A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Poetry in your pocket
Dedalus Press have produced a pocket anthology of poetry edited and produced by Pat Boran, which comes with a CD of selected poems set to music composed by Roger Gregg/Crazy Dog Audio Theatre. It’s called The Bee-Loud Glade, features 20 poets, and is a perfect memento to leave under the pillow of a summer visitor, slip into an envelope for a summer worker abroad, or to keep in the glove compartment for some contemplative driving.
It is available from bookshops and bee-loud.com
Another fine garden in Laois
With so many Irish gardens closing their gates, or limiting their opening hours in recent years, it’s heartening to see a new one throwing itself open to the public. While this garden is new, the house at its centre, Ballintubbert, is old – 1780 – and historic. Originally a rectory, the estate near Athy has been at various times the home of poet C Day-Lewis and actors Sebastian Shaw and John Hurt.
The present owners, Fergus and Orna Hoban, have worked with the cream of Irish garden consultants, including Jim Reynolds, Arthur Shackleton, Daphne Levinge Shackleton and Sandro Cafolla, to make an ambitious and flamboyant space which salutes both the arts and crafts and the baroque eras. The garden opens tomorrow officially and will open daily (10am-6pm) until October 31st. Visitors are encouraged to bring a picnic and stay all day. Adults: €10, children €3 (children under 2 free). See ballintubbert.com.
Co Laois is also the home of Jim Reynold’s garden at Ballyfin, and do be sure to look out for Tanguy and Isabel de Toulgoët, who give organic gardening and French cookery courses at their one-acre holding near Durrow. See dunmorecountryschool.ie.
Jane Powers
White Door opens in Dublin
Country boutiques making metropolitan moves may be becoming a trend. The latest opening on Dublin’s Exchequer Street is a branch of the successful White Door from Dunleer in Co Louth. Owner Jacqui Honer-Sullivan, a former AIB employee who quit banking to start her own business aims to take on the high street with clothes, homewares and cosmetics at affordable prices. The star of her shop is the US brand Hello!SkinnyJeans, designed to create a shapely silhouette for any size. She has also found cosmetics made by the same manufacturer that major brands use, at a fraction of their prices, and you get the sense that she has chosen every item herself. She has all sorts of ways of tempting customer loyalty and attention, one of them being live window displays every Saturday afternoon. And the shop’s current sale is offering up to 60 per cent discounts. See thewhitedoor.ie.
Deirdre McQuillan
Index
What's hot
PrinceHis spectacular Paris show promises great things for those heading to Malahide Castle on July 30th
Watching a dynastyunravel Murdoch and son under scrutiny. History in the making – and each day is a revelation
Art classes overlooking the BoyneWe've told you about Rossnaree before; now Aisling Law has devised a class to help you create that portfolio for art college. Rossnaree.ie
Water-based gloss paintIt washes out, doesn't smell and makes summer decorating a cinch
RestraintCome autumn, hems will fall just below the knee
Beauty warsAs more and more beauticians operate from home, prices are plummeting
Rainy day moviesCinema car parks are packed, with Harry Potter running every half hour. Meanwhile, Cars 2 gets a favourable review from parents if not critics
Really good house wine for under €20 a bottleTake a bow, Dunne Crescenzi, Cobalt, Rustic Stone . . .
Author readings in the Hugh Lane GalleryAlan Hollinghurst was amazing. More please!
Northern Ireland golfersAnother welcome sporting antidote to conquer the gloom and doom, although we could have done without the promise of a hangover
Faber Academy on tourThey've just done West Cork Literary Festival – next stop Kilkenny Arts Festival
WHAT’S NOT
Crucified solesBlock-toed platform wedged stillettos are the latest instruments of torture. Sure to show up at the Galway Races
Ordinary house wine for €20+You know who you are
And while we're at it . . .If we can afford to give you €20-odd for a main course, you can afford to give us bread to go with it. And don't swipe it off the table before the meal is over
TD chat about a dress code in the DáilWe're sick of it now – just do your jobs
Literally 'cold'A chilly 13 degrees in July
SuperquinnWe remember the old days, with its pioneering creches, organic produce, great sausages, pizzas, fresh ground coffee and excellent service. Here's hoping for a comeback
Kitchen suppers in a castle
A 500-year-old castle in Co Meath is the latest venue for an Irish supper club. Durhamstown Castle, owned by Dave and Sue Prickett for the past 15 years, has a chequered history, with the earl of Essex said to have been one of its first owners in the l6th century. Now that their children have fled the coop, the hospitable Pricketts, who are keen cooks, initially started cookery demonstrations, which proved so popular that they decided to start a supper club. “Everybody sits down together in our kitchen,” says Sue, “from top flying Dublin lawyers to Meath builders, and it has been a revelation. The whole house now has meaning and purpose – these big houses were made for people.”
The menu usually features two main courses, with ingredients including cheese and organic meat sourced locally, along with their own vegetables and home-made breads. The dinner parties are held every Friday night in the vaulted rooms of the castle and cost €29 a head. Guests can bring their own wine or buy it from a local French wine importer. For further details see the theposhnoshclub.com.
Deirdre McQuillan
In the frame
Charles McQuillan’s pictures will be familiar to Irish Times Magazine readers. The Pacemaker photographer’s work has featured on our pages and front covers on plenty of occasions. Perhaps the most extraordinary is this shot, taken by McQuillan moments before he underwent heart surgery. Most people going into hospital would be focusing on their treatment and recovery – McQuillan took the time to set up a series of remote-controlled cameras and created a stunning series of shots of his surgery that we published on October 2nd, 2010, with an accompanying article by Fionola Meredith.
This photograph recently won McQuillan the BT Photographer of the Year award, organised by the Northern Ireland Press Photographers Association. He’ll have to make more space on his mantelpiece, though, as he also won Photograph of the Year at the Press Photographers’ Year 2011 Awards in London, for a shot of lifelike dolls made by Glenda Ewart. This was for a piece, again by Fionola Meredith, that the Magazine ran on March 3rd, 2010.
Laurence Mackin
Shore success in Galway
If a glance at the menu for Aniar, a new restaurant in Galway from the team behind Cava Spanish restaurant and tapas bar, leaves you feeling that you've landed in Scandinavia rather than the Iberian peninsula, that's because head chef Enda McEvoy recently returned from working in the kitchen at Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant voted best in the world in the 2011 San Pellegrino awards.
Beach herbs, seaweeds, woodsorrel, samphire and sea lettuce all feature on the menu at Aniar (pictured right), and McEvoy describes the inspiration for the restaurant as being "based on terroir", and taking account of "natural influences that give food a sense of place". Pickling and brining are used extensively, stocks and sauces are kept light, and the larders will be stocked with the bounty of daily woodland and seashore foraging. Aniar, which is owned and run by JP McMahon and Drigín Gaffey, is on Dominick Street. See aniarrestaurant.ie, or tel: 091-535947.
Marie-Claire Digby
WORD ON THE STREET: Wenvy
What it means:Oh no, not another bleeding celebrity wedding. We can't take it anymore. The whole world has gone completely nuptials, with everyone scrambling to have the biggest, most ostentatious ceremony on the block. Watching Prince Albert of Monaco and his young bride Charlene Wittstock tying the knot in a €50 million bash (better check that knot, Albert); Kate Moss and guitarist Jamie Hince cavorting in the Cotswolds with rock royalty; or footballer Peter Crouch and model Abbey Clancy looking match fit – it's enough to make us completely wenvious. How can we compete on our bailout budget?
Where it comes from:We all talk about having a simple ceremony, no frills, just a few family and close friends, but secretly we all want a big, over-the-top extravaganza with gold-plated carriages, a diamond-encrusted wedding dress and Coldplay doing the music. We read about celebrity weddings and tut-tut at the tastelessness of it all, but let's admit it – we're just plain jealous. Last April's royal wedding really upped the ante. couldn't Wills and Kate have shown some consideration and simply eloped to Gretna Green?
How to say it:I see Zara Phillips's half-a-million quid deal with Hello! magazine has been nixed by the palace – that'll give her a dose of wenvy.
Kevin Courtney
Big screen beauty
This beautiful 24-panel resin screen entrapped with lichens, flowers, mosses and oak leaves has just been delivered to Collins Barracks museum in Dublin. According to its maker, furniture designer and architect Sasha Sykes from Rathvilly, it is a modern take on a 1920s Eileen Gray folding screen. Sykes's work with acrylic and resin, which started with a present she made for her father of a straw bale, has led to many interesting commissions, including one with lavender made for Bank of America in 2003 and another with seaweed panels for the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore. Multiple layers of resin create the illusion of depth and in it, she has suspended everything from rosebuds and mussel shells to cutlery and corks for tables and lamp bases. Her screen arrangements, inspired by the natural growth on the old walls surrounding the Carlow estate where she grew up, are all about the materials and plants used for dyeing. "I know a lot about nature and trees, but my mother, who is an amazing plantswoman, has taught me about flowers." See farm21.co.uk.
Deirdre McQuillan