Bernd's Ireland Travel Blog

A "meander" is a bend in a sinuous watercourse, or so WikiPedia says. But we also speak of "meandering", when we are wandering, rambling. And hence I have called my new regular feature "Midweek Meanderings". Because every Wednesday I'll ramble through the wide virtual space that is About.com in search of Ireland-related material you might like.

This week kicked off with murals. Hence it is a small leap to include a link to Jack B. Yeats, Ireland's most famous modern painter (and brother to poet William Butler Yeats). Find out about the lesser-known Yeats and more artists on Shelley Esaak's Art History site ... and meander further.

Also have a look at these articles right here on this site:

• National Gallery of Ireland
• Masquerade and Spectacle - past exhibition
• Mr. Yeats Goes to Dublin - ongoing exhibition
• Dead in Dublin - Yeats is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery

Today Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan announced a tough "emergency" budget, reflecting the current economic crisis by its timing alone ... the budget wasn't due for another few weeks, but the coffers are effectively empty. Speaking in the Dail Eireann, Lenihan invoked "a call to patriotic action" by telling us all that the good times are over.

What does this mean for visitors?

There will be several measures which will directly affect everyone, not only those living and paying taxes in Ireland:

• From midnight, the Irish government will be introducing a modern form of highway robbery by levying a new extra eight Europence per litre petrol at the pumps. With petrol prices being at € 1.19 per litre at the moment (yes, that would be $ 6.15 per gallon), this equals a price rise of 6.7%.
• Road Tax will rise by between 4% and 5% next year, this may reflect in rental car charges.
• Value Added Tax (VAT, standard rate) will be increased from 21 to 21.5% with effect from December 1st (uncannily just in time for Christmas).
• From March 30th, 2009, you will have to pay to leave Ireland by plane. An air travel tax applying to all departures from Irish airports will come into force - €10 per passenger, but with a lower rate of €2 for shorter air journeys (those under 300 kilometers).

More details may be found on the Irish government's budget website.

Many visitors are taken in by the massive murals gracing parts of Belfast - even the crudest propaganda piece can be seen as a spectacular example of folk art almost unique to the divided city. Within shouting (and stone-throwing) distance you will find twenty feet high paintings celebrating as diverse personalities as Oliver Cromwell and Bobby Sands. Imagine somebody erecting a statue of Fidel Castro a block from Miami's Calle Ocho and you get an idea what tensions are at work here.

But more and more "neutral" murals are coming up - dedicated to Ulster heroes like Cuchullainn or George Best. Or simply displaying idyllic fairy-tale settings. See some in my image gallery of Belfast's neutral murals ...

Photo © 2008 Bernd Biege licensed to About.com, Inc.

This weekend has a variety of activities on offer ... let's just keep our fingers crossed for moderately good weather!

• Feile Frank McGann in Strokestown (County Roscommon)
• The Charles Macklin Autumn School, Culdaff Village (on Inishowen, County Donegal),
• Kinsale Gourmet Festival (County Cork),
• Nire Valley Walking Festival (County Waterford) and
• Harvest Stages Rally, Letterkenny (County Donegal).

Management at the Irish flag-carrying airline Aer Lingus has this week opened the floodgates for a winter of discontent. To facilitate cost-cutting of around € 76 million, roughly 1,500 jobs are to be axed. Which might be less of a bone of contention if this personnel were not to be replaced by an outsourced workforce. Unions reacted as expected - a ballot on an all-out strike is imminent.

Staff costs are indeed a major factor in Aer Lingus' financial woes, despite all the talk about oil prices: Per passenger € 38 go to staff costs alone. Ryanair manages on € 5.60 per passenger.

Curiously enough competitor CityJet on the same day celebrated the opening of their new, dedicated hangar in Dublin. This € 6,000,000 investment will facilitate aircraft maintenance.

While the summer season of 2008 is slowly starting to wind down in Ireland, many used to counting their profits are this year licking their wounds. The tourism sector has been hit in a major way. In short: Industry sources talk about around 20% less activity than in 2007.

What are the reasons?

Actually a combination of reasons worked against Irish tourism: Read more...

Honestly, this is your last chance - if you are still a single, this weekend sees the conclusion of the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival. And to top it all off, both "Mr Lisdoonvarna" and the "Queen of the Burren" will be elected these days. Go, flex those muscles. Or shake that booty. Or whatever you need to do to get the title (... and don't forget to mention "world peace").

What was to be a flagship attraction at Ireland's West Coast, situated high above sea level, is in danger of turning into a bottomless pit. The Cliffs of Moher are raking in losses - which is quite a feat for a natural attraction that has stood the test of time. But it is not the cliff, but the newly-built visitor center, that delivers negative equity. And it looks as if the taxpayer is to be asked for a dig-out for the center, opened in February 2007 by Bertie Ahern.

Every year around € 3,200,000 are needed to keep the visitor center running as projected. But visitor numbers in 2008 are down by 14% already. This will more than likely lead to well over one million Euro shortfall this year.

Clare County Council blames the "general global economic slowdown added to the increase in fuel prices, euro exchange rates and poor weather". This may explain the general decrease in tourism - but glosses over the fact that the new visitor center was built as a € 32 million investment to enhance what basically is a natural site. That had already drawn masses of tourists. Whether an investment this high was necessary is still open to debate - no doubt a unique attraction was created, but it only ever was an add-on to the original attraction. Like the observation tower built decades ago.

Another point of contention are the obligatory parking charges of € 8 per car - which everybody stopping has to pay. Many visitors shy away from these high fees, park in the vicinity and undertake a cross-country trek. So there might well be many more visitors to the Cliffs of Moher, after all a whole stretch of coastline, than the official statistics show. But then again these statistics only focus on paying customers.

If you build it, they will come ... but before you build it, you need planning permission. Which the people behind Dublin's Dracula exhibition (and the Bar Code) seemed to have forgotten. Now the development is going through the courts to retain what was built. This looks like a losing battle at the moment. So the coffin lid may well close on Dracula soon.

Dublin losing another attraction sounds dramatic, especially as both the National Wax Museum and the Natural History Museum still linger in limbo. Not to mention Viking Dublin, which silently died after a few short years of operation. You may notice that many of these attractions had "family potential", keeping the kids amused.

On the other hand - the "Dead Zoo" (as Dubliners affectionately call the Natural History Museum) is still to re-open at an unspecified date and Dublinia has a very good Viking exhibition. As to he late but not very much lamented wax museum, it always was rather corny. And the Dracula exhibition even made it into my list of tourist traps to avoid in Ireland.

Howard Millar, chief financial officer of Ryanair, has confirmed in an interview that the airline's long-haul plans are on hold. This seems to be due to high fuel prices and the current cost of purchasing long-haul aircraft.

There is, however, still optimistic talk of Ryanair taking over Irish rival Aer Lingus. Ryanair's stake in the competitor is already at 29.82%. A take-over would give Ryanair instant access to both long-haul capacity and routes - maybe a valid "Plan B" to starting from scrap.