Posted by Corey | 4 Comments

Where Are All the Irish?

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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Posted by Corey | 1 Comment

Cooley Peninsula

I’m dreaming about the Cooley Peninsula today… one of those places we visited on a whim and drove away wondering how it has stayed off the tourist radar.

Traveling the perimeter of the peninsula offers deep blue views of the Irish Sea, Dundalk Bay and Carlingford Lough. Inland routes take travelers over the rocky Cooley Mountains with hillside perches looking out to sea. It’s easy to see why visitors who do discover the area stay longer than expected.

As we rolled into Carlingford, the peninsula’s main town, the tide was out and the shoreline was dotted with men and women collecting mussels. We stopped for photos, but resisted the temptation to walk out and join them. Looking back, mussel collecting would have made a wonderful memory.

In town, we found easy, free parking at the train-depot-turned-tourist-office. That’s also where we picked up a crude walking tour of town and booked our B&B for the night. The medieval streets of Carlingford make for easy walking to the ruined castle, churches, restaurants and shops.

B&Bs are still the primary accommodations on the Cooley Peninsula. Our’s was a little out of town, up the hill, with views of the Lough Carlingford and the leisure craft and giant freighters that share the waterway.

After exploring town we took an evening drive into Northern Ireland to explore the other side of Lough Carlingford where the Mountains of Mourne “swept down to the sea.” Equally as impressive as the sites from earlier in the day coupled with an amazing network of wetstone walls lining every field and road.

Tourism in this region is interesting as it coexists with the farming, fishing and shipping industries. Locals and visitors share the roads, restaurants and pubs without the usual divide between them. Must say, it was a refreshing experience.

The Cooley Peninsula is located in County Louth about halfway between Dublin and Belfast, just east of Dundalk. You can read notes from our trip report at http://irishfireside.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/carlingford-and-cooley/.

http://discoverireland.com/us/search/?q=carlingford&&t=L_Carlingford

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Posted by Michele Erdvig | 2 Comments

"Non-Irish" Need Not Apply

Ireland’s national TV station RTE used to allow people from all over the world to access some of their news and entertainment programs free online. It was wonderful to sit back and watch the nightly news and catch up on happenings in Ireland. Those addicted to certain series could continue with their Irish “fix”. But recently RTE has restricted their TV shows to only those living in Ireland.

This web page explains it: http://www.rte.ie/info/avfaq.html

It says:
How is access restricted? Where access is restricted, the mechanism for doing so is based on the computer’s IP address. An IP address is the numerical address that each computer has on the web. It is provided by the Internet Service Provider (ISP). An ISP is the company that provides Internet connections to private and business customers. Examples of ISPs are Eircom, BT, Smart Telecom, UTV, NTL and Irish Broadband.”

Evidently even if you are Irish but are not in the country at the moment you cannot access RTE TV programs because your IP will indicate you are in another country. It makes one wonder why a wall is being built around Ireland to block out Internet access to its TV shows. RTE cites copyright issues. Perhaps pay per view is in in the not too distant future?

Fortunately, some Irish radio shows can still be listened to by non-Irish.

Come on Ireland…share your culture with the world. Don’t just keep it to yourselves. The more people around the world that enjoy your culture, the more will want to visit. In this economy doesn’t Ireland want and need more visitors?

Michele Erdvig
www.IrelandYes.com

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