Poor Ireland, whatever you think about past generations they at least had their leaders of stature.

WOODHILL HOUSE, and its wooded grounds a couple of miles from Cork city at Tivoli, is steeped in Irish and local Munster mercantile, artistic and political history, over several centuries.

Select new house developments are just underway in Cork city in locations like Church Road, Blackrock, and Feirm Bawn in Wilton, each for a handful of new homes - but there’s also sites for one-offs, if you know where to look.

Victoria White visits Istanbul’s Taksim Square and the takes the pulse of a country on the edge.

More Grimm Brothers Fairytales than grim in style is the Gatelodge — and its gardens — at the former Wicklow estate of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

A priceless stained-glass window commemorating teenage IRA volunteer Kevin Barry has been given a new home at his alma mater.

REAL Madrid’s star turn was one of a 60-strong squad who last night descended on Carton House in an onslaught of foreigners not seen on the shores of the Rye since the days of the Norman invasion.

YOU listed several IRA members who acted as agents for the British security services (Irish Examiner, December 17), but the most notorious agent in Irish history was the journalist Francis Higgins — the ‘Sham Squire.’