School’s out for summer – but keeping the kids entertained doesn’t have to cost a fortune, or indeed anything at all, writes Ciara McDonnell.

PATRICK KAVANAGH, a poet with a remarkable feel for rural life, once said that a man that cannot find happiness and contentment in a turf bog is a ‘’bad case’’. As someone that walks in bogs year-round, I fully concur.

BECAUSE we live on an island, and because every travel brochure ever printed plonks a bikini-clad siren on its cover, we tend to associate holidays with the coast.

THEY have inspired poets and artists, were the victims of fire and war, provided safe habitats for wildlife, have a rich diversity of flora and have kept the home fires burning for generations of Irish people.