I just returned from a fabulous 2 week solo trip to Ireland. Dublin, Galway and Westport. What made it really special was I contacted a nurse I used to work with 25 years ago when she lived in the US. She now lives in Ireland again.

She spent 3 days taking me all over and really went out of her way to show me around. Even insisted on picking me up in Galway and driving me to my next accommodation in Westport (near where she lives) when I had intended to take the bus.

Although I had brought her a souvenir type shopping tote from Los Angeles and pins from our old hospital, and paid for some of our meals together, I still wanted to show my appreciation in a better way. So I just sent her a gift certificate for afternoon tea for two at Ashford Castle. And I got this reply. I feel terrible if it made her feel embarrassed! Did I commit a serious faux pas? And should I do anything else to correct it, besides how I replied?

There are often posts about how bad Irish radio is and I thought it would be nice to point when it really works. Listening to Marty Whelan on Lyric FM and he plays Burt Ives “The Fox” something I’d never heard before. A folk tune from the 15th century song sung by the man who did “Holly Jolly Christmas.” It’s such a weird thing to hear with coffee in the morning and was a pleasant few minutes finding out more and researching. More of this!

Very Random but I have to say, as someone (like most) that is struggling financially . I’m really finding the school meals provided for free from Glanmore are really helping 🙏
My kids would never ever go without before this but it’s absolutely keeping my shopping bill down . I’m sure there are kids that may have gone without🥲

Does your school use this service ?

For once RTÉ have actually got it right 😂

I’m really enjoying the new season of The Traitors Ireland. The production is so good and it’s great to see something made here that feels genuinely high quality.

I really like how much Irish culture is woven into it too. The wolfhounds, the music, iconic Slane Castle and hearing a cúpla focal being thrown into conversations so naturally.

It’s nice to see Ireland looking this good on screen and our culture being part of the show in a way that feels really natural. ☘️

What's he chasing you across the field for

Lads I'm just sitting here in Taiwan on my second beer and there's baseball on the tv. I reckon county hurlers could walk into this sport. Same with cricket. Just smack that ball no bother at all. Maybe not the pitching part, we'll take an American for that. I could throw a team together and beat the red sox in a month. And England at the cricket

I'm 30Y, went to aldi today and the lady asked me for my ID, for a Redbull 🤣

And I said "Oh are U saying I look under 18? Let me grab it right away love" and she laughs we had a great giggle out of it tho

My husband came in seconds after we cracked up

Never been happier 🤣 rocking my 30's I guess

Spent the last while building this as a passion project and figured this sub would either enjoy it or tear it apart, both of which are useful to me.

It's myireland.ie — no ads, nothing to buy, just an atlas of Ireland's history. Main bits:

• A timeline slider that runs from the first settlers to the present, showing who held what across the 32 counties at each point
• A Famine map comparing every county's population in 1841 vs 1851
• A surname map showing where families and clans came from
• Pages on placenames, monuments, myths, and a "guess the age" quiz for the monuments

Two known weak points I'll own up front: old kingdoms and lordships didn't follow modern county lines, so the boundaries are approximations, and some of the further-reading links are Wikipedia while I work through proper sources. If you know your own county's history and something's off, tell me and I'll fix it.

I see a lot of negative stories here about Tradies so I thought I'd share a positive.

Noticed on Friday that our Oil tank was bowing out one side. Looks like someone jumped off the 4m rear wall onto it. Thank God its not cracked. But its bad. It's only 18 months old.

Monday morning 9am: called the guy who fitted it.

10am I'll be round to the house he says

11am He arrives with a new tank

12 30 New tank Fitted 'I had a big job lined up but I dropped it for this, it's more important' he says on the way out. No charge.

Saved me €1500 in a fill of fuel from last week and €40,000+ if that had leaked into the garden and next door.

There are some top blokes out there.

Probably preaching to the converted here but please put on headlight in this weather, DRL (daytime running lights) are not sufficient. For anyone that may not be aware or realise, DRL only come on at the front, so nothing at the back, wheras headlights also put on your tail lights. If you are on the roads in that weather and you have no tail lights, you are near invisible.

If you are not driving, please ask or prompt the driver to ensure they have their headlights on. I swear it gets worse every year as people get more modern cars yet have no idea how to operate them correctly.....rant over

I’m sure most of you have heard of at least some of these subdivisions, but how many of these do you actually know the function of? Or where they fall in the hierarchy? Here is the full list of all of Irelands many complicated (and sometimes unnecessary subdivisions)

1. Province (Cúige): The highest form of subdivision, the four ancient kingdoms of Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster While today they hold no administrative power, they make up the highest form of subdivision.

2. County (Contae): The core administrative unit of Ireland (in the Republic anyway, the north has weird distinct council things which I am not getting into) introduced by the Anglo-Normans. There are 32 counties across the island.

3. Barony: The direct Irish equivalent to the English hundred. Baronies often mapped over old Gaelic clan territories (tuatha) and were historically used for collecting taxes and running local courts.

4. Civil Parish: These are the administrative boundaries used by the Catholic Church and COI, a parish will have one or more dedicated priest who will work entirely within this area (Civil Parishes also fit into dioceses, but those may as well just be a bunch of counties merged together)

5. Townland (Baile Fearainn): The smallest official and legally standardized division of land. These were historically used to measure and manage land value, organize farming and collect taxes and rent. They have no standard size, some townlands can be the sizes of parishes and others are no bigger than a car park.

6. Hundreds & Sub-townlands: A very rare even smaller subdivision of a townland, these are usually found inside unmanageably large townlands which will be split into multiple pieces for easier monitoring.

Thanks to the girl in Tesco who ran up to me while I was shopping with a large sheet of plastic off a pallet which I fashioned into a makeshift poncho to keep me dry as I made my way back to my car. The gesture was much appreciated!!