Travel

Our eye is always drawn to travel writing pieces about Ireland which appear in the global press, and this week’s piece in the Chicago Sun-Times is suitably stocked with many of the standard clichés.

You'll find no sign of the 14%-plus unemployment, the mass youth emigration or the growing discontent with the engineers of our national financial implosion.

Instead, Ireland is portrayed a place for drink and romance, though as many an Irishman would know, things don't generally happen in that order.

The piece, penned by Sun-Times staffer Lori Rackl, outlines what’s on offer in a special six-night ‘Town and Country’ package, available for $2300 per person (a meagre €1750), which includes three nights apiece at the five-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin and beautiful but beleaguered pile Ashford Castle in Cong, Co Mayo.

The Merrion was good enough for Barack Obama to check into earlier this year, although he later checked out again because of an ashcloud-inspired fast exit and is rumoured to have been heard to mutter, ‘The most expensive bed I never slept in.’

Over west at Ashford Castle, The Quiet Man, the Hollywood movie which put Cong on the map, is ‘readily available’ on all TVs, which we’d have thought was one particularly good reason not to go.

The motto in the hotel’s Dungeon Bar, we’re told, is:

“We never close until the last person stops drinking.” And in Ireland, that can be pretty late.

The School of Falconry is one of the delights on offer at Ashford, where your guide will helpfully tie an engagement ring to the foot of a hawk if you want a memorable way to propose.

Well, as far as romance goes, it’s fair to say that probably beats the tried-and-trusted ‘Sure why don’t we?’ method used by several of us in this part of the world down the years.

For the full rundown on a rare positive piece about Ireland in the world media, albeit one that was sponsored by the two hotels in question, check out the Chicago Sun-Times piece over here.