Keith Prowse Tours are well known vendors of sport and entertainment tickets, they also have a selection of packages for some favoured weekends or breaks. The Londoners packages from £194 provides two nights bed and breakfast and tickets to a show. Or the Royal Ascot package which includes return flights from Dublin, Cork or Shannon, two nights hotel and admission to the Ascot Grandstand and Paddock Enclosure on Gold Cup day from £330.
If you do happen to be in London over the next couple of months then the Inventing America festival is on at the Barbican Centre. It focuses on cinema, theatre, music, dance, opera, literature and popular icons from James Taylor to Harley-Davidson. April celebrates the Hollywood musicals on the big screen, in June it is the best American screen dramas and in August the B-movies take over. In all, some of the greatest films ever made to some of the strangest.
A new webzine worth looking at is brought to the Internet by John Murphy for Appletree Press, publishers of his "Little Irish Giftbooks and Cookbooks". Known as Ireland's Eye, virtual visitors can exercise their jaws with Irish language lessons or choose a recipe from famous dishes like Coddle and Porter cake. Family names can be searched and the slideshow offers contemporary photographs of the countryside and its citizens. It also has a virtual Blarney Stone. For lots of fun, food, proverbs, sayings and blarney talk visit them at: http://www.irelandseye.com/.
Cork can no longer consider itself disadvantaged with the new Aer Lingus services to Amsterdam and upgrade of the Paris and London schedules. From June there will be a daily jet service to Amsterdam and to Paris and, for anyone who has ever tried to get a Cork Heathrow flight, the new Airbus will expand capacity.
Wallace and Gromit fans will love to see their plasticine heroes at the Grand Opera House in Belfast this month from April 20th-25th. For the more romantic is a tradition staging of Romeo and Juliet. Details from the box office on 080 1232 241919. If you require accommodation the Northern Ireland Tourist Board can help out, phone 1850 230 230.
Also in Northern Ireland during April is the "Tourism in Geological Landscapes" conference. Sponsored by the Geological Curators' Group and the Geoconservation Commission of the Geological Society of London and supported by the Ulster Museum, the aim is to look at a range of topics in geotourism, including the making of world heritage sites, landscape tourism, and urban geology. The conference will take place at the Ulster Museum from April 23rd-26th. More details from Kenneth James, Geology, Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast BT9 5AB. Phone: 080 1232 383135. Cost: £17.50, which includes lectures, buffet reception and two coach tours.
If you are looking for something to do this weekend Betty McCoy and Pat Murphy are running a set dancing weekend at the Fairways Hotel, Dublin Road, Dundalk. Today there are workshops from 10.30 a.m. till 5.30 p.m. and tonight from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. the Cathal McNulty Ceili Band. Tomorrow workshops are from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. and a ceili with the Glenside Ceili Band from 2 p.m. till 5 p.m.