In a city of tourists, you can’t have enough suitcases, and that’s true of Istanbul. Tourists everywhere in the old city, and numerous places to buy clothes, goods, trinkets and souvenirs. You’ll be needing another suitcase to bring it all home with you! I don’t share links very often, but here are a few you’ll…

The Baltimore Beacon can be spotted between the ruins of a Franciscan Friary on Sherkin Island. The Beacon is around 900m behind the ruins, sitting on a cliff overlooking the sea. The Friary, known locally as The Abbey, was founded in 1460, and it continued to act as a religious building until 1650, when it…

We went for a walk with my aunt one cold December evening in West Cork, doing a loop around the local area with our dog. The sun had dipped below the clouds, but it was still showing a bit of colour in the distance. A very lonely, quiet area, apart from our busy family walking…

Barbed wire along the edge of a field on Valentia Island is knotted to make sure the barrier holds. I remember hearing a podcast about the use of barbed wire in the US, how, in the 19th century, it helped white farmers control herds and easily fence their territories. The wikipedia page is quite interesting.

A photographer with his phone captured the waves on Cuminole Strand a few years ago. It was a beautiful August afternoon, a far cry from the wintery weather outside right now!

The end of Sheep’s Head in Co Cork and there’s a small lighthouse there. It’s a bit of a hike to get out there.

Before the glossy, glass faced building of One Albert Quay, a warehouse and other old, industrial buildings occupied that site. This is what it looked like in 2009. I would guess they were originally part of the train station that sat at that location. The “FREE FIT EXHAUST CENTRE” would have been a familiar sign…

You have to go all the way back to 2008 to see the building of Opera Lane., in Cork. Google Maps only goes back to 2009 on Patrick’s Street, where you can see some construction work, but Emmett Place isn’t covered until 2010 when construction had completed. Turn around and there’s the modern site of…

One of the nice things about Wonderlights was how they used the natural surroundings as part of the display. The electric trees and sign in the background were eye catching, but what piqued my interest here was the light highlighting the branches and autumn leaves of the tree in front!

I went to Wonderlights in Fota House last night with others from Blarney Photography Club and, despite the rain and mud, we were blown away by the light show, especially over the pond where lasers cut through the dry ice fog over brightly lit flowers on the water’s surface. It’s a bit pricey at €25+booking…

The famous diving area in Salthill, Galway, in 2011. This may have been the last time I was in Salthill. We drove through the city in 2018 on the way to Connemara, but I think it’s overdue a visit.

DMode, Depeche Mode Experience, is a Depeche Mode tribute band. They played in Cyprus Avenue on Saturday night. As expected, most of the audience was a bit older, around my own age, or older. Well, Depeche Mode have been around for a while! I learned that I really don’t know anything but Depeche Mode’s major…