Tips on getting through the summer safe and happy.
Inside track: It's vital to cover up on a sun holiday. Wear T-shirts made from closely woven fabric with sleeves and high collars, and a wide-brimmed hat. Get rid of those baseball caps: they leave the ears and back of the neck exposed to UV rays. Use plenty of sunscreen and reapply liberally throughout the day - every two hours and after perspiring, swimming or drying off. Remember: you can get as badly burned in Ireland as the Mediterranean. There's no such thing as a safe tan.
Michelle Harrison,
NEHB health promotion officer
Watch out: Wasps are useful. They kill bluebottles, for example, and take bits home to their young. They need energy from carbohydrates, in the form of nectar from flowers that suit a short proboscis, and surplus sugar excreted by their larvae. It's only in August, when the young are reared and the colony begins to break up, that wasps begin to seek out orchards, sharing apples with birds and red admirals, or the sweet drips excreted by aphids feeding on the sappy shoots of trees such as willow.
Michael Viney
Cool for kids: Ideal for family outings, Loughcrew Gardens, near Oldcastle in Co Meath, are full of woodland mazes, fairy statues, colourful toadstools and log seats painted by local children. Hidden in the forest are giant spiderwebs created by Catherine Fox, a local artist in Celtic embroidery. The lakes are dotted with cranógs and the drumlins are topped with motte and bailey forts. Admission costs €3 for children, €6 for adults and €20 for a family. Call 049-8541356
Louise Holden
Stars and gripes / Kian Egan of Westlife
Best holiday: It was probably when I went to Barbados last year with my girlfriend. It was our first holiday together, so it was important. The area and the tropical atmosphere were really beautiful, and because the hotel we stayed in was secluded we just relaxed while we were there. If we go away it would have to be a total chill-out holiday.
Worst holiday: My worst holiday scenario would have to be if I went somewhere and nothing was organised and the accommodation was poor. That would ruin a holiday for me.
in conversation with Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Off the shelf
A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
Penguin, £7.99 in UK
Ignatius J. Reilly, an overeducated curmudgeon with a genius for complicating people's lives, leaves a trail of destruction as he slouches around the French Quarter in 1960s New Orleans. This thigh-slappingly funny and brilliantly satirical novel won a Pulitzer Prize. Alas, by that time the author had committed suicide, distraught at his failure to find a publisher. His mother eventually succeeded.
John Moran
Get out: Where to go, what to see: for entertainment listings, see The Ticket, every Friday in The Irish Times, or go to www.ireland.com/ theticket.
For other events see the What's On column in the main paper every Thursday and the Saturday magazine
