Travel

View from New York – light at the end of the tunnel or a train coming the other way?

Niall NYC on May 5, 2020, 7:05 am

| Readers 736

Anybody I know who has lived in New York for any length of time has remarked in recent years that we don’t have shoulder seasons anymore. One day it’s winter and the next day it’s not. Nobody wears a spring or autumn jacket like we used to; your winter coat gets stored away at the end of April and re-emerges sometime around Thanksgiving in November. Well, it certainly felt like last Saturday was the day the Weather Service pulled a …

Mobility data suggests that Northern Ireland is traveling more than any other region in the UK or Ireland

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on May 3, 2020, 11:39 pm

| Readers 15280

Data provided by Apple on levels of mobility by Apple Maps users suggests that Northern Ireland has seen less of a drop in motor traffic levels than any other area in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The chart above shows average motor traffic levels by week, compared with the week commencing Sunday the 19th of January, for the regions of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Italy and Spain. The data suggests that this week motor traffic levels in Northern …

It’s time we rediscovered the simple pleasures of holidaying at home…

Brian O'Neill on April 30, 2020, 6:37 pm

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I used to travel A LOT. Up to ten trips a year sometimes: America once or twice a year, then lots of weekend breaks around Europe, then throw in a beach holiday or two in Majorca for good measure. All that travel came to a grinding halt five years ago when our son was born. We made two trips with him to the Netherlands when he was a few months old. But it was so much hassle travelling with him …

The view from New York – the aftermath…

Niall NYC on April 28, 2020, 7:18 am

| Readers 1654

I wasn’t going to write another one of these Views from New York. It feels a little self-indulgent now when events have overtaken as they have and the whole world is now reeling from this pandemic. And what of the developing world countries that barely make the news? China, Europe, the US have been dominating the headlines for weeks but what is happening in those other parts of the globe and how horrific will it be in the favelas and …

Memories of Iran…

Lynda Tavakoli on April 26, 2020, 7:00 am

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Iran is in the spotlight again thanks to Mr Trump’s measured and articulate twitter comments over the past few days. Not really. And no, I have no public opinion on that except to say that I was in Iran during a similar situation a few years ago that involved British/Iranian confrontation in the Persian Gulf and, let’s just say, I witnessed the story from both sides through various media outlets. I’m not a political commentator nor an academic and generally …

Two Years in New Ireland – Or How I Missed the Start of the Thatcher Era…

Michael McLoughlin on April 19, 2020, 7:00 am

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Following on from my previous post – here is how I came to be in New Ireland, and some of my experiences there. I was studying civil engineering and unadventurously living at home, having gone to an all boys’ schools and swopped that for a class full of guys at Queens. A likely 40 year engineering career in the DOE (Dept of Everything) beckoned. In the summer before my final year, I met a Fr Austin Healy, home on …

New Ireland – Hibernia in the South Pacific…

Michael McLoughlin on April 11, 2020, 7:00 am

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Inspired by Brian O’Neill’s call for new contributors, this is a first-time post; little to do with politics and nothing to do with pestilence, but hopefully a bit of an antidote to the latter. If you were like me, and loved to browse an atlas in days before the internet, you might possibly have happened upon a seemingly innocuous speck of an island on the opposite side of the world which rejoices in the name New Ireland. I had come …

Coronavirus kills off Flybe…

Brian O'Neill on March 5, 2020, 12:12 pm

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The troubled airline Flybe which was already on life support for the past few months has gone into administration. Flybe operated 14 routes from George Best airport, making up about 80% of all their scheduled flights. All Flybe flights have been cancelled and its passengers have been advised not to go to the airport. It will likely not be the last business to be hit by the economic downturn following the Coronavirus outbreak. In the short term, it is a …