Get answers to all your gardening questions and view some magnificent floral art at the Anglo Irish Bank Garden Heaven Show this weekend in the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Opening hours 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. today and tomorrow and 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Sunday with a flower and plant sell-off at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission €10/€7.
Nighttimes: In cool contrast to the Witnness rock frenzy at Fairyhouse Racecourse this weekend, Congolese guitarist, Mose Fan Fan and his band, the Congo Acoustic, promise a fusion of African and Latin music.
Currently on a mini ESB Routes of Rhythm tour, they will perform in: the Gallery on Gladstone, Clonmel, Co Tipperary tonight at 8 p.m. €12 (tel: 052-82899); An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal tomorrow at 8 p.m. €15 (tel: 074-20777) and in Whelans, Dublin on Sunday at 8 p.m. €18 (tel: 01-879001).
Childtimes: Take a family day trip to Britain on the Jonathan Swift ferry from Dublin Port or on the HSS Stenaline from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead, Wales. Both routes have a sailing time of about one hour, 40 minutes. Irish Ferries sails from Dublin Port at 6.15 a.m. and 12.15 p.m. daily, leaving Holyhead at 3.15 p.m. and 8.45 p.m. daily. Stenaline sails from Dún Laoghaire at 11.10 a.m. (and at 6.30 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays), leaving Holyhead at 6.30 p.m. Cost €76 for 2 adults and 2 children. Trains from Holyhead run every hour to Chester, where there are pretty pedestrian shopping streets and Chester Zoo to visit. Irish Ferries: 1890 313131/
Stenaline: 01 2047777.
My Native County: Playwright, Billy Roche
My favourite places
1 I love the beautiful expansive strand of Curracloe beach, seven miles north of Wexford town. My favourite walk there is from Curracloe to Culleton's Gap and over to Raven's Point. From there, you get a ghostly glimpse of Wexford town in the distance. It is a beautiful silent place and I feel like I'm on the edge of the world when I'm there.
2 My favourite view is of my home town of Wexford from across the River Slaney as you approach the town from Dublin. There, you see the bridge leapfrogging into the town and the harbour shining in the sun or grey and angry with the rain. From that point, you have an amazing panorama of Wexford town with its twin churches rising up like stalagmites and the Friary church and St Iberius church in between. Above that you can see St Peter's College on the hill and below the house where I grew up.
3 The little village of Bunclody sits at the foot of Mount Leinster beside the beautiful river Clody. You're almost in Co Carlow there but you're not. There is one song I know and love called Bunclody. It goes: "Where I at the Moss House, where the birds do increase, at the foot of Mount Leinster, on some silent place." I've never been to the Moss House but I'm told it still stands and that the view from there is amazing. A couple of people have promised to take me there sometime. Sylvia Thompson
Just-in-times:
To celebrate the opening of its new Marine Spa centre, the Sandhouse Hotel, Rossnowlagh, is offering Irish Times readers two nights' accommodation in ocean-view rooms, breakfast, a five-course gourmet dinner and a complimentary spa treatment for €240 per person sharing. Tel: 072-51777.
Joan Scales (jscales@irish-times.ie)
