Eibhlin O'Neill's blog

Sinn Féin has announced Liadh Ní Riada as its candidate to contest the Irish presidential election. The Irish presidential election of 2018 will take place on Friday, 26 October. Liadh Ní Riada is a native speaker of the Irish language and is the party's Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Ireland South constituency.

Dark tourism can be defined as tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death, suffering and tragedy. One such place hoping to take advantage of the increasing trend towards 'dark tourism' is Sligo Prison (Irish: Príosún Shligigh) in Connaght (Connacht) in the west of Ireland. This weekend the Friends of Sligo Gaol, hosted a conference on Crime and Punishment in 19th and 20th Century Ireland to mark the gaol's bicentenary.  The voluntary community group has been working for a number of years to promote the gaol as an important part of Sligo's heritage.

''Irexit Freedom'  is the name Hermann Kelly from County Derry intends to call a new eurosceptic political party in Ireland. Around 300 people attended a conference held in a Dublin hotel yesterday where a case was put forward for Ireland leaving the European Union. The plan is to now seek 300 registered voters and register 'Irexit Freedom' as a political party. They want to field candidates in the European elections and then in national elections.

The Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival took place between 31st August and 2nd September. Around 55,000 people attended the event this year and capacity is to be increased by 2,500 to 57,500 people next year. After the Festival was over, 650 sleeping bags were left by those attending. This prompted volunteers from Portlaoise Action to Homelessness (PATH) to request community help to launder the sleeping bags they collected from the festival site. The aim is to wash and dry the bags so they can be handed out to homeless people. The public response to the PATH appeal has been fantastic.

Pope Francis, the 266th and current Pope, is on a visit to Ireland. It is a visit that is markedly different than when Pope John Paul II came to Ireland in 1979, nearly forty years ago, when the church still held centre stage in Irish society. The visit of Pope Francis has been dominated by criticism of the Catholic Church's failure to adequately address sex abuse crimes by clergy.

Ireland's President Michael D Higgins is officially opening the 2018 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Drogheda this afternoon. Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann is the biggest traditional Irish music festival in the world and is taking place between 12th-19th August 2018. The annual event celebrates Irish tradition through music, song, dance and the Irish language. 

Irish wildlife conservationists have welcomed the five new chicks of the endangered Barn Owl on private farmland near Lough Neagh (Irish: Loch nEachach).  It is the biggest brood of barn owls recorded in the north of Ireland. The nest site, located in an abandoned outbuilding, normally produces one to two chicks per year. 

The Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site in County Meath (Contae na Mí) in the east of Ireland, is a remarkable place. It is famous for the three passage tombs, Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, built some 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic or Late Stone Age. Ninety monuments have also so far been recorded in the area. Recently the exceptionally dry weather experienced in Ireland has provided the conditions necessary for the site of a hidden henge to be seen.

The recent heatwave in Ireland has played a vital role in the discovery of a possible ancient henge, or circular closure near to Newgrange. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht have hailed the archaeological feature at the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site in County Meath as "a very significant find".

So called 'Eleventh Night' bonfires were lit at midnight across the north of Ireland as part of a loyalist tradition to mark the anniversary of Protestant King William's victory over Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The fires usher in the traditional 12 July Orange parades, which are an excuse for loyalist paramilitaries to orchestrate, participate and encourage others to engage in serious disorder.