25 Best Places to Holiday in Ireland

The Irish Times today published the longlist of the 25 Best Places to Holiday in Ireland as nominated by the public. They tell us that there were over 1400 entries from every county in Ireland. The longlisted places are;
            
-Caherdaniel & Derrynane, Co.Kerry            -Achill Island, Co.Mayo

     
-Inis Meain, Co.Galway                 -Inishbofin, Co.Galway

  
-Valentia Island                                -Beara Peninsula, Co.Cork

   
-Gougane Barra Lake, Co.Cork                     -Killarney, Co.Kerry

  
-Dingle, Co.Kerry                                    -Dunmore East, Co.Waterford

 
-Gweedore, Co.Donegal                               -Rosslare Strand, Co.Wexford

  
-Strandhill, Co.Sligo                                       -Cork City

  
-Dublin                                                       -Derry City

 
-Cushendall, Co.Antrim                                -Fermanagh Lakelands

  
-Shannon River                                        -Glen of Aherlow, Co.Tipperary

  
-Boyle, Co.Roscommon              -Ballyvaughan, Co.Clare

    
-Loop Head Peninsula, Co.Clare                   -Louisburgh, Co.Mayo


-Kinsale, Co.Cork

These locations are now going to be visited by researchers to produce a shortlist for May 20th and the winner to be announced on May 27th.

Audio Guides- Dublin and Beyond

I think these are pretty good. Abarta Audio Guides are downloadable guides to 'Viking and Medieval Dublin' and '1916 Easter Rising Tour' as well as eight other spots around Ireland; Glendalough, Rock of Cashel, The Rock of Dunamase, Cahir Castle, Clonmacnoise, Dun Aonghasa, Hill of Tara and Kilkenny Castle.

For just €1.99 you transfer your selected guide to your MP3 player, iPod or mobile phone and then just listen as you visit the sites.

With stories about the ordinary men and women as well as the more well known famous names, with music and sound effects. The site www.abartaaudioguides.com has travel directions to each of the places.

Desmond Elliott Prize Longlist 2013

The Desmond Elliott Prize was launched in 2007 and is awarded to debut novelists from UK and Ireland. Yesterday the longlist was announced and it is dominated this year by female writers in seven out of the ten nominations;

The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (Sceptre)

The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence (Hodder & Stoughton)

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (William Heinemann)

The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland (Harper Fiction)

Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman (Serpent’s Tail)

The Fields by Kevin Maher (Little, Brown)

Signs of Life by Anna Raverat (Picador)

Seldom Seen by Sarah Ridgard (Hutchinson)

Jammy Dodger by Kevin Smith (Sandstone Press)

The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace (Simon & Schuster)

    

    

    

The shortlist will be announced on Thursday 23rd May and the winner will be revealed on the 27th June. Congratulations to all the authors nominated.

'Honour' by Elif Shafak

I've just finished reading this great book. It was on the longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and quite frankly, if this didn't make the shortlist then the shortlisted books must be amazing this year. Elif Shafak is an author I hadn't come across. Born in France she is the most widely read woman writer in Turkey. Writing in both Turkish and English, her previous novel The Forty Rules of Love  sold over 600,000 copies and she is the recipient of prestigious honours and awards.

 
Honour is a book with so much depth as we follow one families journey covering their origins in a village near the river Euphrates in Turkey and their move to Hackney, London. But this is not just another story about an immigrant family settling in London. This is a story that draws strongly on its Eastern sense of tradition and the secrets that are kept over generations, repeating themselves destructively. It is a tragedy in almost Shakespearian proportions and one with such a superb twist in the tale that leaves you almost gasping with its cleverness. It is really a treasure in story-telling.

At it's centre is an honour killing but this almost becomes a side issue in the branching stories that we follow concerning each member and the role they play. The core of the plot centres around Pembe, a Turkish wife, mother, sister and daughter. Her connections from each of these roles each play their part in the tale- her useless husband who repeats the mistakes of his father, her children who each play a vital role in the story, her twin sister whose actions affect her whole future and her father, traditional and honour bound himself. The book is an insight into the traditional Turkish culture and also a picture of the difficulties of adapting to new cultures.



Honour is a great introduction to the writing of Elif Shafak that will leave you reeling from its final tie ups in the story and wanting to read more of this talented authors work.

Honour is published by Penguin Books www.penguin.com