News Archive
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat
30 December 2011
When I head off for a few days break to a coastal location what I really want of a restaurant is a relaxed ambiance, no city stress or fuss, and I always look forward to some really nice seafood. Jack’s Coastguard Restaurant at the little fishing village
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CHECK OUT NEW YEAR OFFERS
28 December 2011
There is so much shopping, preparation, cooking and partying in the lead up to and over Christmas, that I always feel the women of Ireland deserve a break immediately afterwards. This year, as New Year's Eve falls on a Saturday, you have the perfect excus
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - El Vino at The Elysian
21 December 2011
In the final act of the romantic move Moulin Rouge, Toulouse-Lautrec shouts from the rooftops.....
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat - Limerick Strand Hotel
21 December 2011
The Limerick Strand Hotel is a spanking new sleek hotel which was developed in 2007 on the site of the former Jury’s Hotel at O’Callaghan Strand in the vibrant heart of Limerick City. Some €50m went into the creation of this 7 storey ultra modern and...
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Amicus
19 December 2011
Being part-time residents of Kinsale, we often pop into Douglas in Cork en route from Dublin to do some shopping
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Roly's Bistro - a Dublin Institution
18 December 2011
ON a recent busy Saturday, more by accident than design, we stopped off for lunch at Roly's Bistro in Ballsbridge in Dublin 4. Roly's is firmly entrenched in society as a real Dublin institution.... Sitting surrounded by families, f
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Tuscany Bistro
16 December 2011
we all love Italian food, I think that's pretty well a given, but when it is really good Italian food, that is even better.
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KILKENNY PEOPLE
13 December 2011
Small shops and businesses throughout the country are our lifeblood, and one cannot emphasise enough how important they are in our society and to our future. People who have the get-up-and-go to set up a business, working for themselves, are the people wh
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DEPARTMENT STORE SHOPPING LUNCHES
13 December 2011
It's that time of year again when family memories are set in stone. The Big City visit is still de rigueur for many -- it's so much more exciting than sitting at a computer, buying online, with none of the crowds, excited children, or that wonderful feel
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Magpie Inn, The
08 December 2011
Gastropubs are judged now by diners as severely as restaurants so the grub has to be wholesome and cooked with a certain flair, unlike the old pub grub world of meat and two veg.
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat - Landmark Hotel & Boardwalk Cafe
07 December 2011
The Landmark Hotel is more than aptly named for it is a truly fine landmark not only in Carrick-on-Shannon itself, but in the general region as it has achieved a huge reputation for consistent hospitality, comfort, style, service and good food. Carrick-
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Restaurant Review - The Dining Room at La Stampa
06 December 2011
You would be forgiven for thinking that The Dining Room at La Stampa is beginning to sound like a pop-up restaurant. Jean Christophe Novelli pops up, Paul Flynn pops up, Conrad Gallagher pops up. All popped off -- and the latest pop-up is Ronan Ryan, pic
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Christmas Markets
06 December 2011
We now have an amazing range of Christmas markets all over the country. These homegrown markets give a lot of people in the food or crafts business the opportunity to raise some extra money this Christmas. Whether it is food or gifts...
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - The Chop House
01 December 2011
Kevin Arundel has created his own mix of France and a Chelsea Gastropub at his Chop House at a D4 crossroads that his become a very hip place to wine and dine. He has an undoubted eye for the latest trend. Originally a chef at the Michelin starred resta
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Isaac's Restaurant
30 November 2011
Every City in the world has a restaurant that personifies its people, a buzzy busy brasserie that is the destination for birthdays, conferrings, family celebrations, or just a good night out with good friends. In Paris it might be La Coupole, in London
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Restaurant Review - GOOD COOKING
29 November 2011
Some of our restaurants lost out on the awards front recently, while others go from strength to strength, says Lucinda O'Sullivan, who revisits two worthy winners and remains well pleased
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat - Absolute Hotel Limerick
29 November 2011
Limerick is a great City which has come on in leaps and bounds in the area of food and sleek accommodation over the past four or five years making it an even more desirable destination to visit. One of the fabulous additions over this period has been...
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - CORFU
24 November 2011
Not everything coming out of Greece these days is a total disaster, says Lucinda O’Sullivan. Their economy may be on the skids, but Corfu restaurant is one export we’re more than happy to see here
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Lucinda talks to Sunil Ghai of Ananda
23 November 2011
Public get a taste for fine Indian dining The Irish are beginning to appreciate true Indian cuisine, Sunil Ghai tells
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat - Keenan's of Tarmonbarry
17 November 2011
Luckily you don’t have to be a ‘ Toad of Toad Hall’ mucking around on the river to enjoy Keenan’s of Tarmonbarry. Certainly my better half was never good on the waterways and regales us regularly about how he and six of his mates, in their single days, u
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat - Dunloe Castle
16 November 2011
There are more hotels in Killarney than in any other town in the country, and some fabulous hotels at that. Top of the range on all fronts from comfort, luxury, friendliness, and liveability, not forgetting superb food, is the 5 Star Hotel Dunloe Castle.
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Heat - The Castle Hotel Macroom
16 November 2011
I have a great regard and love for family run hotels that have been of service to their community and area for generations. We see so much of this Abroad in France and Italy but we have just as many wonderful such establishments here in Ireland.
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Slaney Country Market
14 November 2011
Every Saturday morning in the heart Bunclody a group of dedicated ladies gather to sell their food and artistic produce at the Slaney Country Market. Bunclody is a very pictueresque town in itself, in North County Wexford on the Co. Carlow border.
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Restaurant Review - The Magpie Inn
14 November 2011
Ever more we are veering towards the casual relaxed value dining ethos with good Tapas, Italian, and Gastropubs all flying. We have always wanted to dine like our Continental neighbours on a regular basis on reasonably priced simple food and
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Aniar
07 November 2011
We can expect to see mini ‘Noma’s’ popping up worldwide faster than High Street copies of Catwalk designs over the next couple of years. Rene Redzepi’s Noma Restaurant in Copenhagen, voted the San Pellegrino World’s No. 1 Restaurant for 2010 and 2011, h
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat
04 November 2011
The Harlequin Hotel is a modern boutique hotel in Castlebar which is furnished in boutique style with chandeliers, plush buttonbacked feature chairs and sofas, lovely Venetian mirrors, beautiful throws, funky details, all of which are uplifting and bright
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GREAT PLACES TO STAY IN LONDON
04 November 2011
Had a great visit to London where shopped til we dropped, had fab food, and checked out a couple of great hotels...
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Our Latest Great Place to Stay & Eat
03 November 2011
Le tout Irlande was mesmerised in 1969 when the late General and Mme de Gaulle came on a two week visit to Ireland. The paparazzi of the day ducked in and out trying to get black and white pictures of this legendary tall tall man relaxing in Connemara.
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Ode to Italy - Eileen Dunne & Stefano Crescenzi
31 October 2011
Sunday October 30 2011 'IF IT'S for you, it won't pass you by" is an old saying that certainly seems to have been the case with Eileen Dunne, and Stefano Crescenzi, who not only met and fell in love in a somewhat roundabout way but who revolutionised t
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Restaurant Review - Oriental Cafe
31 October 2011
Tabletalk We were almost elated sitting down in the new Oriental Café by the Yamamori restaurant owners in the former Bewley’s Oriental Café premises in South Great George’s Street. Here at last it seemed was the perfect, nay obvious, match for this
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Restaurant Review - Weafer & Cooper
27 October 2011
Glasthule Village in South County Dublin has had a real awakening with the arrival of Weafer & Cooper, an all day modern Italian style eatery, very much along the lines of Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie’s Italian’ neighbourhood restaurants which are opening apace
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CHECK OUT HALLOWEEN & MID TERM BREAKS
27 October 2011
Halloween Breaks 2011 With Halloween and the Midterm Break approaching the evenings are closing in fast but it is still a time of year that gives us bright crisp days with golden autumnal leaves and is, as our American cousins say, perfect for a‘Fall..
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - The Spires & Thomas Moore Tavern
21 October 2011
Extravaganza is certainly not dead in Wexford if The Spires restaurant is anything to go by. All it needed was Joan Collins to waft through the doors in a cloud of big hair, shoulder pads, furs, and Dynasty jewels, and take up residence in the button back
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3 MEN AND A BOTTLE OF SPIRITS
20 October 2011
JUST what is it about men in threes? Down through the centuries, we've had the Three Musketeers, Three Men in a Boat, Three Men in a Tub, Three Men And a Baby... And continuing that tradition, right here in Ireland, in the pretty...
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RESTAURANT - REVIEW - GUINNESS STOREHOUSE
20 October 2011
Tabletalk “I’ve just got off a plane this morning and headed to the Guiness Storehouse otherwise my friends back in New York would never speak to me again.”So said a young scientist here for a three day conference in Trinity College as he supped his pi
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - THE SPIRES, WEXFORD.
12 October 2011
Extravaganza is certainly not dead in Wexford if The Spires restaurant is anything to go by. All it needed was Joan Collins to waft through the doors in a cloud of big hair, shoulder pads, furs, and Dynasty jewels, and take up residence...
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35 Years of Kinsale Gourmet Festival
11 October 2011
Today sees the culmination of the 35th Kinsale Gourmet Festival -- an idea that was started out way back in 1976 by a group of enterprising restaurateurs and hoteliers and which has become one of the longest running food festivals in the country
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Ireland's Cafe Culture
11 October 2011
Cafes and bakeries have been doing very well in these times, especially those combined with bakeries because people find the alluring aroma of freshly baked breads and cakes irresistible. We have a very special relationship with the cafes...
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MICHELIN STARS & BIBS 2012
06 October 2011
Here is the list of Michelin Star Holders for 2012 - no change on 2011. Michelin Bibs has one new addition and two who have lost their Bibs! Picture shown was at The Box Tree!
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - WHITEFRIAR GRILL
04 October 2011
Despite the recession, restaurants are opening apace and you have to commend people for their enterprise. Indeed, it seems the heat had barely left the kitchen at Conrad Gallagher’s former Salon des Saveurs premises on Aungier Street, than a new boy was
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Gourmet Food Parlour Malahide
04 October 2011
Lorraine Heskin and Lorraine Byrne are two young ladies with a passion for delicious food of which they have an extraordinary knowledge. They opened their first Gourmet Food Parlour on Cumberland Street in Dun Laoire, not far from where I live in 2006.
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Cakes, Horses, and Photography
20 September 2011
Best friends Sinead Ni Riain and Jacqueline Lanigan Ryan have more than their surname in common. Both were brought up as only girls in families with five and six brothers respectively, and both work using their artistic talents and sensory skills.
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - CAMPAGNE KILKENNY, VM LONGFORD
20 September 2011
Tabletalk I have always loved watching how the French do Sunday lunch. It is sacrosanct. Extended family and friends of all ages sit around just doing what was intended for the Seventh Day - resting and renewing themselves. Sunday lunch is a great...
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ORGANIC WEEK SEPTEMBER 2011
13 September 2011
Shane McEntee, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with responsibility for Food, Horticulture & Food Safety and Eileen Bentley from Bord Bia (right) presented Kitty Colchester from Second Nature Oils in Kilkenny (ce
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MONKSTOWN - THE REVIVAL OF THE CRESCENT
13 September 2011
People not living in Dublin tend generally to think of the City as one big urban sprawl whereas, in fact, the heart and soul of our Fair City are the various villages which comprise Dublin and Co. Dublin. I think of places like Glasnevin, Finglas, Howth,
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Restaurant Review - Aniar and Kai - Galway
13 September 2011
We can expect to see mini ‘Noma’s’ popping up worldwide faster than High Street copies of Catwalk designs! Rene Redzepi’s Noma Restaurant in Copenhagen, voted the San Pellegrino World’s No. 1 Restaurant for 2010 and 2011, has dazzled chefs as no other....
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DATE FOR YOUR DIARY - 10TH SEPTEMBER 2011
06 September 2011
Here is the perfect opportunity for a break in wonderful East Cork. Next Saturday 10th September sees Midleton hold its Food Fair.....
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UPCYCLING IS THE NEW DECORATIVE THEME
05 September 2011
WHEN Nawel Kouadri and Al Birbeck met doing an interior design diploma course at the Senior College in Dun Laoghaire, they became not only firm friends but business partners too.
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - GREGAN'S CASTLE
05 September 2011
'I'm holding out for two nights and if I don't get them, then I'll take one night," said the man on the other end of the phone at Gregans Castle, Co Clare, as I tried to book a double room with dinner for the recent bank holiday Saturday night.
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Black 'n' Blue Grill
01 September 2011
Names can sometimes lead you off course but in this case I have to say I was even more pleasantly surprised. Expecting the new Black ‘n’ Blue Grill in Wicklow town to be serving a typical modern grill menu of ginormous steaks, prawn cocktails, and so on,
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Restaurant Review - The Herring Gull & Foley's Gastropub
30 August 2011
“No problem, I’ll change it for you” should surely have been “sorry, I’ll change it for you” from the lady in charge in the new Herring Gull Restaurant in Ballycotton, on my pointing out lipstick on a wine glass. Equally mystifying was her whipping away
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Lucinda's Last Rose of Summer Tour of Kerry & West Cork
30 August 2011
Each year, for many years past, I have taken myself on what I call my own ‘Last Rose of Summer’ trip driving from Killarney, through Moll’s Gap to Kenmare, and on over through the tunnels and unparelled mountainous vistas over hill and bay that lead you..
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - The Vanilla Pod
25 August 2011
Eggs Benedict is one of my favourite breakfast treats and nobody knows this better than Kate O’Sullivan, Derek Breen and Veronica Muresan! How do they know this you might well ask? Well Kate, Derek and Veronica were all in the Brown Thomas Café where I
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - MEXICAN EATERIES
22 August 2011
Jonathan Ross devoted the opening chapter of his book “Why Do I Say These Things” to the ‘joys’ of Mexican food he experienced on a trip ‘South of the Border…’. As you might imagine, Mr Ross pulled no punches and in his inimitable way was fully descript
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FOOD FESTIVALS AUTUMN 2011
22 August 2011
We are winding down in August from what one might euphemistically have referred to as High Summer ever so gently into Autumn. People are getting kids organised for school and college but, for the culinary community and many towns around the country, this
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Bar One
19 August 2011
Mark and Alan Cadden are not newbies when it comes to the game of food for they were brought up in the industry whilst their parents owned the well known Asgard Pub in Westport. Their brother also went into the food industry and owns the very popular Sab
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WHERE TO FIND DUBLIN'S BEST STREET FOOD
18 August 2011
Want to sample food cooked by a chef who worked for the top London Moroccan restaurant ‘Moro’ or authentic dishes from Korea? Look no further than the Food Markets of Dublin where nowadays you will find a huge range of delicious street food from all over
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MEET YANNICK & LOUISE FROM THE WORLD'S NO 1 RESTAURANT - NOMA IN COPENHAGEN
16 August 2011
Between them you might say that Yannick Van Aeken and Louise Bannon have captured two of the most sought after jobs in the culinary world. Yannick Van Aeken is Sous Chef at the charasmatic Rene Redzepi’s Noma Restaurant in Copenhagen whilst Louise Bannon
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - BEDLAM
16 August 2011
Is there bedlam at Bedlam - May Frisby's new restaurant in Castle Market, Dublin? Find Out...
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SCULPTOR NIALL HARKIN EXHIBITION IN THOMASTOWN KAW 2011
09 August 2011
“I gave myself five years from the date of my retirement to have my own one man show devoted to sculpture, and in this ambition I have succeeded” says artist and sculptor Niall Harkin. Niall’s solo exhibition “Votive Offerings”....
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Fallon & Byrne
05 August 2011
It takes real guts and endeavour to set up a business the size and proportion of Fallon & Byrne. Paul Byrne and his wife, the former journalist Fiona McHugh, took an enormous leap of faith when, in 2006, they took over the massive old Art Deco style Tele
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TAKE TWO GIRLS
02 August 2011
Although they didn’t meet until College in Limerick when they were 17, Lorraine Heskin and Lorraine Byrne not only share the same Christian names, both are from the West of Ireland, with Lorraine Heskin’s dad having come from Lorraine Byrne’s home village
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Markree Castle support Trocaire
02 August 2011
For the first week in August Markree Castle is donating €3 for every booking made to Trocaire's East Africa Emergency Appeal
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Restaurant Review - The Hen House
02 August 2011
We have all been getting back to basics in Ireland, no where more so than restaurants where the trend is towards the casual, so the new Hen House restaurant at The Pavilions in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, has you chowing down all American style folksey.
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'Relax Me Breaks'
25 July 2011
Travelling around the country quite a lot, as I do, I am seeing that the times we are in has brought about a huge level of innovation and co-operation between people, which was perhaps a quality that was missing in us during those unreal Celtic Tiger Year
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Restaurant Review - Lunch French, Italian and Irish style
25 July 2011
Tabletalk “It’s very cold in Perpignan”, said the friendly young French waiter – it was cold here too but I was so delighted to spot Marseillaise anchoiade on the menu, I smiled blissfully back. Surrounded by wine racks in the perfect oasis that is t
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The Silk Road
19 July 2011
There is more than a touch of drama at Judith O’Sullivan’s stunning Atelier ‘Roisin Cross Silks’ for not only have they supplied the silks for the magnificent costumes of ‘Henry V111’ himself, as played by sexy Jonathan Rhys Myers, and th
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Restaurant Review - Long Room at Doonbeg
19 July 2011
Approaching through the Atlantic mist and haze of the mystical wild beauty of West Clare, the cluster of houses and main building that comprise The Lodge at Doonbeg Golf Club appeared shimmering and inviting like the mythical village of Brigadoon. This
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FOOD TOURISM
13 July 2011
Food Tourism The importance of Food Tourism cannot be emphasised quite enough. It is a huge market which has not been recognised sufficiently in the past in promoting Ireland as a food destination. It only recently that there is even a vague nod to th
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - FIRST FLOOR - HARVEY NICHOLS
13 July 2011
Just as I made a reprise visit to the First Floor Restaurant at Harvey Nichols, it was announced that we are in for a revival of TV’s ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. It seems a lifetime ago since Patsy and Edina flaunted themselves around London, Bolly Stolly i
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Green Barn Bistro
13 July 2011
The Green Barn Café Bistro is in a lovely building which always reminds somehow or other of the R.D.S. at Simmonscourt with its equestrian style weathervane and perfectly maintained pretty grounds where you can also sit outside, weather permitting, and ha
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SURFING AND FOOD IN COUNTY CLARE
06 July 2011
Lisdoonvarna is not just for matchmaking, surfing and taking the waters, for nowadays you can also eat rather well, as we discovered on a recent visit to the area for the Burren Slow Food Festival. They weren’t blessed with the weather on the day, which
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - THE DINING ROOM BY CONRAD GALLAGHER
06 July 2011
A business alliance is like a marriage, and every bit as painful when it comes to the divorce! I think it can be said that the proponents in the latest cullinary alliance, ‘Head Chef’ Conrad Gallagher, and Louis Murray, at The Dining Room at La Stampa...
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Restaurant Review - Jamie's Italian
27 June 2011
Cheryl Cole was not the only one returning from the U.S.A. with a flea in her ear for Jamie Oliver has also had his ‘cough softened’ by the Yanks! But then I guess it’s somewhat of a mammoth task for a Brit to land on the shores of the most powerful nati
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'The Restaurant' at The Wineport - John Healy Special Event
22 June 2011
A crowd of 150 foodies and John Healy fans gathered on Mid Summer night for a special fundraising and awareness night at the fabulous Wineport at Glasson....
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BERNADETTE CROWE'S BAKERY IN SIXMILEBRIDGE
20 June 2011
I could see that none of the cakes I bought in were as nice as those I could make myself. I always had a flair for baking - big apple tarts, brown wholemeal bread - that’s what we were reared on as a lot of people are – soups and stews, bacon an
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PRINCESS DAISY AT BUNRATTY CASTLE & FOLK PARK
20 June 2011
Having departed the good folks of Sixmilebridge we headed to Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, which I had not visited for many many years and it, was a great experience. Bunratty Castle was built in 1425 and was home to the Earls of Thomond. In 1646 it was
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MEET A REAL BEAN AN TI AT BUNRATTY
20 June 2011
This is the brilliant Eileen Clancy who is Bean an Ti at the Golden Vale House at Bunratty Folk Park, who is not only brilliantly entertaining...
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - GORDON RAMSAY AT RITZ-CARLTON
20 June 2011
Ramsay was merrily chopping slices off some poor bull’s penis, bound for a soup, attributing each ‘chop’ to English food critics....
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TOTALLY TIPPERARY FOOD FESTIVAL NEXT SATURDAY 25TH
19 June 2011
Give yourself a great break and a great foodie weekend with the good food producers of Tipperary this coming Saturday at Cloughjordan.
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Lyons Cafe
17 June 2011
Sligo is a very busy town traffic wise and if you are not in the know when it comes to where to head for that really delicious bite to eat, or coffee and scone, after you have visited Yeat’s grave, or just been simply shopping, well let me tell you, Lyons
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FEAR OF FLYING
13 June 2011
Your stomach turns over, your palms sweat, you don’t hear what anyone is saying, you are convinced you have just signed your own death warrant, and that is only when you book your airline ticket! Does that sound familiar to you? I talk of course about
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - BRASSERIE LE PONT
13 June 2011
Brasserie Le Pont is a new restaurant owned by one Michael Kelly and is part of the Fitzwilliam Hall Business Centre. Tucked away in the large basement of a Georgian House on Fitzwilliam Place close to Leeson Street, its entrance belies its size, and it
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Crazy Crab
03 June 2011
‘Tis not very often you leave a restaurant awarding it in your own mind 2 Badges of Distinction-Best Seafood platter in Ireland and Best Value seafood in Ireland. This is how we felt having left the new Crazy Crab Seafood Bistro and Café at Kilmore Quay
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"WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR..."
01 June 2011
What child and adult does not have magical dreams and memories, a desire to live in the fantasy world of the Disneyland Castle where dreams come true, where frogs turn into Princes, where Cinderella arrives to the ball wearing glass slippers, where Snow W
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - MULBERRY GARDEN
01 June 2011
In an episode of the TV Show ‘Frasier’, the irrepressible Crane brothers have a stab at opening a restaurant where, midst first night high jinks, the mythical food critic, Gil Chesterton, arrives blathering “I don’t usually review on first nigh
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'The Restaurant' at The Wineport - John Healy Special Event
27 May 2011
Ray Byrne, Jane English and the team at Wineport Lodge are throwing the bash of the year this June to assist their colleague and friend - the loveable Maitre D’- John Healy of RTE’s ‘The Restaurant’ who is seriously ill and requires a heart transplant.
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Rasam Indian Restaurant wins Best Ethnic Restaurant 2011
26 May 2011
For the second year running Nisheeth Tak's Rasam Indian Restaurant has won Best Ethnic Restaurant at the RAI/Sunday Independent Life Magazine Awards.
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Chapter One proves invincible
26 May 2011
Chapter One is to Irish Restaurants what Rafa Nadal is to the tennis courts of the world - invincible! Ross Lewis and his team have done it again with Chapter One winning Best Restaurant 2011. Well done guys!
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SOS - SAVE OUR SHOPS
25 May 2011
British Prime Minister David Cameron has taken the unprecedented step of appointing a retail expert, 'Queen of Shops' Mary Portas, to save the British high street. Ireland has a host a retailers and business people who could do a similar job for the mo
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WE NEED ACTION TO SAVE OUR HIGH STREET SHOPS
25 May 2011
Just as Mary 'Queen of Shops' Portas has been roped in to help the British government revive the flagging high streets and bring a bustle back to town centres, so too some Bridget Banrion of Boutiques is needed here to put a rocket under local authorities
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Restaurant Review - Pygmalion Restaurant at Parknasilla Resort
25 May 2011
Parknasilla Resort on the Ring of Kerry has long been one of the jewels in the crown of Irish Tourism. Built in the mid 18thC on a sub-tropical 500 acre estate, overlooking an inlet of the Kenmare River, with the Gulf Stream nibbling at its toes, it has
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - CODA
18 May 2011
Arriving for dinner with Houston based Paul, who spends his life flying from New York to Naples,Peking to Paris,Seoul to Sydney,he felt quite at home striding through the vast Hemidemisemiquaver Bar and on to the section that is Coda Eatery.“Good Airport"
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Burren Slow Food Festival This Weekend
18 May 2011
There will be lots of fun and activity at this weekends Burren Slow Food Festival in Clare. Check it Out.
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Mervyn Stewart & Her Majesty
10 May 2011
Having ‘Met the Middletons’ in all their glory in recent weeks, and with the Queen coming to grips with new additions to the family tree, it occurred to me that she might care to meet her long lost cousins, the Stewarts, when she comes to Ireland...
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Restaurant Review - Downstairs
10 May 2011
‘Downstairs’ is a new restaurant at Gilbert & Wright in Clontarf on sea, located where the old Hollybrook Hotel once stood. Gilbert & Wright have hip ‘1970’s style bars also in Malahide, Swords, and Dun Laoghaire. ‘Downstairs’, as you may gather, is a sub
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San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants
04 May 2011
Last week saw the announcement of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2011. What is quite extraordinary is not the fact that Rene Redzepi’s ‘Noma’, the much lauded restaurant in Copenhagen, has been voted No. 1 Restaurant in the World for the
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - ELECTRIC
04 May 2011
I guess it’s quite some time since a restaurant of size and import has opened in the centre of Cork, and on The Mall to boot. In recent times the focus for such openings had centered on Lapps Quay, with The Boardwalk Bar & Grill and Augustine’s joining t
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Restaurant Review - Global Village
27 April 2011
Hopefully all of you on this Easter are basking somewhere nice around the country. Basking leads me to Fungi’s home territory of Dingle and the Global Village Restaurant whose chef patron, Martin Bealin, along with his wife Nuala Cassidy, is also very mu
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Meet Kanturk's Foodie & Business People
27 April 2011
One of the longest standing businesses and best known characters in the town is Jack McCarthy of the eponymous McCarthy’s Butchers. Jack is a very pro-active artisan food producer, and a great public relations man for Kanturk. He is the fifth generation
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Lucinda as Guest Critic on RTE's The Restaurant TV Show
11 April 2011
See how Lucinda and the other critics found Ian Dempsey's food on The Restaurant
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Restaurant Review - The French Table
11 April 2011
It’s a case of the two ‘Fs’ this week in two parts of the country – lunch in both The French Table in Limerick and The Fatted Calf in Athlone. Taking time for a proper lunch is a very civilized thing which unfortunately many of us do not have time to do
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - The Rising Tide
05 April 2011
As a part time resident of Kinsale and a regular visitor to East Cork I guess you could say we are always on the whirl around looking for different places to eat in both areas. Nowadays too we really like to dine in a more informal fashion than years ago
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Galway Store to open in Dundrum Town Centre
04 April 2011
“This building was supposed to be occupied by Solicitors and Accountants but, when that fell through, we turned it into retail”, said Annette Curley of Home Gallery at Newtownsmith, Galway.
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Brasserie One at 1 Pery Square
31 March 2011
Take one great Georgian Quarter, a great Georgian House, a lady with a great eye for style, detail and elegance, and you have No. 1 Pery Square, undoubtedly one of the coolest destinations in the country. Patricia Roberts recognised the potential of th
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Mulberrys
29 March 2011
I have always maintained that if you do good honest seafood without mucking it around too much, a restaurant will always do well for people love it. Add to that the other most popular cuisine, a taste of Italy that is, and you are really on a winner. Ad
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - O'Connells in Donnybrook
29 March 2011
The well known restaurateur, Tom O’Connell, who was previously in Ballsbridge, came up with a fantastic location for his new restaurant O’Connells in Donnybrook – in the former Madigan’s pub on Morehampton Road and corner of Belmont Avenue. Madigan’s was
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Galway Artisan Producers at the G Hotel
28 March 2011
We used all hear of the old Wartime spirit in the U.K. and how everyone pulled together, we may not be in that type of war but in our economic war we are seeing this happen here too, people are not as pushy or dismissive of your business as they were in t
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Restaurant Review - Matt The Threshers Dublin
28 March 2011
We were impressed walking into the smart new D2 version of the Tipperary based Matt The Thresher’s eating and drinking emporium, in what was the former Pembroke Pub on Lower Pembroke Street. Billed as a Seafood Bar & Grill, MTTD2 is urban chic gastropub
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Gilbert's Restaurant & Townhouse
28 March 2011
On a recent visit to East Cork we headed for Gilbert’s Restaurant & Townhouse in Cobh. Now, Cobh is a really beautiful little town, with its neo Gothic Pugin Cathedral, and poignant nautical history. What it has lacked, until now, has been a decent res
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OUR LATEST GREAT PLACE TO EAT - CAFE NOIR
23 March 2011
In a short three years Pat O’Sullivan has created one of the most dynamic Café restaurant chains in Limerick and happily intends expanding far and wide. Pat O’Sullivan is no newcomer to the food industry so he really knows what he is about and what his cu
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The Many Colours of Adare
21 March 2011
The village of Adare in Co. Limerick with its extraordinarily picture postcard pretty thatched roofs has long been a destination for tourists and home visitors alike. At the heart of Adare is a very hard working and enterprising business community who..
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The Foodie Folk of Cabinteely Village
14 March 2011
People sometimes forget, in the great urban sprawl that is the Dublin of nowadays, that at the heart of many suburban areas are the old villages that once made up the very distinctive villages on the outskirts of Dublin. I think of places like Raheny..
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - City Bar & Grill
10 March 2011
There are lots of restaurants in Kilkenny but the food in the Hibernian's City Bar & Grill is considered by many to be one of the best around. You can expect maybe to feast on delicious seafood chowder to start or sauteed Dublin Bay prawns in garlic oil w
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - The West End House
08 March 2011
Sandra and Peter Dunlea are a charming couple who have a particular gift for creating atmosphere, nostalgia, and style, in each of their restaurants. They are behind the fabulous Miss Courtney’s Tearooms in the centre of Killarney
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RESTAURANT REVIEW - CAFEBAR H - PORT HOUSE DUNDRUM -TAPAS TAPAS
01 March 2011
February is the month of the Seville Tapas Festival but, whatever about that, Ole! Ole! Ole! was alive and well in Dublin when we arrived on a Friday evening to the new Cafébar H at Grand Canal Plaza. The place was heaving with 20-somethings – mainly gir
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - No 35 Kenmare
01 March 2011
Kenmare has a really special place in tourism in Ireland, it is pretty, friendly, offers a myriad of things to do and see not only in the town but as a base for working out around Kerry. We all go there for great weekends and holidays. It offers also a
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Surviving the Recession - Dublin Artist - Gerard Byrne
24 February 2011
One of the good things that came about during the Celtic Tiger years was a great increase in art across the spectrum. Galleries boomed. Everybody wanted art on their walls be it massive paintings or massive prints. In essence whether or not it was origina
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Casey's Bistro
24 February 2011
When it comes to food, their Casey’s Bar and Bistro produces excellent modern cuisine, both Irish and International, using and best of local and seasonal produce. Having perhaps just done the Ring of Kerry you will be hungry so for dinner you can start th
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TIPPERARY FOOD PRODUCERS
01 February 2011
A really nice bunch of people gathered together to meet me and show me their produce at Nora and John Egan’s fine Georgian Mansion, Inch House Country House and Restaurant, just outside Thurles in Co. Tipperary, which not only has a lovely restaurant but
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Restaurant Review - Indie Spice Sandymount
27 January 2011
Sandymount has recently had the addition of a new Indian restaurant in the form of Indie Spice. When I say ‘new’ it is not a totally new concept but rather a new branch of a long established group. Indie Spice started out with a restaurant in Belfast
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Michelin Stars & Bibs 2011
24 January 2011
Last Tuesday morning, it was a case of synchronise your watches for, at 11.40 a.m. precisely, not a second earlier not a second later, Michelin announced on its website the recipients of its stars and bib gourmands for Great Britain and Ireland 2011. I g
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Our Latest Great Place to Eat - Locks Brasserie
12 January 2011
“11 out of 10” said a departing diner to the Maitre d’ in the new Locks Brasserie overlooking the Grand Canal at Portobello and its gliding swans. He was right and, from the cross table conversation he had been enjoying with another solo gentleman, it ap
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Open All Hours!
10 January 2011
Well we all know the old joke “when the going gets tough the Irish go on holidays.” So it struck me was the case over the Christmas/New Year period.We have had a couple of years of restaurants telling us how much they have been suffering with the dow
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'THE LUCINDAS' 2010
05 January 2011
You might have thought that 2010 was a dull year for restaurants but life on the restaurant scene is never dull as chefs and restaurateurs vie for business. My Awards 2010 reflect the good, the bad, and the ugly, of a Restaurant Critic’s year!
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THE LIFE AND LOVES OF MIRANDA, COUNTESS OF IVEAGH
05 January 2011
We have all been watching with fascination the romantic happenings of life in the fictional Great House, Downton Abbey, but it would be true to say that life in the real world of Farmleigh and Wilbury Park, former homes of Miranda, Countess of Iveagh..