Tourism Ireland is feeling the force these days, predicting more than 8m overseas visitors to the country next year thanks, in part, to a Hollywood blockbuster.

Tourism bosses are hoping the new Star Wars movie filmed in Ireland will turn into a major draw for international visitors.

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.

THERE can be few more magnificent sights off the coast than the spectacle of the Skellig Rocks sitting serenely in the Atlantic on a clear, sunny day. But, of the two million tourists that come to the south-west each year, only a fraction ever go to the trouble of taking a ferry to these remote citadels.