Ireland is not short of fantastic coastlines and of course as an Irish landscape photographer seascapes make up an important part of my collecton.

It should come as no surprise too that for the workshops and tours that I organise throughout Ireland, I recommend the coast often and get asked about the coast.

Here, a scene from a cloudy evening. After finishing up photographing some more well-known scenes from the Irish coast we set our sights on a tranquil scene of a calm Atlantic Ocean.

This image is one of my favourites from the evening's workshop.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, on a photography workshop to Ireland's sometimes wild and sometimes serene coast all year round.

Kildare Town

I visited Kildare Town recently and the grounds of Saint Brigid’s Cathedral and round tower. See more about one of Ireland’s three patron saints, Brigid, here.

Having recently read about a visit to Kildare by a descendent of one of its most famous citizens, William ‘Squires’ Gannon.

Squires Gannon was captain of Kildare’s Gaelic Football team and won two all-Ireland finals, in 1927 against Kerry, and in 1928 against Cavan, becoming the first captain and first team to lift the GAA’s Sam Maguire Cup.

Interestingly Kerry are playing in this year’s final, aiming to retain and lift the Sam Maguire tomorrow, Sunday 30th July 2023. Kerry have won the All-Ireland 38 times, Dublin 30 times. But Kerry have won the Sam Maguire 31 times, and Dublin only 16 times.

That of course means Dublin won the All-Ireland more times before 1928. As a native of neither place but a visitor to both I will be watching the final with interest.

Saint Brigid’s Cathedral

Saint Brigid’s Cathedral is one of the finest buildings in Kildare Town, the building itself dates to 1223 but the site is much older and earlier churches would have existed here. Most of what you see though dates to the 1890s. The round tower though is older, dating to the 1100s is Ireland’s second tallest at 32 metres and is climbable, when open. The crenellations or battlements were added in the 1730s having originally been a conical hat like with most original round tower design.

Kilmacduagh in Galway is the tallest round tower in Ireland which I have visited and photographed so expect an article soon.

Anyway, I found the story of Squires Gannon to be interesting, his place in history recently commemorated by a statue in Kildare Town.

Dublin’s once famous Ormond Hotel featured in the Sirens episode of James Joyce’s famous Ulysses.

Much changed during the 20th century after visits by James Joyce and his famous fictional character Leopold Bloom, the hotel became derelict in the early 21st century, over 100 years after Bloom made his journey across Dublin on 16th June 1904.

The hotel was built in the 1840s and became well-known, enough for Joyce to base part of Ulysses here. But the intervening years have not been kind or sympathetic to either the original layout or the hotel as it was when Joyce visited after it had been enlarged in 1910. Ulysses was published in 1920 although it was set in 1904.

There has, nevertheless, been a campaign to retain the buildings as they are and indeed one of the planning conditions are that the building, after construction must operate as a hotel and retain the name Ormond Hotel.

Numbers 7 to 11 are due to be removed but no. 7 on the right still remains, bedecked in ‘Do Not Remove’ graffiti, which is also referenced in this large piece of street art.

To the right, in this image you can see Number 6 which is a protected structure and dates to 1686 just a decade after Ormond Quay was reclaimed from the river and its marshy edges.

To the left, numbers 12 and 13 are protected structures dating from the early part of the 18th century and will form part of the hotel redevelopment but have to be incorporated into the new development.

There is no doubt that the Ormond Hotel was an important and historic part of Dublin’s old and modern fabric, but there is also no doubt that the building had become an eyesore in recent decades.

The best course of action to prevent urban decay, and there is a lot of decay and degeneration in Ireland, not just in Dublin, is to prevent key buildings such as the Ormond Hotel from becoming disused and dilapidated in the first place.

The redevelopment of the Ormond Hotel was due to be finished in 2020, but it is still nowhere near getting off the ground in what seems like an appropriately epic story.

I have posted about Dublin’s Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary before; it sits now beside modern buildings along the south quays on the city’s River Liffey.

Known as the Dockers’ Church it was built in 1863, opened in 1864 and became a parish church in 1908; its quayside position on the busy River Liffey meant that many of the dockworkers frequented the masses held there and today it has a strong congregation of old and new with many of the new arrivals working in Ireland’s tech sector now attending on a regular basis.

Those new buildings, including the one seen here just beside the church, a workplace for some of the new workers in Ireland’s services industry have contributed to some ill-feeling on account of size, shading and overshadowing the church.

As a result, due to local protests, in 2018 the developer of many of these buildings contributed over €3 million to a fund to repair and restore the church and its surroundings. The City Quay school (jigsaw building) received €1 million and the remainder went to the church.

After some works to the front, most of the €2 million has been transferred to the Archdiocese of Dublin; the Archbishop of Dublin is the parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Currently the interior of the church is in bad condition with damp, mould, decay and in much need of repair, but the parish can’t now use the funds it received from the developers.

The exterior view, seen here with reflections in the calm River Liffey at night, is much more pleasant than the peeling-paint interior.

It’s a story that will continue to provide interest, to someone at least.

I took a return to Dublin's famous swimming location, the 40-Foot or Forty Foot on Dublin Bay recently.

Swimmers were braving the not-so-cold, but stormy waters of the Irish Sea south of Ireland's capital on Dublin Bay.

A beautiful place to swim, to visit and to photograph I'm sure you'll agree.

Here, one of my previous visits: https://panoramicireland.com/blog-ireland-guide/forty-40-foot-dublin-irish-sea-swimming

Not as famous as the better known stretches of coastal cliffs, this seascape is still a worthy contender for one of Ireland's most scenic.

An empty quarter scenic, with no one to be seen at all, it was relaxing to sit and watch the calm Atlantic until sunset clicking the shutter on our cameras every so often.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph Ireland's cliffs and scenic seascapes.

I have photographed many cows throughout Ireland over the years but rarely somewhere as scenic as this.

On top of a grassy hill in County Wexford, the south-eastiest part of Ireland's sunny south-east we came across a herd of grazing cattle enjoying the bright summer weather.

And here it was as we were photographing the bright pastoral scene that my clients, a Swiss couple, told me of EdelAlp - a scheme where you can sponsor a cow for the summer. 

The mountain pastures above Verbier in Switzerland, a good bit higher than the hill pictured here, are home to Herens cows which are a small breed perfectly suited to the slopes.

For the summer, you can go and visit your cow in her pasture and at the end of the season you get a 5kg wheel of cheese.

A smart idea and one that might also work in parts of Ireland, with Irish breeds of cow.

Now, which of these lovelies would you sponsor?

On we went to find more scenes to photograph.

To join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph in Ireland use the contact page to enquire about places and availability.

There is little more enjoyable in spring than walking through a woodland filled with bluebells.

Here, a path leading through the scene deeper into the forest.

Bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta carpet hillsides and woodlands in April and May each year in Ireland.

And here on the photography workshop in the Irish countryside saw us photograph in ideal conditions with sidelighting that wasn't too strong, little wind and we moved on to some of the area's rivers afterwards.

Join me in Ireland to photograph scenes like this, bluebells are gone now for the year but Ireland has something of interest to photograph all year round.

Many of us will know the Swan Hellenic name but few will know that it has been given a rebirth, in 2020, with three new ships and varied itineraries that cover the globe.

The opportunity to learn, explore and in some cases contribute to knowledge is an important factor for many when choosing a holiday. Swan Hellenic have a long legacy of discovery tours, with their first cruise in 1954 organised for the Hellenic Travellers’ Club, which had been founded by Lord Byron in 1906. Head of Classics at London University, Francis Kinchin-Smith led the cruise and invited three guest lecturers for the 14-day cruise around the sites of ancient Greece.

SH Vega has just completed her inaugural circumnavigation of Ireland, stopping at Bantry, Dingle, Galway, Portrush and the Causeway Coast before heading to Skye in Scotland and down to Dublin allowing more people to see and experience Ireland's sights.

When I first see her from the Samuel Beckett Bridge looking down towards Dublin Port, she is moored at Cruise Berth 18 right beside the Thomas Clarke Bridge, more commonly known as the East Link and the Point / 3 Arena.

May is in my opinion the best month of the year in Ireland with fresh growth on trees and hedgerows, flowers in bloom including bluebells carpeting woodlands and hillsides all over Ireland just like in the image here.

May is also the month of the Bealtaine Festival, celebrating arts and creativity for older people, a program of thousands of events throughout Ireland for older people to engage with arts and crafts through learning and teaching.

This festival takes its name from the ancient Irish festival of Bealtaine, held at the start of May and which marked the start of summer in Ireland.

Running since 1996 it was indeed the first such festival in the world; previous years have seen the likes of Colm Tóibín talking about his novels and other works.