Day Tripping with Diane

31/01/2025

As an Irish Tour Guide with Failte Ireland, I urge you all to honour the weekend that is in it.

12/08/2024

On your next visit to Co. Galway, be sure to check out this picturesque little village on the shores of Galway bay . Situated on the Galway / Clare border , Kinvara is the gateway to the Burren. Steeped in history and stories. Visit Dunguaire Castle , take in the views at the Pier, taste some exquisite seafood or just take a stroll about .

21/04/2024

Summer vibes in Ireland today.

14/04/2024

07/04/2024

The Book of Kells.

07/04/2024

Gaia on display in the old library

18/03/2024

St. Patrick's Day Parade

17/03/2024

Happy St. Patrick's Day All 🇮🇪☘️💚🇮🇪☘️💚🇮🇪

01/02/2024

20/01/2024

THE AUTOGRAPH TREE -

Irish dramatist Sean O' Casey is one of the initials on this famous tree in Coole, Co. Galway.

Seán O'Casey (1880-1964)

Seán O’Casey was born John Casey to a poor Protestant Dublin family on 30th March 1880. Despite ill health and an erratic formal education, he became one of Ireland’s best-known and controversial writers.
He joined the Gaelic League in 1906 (Drumcondra branch) writing for their journal and thereafter began signing his name as Seán O’Cathasaigh. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes.
Funding issues, the onset of World War I, and the Irish Rebellion of 1916 almost closed the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. However, Sean O’Casey’s works stimulated new life in the theatre, and from 1923 to 1926 three of his plays were a vital source of income.
The Shadow of a Gunman, was performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. The play deals with the impact of revolutionary politics on Dublin's slums and their inhabitants, and is understood to be set in Mountjoy Square, where he lived during the 1916 Easter Rising. It was followed by Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926).
Lady Gregory first invited O’Casey to Coole in 1924. Theirs was an unusual friendship in many respects, due to their differences in beliefs and class. But the Arts can ignite a different and more genuine kind of normality, transcending these artificial distinctions. Lady Gregory taught him to distinguish between the various trees – ‘She marched along telling their names, the way an eager young nun would tell her beads.’ And he said of Lady Gregory - ‘her loves were books, which were nearest to her mind, and trees, which were nearest to her heart.’
While living in London, O’Casey was shocked by the rejection of his fourth play, ‘The Silver Tassie’, by the Abbey Theatre in 1928. He took the criticisms as a total censure of his play and made up his mind never to return to Ireland. Sadly, this also ended his relationship with Lady Gregory and he refused her offer of a visit when he and his wife Eileen had their first child. He lived to regret his decision, as he never laid eyes on her again and he realised he should have listened to his wife.
In 2021 Sean O’Casey’s great-granddaughter, Agnes O’Casey, made her acting debut in Coole Park performing in the Druid’s production of Thomas Kilroy’s adaptation of Chekov’s ‘The Seagull’. A fitting posthumous reconciliation of the O’Casey family, Theatre and the Arts with Coole.

31/12/2023

Looking forward to a great 2024 travelling the highways and byways of Ireland. We have many traditions that is handed down from generation to generation. This is just one of them.

23/11/2023

Happy Thanksgiving to all my followers.

23/09/2023

Cultural Night 2023