Inside track: When you're abroad, finding a restaurant that gives a flavour of the area can be difficult. Don't pay any attention to these little guides where restaurants pay €500 to get their picture in it. The best thing to do is to ask the advice of locals, not the hotel. Talk to stall owners, locals and the policeman standing at the corner, because everybody on the Continent is passionate about food. The simple rule of thumb is to always eat where there is clearly a strong local following. ... Tom Doorley
Cool for kids: The Ark cultural centre for children, in Dublin, thinks up lots of diverting events. This summer's workshops on music, visual arts and new technology have already included making puppets and shooting a pop video. To come this month are sessions on world music and on making a mechanical circus. The Ark's events are always popular, so you'll have to be quick to snap up one of the last places. Courses run each weekday until August 20th (see www.ark.ie). Tickets cost €60. Bookings on 01-6707788. ... Louise Holden
Watch out: On muggy early-August afternoons flocks of black-headed gulls circling high over Dublin will feast on columns of winged ants, soaring up for the mating more daintily known as the "nuptial flight". Back on the ground the queens cut off their wings, having stored enough sperm to keep laying fertile eggs for the next 10 years or more. Millions of ants make their winged emergence in the same two or three afternoons. In city parks and suburbs the black ant is the common one; in the countryside it is mostly the yellow meadow ant. ... Michael Viney
Stars and gripes: Cathy Kelly, writer. Best holiday: My best holiday was in Connemara for the millennium, when my partner, John, my mum, Gay, and our dogs, Tamsin and Prinny, stayed in the stunning Cashel House Hotel. The three of us went for long walks, enjoyed fabulous dinners and watched as a millennium forest was planted with trees in our names. Worst holiday: I had a memorable bad bit on an otherwise great cross-America-by-car holiday when I got food poisoning at the Grand Canyon and had nowhere to stay. After a stomach-clenching drive my friends and I finally found a motel. I crawled miserably to my room, to find it was already occupied by several Godzilla-sized cockroaches. I ran.... - In conversation with Ciaran Murray
Get out: Where to go, what to see: for entertainment listings, see The Ticket every Friday in The Irish Times, or go to www.ireland.com/ theticket . For other events see the What's On column in the main paper every Thursday and the Saturday magazine
Off the shelf: No Time For Work by George Ryan, €6.90. If laughter is the best medicine, then this book is the elixir of life. From the first page the open cynicism, raw honesty and deep humour are a joy to read. The book is not without a serious side, but the author manages to communicate this without slackening the pace for a single sentence. One of its most enduring qualities is its lack of pretension. It is a book to enjoy without reservation.... - Recommended by Des Kenny of ... Kennys Bookshop, Galway
