Today 28th of May 2021, the Irish Government announced the next phases of Ireland's reopening post-covid.

This includes the return of international travel on the 19th of July, which as Father Ted fans will know is also the day in history when Galway was liberated from the Indians, Marathon became Snickers and of course the ice age ended.

The 19th of July will see visitors from the EU able to return to Ireland which has had the most severe lockdown in Europe, and then at some point beyond that travellers from outside the region will be able to visit- from the USA, Canada etc. If fully vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 / Coronavirus or with a negative test then no quarantine will be necessary.

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours and workshops are bookable from now through all of 2021, so plan ahead and check availability for your visit to Dublin, Galway, Cork, Antrim Coast and anywhere else in Ireland.

A sunny day in Dublin and until recently I couldn't help but think of the place as a bit of a ghost town.

Usually a visit to the Phil Lynott statue in Dublin, just off Grafton Street, is busy no matter the time of day.

But over most of the past year since the first lockdown in March 2020 right through to May 2021, the statue of Ireland's greatest Rocker; bassist, singer and frontman of one of the most influential rock bands of all time - Thin Lizzy, has stood mostly alone.

Here a triptych from a recent visit and I couldn't help but think of the lyrics of one of their finest tracks:

Southbound

The boom time it is over

A ghost town is all that's here

The gold rush it is over

And depression days draw near

So, tonight after sundown

I'm gonna pack my case

Without a word, without a sound

Disappear without a trace

Ohh oh, I'm going southbound

Ohh oh, I'm going southbound

...

I used to listen to this song on my long travels, pre-covid, around Ireland especially on my way south from the north but also on many occasions heading west - well it was kind of southwest.

Interestingly, Southbound was on their Live and Dangerous double live album in 1978 and, although denied after its release, it was later confirmed by producer Tony Visconti that the song was recorded during a soundcheck and the audience dubbed in afterwards.

Nevertheless, whether on the album Bad Reputation or Live and Dangerous it remains one of my favourite songs.

So thankfully, with the reopening that is currently happening, Phil's statue is not quite so lonely and Dublin not so much of a ghost town; that depression slowly receding.

And Panoramic Ireland's tours are also coming back so it's time to book for summer 2021 and beyond, find out more here for Dublin.

Go Mall / Slow - It kind of looks like travel is beginning to come back to a sort of normality in Ireland, from Monday 10th May 2021.

With an incredibly slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout and the world's longest lockdown, ranked also as the most strict in Europe, next week (from Monday 10th of May) sees Ireland allow nationwide travel.

For most of the past five months a five kilometre travel limit has been in place and most of the economy has been at a standstill.

I have written about castles before, namely my exploration of Barrymore Castle in Castlelyons, and Cahir Castle in County Tipperary that recently played host to Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver and Jodie Comer for the filming of Ridley Scott's The Last Duel.

Ireland is awash with castles but many are, unfortunately, barely more than a single stone.

This is a two part image, in the lower-middle incoming waves meld into bluey-green and white bands over the course of the exposure and to the bottom returning water ripples remain consistent, in the top half of the image slow-moving white and grey clouds barely move against the azure sky.

In long exposure photography we are looking to use movement in at least one part of the image, here that is in the bottom half more so than the top.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph in Ireland in 2021, 2022 and beyond.

Every so often a little bit of colour catches your eye, here by the coast of Ireland I noticed every breaking wave and its spray carrying a rainbow of colour towards the white cliffs of the Antrim Coast.

Rainbows are usually fleeting, relying on a mixture of sunshine and water vapour meeting at the correct angle to create the separation of light into its constituent wavelengths - for us we see the visible spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Rainbows can occur anywhere, as seen here in the wave spray or on top of a mountain in a ringed glory, in urban settings and in fine autumnal scenes.

Sometimes I get asked if the non-summer months, or at least October to March, are good for photography in Ireland.

And of course the answer is yes. The autumn, winter and spring months hold some fantastic clear light days, moody overcast conditions, fog, burst of colour and often storms.

These months also typically have fewer tourists around and so make a perfect time for landscape photography.

A case in point; travelling through Northern Ireland's Mourne Mountains in March I found this scene of large fields bounded by huge-granite-stone walls so typical of County Down, an old cottage the only sign of habitation here.

And in that field, an arrangement of sheep.

39 legs in all, if you count my two of course, and one for the monopod supporting my camera.

Strong sunlight is evident here with those short well-defined shadows and bright folds of wool.

Northern Ireland will reopen soon and Panoramic Ireland's tours and workshops will be available to book as soon as possible but in the meantime I am still taking no-deposit, fully cancellable and changeable bookings - just send me an email to enquire about locations and dates.

I have written about Slieve League or Sliabh Liag before, Ireland's highest mainland coastal cliffs.

This is one of Ireland's finest landscapes with its indented, steep cliffs constantly battered by the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of metres below.

Bright, golden light catches each of the rocky indents.

Join me, in 2024 and 2025, to photograph in Ireland's most scenic locations including Antrim, Donegal, Galway, Wicklow and Waterford.

Water falls over the waterfall, that's what a waterfall does; but sometimes in dry conditions, here during summer, it loses its scale.

In full flow, the waterfall fills this rockface with a powerful force of continuously falling water, flowing fast from the deep rock pool below.

Where water doesn't regularly flow vegetation can be found, green mats of bryophytes and bunches of ferns - sometimes tucked away in niches behind the falls as seen in the images above and below.

In full flow waterfalls are difficult to photograph, often generating a spray that can mist a camera lens in less than a second. Below the same waterfall with much more flow as autumn ends.

Join Panoramic Ireland in 2021 to photograph scenic Irish waterfalls and landscapes.

Northern Ireland's vaccination program for COVID-19 is gathering pace, with over 700,000 or close to 50% of the population having had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

Some restrictions are lifting or easing soon, for instance an opening of many shops and businesses with schools also returning from the 12th of April.

However, tourism remains restricted with Panoramic Ireland's tours unavailable since mid-October 2020. Hotels are not currently open to non-essential guests. Close contact services also remain restricted and only up to ten people from two households can currently meet up outdoors. And from 12/04 there will still be recommendations to "stay local".

This means that, for the moment, Panoramic Ireland's photo tours remain unavailable to book for any period before, at the earliest, June 2021 including at the Giant's Causeway UNESCO World Heritage Site pictured above.

County Antrim's Dark Hedges is by now one of the most famous avenues in the world. Made by a local landowner who planted the beech trees almost 250 years ago to mark the approach to his house; made famous by HBO's Game of Thrones as the King's Road over the past decade.

The fine scene has changed much since this image, in recent times (COVID excepting) most of this long scene would have been filled with throngs of people in on tour buses, as a result the nice and grassy verges have turned to mud.

The trees have diminished greatly, having fallen to storms in the intervening years and weakened as a result of vehicular traffic parking up on the verges, as I mentioned in a previous post about beech trees they do have shallow roots so are prone to damage.