whiskey galoreWhiskey aficionados have an anniversary to celebrate this year - and a new blend to help them remember it.
Bushmills' distillery in Co Antrim, which the company says is the oldest working distillery in Ireland, marks its 400th birthday this year with a slew of marketing pushes, including new packaging, sponsorship of the Irish rugby team and the launch of a blend called Bushmills 1608 - they obviously saved their creative juices for the triple-distilled hooch. Colum Egan, the distillery's master distiller, says: "The special-edition Bushmills 1608 blend gives us the opportunity to offer every Bushmills fan something special to celebrate our heritage and toast our future." The whiskey, which costs €65, will be available in shops throughout the year; thereafter it will be available only from the distillery or from travel retail outlets. - Joe Breen
good night
The first time Freda Kavanagh slept on a feather bed, she went out the next day and bought one for herself. That good night in the US awakened an idea in Kavanagh, a producer of educational television programmes, that was to change her career. Now she's managing director of a very successful company called Beds of a Feather, specialising in luxurious allergy-safe feather beds, duvets and pillows with a lovely little shop by the river in Ashford, Co Wicklow. You'll find featherweight duvets and pillows from Ringsted Dun of Denmark, made with feathers that are washed and sterilised to remove allergy-creating bacteria. According to Kavanagh, an authority on down and feather, there are three types of sleepers: side, back and tummy; 80 per cent of the population are side sleepers. As well as duvet types, she will advise on the most appropriate pillow. Beds of a Feather now supplies boutique hotels in Ireland, along with upmarket hotels in the UK, such as the Savoy and Claridge's. Prices for duvets start at about €260 for a double. One of her bestsellers is a down kimono, available in five colours, for €150. The showroom, at Usher Gardens (riverside), is open every day (0404-42804). See www.bedsofafeather.com. - Deirdre McQuillan
everything must go
There are sales and then there are sales. Not all are the same, and even fewer offer reductions like those you'll find at Costume's old-fashioned blitz sale this weekend. The family-run boutique, on Castle Market in central Dublin, is clearing not only the shop floor but also its large upstairs stockroom. "We need to make space, so we're having a big clearout," says Anne Tucker, who buys for the shop with her sister Tracy (pictured left). New-season clothes aren't included, but dresses and separates by expensive labels such as Temperley, Isabel Marant and Leigh-Lee will be greatly reduced - and not just by 50 or even 70 per cent. Most will be temptingly priced between €25 and €50. Get there early to find the best deals. The sale is on today and tomorrow, but note that the shop opens only between 2pm and 5pm on Sundays. Costume, Castle Market, Dublin 2, 01-6794188. - Eoin Lyons
poles apart?
A Cork academic kept his eye on native Poles and their modes of behaviour when he was living in the eastern-Polish city of Lublin, teaching Irish there over a four-year period. The result is a leisurely book in Irish, entitled Seal sa Pholainn, or A Sojurn in Poland. Alan Desmond's style is conversational and intimate. His observations are fresh and perceptive, and the book is laid out nicely, with colourful maps and photographs. With plenty of examples from his own experiences, he comments on issues such as the quietness of commuters on early-morning buses; the Polish aversion to queues, because of the lingering impact of communism on their lives; and on their apparently universal hunger to learn English.
There are moments when the writer's confident tone is set in context by his girlfriend's interjections: Desmond's inclusion of Magda Alf's comments will make readers smile as he recalls how she sometimes charges him with a tendency to generalise about the two nationalities, saying that the Irish are chatty and helpful while the Poles are reticent and reluctant to engage. Seal sa Pholainn by Alan Desmond is published by Comhar Teo, €12.50. - Catherine Foley
pretty city
Poster competitions are two a penny these days, and calendars, well, we just don't know what to do with them any more. But even our jaded senses were jolted by the high quality of entries to the first Luas art competition, organised by the Railway Procurement Agency, which have been brought together in a fine calendar for 2008.
The competition was won by Daniel Reilly, an American living in Dublin with his Irish wife. Reilly's winning design was inspired by classic tourism posters of the 1940s and 1950s, and juxtaposes contemporary mass transit with a more romantic era of train travel. If only Dublin, not to mention the back of the Four Courts, were this attractive.
The competition, which drew entries in the form of cartoons, paintings, graphic design, poetry and photography, attracted a high proportion of entries from the "new Irish", and half of the monthly entries in the calendar are by eastern Europeans. So successful has it been that the RPA is already looking for entries for the next competition. - Paul Cullen