Home

Kerry Hotel has Top Carvery

Ireland's best pub and hotel carvery dinners have been revealed with Cork's The Elm Tree pub and The Heights Hotel in Kerry crowned best in the country.

The Great Carvery 2016 competition, run by Unilever Food Solutions in association with KNORR, surveyed 926 representative carvery consumers between 18th and 22nd December 2015 with the findings used to put together a judging criteria. It consisted of options such as the quality and flavour of meat, vegetables and gravy, choice of options available like gluten-free and vegetarian dishes, value for money and standard of service.

Cork's Elm Tree beat off competition from The Merry Monk in Mayo, Dublin's Beaumont House and The Market Yard in Derry to win Ireland's overall carvery pub winner. The Heights Hotel faced the Hodson Bay Hotel in Roscommon, Whitford House Hotel in Wexford and Donegal's Silver Tassie Hotel to win Ireland's best hotel carvery offering.

Clearpower in Quality Scheme

Tallaght company Clearpower, one of Ireland’s leading wood bioenergy companies, whose hotel clients include Dromoland Castle and Kelly’s Resort Hotel, is now a member

clearpower

of the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance Scheme (WFQA). The announcement was made by Andrew Doyle, Minister of State for Forestry, at the recent Ploughing Championships.

Ciaran O’Meara of Clearpower (on left) at the presentation by Andrew Doyle TD, Minister of State for Forestry and Pat Murphy, chair of the WFQA.

Ciarán O’Meara of Clearpower said, “As an established provider of biomass fuel and maintenance services, Clearpower has long recognised the importance of a Wood Fuel Quality Assurance scheme to both industry stakeholders and consumers alike.

Bar and Pint Honour Dick

Almost two years have gone by since the passing of legendary hotelier Dick Fitzgerald of Fitzgeralds Woodlands House Hotel & Spa and, as a tribute to the much-loved man

dickbar

who extended the warmest of welcomes to hundreds of thousands of visitors to the village of Adare, the Fitzgerald family have unveiled a new-look bar and specially commissioned locally brewed stout in his memory.

Pictured from left are: Conor Fitzgerald, David Fitzgerald, Mary Fitzgerald, Elaina Fitzgerald and Richard Fitzgerald.

The creation of Dick’s Bar, which can hold up to 200 people, forms part of a wider ongoing €2m refurbishment project which saw the 89-bedroom hotel attain four-star status in June 2015, some 40 years after it first began life as a four-bedroom B&B established by Dick and his wife Mary as a way of supplementing their farming income.

Speaking at the launch, Mary Fitzgerald said that anyone who knew Dick, knew that he was happiest with a pint of stout in his hand holding court amongst his friends.

Overseas media for Clare Gay Fest

A group of top international media, with a combined circulation of almost 6 million, have arrived in Ireland to document the Irish LGBT tourism experience – The Outing, in Lisdoonvarna.

Eddie McGuinness is pictured at the launch of The Outing.

The trip, organised by Fáilte Ireland, in conjunction with Tourism Ireland, will allow the journalists (from Canada, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and the UK) and Canadian TV crew with host Adamo Angelo Ruggiero a well-known actor in Canada, to meet some influential figures in Ireland’s LGBT community. The group will experience Dublin on a Gay walking tour of the city with DJ and activist Tonie Walsh, attend ‘The Outing in Lisdoonvarna’ – the world’s only LGBT matchmaking festival, and take in some of the most iconic experiences along the Wild Atlantic Way.

NI on 'Time Out'

Tourism Ireland’s latest promotion to highlight Belfast, Northern Ireland and its Year of Food and Drink is under way this week. It involves a partnership with 'Time Out' in Lo

community

ndon – reaching the magazine’s 1.1 million readers with an article on Belfast and its food and drink offering. The promotion also includes digital activity, which will target a further 550,000 people – through a special Belfast section on 'Time Out' online, blog posts and email marketing.