevitably catapulted Chris to international fame. 'I work pay cheque to pay cheque,' said Dawn. 'I'm always broke. My card got declined last week. I'm like, what the f*** is happening? When will this end?' Pic:for BFI 'I always thought that if I was in this position, it would be because I'd done something to deserve it,' she reflected. 'We were living in LA and I just said to Chris, I've got to go back to London to try and claw back my career,' she said of their first time in the states. 'And we came back to London for a bit and I'd go for these meetings at TV production companies and I'd been successful. 'I had my own series on Channel 4… and they'd be like, 'What do you want to do?' and I was like, 'I want to do what I do'. But no one wanted to employ me.'
