Renowned the world over as the gourmet capital of Ireland, Cork leads the way when it comes to food festivals.  Spend the rest of the year in a state of culinary bliss by sampling some of the finest locally-grown produce in season prepared by craftspeople who are passionate about food.  Throw in spectacular scenery and you’ve truly got a mind-blowing foodie experience!

A fine example is the Baltimore Seafood Festival, from May 25^th to 27^th.  Run in conjunction with the Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival, it combines the best that local fish smokers, cheese makers, and organic gardeners have to offer with a celebration of Irish traditional timber sailing boats.

Showcasing the county’s finest foods, the first Cork Food Week runs from July 28^th to August 4^th.  Cork Restaurants have coordinated the entire event, the high point of which will be the Titanic Ball, cohosted by the Titanic 100 festival in Cobh.  For enquiries on any of the food theme days contact either Kate Lawlor kate@corkfoodweek.com or Ursula Hayes  ursula@corkfoodweek.com.

Other Cork Food Festivals 2012:

West Cork Food & Drink Festival, Manning’s Emporium, Bantry, 16th & 17th June. www.manningsemporium.ie

Mitchelstown Food Festival & Food Awards 26th August.  www.mitchelstownfoodfestival.com

Taste of West Cork, Skibbereen, 10-16th September.  (http://atasteofwestcork.com)

Cork Folk and Food Market, September – October. Grand Parade Cork (as part of Cork Folk Festival www.corkfolkfestival.com )

Kinsale Gourmet Festival, 12th to 14th October.  www.kinsalerestaurants.com/autumn.php

Belling West Cork Artisan Food Awards, West Cork Hotel Skibbereen, December. www.westcorkfood.com

Ballincollig Christmas Market, Ballincollig Shopping Centre, December.

Christmas in Cobh, Food Fair etc., www.christmasincobh.com December.
A Christmas Celebration, on the Grand Parade, Cork City, Nov/Dec 2012 weekends

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Football fans are not forgotten either.  Big screens will broadcast Ireland’s European Championship group matches against Croatia, Spain, and Italy on June 10^th, 14^th, and 18^th , accompanied by live music and pre-kick-off and half-time family entertainment.

Tickets for the soccer events are priced from €15, with family tickets and three-match “season” tickets also available.

Tickets for all Live at the Marquee events are available from www.ticketmaster.ie. Visit www.aikenpromotions.com for further information.

Jun 7               Justice

Jun 8               Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Jun 9               Imelda May

Jun 10             Ireland V Croatia – Live On the Big Screen

Jun 11             The Specials

Jun14              Ireland V Spain – Live On the Big Screen

Jun 15             The Coronas

Jun 18             Ireland V Italy – Live On the Big Screen

Jun 23             Christy Moore

Jun 24& 30      Jedward

Jun 28& 29      Dara O Briain – Craic Dealer

Jul 4 & 5          Olly Murs

Jul 6                Steps

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Tasty features of this year’s event include the Best of Roscommon Food & Drink event “Real Roscommon Food” on Friday 4th, when Professor Patrick Wall of UCD will speak about the health benefits of food from Roscommon Farms, and Pat Lawlor of Kilbeggan Porridge will highlight the importance of branding in relation to food products.  Celebrity chief Neven McGuire will demonstrate the use of local produce, and there will be tastings of superb Roscommon food.

Get your fill of the best-quality locally sourced food at the massive Brazilian-style barbecue on Saturday 5th, and cheer on the World Record Sheep Shearing Attempt on Sunday 6th. 

A Made in Roscommon Craft Tent and a Wool Craft Village complete what promises to be a weekend of fun for all the family.

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Learn to create your own full Irish from scratch by having a go at a black pudding making workshop with Jack McCarthy or a pork curing and charcuterie workshop with Ed Hick.

Other workshops include dairy farming, cheese and butter making with David Tiernan of Glebe Brethan, foraging with Ed Hick, and growing vegetables for a small garden with John Markham.  Celebrity chef Catherine Fulvio is one of the cooking demonstrators, and students will try their hand in the kitchen at the finals of the  “Wicklow on a Plate” Masterchef competition.

Food tastings will be on offer throughout the day on the “Taste Trail,” and Irish Times wine correspondent John Wilson will host wine tastings.  You can also look forward to street food from such culinary masters as the Druid Chef, Rory Morahan.  Add live music and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a tasty bank holiday weekend treat!

Follow Gourmet Greystones  on Twitter @GGreystones and Facebook

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With that in mind, we at GoIreland have rustled up a useful infographic about Guinness and other beers. But not just any infographic about booze. We recognize that folks in the 21^st century are more health conscious than ever, so have combined these two facets to look at the health benefits of Guinness vs. other types of beer.

Whether you enjoy the dark stuff, or lean towards lager, the results show that a pint of one, or the other, can have positive effects on various areas of the body, such as the heart, bones and even your skin. Through painstaking research, we even worked out how many individual peanuts each drink is the equivalent to eating, how long it would take to burn off those calories and taken a look at some of the strongest beers known to mankind.

So what’s your poison? Have you noticed the beneficial impact of drinking Guinness or beer?

We wouldn’t ever condone binge drinking, but cheers and happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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<div><a href="http://blog.goireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GuinnessVsBeer_Final_700x7138.jpg"><img alt="Guinness vs. Beer INFOGRAPHIC" src="http://blog.goireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GuinnessVsBeer_Final_700x7138.jpg"></a><br />Infographic by <a href="http://www.goireland.com/">GoIreland</a> <p><textarea cols="55" rows="8" onclick="this.focus(); this.select();"><a href="http://blog.goireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GuinnessVsBeer_Final_700x7138.jpg"><img alt="Guinness vs. Beer INFOGRAPHIC" src="http://blog.goireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GuinnessVsBeer_Final_700x7138.jpg" ></a> <p>Infographic by <a href="http://www.goireland.com/">GoIreland</a></p> <p><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />

I hope you enjoyed our infographic of great Irish inventors. And remember, at GoIreland we have a proud history of providing unbeatable accommodation in Ireland. Our excellent rates, superb customer service, and amazing availability makes us the best site from which to book hotels in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and all across the lovely island of Ireland.

Thank you for reading the GoIreland blog. If you're looking for a hotel in Dublin, check out our amazing rates and availability on GoIreland.com.

In Ireland and the UK, Mother’s Day falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent, when the Church allowed a dispensation from strict Lenten observation. In the United States and Australia, however, Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday in May. The holiday is said to have emerged from ancient festivals dedicated to Mother Earth, with the mother goddess Cybele worshipped in Rome as early as 250 B.C.

Our Short Breaks Ireland hotel deals are available countrywide, including Dublin, Galway, and Cork. We choose only the finest 3 and 4 star hotels, and many offer spa and beauty treatments, for an even more indulgent break. You can also reserve your break for a weekend, and you won’t pay any extra.

Your mother deserves a break, so book a hotel in Ireland for her and let GoIreland turn you into her favourite child.

Thank you for reading the GoIreland blog. If you're looking for a hotel in Dublin, check out our amazing rates and availability on GoIreland.com.

See Dublin come alive for Ireland’s most spectacular St. Patrick’s Day Festival Parade, with Grand Marshal John Giles, an Irish football legend, launching the parade at noon. The 2012 St. Patrick’s Festival will showcase Ireland’s strong links to the world of science, celebrating Dublin as the designated “City of Science 2012.”

Pageantry, carnivals and free entertainment make this the perfect weekend for your long overdue visit to the capital. Book a hotel in Dublin, and make the most of such festival favourites as the massively popular Ceili (St. Stephen’s Green, March 16th) and Big Day Out (March 18th).

You won’t miss out, whatever part of the country you find yourself in.  Book a hotel in Ireland and discover that towns and villages across the country celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in their own unique ways. In Kilkenny, Dorothy and her friends from the “Wizard of Oz” will follow the yellow brick road to the start of the parade, which will begin at 2pm, led by the Kilkenny hurling team captain and 40 of the county’s clubs.

To commemorate its status as the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic, Cobh will go back in time to 1912 for its parade. Waterford City’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will celebrate the city’s motto “Urbs Intacta Manet” – Waterford Remains Untaken, with a surprise guest Grand Marshall leading the parade’s 50 entries, including celebrated street theatre company Spraoi.

Wherever you plan to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, make a weekend of it and book great value accommodation with GoIreland.com.

Thank you for reading the GoIreland blog. If you're looking for a hotel in Dublin, check out our amazing rates and availability on GoIreland.com.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny leaped into action on behalf of Irish tourism recently when he launched Tourism Ireland’s “Jump into Ireland” campaign in New York.  Addressing a huge crowd, he spoke for nearly 15 minutes about the multiple beneficial effects of tourism on the Irish economy.

“We recognize as a government that tourism is of fundamental importance to our economy,” he said.  “We appreciate the fact that you come to our shores and we are going to see to it that you get a really good quality experience during your visit.”

The Jump into Ireland global advertising campaign is designed to reflect Ireland’s sense of playfulness and natural beauty to potential and returning visitors, with the dominant message being:  Come to Ireland, get stuck in, and enjoy the craic.

Lively television ads set to music by Snow Patrol will be broadcast to an estimated audience of 200m potential visitors worldwide, with an online campaign also underway.

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons explained the campaign was aimed at building on growth achieved in 2011, when the number of visitors from all the main overseas markets rose. “Our goal is to welcome over 9 million overseas visitors to the island by 2015, exceeding the record year for tourism of 2007,” he revealed.

Irish tourism is not just about overseas visitors, however, with GoIreland CEO Mike Webster pointing out that Irish people are likely to spend more on trips abroad this year than the total income for the Irish tourism industry from both domestic and overseas visitors combined.

Launching his own company’s “Occupy Ireland” campaign at the recent Holiday World Show in Dublin, Webster pointed out that two Irish week-long holidays and two mini-breaks could be taken for the same price as a family holiday abroad.  He insisted that tourism bosses need to “show people that they can get into the car and they are only an hour and a half away from a week’s holiday. We need to highlight the simplicity of it and the value.”

Thank you for reading the GoIreland blog. If you're looking for a hotel in Dublin, check out our amazing rates and availability on GoIreland.com.

Ireland’s largest online travel agent has released figures showing that if one in three of us who are planning to go abroad this year decided to holiday at home we would create an immediate 40,000 jobs in the tourism sector or we will lose out if we don’t.

Irish people will spend over €5 bn on travel abroad this year. GoIreland has also done new research to show that for the same price of a family holiday abroad, 2 Irish week-long holidays and 2 mini breaks could be taken; leading to greater well-being and year round satisfaction.

Despite recent figures suggesting an increase in foreign visitors to Ireland, more work has to be done to ensure the domestic tourism market performs to its optimum ability according to Mike Webster, CEO of GoIreland.com

“GoIreland.com is now the largest retailer of Irish properties and we can see the pain, especially for the smaller properties outside Dublin and we intend to do something about it for the properties in our network. By offering deals such as €299 for a family for a week or €149 for a family of four for a midweek or weekend break, we will bring Irish people home and make them look afresh at multiple Irish breaks for the same cost as one foreign holiday. Yes, weather is a factor but our foreign tourists see what we have to offer and embrace it and more frequent breaks are seen as a better stress reliever than the traditional weeks in the sun. There is every type of holiday on offer in this diverse island and we need to rediscover that for ourselves” , he added.

The statistics speak for themselves:
32m bednights in Ireland currently at 50% occupancy
55m bednights spent by Irish people abroad
€5.7bn spent overseas by Irish people annually
€2bn of that spend if spent in Ireland will create 40,000 jobs at a fraction of the cost of attracting foreign tourists

About GoIreland

GoIreland.com is Ireland’s largest tourist accommodation site offering the widest range of Hotels and guesthouses, B&Bs through to self-catering, campus accommodation and hostels.

GoIreland.com is an Irish company that offers price parity to the consumer but also wants to ensure that it drives downs the cost of bookings to the accommodation sector and to break the stranglehold of the large global booking agents inIreland.

GoIreland.com is good for the consumer and good for Irish Tourism.

For more details contact:

Lisa Fitzpatrick
Visitravel
lfitzpatrick@visitravel.com
0863592095

Or

Paul Hayes
Beachhutpr
Paul@beachhutpr.com
0876209823

Thank you for reading the GoIreland blog. If you're looking for a hotel in Dublin, check out our amazing rates and availability on GoIreland.com.

The Holiday World Show is a travel & tourism exhibit that connects consumers with travel outlets in order to promote tourism both at home and abroad. The show promotes various destinations, sun holidays, cruises, staycations, and also adventure holidays for those that are a bit more adventurous!

GoIreland will be in attendance at the Holiday World Show to promote Ireland as a destination for domestic holidays. We feel that now more than ever there is great value to be had by holidaying at home rather than traveling abroad. You may be surprised how far your hard earn money can go when you holiday at home!

Come along to our stand at U5 in the exhibit hall and our helpful staff will more than happy to help  you plan a holiday break in Ireland. And be sure to wear your lucky socks because we will also be giving away some weekend breaks at our stand!

Mike Webster, GoIreland’s CEO, will also be speaking at the travel clinic about holidaying at home in Ireland. Mike takes to the stage at 13.45pm on Sunday and we’re sure he will give the performance of a lifetime!

Finally, we are also giving away 10 tickets to attend this great event. Just leave a comment below on this post or on our Facebook wall and we will contact the first 10 with free tickets!

See you in the exhibit hall!

Thank you for reading the GoIreland blog. If you're looking for a hotel in Dublin, check out our amazing rates and availability on GoIreland.com.