If you'd like to help the 140-strong Irish team travel to the Special Olympics World Summer Games, in Shanghai in October, head for McCormack's pub in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, at 8pm on June 24th. George Hook is MC'ing an evening of entertainment to raise funds for the team. For more about Ireland's participation at Shanghai, see www.specialolympics.ie GH
high Cs
The Pirate Queen (above) may have flopped on Broadway, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the stirring music that the story of Grace O'Malley, the 16th-century chieftain, has inspired. Granuaile, Shaun Davey's song cycle recounting O'Malley's turbulent life on the seas, is being performed at the National Concert Hall next Friday by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Also on the bill is the Relief of Derry symphony, which commemorates the siege of 1689. Guest artists include the singer Rita Connolly and the uilleann piper Liam O'Flynn - not to mention Davey himself. Granuaile will be performed again, this time with Davey's The Brendan Voyage, on July 27th. Tickets cost €9-€30 (concessions €7.20-€27) from www.nch.ie. Gillian Hamill
back to school
Pembroke School, aka Miss Meredith's, in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is to reopen in September as a primary school for international - and local - children aged from three to nine. The Victorian house, at 1 Pembroke Road, where Maeve Binchy taught English, has been thoroughly refurbished and will become the International School of Dublin. It's the brainchild of past pupil Karin Bacon, whose previous job involved helping foreign bankers relocate to Dublin. Some decided not to come because of the lack of an international school, and so the idea was born. Eventually the plan is to take schoolchildren towards the International Baccalaureate, with a full programme up to the age of 19. There's an open day today from 11am to 2pm, and old girls (above) are welcome, particularly those wanting their darlings to go global one day. See www.internationalschooldublin.ie. Orna Mulcahy
red or white - or a discount - with that?
I sometimes wonder if normal human beings spend much time agonising over matching wine with food. Surely most of us tend to open whatever is to hand and just hope for the best. But some combinations work particularly well. Sauvignon Blanc and goat's cheese, for example. Or Gewurztraminer and mature Gouda. Spaghetti Bolognese always seems to partner Barbera d'Asti very effectively.If you're keen to get the combination right, or at least to get some interesting suggestions, you can try logging on to www.nataliemclean.com, which has thousands of carefully researched food-and-wine matches. In the unlikely event that you can't find the right match, you can e-mail Natalie McLean, a leading US wine writer, through the website, and she will come up with a solution.
Another wine website that is worth a visit, especially if you want information on travelling in the classic wine regions, is Wink Lorch's www.winetravelguides.com, where, for a reasonable fee, you can download masses of useful, up-to-the-minute information. Readers of The Irish Times can enter the code D1IRT07 for a reduction on the price until July 31st. Just be careful to note the figure 1 followed by the letter I in that sequence. Tom Doorley
hay day
Why not make hay while the sun shines - with luck - at the Traditional Haymaking Festival in Co Meath tomorrow? Scurlogstown Olympiad will be staging the annual event next to Trim Castle from 2pm. Even if you're not an expert scythe-cutter, the festival has plenty to offer. A four-acre paddock has been fenced off to re-create aold town, complete with a crossroads dance, hedge school, matchmaker and fortune teller, and you're welcome to have a family barbecue by the Boyne. A team of four haymakers will be chosen to represent Ireland at the world scythe-cutting championships in Germany. Competitors will be judged on the cleanest cuts, speed, laying of the sward and sharpening of the scythe. See www.scurlogstown.com. Gillian Hamill
troublin' dublin?
How does Dublin shape up? Are its best days over or are the aspirations of its expanding population keeping it on its toes? The Dubliner magazine hopes to answer these and other questions at Old City, New Dreams 2007, a series of free debates, lectures and performances at the Mill Theatre, at Dundrum Town Centre, D16, from June 25th to 29th. Antonia Campbell Hughes and Louis Copeland are among Robert O'Byrne's guests at Behind the Seams, which tackles the question of high end versus high street; Katy French and Glenda Gilson, with the agency boss Derek Daniels, reveal the life of an Irish model; there's an audience with Paul Howard, aka Ross O'Carroll-Kelly; and the chefs Kevin Thornton and Ross Lewis join the critic Helen Lucy Burke to debate whether there's such a thing as Irish cooking. You can get free tickets for these and other events from www.thedubliner.ie. Gillian Hamill