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Poll: How Do You Book Your Travel to Ireland?

We’re curious. When you’re booking that dream trip to Ireland, do you stalk the internet hunting for the best price on everything individually, do you book with an online travel company, are you the type to rely on the phone or do you ring up your travel agent and let them do the job? We’d really like to know how you shop…

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360 Degree Views of Ireland

Here's a shot of the basic interface at Virtual Visit Northern Ireland. When you visit their site, you can use your computer mouse/trackpad to pan through the image.

Between trips to Ireland, most of us could use a break from the day-to-day doldrums of our non-Emerald Isle lives. Thanks to the Internet, there are a few photographers offering 360 degree panoramic photos that allow us to use our computers to step into a scene. Some of these shots are spectacular, and many of them are able to give a very good sense of what it’s like to actually be there. Gorgeous stuff!

Here are three I’ve been getting “lost” in…

• Virtual Visit Northern Ireland

• 360VR

• DublinTown.net

• Ireland 360

(looks like only one panorama is available right now at Ireland360)

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Yummy for Your Tummy – the Full Irish Breakfast

Anyone feeling a little hungry? Just reading about the full Irish breakfast that is served up at B&Bs and restaurants across Ireland might do the trick. Imen over at I Married an Irish Farmer wrote a classic post about the morning feed last year. Read it at http://marriedanirishfarmer.com/2009/09/15/one-full-irish-please/

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Ennis “Celebrating the Greatest” with Muhammad Ali Tribute

The Irish town of Ennis plans to mark the first anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s visit to his ancestral town with a special event on Wednesday.

Ali, the three-time World Heavyweight Champion, was named the first Honorary Freeman of Ennis in 2009 in recognition of his career achievements and his ancestral links with the Clare County Capital. Over 15,000 people watched ‘The Greatest’ receive a Civic Reception before embarking on a drive through the streets of Ennis and a personal visit to the ancestral home of his great grandfather Abe Grady.

Grady emigrated from County Clare to the United States in the 1860s. He eventually settled in Kentucky, where he married an African-American woman. Their son also married an African-American and one of the daughters of that union was Ali’s mother, named Odessa Lee Grady. She married Cassius Clay, senior, and they settled in Louisville, where their son was initially given his father’s name on his birth in 1942.

Below you can watch a moving video documenting his visit on September 1, 2009.

More About This Year’s Event >>

A Look Back on Last Year’s Event >>

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Maureen O’Hara’s Birthday Interview with RTE

Earlier this month, film legend Maureen O’Hara celebrated her 90th birthday. Especially for the occassion, Irish television featured an interview with her and have posted it on their website.

Watch the interview at www.rte.ie/news/2010/0816/nationwide_av.html

You are also welcome to send her your belated birthday wishes via the Irish Fireside Birthday Greeting.

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Irish Rail Reunites Lost Cat with Owner Using Social Media

Security footage of the wandering kitty.

I have to say, I got quite a smile when I spotted this story of a suburban cat that wandered onto Dublin’s DART rail line on Thursday. Irish Rail staff used their Twitter account to post a photo of the feline and asked their 3,000+ followers to help locate the owner.

Their Twitter posts included:

Is this your cat? Arrived Pearse Stn yesterday 11am, off Malahide DART – call Sinead in DART office at 01-7033644 http://yfrog.com/0qsszgj – 6:02 AM Aug 26th

Looks like we may have found the cat’s owner – many thanks for RTs – we’ll confirm when we know for sure…. http://yfrog.com/0qsszgj – 8:32 AM Aug 26th

REUNITED! DART cat Lilou & owner Eric today + CCTV of Lilou boarding! pic Collins Agency http://yfrog.com/nd9ppvj http://yfrog.com/bfglhbj – 11:44 AM Aug 26th

It wasn’t long before the cat and owner were reunitied. Even better, Irish Rail has issued the traveling tabby, named Lilou, her very own Rail Pass.

Having traveled extensively as a guest of Irish Rail this summer, I’m thrilled to see their customer care extends to ALL passengers, and they’ve got a sense a humor too

Irish Rail’s Twitter account is at http://twitter.com/IrishRail and you can Read More in the Irish Times>>

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Where Are All the Irish?

A list of the Irish regional tourism groups represented at Milwaukee Irish Fest 2010.

I recently penned a Letter to the Editor to select Irish newspapers. Since there’s no guarantee they’ll post it, I thought I’d post it here as well. Have a read…

Dear Editor,

Last weekend I attended Irish Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was surprised and disappointed by the almost nonexistent representation of Irish regional tourism at the 30th anniversary of the largest festival of Irish culture in North America.

Aside from Tourism Ireland, only County Clare was present to promote the Republic. In contrast, Northern Ireland sent representatives from Belfast, Newry and Mourne, Down, Banbridge and the Causeway Coast and Glens.

Gone are the days when

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The Story of Barack Obama’s Irish Roots

While much attention has been placed on President Barack Obama’s African ancestry, he also claims family ties to Ireland. Through the lineage of his mother Ann Dunham, Obama’s family history can be traced back to 18th Century Ireland and the Kearney family of County Offaly, then Kings County.

One part of the family had relocated to Dublin and prospered in the wig industry. Meanwhile, the family members in Offaly had been successful enough to purchase property rights in Moneygall and Shinrone around 1800.

By the time wigs fell out of fashion, the Dublin Kearney’s had already taken on other established professions. The most notable Kearney of

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U.S. Presidents with Irish Roots

My visit this summer to Barack Obama’s ancestral town of Moneygall in County Offaly got me thinking about other presidents with ties to the Emerald Isle. With just bit of basic research, I spotted Irish ancestry among half the U.S. Presidents, and I’m sure that with a bit more digging, one could make a few more connections as well.

This collection of U.S. Presidents claim ties to

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Arizona Rose Votes Cliffs of Moher & Grand Canyon for New 7 Wonders of the World

Danielle McBurnett, who is representing Arizona in the Rose of Tralee Festival in Ireland, texted her vote for The Cliffs of Moher for New 7 Wonders of the World.

Danielle McBurnett is doing her part to promote her home state of Arizona AND the country of her ancestry by voting for the Cliffs of Moher and the Grand Canyon for the New 7 Wonders of the World.

Danielle is among 32 finalist vying for this year’s Rose of Tralee title which will be awarded this Tuesday in Tralee, County Kerry. While representing Arizona, she made not one but two visits to the Cliffs of Moher. Danielle said, “I’m delighted to have the chance to see such a spectacular work of nature as the Cliffs of Moher. Both the Cliffs and the Grand Canyon, back home, truly deserve the description of ‘Natural Wonder’. I hope voters for the Grand Canyon also vote for the Cliffs and vice versa.”

Links between the Cliffs of Moher and Arizona are strong. Clare’s County town of Ennis has been a Sister City to Phoenix for 22 years. A further connection lies in the fact that the First Aid facility at the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience named “Nicolas Room” has benefited from substantial fundraising by Phoenix couple Delia Garcia-Stokes & Kelly Stokes in memory of their newborn son Nicolas, whose brief life ended at the Cliffs of Moher in 2006.

Danielle, who works as a registered nurse at the Arizona State University Center for