☘️ My traditional sharing of The Muppets’ incomparable version of Danny Boy in honour of St Patrick… Shake your shamrocks for Animal, the Swedish Chef & Beaker… 🤓☘️
#StPatricksDay
#StPatricksDay2024
Michael Palin has described the train journey between Derry and Coleraine as “one of the most beautiful rail journeys in the world”. This pic I took recently at Mussenden Temple/Downhill Strand hopefully gives you an idea why... 🤓
Tynan Railway Station in County Armagh, which closed in 1957... I took this pic around this time last year… The red area on the map in attached tweet (⬇️) shows where this station once connected into a vast railway network across the island of Ireland... 🥲
I still think we need a blue plaque on the house where Jason 'the really big dog' lived on Belfast’s Ravenhill Road. Jason made the news at the end of February 1973 when he found his way back to Belfast having been rehomed 20 miles away… 🐶
Not only does this phone in the picturesque (County Down) village of Strangford actually work, but you can help yourself to a thriller while you’re on the blower... 🤓
I love it when people put a lot of thought/possibly too much thought into the name of their business: A chip van I spotted in Ardara (County Donegal) last night 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Brian O'Driscoll at the
#Twelfth
in Loughgall (County Armagh) has to be one of the stories of the day... Don’t know who deserves credit for this screengrab:
Tomorrow on
@BBCgmu
we begin a week-long series looking at our railways. We start by exploring how it came about that large parts of Northern Ireland are no longer served by a railway (obviously there is an all-island context to this). Pix: railway network in 1908 & today 🚆
Superb wordplay… 🤓
Delighted this chip van is still going strong…
I’m stood across the street in Ardara, County Donegal, with a smile on my face…
So clever…
🤓
A shopping centre in east Belfast having a bit of craic with their face covering reminders... And most people I saw there this morning were indeed ‘covering their bakes’ 🤓⬇️
#CoverYerBake
#FaceCoverings
The crystal blue waters of the Irish Sea (yes, you’ve read that correctly...) earlier this afternoon 😎
(Just below the famous Antrim Coast Road approaching Glenarm)
Tynan Railway Station in County Armagh which closed in 1957... Pix from today... Fascinating place... 🤓 The red area on pic four shows where the station once connected into a vast railway network across the island of Ireland... 😢 More pix from today in tweet below ⬇️
It took less time to pass through security at Belfast International Airport this afternoon than it did to get a coffee at Starbucks (I support local when I can). We rightly complain when security checks take longer than they should so I’m just marking this improved service... 🤓
Emerald city: Armagh’s two cathedrals lit up in green for St Patrick’s Day 2024 ☘️
(I took these pix tonight amid a light drizzle in the Orchard County capital)
Galboly Hidden Village (County Antrim): Not exactly hidden, but definitely worth a stop if you’re on the fab Antrim Coast Road… Pic taken about an hour ago… 🤓
Timing is everything: Delighted to catch this train to Derry disappearing into the tunnel beneath Mussenden Temple earlier today… What a fantastic stretch of railway… 🤓
@RailDerry
@MaryforDerry
@Translink_NI
One of my favourite buildings in Belfast: Ewart’s Warehouse (on Bedford Street) which dates from around 1870.
(I took this pic on the way to work last month)
Sometimes it’s good to look up… 🤓
(The fantastically painted facade of Belfast’s Spaniard Bar… Been in here countless times, never really appreciated how fab this is… Pic taken today)
If you’re going to have double carbs, make sure it’s extra tasty...
This weekend’s traditional treat: a cheese & onion crisp sandwich 😋
(All County Armagh ingredients too)
The brilliant wordplay stopped me in my tracks in Ardara, County Donegal, on a summer’s night in 2018. This chip van remains one of my favourite fun/pun business names... I’ve shared it before but definitely worth another wee run out... 🤓
Madonna celebrates her 60th birthday tomorrow (Thursday). Sadly, she’s the only one of the ‘big five’ pop acts from the 80s to reach this landmark: Whitney Houston (48), Michael Jackson (50) George Michael (53) and Prince (57).
The Bailie family from Netownhamilton (County Armagh) have used the recent snow to build something ‘udderly’ original... A life-size replica of a Charolais bull. Pic credit: Nadene Bailie 🐮
“There are only three railway stops west of the (River) Bann (in Northern Ireland) compared to 51 in the east,” said Steve Bradley at a meeting of the ‘Into the West’ campaign group tonight. This Irish Rail image doesn’t show the three stops, but illustrates the disparity:
This weekend’s traditional treat: apple potato bread 😋
(Bought on the Woodstock/Cregagh Road, East Belfast)
Hoping those are Armagh apples in there... 🤓
.
@DanKitchener
’s latest addition to Belfast’s vibrant street art scene… 🤓
(It’s a mural of the Ormeau Bridge at the junction of University Street & the Ormeau Road (in south Belfast))
#BelfastStreetArt
No idea who first put marshmallows, cherries, digestive biscuits, coconut & condensed milk in a bowl together, but I’m very glad they did...
This weekend’s traditional treat: Fifteens 😋
(Bought on the Woodstock/Cregagh Road, East Belfast)
Look away now anyone trying to cut down on carbs...
This weekend’s traditional treat is a sausage roll bap... 😋
I was first introduced to this delicacy by
@barrabest
.
(Component parts bought in east Belfast)
BREAKING: The drug PrEP is to be provided at a new regional HIV Prevention Clinic in Belfast. It’ll be part of the Belfast Trust’s Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) provision. The pilot clinic will run for an initial two years. More on
@BBCTalkback
📻
“Have you got your wee vaccine okay?”
(As said by one of the amazing, endlessly cheerful, professional staff at the SSE Arena vaccination centre (in Belfast) today)
So I’ve joined the club and had my first COVID vaccine... No crazy side effects yet... 🤓
My mane man Aslan… 🤓
(I took this pic this morning while out getting a coffee. The impressive sculpture at C.S. Lewis Square (in east Belfast) is by the internationally renowned artist Maurice Harron)
🚆 Armagh railway update:
@abcb_council
’s Economic Development & Regeneration Committee has agreed to spend £7,500 on a feasibility study into reopening the railway line between Armagh (City) and Portadown. Obviously, this has to go before full council... 🚆
Kilmore Cottage: I’ve done a report about efforts to save & restore the cottage in the centre of Kilmore (County Armagh) for Your Place and Mine
@bbcradioulster
. It’ll be broadcast this Saturday (8th October) between 8 & 9am 📻
#YPAM
It was only when I got home that I realised that this otherwise fabulous Fifteen (bought here in County Armagh) had been made WITHOUT cherries… If this traybake travesty can happen here, it can happen anywhere... 😔
My 6ft4 self is far from fast or graceful shuffling on hunkers through the passage tomb at the top of Slieve Gullion (County Armagh’s highest point), but the view outside is worth 30 seconds of your time. Video from a few weeks ago 🤓: