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- Picks of the Week - Irish Picks
Welcome! It's Picking time again, and yea we have gone forth and picked -- behold a handful of Irish sites worthy of note this month. If you have a favourite site that we haven't mentioned, do drop us an email with the site's name and address and we shall unleash our reviewers upon it. Click here if you only want to view this month's list of sites.
You must not plan a trip to the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry without first spending time at this delightful new site. Excellent illustrations, maps, and extensive telephone and other contact details for local amenities make this an essential and attractive resource. There's a great feeling of plenty here: find out everything from Sunday Mass times to petrol station locations for even the remotest parts of the Peninsula, including Ballyferriter, Annascaul and Cloghane. A good 1998 calendar details events right up to the end of December, and email addresses and Web sites are provided for many listed activities. If you're not tempted south after strolling through this tempting site, we'll eat our hat(s).
If it's the other end of the island that takes your fancy, meanwhile, check out the new and growing Northern Ireland Site. You won't find the same ultra-professional sheen that the Dingle site sports, but the home-grown air of this site for Belfast, Derry and other parts north is charming. "OK, OK, OK, let's get over the name question first," reads the introduction to the Derry/Londonderry part of the site. "Some people call it Derry in private conversation but Londonderry in public, and there are even some who call it The Maiden City (because the walls were never breached - good joke eh?)." Whatever you call the city, the site's guide to it is solid -- find places to eat and stay, car parking info and more. The site's guide to Belfast and to Northern Ireland politics also makes interesting reading, needless to say, as does the section entitled "Lovely place -- BUT IS IT SAFE?".
Need a car? Well, you can't buy one at Dan Dooley but you can rent one for many hundreds of pounds a week, especially in peak season. A handy online form lets you choose the small, medium-sized or luxury car you like, and there are plenty of automatic transmission models for US visitors. A secure transaction facility lets you book right through the Web, if you so wish, and detailed price lists let you see itemised costs for additional drivers, insurance and other extras. Visitors to Ireland can also avail of the handy section on driving tips, although it seems that the advice to "Always drive on the left" should be placed more prominently on the page.
Would you rather stay at home curled on the couch than take a road trip? Then you'll appreciate the luxurious laziness of PTV. Channel surfing wastes valuable energy when you're a serious couch potato, but PTV, a personalised television listings service, has the remedy. Designed with intelligent agent technology by University College Dublin researchers, PTV will learn what types of programmes you like and present you with (surprisingly accurate) personalised television listings on the Web. Do you crave Star Trek? Animal shows? Golf tournaments? PTV will customise itself accordingly, once you've told it your preferences, and you can refine its service even further by giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to any of its suggestions. Perfect! Now, if you could just train the dog to switch on the kettle...
Rivers and museums might not seem a natural pairing, but that's what you'll find at the new Heritage Ireland site. Extensive information on Ireland's inland waterways and river tours are available, along with details of various national museums, including the National Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Concert Hall and other organisations under the auspices of the this government department. We loved the clickable map of Dublin showing the location of all the museums in relation to each other, plus opening times, details of audio/visual presentations, and lovely enlargable photos from each organisation. The information on waterways, plus attractions like Glendalough and the Hill of Tara, make this an unmissable site for anyone planning an Irish tour. Wonderful!
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