Hello and welcome
to Ireland’s Own.

We hope you are keeping well and that the easing of the restrictions has helped you get out and about again. The summer has definitely arrived and we have been lucky with the sunshine over the past few weeks.

This week’s cover story is about when Charles Dickens came to Ireland. The renowned author undertook a number of tours, which included lengthy stays in Ireland, and he enthralled sell-out audiences with his readings from his famous works, writes Gerry Breen, as he marks the 150th anniversary of his death.

In ‘Farewell Companions’, Val O’Donnel finds particular joy in revisiting the works of uplifting Irish writer James Plunkett at this time of national distress, heartbreak and grief. Mary Sheerin pays tribute to the poet Eavan Boland, who died in April.

In his Role of the Irish in WW2 series, Con McGrath profiles Charles McMoran Wilson, who was personal physician to Winston Churchill for 25 years.

In ‘June Delights in the Countryside’ John Corbett returns with a selection of memories of life in rural Ireland during the month of June. And in her Castles of Ireland series, this week Gemma Grant is off to Kilcoe Castle, Co. Cork.

Ronan O’Rahilly was the founder of Radio Caroline, and Paula Redmond recalls the Irish maverick who took on the British political and broadcasting establishments by launching the UK’s first offshore pirate station, on Easter Sunday, 1964.

Our original short story is ‘Number 16’ by Keith Elliott. In his Wonders of the World’s Museums series, Cathal Coyle visits the Takabuti, Egyptian Gallery, in the Ulster Museum.

Duncan Hamilton was Cork’s Gentleman Racer, and Ray Cleere marks the centenary of the birth of one of the greatest motor racing drivers of all time.

We have all this for you to enjoy alongside your regular favourites including Stranger Than Fiction, Cassidy Says, Pete’s Pets, Pen Pals, jokes, songs, puzzles, Marjorie’s Kitchen, Catch the Criminal and much much more.

Enjoy the read, keep well, and I will look forward to talking to you again next week. Take care.

                                                                                                         Best wishes,

Seán Nolan, Editor, Ireland’s Own