There are several things in life that one can take for granted. Kerry win football titles, Kilkenny win hurling titles, Cork win some of each but don’t win enough of either of them. One of the reasons for this may be detected in the current civil war between the players and the County Board which has resulted in the players refusing to play. There is no point in engaging in a minute analysis of who said what and when, not least because in general the public, me included have no interest in the detail. As a true rebel I’m only interested in having the team play at its best and to be in the shakedown for either or both titles come September.
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Excellent culinary and Ireland, a few years ago these were two different things, which did not fit together. Up to recently when people considered Irish cuisine, people always thought first of the traditional bacon and cabbage, colcannon, brown soda bread and Guinness stew as being the only type of cuisine available in Ireland. Fine cuisine was not to be expected. This has changed fundamentally in the last few years.
The “culinary desert” of Ireland does not exist any longer. People love to go out for food and are free to choose between a multiplicity of restaurants and a great variety of culinary delights. These days there are a huge number of international influences, which make the cuisine available on this wonderful isle more varied and even more delicious.
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Sometimes, flying can be a nightmare. With all the different regulations you might feel anxious especially if you travel to a place you have never been before. But, this is not the case when you arrive at Cork airport. Going through immigration, getting your luggage, picking a rental car will only take you few minutes and you will be on the Irish roads.
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I love the songs of Leonard Cohen and the title of this piece is one of his most famous songs. A gentle sad song of goodbye. Cohen is generally regarded as the bedsit troubadour, the man who sings sad depressing songs for lonely over-emotional students. In fact, I personally find him uplifting, life-affirming and thought provoking but that’s not the point of this blog.
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Recently I was invited on a familiarization trip around Cavan, Leitrim, Meath, Mayo and Roscommon by the lovely people at Irish Country & Manor House Hotels (CMV), Ireland’s premier group of independent hotels. I was very interested to discover this particular part of the country as apart from Co. Mayo the counties included would not be on the typical tourist route which tends to stick very much to the beautiful coast lines of Ireland.
After spending the night in a very comfortable hotel room provided by the brand new Clarion Hotel in Cork my colleague Sylvie and I caught an early morning flight from Cork to Dublin with Aer Arann.
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