Tour Donegal - IRELAND

10/06/2024

Vintage fayre at Rossnowlagh, south Donegal this afternoon, beautiful backdrop for these rare old racing cars….

10/06/2024

If your around Nairn/Portnoo, Ardara in beautiful SW Donegal I recommend calling into Shona and her friendly staff in this little gem of a cafe, right on the beachfront - its simply divine!

Opening hours this coming week:

Monday 10 am -5pm
Tuesday 10am -5pm
Wednesday 10am -5pm
Thursday 10am -5pm
Friday 10am -5pm
Saturday 10am- 5pm
Sunday 11am -5pm

07/06/2024

The highlights of the last few weeks of touring and exploring our South Donegal area and Sligo….we are blessed with a unique landscape here on Donegal Bay and the Atlantic coast of Donegal, Ireland, certainly The Coolest Place on the Planet…!

03/05/2024

Assaranka yesterday evening as the sun went down..

03/05/2024

Another candidate has put their name forward to contest the upcoming local elections in the Donegal Municipal District.   Businessman Derek Vial is

02/05/2024

This is the very first video to appear back in April 2017 on derekvial_tourdonegal and TourDonegal-Ireland F/B of the then recently rediscovered ancient wonder The Secret Waterfall, it’s been filmed and photographed once or twice since those firsts on social media!

02/05/2024

FacebookTweetLinkedInPrint The first ship of an estimated 25 such liners to visit Killybegs this summer will pull into port tomorrow…

02/05/2024

The sunsets across southwest Donegal are just unreal at this time of the year….

01/05/2024

Kippure Manor and Compulsory Purchase Orders for Asylum Centres

The unfolding fiasco that is Kippure Manor (and aptly an anagram of ‘Pure Kip’!) should serve as a test case for a CPO as a new and much alluded too state owned and run asylum detention centre. This would simultaneously deny the developers and promoters of this massive and largely unauthorised development some of their ill-gotten gains from both lucrative state IPAS contracts and egregious flouting of state planning laws and conventions.
This is effectively killing two birds with the one stone and helps to restore the newly minted Taoiseach’s aspirations in regards to law and order. There is no point suggesting the fiasco of Lower Mount Street, outside the IPAS/IPO is illegal and unacceptable when Kippure Manor, in nearby leafy county Wicklow is also in breach of almost every law of the land regarding proper and sustainable planning and building regulations, obviously among others, including fire certification, health and safety standards, overcrowding and other basic rental and housing regulations, that such an unregulated or illegal site must have.
It cannot be one rule and process for some and effectively none for another! This issue could be the proverbial hair that breaks the camel’s back and that of the Irish people.
Also, a euphemistically symbolic name for such a place could be Mount Malview Vista!

Yours, incredulously!

Derek Vial,
Donegal.

29/04/2024

DONEGAL
the
Banana Republic’s favourite County

26/04/2024

The Secret Cave & Waterfall is not the only secret place to be rediscovered in Killybegs, SW Donegal lately….but hey, don’t tell anyone about this medieval wonder either!

26/04/2024

The Secret Cave & Waterfall is not the only secret place to be rediscovered in Killybegs, SW Donegal lately….but hey, don’t tell anyone about this medieval wonder either!

25/04/2024

A tryptic of local Donegal sea poetry and art, for you all on this, International Poetry Day. Original art by renowned artist, Ana Stromberg, Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal….enjoy!

24/04/2024

The Secret Waterfall, near Killybegs, Co Donegal Hotel Killybegs

24/04/2024

St. John’s Point lighthouse, Donegal Bay, Ireland. A mid-nineteenth century treasure, still in use today, nearly 200 years on!

22/04/2024

Spring is in the political air again!

The Blue Whiting fishing season has finished for another year in Killybegs, Co. Donegal, Ireland’s largest fishing port and the boats are all tied up in the harbour. The strong smell of fishmeal has abated (we actually call it the smell of money!) only to be replaced by the pungent stench of ‘political want’. Unlike the passing odour of fishmeal, the foul aroma of ‘political want’ is detectable from Malin to Mizen, Clew Bay to Hook Head, and in every town and village in between.
The source of this stink is being caused by some slippery characters and their canvassers, casting their nets wide in the hopes of landing our precious votes! Keeping the electorate buoyed up with fleeting promises, sure to evaporate, once their seats are secured.
Before you cast your vote ask yourself one or two questions; over the past 5 years did they worry about your area, your job, your family, your housing needs, and your social, cultural and health needs? Did some just duck and dive and pander to a bankrupt ideology of government spin and dogma on the many critical issues facing the country? Business-as-usual politics with some cronyism thrown in for good measure!
Ask them who is benefitting from lucrative contracts to house IPAS and temporary protection applicants, often at the expense of hard-pressed local services and facilities. Ask them where tourists are going to get accommodation this summer season. How shops, pubs, cafes, restaurants, taxis, tour guides and many other businesses that rely on tourism are expected to survive - the summer season is short and critical for financial survival, particularly on the west coast of Ireland. Or where, indeed, our own young people can access secure and affordable housing, or even for these same rural businesses, where their staff and their communities are symbiotically entwined in these fundamental issues. Ask them where all our fishing quotas have gone, and what are they going to do about it, or why farmers are facing disaster due to a ruinous green agenda pushed through too hastily for many and out of step with the state's current plans for the sector.
Funny how concerned they can all pretend to be when their jobs are again on the line!
Of course, with the National Elections around the corner, their bigger political ambitions are evident too. Stuffing their hand-picked cronies and family members into the basket case that is our County Council system as they seek a cushier number for themselves up in the Dáil. Don’t be fooled by their PR spin and half-truths. Many are biding time or using decoy candidates until closer to polling day on June 7th - it is unashamed and glaringly obvious!
Bear all this in mind over the next while, as you open your door or attend debates. As the existing crop of Politicians, wannabe Councillors, EU candidates and their political bandwagons plumb the depths in search of your vote. I'd hold your nose high and tight this spring and summer. The Blue-Whiting season might be over but the Red-Herring season's just begun!

Derek Vial,
Killybegs, Donegal, Ireland.

22/04/2024

21/04/2024

Important advice about Irish Wildlife….take note folks!

Huge numbers of sharks being reported from Co Kerry to Co. Donegal all along the western seaboard.

Wonderful to see, but they are here to feed and willingly interfering with them is an offence under the Wildlife Act. So watch from a distance, don't disrupt their feeding behaviour and don't try and swim with them please.

Image courtesy of Marcus Hogan

20/04/2024

20/04/2024

20/04/2024

Change the Counties…and this is the tourists areas of Donegal too…!

Independent TD Verona Murphy has said mental distress is being caused to people in Co Wexford’s tourism industry arising from a lack of planning when it came to allocating homes to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

19/04/2024

19/04/2024

When the sun comes out, there are lots to discover….Donegal’s Armada heritage, Killybegs, Ireland.

19/04/2024

A terrible vista lies before us….Gardai ringing politicians and election candidates and citizens telling people what they can and cannot say in a democracy or is this an Autocracy and really a form of Dictatorship - fascism is insidious and starts like this with the removal of Contra Voices to the Government Narrative….I hope our good TD’s are going to raise this on the floor of the Dáil today or we are headed for another Morris Tribunal of Inquiry into Garda Corruption - Donegal had it before - if this happens here it is also time for another Tribunal of Inquiry - Morris Tribunal 2 perhaps….