Making Memories

One June night in the 1990s on one of my trips across the Atlantic, I had a layover in Iceland. About two in the morning, the airport was silent. I stood and gazed out the huge windows onto the red and glinting roofs of Reykjavik, the landscape’s harshness softened by the long slow gaze of…

Canada 150: 15 Great Canadian Destinations

  Second largest nation by land area, Canada ranked just 17th for annual number of international tourists (2014), before Macao and after Poland. Not known for sun holidays (though the summers can be amazing) or for huge casinos and massive cities, there is a vast amount to see in Canada – with the emphasis on vast. I…

Home for the Holidays

Who knew it would be so much trouble to go home? What should be simple, straightforward, and just, well, a basic human right, isn’t always. As I write this, I think about the millions of displaced people who not only have no foreseeable hope of going home, don’t even have another place they can call…

Carlow, Short and Sweet

Much as I love Dublin and city life (and I do! I’ve written about our lovely community here and here), I am always so happy to get away into the country. Carlow, to be honest, is not the first county I think of visiting whenever I want to get out of Dublin, yet there is…