Dreaming of escape on Ireland’s far-flung islands, David Bradford finds the reality of remoteness not quite as simple as it seems

MY old art teacher used to say there are no straight lines in nature. At the same time, one of the French teacher’s pet phrases was, “There are always the exceptions”. And when it comes to straight li

Your cruising destinations, near and far

At this point in the year we had hoped to be somewhere in southern Spain or Portugal, perhaps enjoying a cheeky midweek menu del día or tucking into our third pastel de nata of the morning. Instead, d

Think of the Cote d’Azur and you think of refined opulence; F Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night, Brigitte Bardot, Cannes Film Festival; glitz, glamour. The reality if you actually drive there is v

In a John Behan bronze, collector Jacqueline O’Donovan, a child of the Irish diaspora, can sense the desperation of a starving people forced to flee their land