Minster for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, announced the discovery this morning.

Cork County Council has been told to prepare plans to get a number of harbour forts, Martello towers, and what was once the largest gunpowder factory in the world added to Unesco’s world heritage status list.

Forts and Martello towers dotted around Cork Harbour and what was once the biggest gunpowder factory in the British empire could soon be designated as Unesco World Heritage sites.

Canada is taking a lead role in seeking Unesco World Heritage status for a residential Irish island.

Six destinations on the island of Ireland have been named on a global must-see list for tourists.

TIME was when the traditional Irish thatched cottage was associated with rural poverty. Then, there was a change in perception when photographer John Hinde — a man who always portrayed Ireland as a land of perpetual sunshine and blue skies — came along. His postcards featuring such cottages went all over the world.

THE fascination of American visitors with Irish castles is well known, and the fact that they don’t have attractions stateside which are as old might be part of the reason for this.

A Burren expert has said he does not see the landscape being put forward by the Government to be included on Unesco’s World Heritage Site List “any time soon”.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of excavations at Knowth in the Boyne Valley and the OPW has confirmed it hopes to create a virtual tour of its chambers that would allow the public to view the treasures inside.

WE hear a lot of talk about Ireland’s priceless environment and heritage.

Irish heritage sites are worth about €700m as tourist attractions, a study has found.

An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, has today welcomed An Bord Pleanála's refusal of plans for a controversial bypass around Slane village.

One of the world’s best-selling travel guides has ranked going to a pub as the greatest experience a tourist can have in Ireland.

The winter solstice has been celebrated at Newgrange for the past 5,000 years Carl Dixon reports on the hope it represents

ROCK concerts at Slane Castle — which has attracted international icons such as U2, the Rolling Stones and this year it will host Kings of Leon — would be “seriously threatened” if the bypass of Slane is built to the west of the village.

THE number of tourists visiting the Newgrange burial chamber in the Boyne Valley has fallen drastically in two years and may be partly due to a cut in public transport to the monument.

The ancient Bru na Boinne site around Newgrange may lose its World Heritage status if the proposed M2 motorway goes ahead, it was claimed today.

ONE of Ireland’s leading archaeological locations, Lough Gur, in Co Limerick, could soon be designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

MORE than half the population visited historical sites and monuments last year, putting it among the top four cultural activities of the Irish.

DUBLIN is one of the least popular places - and among the most favoured - in Ireland for tourists to visit according to a survey of more than 1,100 visitors from the US, Canada, Britain and Europe.

A HOST of international academics and historians have joined a campaign to save Ireland’s most precious heritage site from damage by motorway construction.

Conservation groups are calling for the construction of a planned incinerator near the Newgrange site in Co Meath to be stopped.

Environment Minister Martin Cullen has revealed plans to have the monastic ruins at Clonmacnoise declared a World Heritage Site.

YOU will be aware of An Bord Pleanála’s decision to uphold Meath County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a municipal waste incinerator in the heart of the Boyne Valley, close to the Unesco World Heritage site of Brú na Boinne and on the footprint of the Battle of the Boyne.

A NEW battle of the Boyne looms over plans to build a waste incinerator on the site of King William's historic victory of 1690.