Ireland
I am a specialist in music, sport and travel writing, published in a host of national publications. I work regular shifts for NME and the Dublin Gazette, and contribute to the Sunday Business Post, The Irish Independent, The Irish Sun, The Technoskeptic and a number of government tourism agencies. I also work as print editor for quarterly music publication GoldenPlec Magazine.
In early June, just as the final flames of the majority of Europe's 2018/2019 football season burn out, a more obscure football tournament - one for international-ish football associations that exist outside of FIFA - will kick off in Artsakh, a disputed region of Azerbaijan.
I'm really delighted to say that my book on the CONIFA World Football Cup and its participants, 'CONIFA: Football For The Forgotten' was published in April 2019.
“Anger did great things for me, though. It helped me find myself when I was young. I’ve never seen it as a route to violence. I’ve found it route one to intelligent thinking.”
Ostrava, we're told shortly after landing in the Czech Republic's third city, is a lot like Sheffield. It's not an analogy that holds up to too much scrutiny. The Czech city's proud working class origins might connect heavily with mining, but what's left today are the Soviet-era scars.
The idea of Budapest as a city of spas is an ancient one. The culture has been carefully guarded by the cit...
Four days before At The Drive-In kicked off their fledgling reunion in Los Angeles, founder member and near ever-present Jim Ward - who hadn't been informed of new dates at the time they were announced - formally quit the band.
Recently, a British DJ named Martyn Webster concluded a crowdfunding campaign that saw him hand over £24,000 ($36,500) to Richard L. Spencer, vocalist and last surviving member of 60s funk and soul act The Winstons. Having handed over the cash, Webster immediately restarted his crowd-funding campaign for a second round.
THERE'S A LONG-standing joke in the Czech Republic's second city Brno. "We know wine," they say. "We keep the best wine for ourselves. The mediocre stuff we sell to tourists, and the really bad stuff we send to Prague." It's fair to say the Czech Republic's two main cities have quite a rivalry.
To newcomers, Korean culture can seem incredibly alien. While it can feel like shining neon futurescapes, historic references lay heavily across the landscape, manifesting in borders and bowing gestures, fermented cuisine and lush palaces. Festivals are great insight, showcasing local highlights and invariably chucking in a hefty dose of the surreal alongside a glance at the many sides of one of Asia's most unique cultures.
Matching a wider global trend, vinyl here is very much on the rise. Record Store Day, for example, has become a Dublin music fan's Christmas, with queues outside stores for opening time and dozens of in-store live shows. In early 2018, the first new Irish record manufacturer since the 1980s opened its doors in Glasnevin, North Dublin.
"People unknown. We'll be back." That marker went up a year ago, pinned between the heavily-barred warehouses on Lower Grangegorman Road. Now, as promised, squatters have returned for a second occupation - and Squat City is opening its doors for all to see.
Underrated, relatively cynicism-free and fast-moving: if the key stakeholders around Dublin's camp are to be believed, ladies' football is at an all time high, and one that's arrived at speed. Dublin manager Gregory McGonigle has been around the game for a while, having made his way to the capital via a spell in charge of a successful Monaghan panel.
"What could offer a greater statement of footballing unity than a Northern Irish band waiting to celebrate their team's first tournament appearance in their lifetime, singing about the Italian star of an English football team?" European football-soccer, as we know it in the U.S.-and music are lively bedfellows, inextricably linked since the day the first...
Tomes have been written on what Dublin does well. It's noticeable, though, that traditional Irish pub grub ra...
If you use ad-blocking software, those bits of code that prevent advertisements from appearing on your browser as you surf the web, you're stealing. Not in the same sense as walking into a shop, grabbing the nearest item and walking out, admittedly.
Guinness have long-owned Dublin's most popular tourist attraction. The glistening, pint-shaped museum and sky...
Despite its towering and slightly indistinct skyline, Taiwanese capital Taipei does city life differently. It...
From masonry and political documents to abstract art and gas masks, the Little Museum's archives can be both upsetting and humorous as they sketch a snaking line through the trials and tribulations of a city that's still coming to terms with independence.
Korean food, generally speaking, is incredible. Diverse, often spicy, served in exotic styles and with the added bonus of being healthy and cheap. South Koreans eat out more than they eat in, and if you visit, you're going to want to do the same.
Arguably the stand out post-hardcore band (yes, ever), the occasional return of At The Drive-In from newfound roles revives a real whirlwind of turn of the century anger and drive. The El Paso act are sometimes as shambolic as they are beautiful (the 2012 live return, for example, could have been less...
From heroic sporting tales in ancient Celtic mythology to appearing right at the heart of '20s revolutionary ...
A cosmopolitan capital with a torrid history still writ large across its streets, Dublin is shaking off the shackles of a hard-hitting recession and regathering the easygoing buzz that made it a popular tourist haven.
When Taylor Swift-arguably the world's biggest pop star-went on a personal crusade against Spotify recently, you could have been forgiven for sighing a little and wondering if she's heard the latest on Syria's refugee crisis.
I first met Sangram Lama in Kathmandu's Durbar Square. That was in 2009, when the squat and good-humoured hiking guide was in the city picking up custom. He took me across the Langtang valley for 10 days, climbing above 5,000m (16,404ft) for yak photos and glacial views.
Look, we couldn't knowingly send you to Temple Bar. Instead, local rapscallion James Hendicott drags us through the real Dublin, drink, drugs, debauchery and all. Where the locals drink The area between Aungier Street and Dame Street is Dublin nightlife's heartland: try Dame Lane in summer, or Fade Street for leftfield hipster chic.
Padraig Harrington talks the mental side of golf, and how he doesn't value anything less than a win.
Muse FC - made up of bassist Chris Wolstenholme, two of his sons and a selection of the band's road crew - played a select XI from Irish second-tier football club Cabinteely in Dublin earlier this week (April 4).
Born out of rave culture - and showing it in being equal parts heady beats and ill-disguised rage - The Prodigy 's greatest achievement is arguably pushing their music into post-90s endurance.
James Hendicott A fresh face all set to make a tsunami of an impact on Ireland's music scene over the coming months is Loah, a unique, soulful voice who fuses a background in jazz with cultural influences from her own unlikely mixed influences: an upbringing shared between Sierra Leone and Maynooth.
Band make their step up to arena level with Dublin date
Ireland's capital is well-known for its rustic, lively pubs, but alcohol is highly taxed making it undeniably pricey. So, with a national reputation for a healthy disregard for authority, it's perhaps no surprise the locals seek out edgy alternatives.
Crash pad to the stars, a class act from top to tail Housed smartly in an entire row of the distinctive Georgian-era buildings that Dublin's become famous for, the Merrion Hotel is the Dublin institution beloved of the likes of Madonna and Bruce Springsteen, all understated elegance and sparkling service.
"We broke into the rooftop pool of a hotel in Melbourne at 3am. That was great. But everything's so surreal, you're never really taken aback by anything that happens. It takes going home and telling people about it for someone to stop you and say "your life's ridiculous"
The Island, it seems, is a difficult place. Set somewhere in the middle of the Pacific and filmed almost entirely by its cast, Bears Grylls latest crossover between reality TV and survival maroons 'ordinary' people amongst jungles, snakes, sting rays and - seemingly most difficult of all - each other.
An interview with Dublin GAA star Hannah Noonan ahead of the All Ireland women's football final
“I really liked those first two records”, Brock explains, “and they hadn’t been available on vinyl in over a decade. A very long time. I don’t own a copy of some of the original vinyls. I went online occasionally as we were trying to put these records back together, and I’m like ‘we need a copy of the original record’. There’s no way I’d pay that much for this asshole’s record! I couldn’t bring myself to spend that kind of money on the thing."
In some of the plusher hotels in the heart of Dublin, they serve a cocktail called Black Velvet. A mix of Guinness and champagne, sounding like a slice of decadent Ireland. The Temple Bar in the city is always rammed with tourist wanting the black stuff, whipped-up with decadence.
CAROL Brill, who suffers from a rare eyesight and hearing-affecting genetic disorder, Usher syndrome, is set to be the first Irish woman to compete in the Italian Blind Golf Open in Milan this coming October. Dundrum's Brill is an active campaigner on issues surrounding Usher syndrome, having recently spoken to the Oireachtas about the debilitating genetic problem.
If you've never been to Cambodia, you might associate the country with the stunning, long-abandoned temples of Angkor Wat, the brutal Khmer Rouge regime or the once dangerous abundance of landmines. They're all at the heart of the traveller experience, but they're not the only things that will stand out.