Who's where-and why

Since the lifting of foot-and-mouth restrictions, the Republic has been buzzing with festivals and awash with celebrities. So who has been going where?

As Miss Ireland, Yvonne Ellard has travelled the length and breadth of the country in her role. She is from Tipperary, and the beauty of Glenveigh National Park, in Co Donegal, came as a complete surprise to her.

"Definitely one of the most memorable places; I keep telling all my friends about it. Skull, too, in Co Cork was a place that struck me, and Dunmore East in Waterford has lost none of the appeal I remember from childhood holidays."

A graduate of Shannon College of Hotel Management, Ellard has been gratified by the quality of Irish hotels. "The standards have really risen in recent years," she says.

Another aficionado of Waterford is Peter Cunningham, whose book Love In One Edition is set in the city, although it is called Monument in his story. "We are ever drawn back to the cradle and Waterford was mine. Although it is 35 years since I have lived there, I have recreated Waterford in my fiction.

"Every summer I return, to stay nearby on the Atlantic and to sleep each night to the rhythm of waves. In Waterford, along the almost Mediterranean backstreets and in cool, hidden cloisters, I relish the past, the unique accents, the smells and bustle and the ongoing relationship between city and river. I'll distil my summer images over the coming winter when once again Waterford and Monument will conjoin."

Flo McSweeney, of No Frontiers, the RT╔ travel programme, has seen more corners of the Earth that most of us but finds herself drawn to the west.

McSweeney's home from home is Cong, in Co Mayo, and recently she visited Westport, where the feeling of a community working to bring tourism to the area was very heartening. "A wonderful place for a family destination," she says.

This summer she has been filming in Cork for the next series of No Frontiers. "People moan about the weather, but without it we would not have the spectacular scenery: imagine Ireland turned into the Costa del Sol," she says.

In May, she spent a wonderful sunny day on Glassillaun beach, near Leenane, in Co Kerry: "just ourselves, two nuns and the odd cow strolling out from the surrounding hills," she says.

Cong was the venue for one of this season's celebrity weddings, when Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye-Smith tied the knot there on August 4th.

Another wedding, in July, saw the guests heading on to the Willy Clancy school in Milltown Malbay, Co Clare, when Sharon Corr married Gavin Bonner at Dromoland Castle.

The fiddle player Martin Hayes, who was one of the guests, led the party to Milltown to continue the festivities.

Dromoland was Tiger Woods's choice, too, but for a week's relaxation before the British Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes. He knocked a few balls around Limerick Golf Club with J.P. McManus.

Just under a fortnight ago, Co Clare was also home to one of the biggest parties this year, when Keith Wood, the Ireland rugby captain, celebrated his marriage to Nicola Vernal with a party for hundreds of friends on the shores of Lough Derg.

"I always knew the beauty that surrounded me in Ireland, and I was fortunate to grow up in Killaloe," Wood said before the event.

"Now I live in the hustle and bustle of London, a part of me yearns for home - not just Killaloe but the coast road from Milltown Malbay to Ballyvaghan and, whenever I get the chance, the first tee at Lehinch."