Welcome to Travel Directories Ireland Newsletter for Winter 2017

Tourism News

North has problem attracting visitors from Republic
Northern Ireland is “currently not a sufficiently compelling or motivating destination” for some visitors from the Republic even before Brexit is factored into the equation, according to a new report commissioned by government sponsored agency Tourism NI.
Tourism chiefs in Northern Ireland want to grow annual visitor revenue from the Republic to £140 million (€160 million) in the North by 2025 but the taskforce report details in depth that potential visitors from the South are currently not really aware of what they can see or do during a break.
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Dublin City Council cracking down on Airbnb-style lettings
Dublin City Council is cracking down on the proliferation of short-term Airbnb-type lettings in the city, as it steps up its enforcement activity on landlords targeting the tourism market without appropriate planning permission.
According to a spokeswoman for the council, about 100 apartment owners are under investigation for inappropriate use as short-term lets.
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Travel and Tourism Statistics
The following table shows trips made to Ireland from August to October 2017, compared with the same period in 2016 and also indicates where the visitors came from.
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Travel News

Ireland West Airport embarks on €15m investment phase of development works
Work has commenced on a €15m facilities investment plan aimed at transforming the Airport over the next three years. The investment strategy will see over €15m invested in new passenger facilities, terminal upgrades and infrastructural works across the airport facility and runway.
By the end of the first quarter of 2018 almost €4m worth of major infrastructural projects, to improve the operational efficiency and to upgrade and enhance the airports facilities and services, will have been completed.
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Dublin Airport Welcomes 15 New Services This Winter
Air Arabia Maroc has launched services to Agadir, Flybe is now flying to London Southend and Ryanair has launched services to Munich and Naples and it will also add Stuttgart to its route network in the coming weeks. Ten services which started during the summer season will operate this winter schedule for the first time. Several airlines are also increasing frequency to 14 other destinations this winter.
There is much to look forward to in 2018 as Air Canada will operate direct services to Montreal, Aer Lingus will operate a new transatlantic route to Philadelphia, Cathay Pacific is launching direct flights to Hong Kong, Iceland Air will fly to Reykjavik and Ryanair will add Paphos in Cyprus and Marrakesh in Morocco to its route network next year.
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Cork Airport Partners In US Campaign To Promote The Cork Region
Cork Airport is partnering with Tourism Ireland and Norwegian Air to launch an extensive marketing campaign in the US to promote tourism in the region. The campaign, which is being launched this week in the greater Boston region, will drive awareness of Cork and its unique position as the Gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East as well as promoting the direct transatlantic access to Cork with Norwegian.
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Late-night DART & Commuter Services from Friday 8th December on selected weekends for Christmas
Late-night services will serve all stations on DART, Dundalk, Maynooth and Kildare Commuter lines, including Pearse to Kildare via Phoenix Park Tunnel.
For the first time ever, commuters on the Kildare commuter line will have late-night services from the heart of the city centre, with services from Dublin Pearse to Kildare operating via the Phoenix Park Tunnel line.
Late night DART and Commuter services are part of a range of late night public transport services available this Christmas season. Full details of all public transport late night services are available from Transport for Ireland at www.transportforireland.ie.
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Fare reduction on three million Bus Éireann city journeys from December 1
Passengers on around five million Bus Éireann journeys will be paying lower fares in 2018, compared to 2017. This includes three million customer journeys in regional cities, and about two million on longer commuter/rural journeys.
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Bus Éireann to provide Park & Ride services and €10 Special Christmas Fares for Galway customers
Enjoy the festivities in Galway City this Christmas with Bus Éireann with a park and ride service at Ballybrit Racecourse as well our special seasonal fares on scheduled services– only €10 day return on our Galway commuter services..
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Events Winter 2017

The Chester Beatty Library
Winter Hours: The Museum will be closed on Mondays from November through February
Described by the Lonely Planet as not just the best museum in Dublin, but one of the best in Europe. Manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and decorative arts complete this amazing collection - all the result of the collecting activities of one man - Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). Egyptian papyrus texts, beautifully illuminated copies of the Qur'an, the Bible, European medieval and renaissance manuscripts are among the highlights on display. In its diversity, the collection captures much of the richness of human creative expression from about 2700 BC to the present day.
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Wild Lights at Dublin Zoo
3rd November - 7th January
Visitors will be treated to an awe-inspiring display of lanterns which includes a pride of lions, orangutans, tigers, giraffes, monkeys and much more!
Other highlights include a 16-metre high porcelain elephant tower and a 30-metre long Chinese dragon. At the event, visitors will also be wowed by Chinese performers before browsing at the Chinese craft market, all in one unforgettable setting. There will also be a selection of Chinese foods and warm drinks available for visitors to purchase.
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Winter Solstice at Newgrange
18th - 23rd December
Witness a dawn spectacle engineered over 5,000 years ago by spending a morning at Winter Solstice at Newgrange.
People gather at Newgrange for winter solstice dawn on each of the mornings from December 18th to December 23rd inclusive. Sunrise is at 8.58am. All access to the chamber is decided by lottery. However, everyone else is welcome to come and stand on the outside of the monument. You’ll witness the dawn as Newgrange’s Neolithic builders saw it thousands of years ago.
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Christmas Night at Teeling Distillery
21st December
The Christmas night will take place on the 21st of December from 7pm and will cost €60 per person. There will be a cocktail reception in the Exhibition Space, accompanied by some festive piano music. Following this, you will be led on a tour, experiencing the sounds, smells and sights of a real working distillery. Your tour will end in the First Floor Bang Bang Bar, where renowned local DJ Nialler9 will be performing. There’ll be full bar service as well as casual street food to enjoy (and plenty of space to dance!) They will be serving signature festive cocktails, as well as beers, wines, spirits and of course Teeling whiskey!
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Portmagee's Traditional Old Year Festival
31st December
For over one and a half centuries the arrival of each New Year is celebrated in Portmagee with a unique costume parade called the "Old Year".
The year was 1727 when, three days after Christmas, a Kinsale brig, flying a French flag, landed in the Port of Portmagee after coming from Nantes, France. The boat remained until the New Year but what was to happen to the people of Portmagee on New Year’s Eve 1727 was going to change their little village for evermore.
As the locals were retiring for the night, a strange but eerie noise was coming from the vicinity of the local pier. As the strange sound came up towards the village, to the locals amazement they saw the crew of the French boat holding torches and marching through the village. They were led by a piper and in the centre of the torch men a shaggy and staggering figure of an old man on his last legs was swaying as if his time was up.
They proceeded through the village and when they returned to the head of the pier, a shot rang out and the old man lay on the road as if dead. Silence descended again but only for a moment when a newly-dressed man with white trousers, swallow-tail coat and top hat emerged from the darkness and he repeated the route of the old man with again the piper leading him and the torches either side. The new man gave a speech to explain to locals about what they had just seen and he went on to inform them that the old man had symbolised the year gone by and, come midnight, he was no more. The New Man symbolised all that was new and the youth of the year that had just begun.
And so it was that the custom of the ‘Old Year’ began in Portmagee.
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Recipe

Squidgy chocolate pear pudding
Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 35 mins
Serves 8

Ingredients
200g butter, plus extra for greasing
300g golden caster sugar
4 large eggs
75g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
410g can pear halves in juice, drained
100g plain dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
25g flaked almonds (optional)
cream or ice cream, to serve

Method
1. Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Lightly grease a roughly 20 x 30cm shallow ovenproof dish. Put the butter in a large saucepan and place over a low heat until just melted. Remove the butter from the heat and stir in the sugar until well combined.

2. Whisk the eggs together in a large bowl. Gradually add the eggs to the butter and sugar, beating well with a wooden spoon in between each addition. Sift the flour and cocoa powder on top of the egg mixture, then beat hard with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.

3. Pour into the prepared tin or dish and nestle the pears into the chocolate batter. Put the chocolate on a board and cut into chunky pieces roughly 1.5cm with a large knife. Scatter the chocolate pieces over the batter and sprinkle with almonds, if you like. Can be frozen at this stage.

4. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 mins or until the mixture is crusty on the surface and lightly cooked inside. Do not allow to overcook, as the cake will become spongy rather than gooey in the centre. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

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Final Thought

“You can only try your best. And if they can’t appreciate that, it’s their fault, not yours.”
- Anonymous

Slán

Travel Directories Ireland
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