Travelling with Purpose and Intention
From language lessons to outdoor painting, pizza making to yoga practice; what’s your passion, and how can you pursue it through travelling?
Freelance content manager, writer, editor — from travel and tourism to food and drink (and whatever you’re having yourself).
Our Editorial Journey: Helping Tell 100 Stories
Upon reaching the milestone of 100 stories, Resonate editor Emily Cathcart has been looking back at the many memorable pieces our storytelling platform has published. She’s also reminiscing about the equally memorable people we’ve met along the way.
Choosing The Road Not Taken
Travel isn’t about ticking boxes. So why do so many follow the same well-worn paths year after year? It’s time to consider what overtourism means for destinations.
Getting Full (Super)Market Value
A trip to the local grocery store in a new country can be an eye-opening (and eye-popping) experience. They not only show us how people shop but also give an indication of so many other things.
Finding Your Roots in Norway
How does someone born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, end up making her home in Oslo, Norway? Tricia Cantlon isn’t quite sure how it came about herself — it wasn’t a plan exactly, more the culmination of many wanderings. Now settled in the capital for several years, there’s nothing she enjoys more than showcasing her adopted country; especially to fellow Americans seeking their Norwegian roots.
Loving Our Travel Misadventures
We can fall head-over-heels for the rosy travel pictures others paint; but how do we keep the romance going when things don’t go to plan for us in real life?
Samhain: The Celtic Roots of Halloween
The shadowy intersection where the realms of the living and the dead meet looks different, depending on our cultural point of view. Folklore, religion and local customs will dictate how we honour our dearly departed. Even Halloween, wherever it’s celebrated, can take many forms. As its birthplace, Ireland has a particular claim to creepy fame.
Mind Your Language: Bridging the Communication Gap
Anyone who has done a bit of travelling — and hasn’t mastered every language spoken on the planet — will have come up against the occasional inability to understand the local people, or to be understood by them. But even when it proves tricky, communication is still a powerful tool that unites us.
Finding magic in humble ingredients | Rachel Doyle
As the River Barrow meanders nearby, ornamental grasses wave in a light breeze while flowers gently nod their heads. Leaves rustle above, backlit into overlapping stained-glass patterns. A tour of the inspirational gardens at Arboretum demonstrates the role that nurturing living things plays in our wellbeing.
Picking the perfect baking apples | Caitriona Cullen
At the foot of the rolling hills of Hacketstown, beautifully bushy shrubs and leafy trees stretch to the horizon in neat green rows. Here at Cullen Nurseries, generations of talented growers have carefully nurtured and tended their crops from seed to maturity.
Highlighting homegrown produce | Emily Bunbury
Walk past the expansive lawns, up the steps, underneath the stone portico, through the front door (aha, there it is; at the side of the house) — and step into the past. Here since the mid-1800s, the flagstone floors under your feet have been smoothed by time and thousands of people moving through these rooms. The mingled scent of aged leather book bindings and cosy wood fires permeates the air, while the gleaming wood of ornately carved furniture invites you to sit, stay a while and snuggle into the velvet scatter cushions. Welcome to the home of William and Emily McClintock Bunbury and their family.
Inspiring a love of fresh fish | Sharon Smyth
Travel to the Slaney River Valley to visit Tullow, and you’ll find yourself in the midst of a rich agricultural landscape. Along the way, there are sites of great antiquity dotted amongst the fertile fields; mysterious remnants of times long past in the form of ancient stones and prehistoric ring forts.
Spending time in Nana's kitchen | Paul Fleming
One of the best things about travelling through Ireland's countryside is the charming little villages you'll inevitably encounter. The pace is relaxed, not much is needed here to get by; perhaps just a place of worship, a school, a post office, and a shop or two. Or maybe the post office is the shop. But at the heart of any quintessential sleepy village is the local café — a community hub providing enough tea, tasty food, and talk to keep villagers fed, watered and up to speed on local news.
Keeping it Real: Authenticity in Travel Writing
“Be yourself – everyone else is already taken.” This ode to authenticity is quite clever, just the kind of thing a famous wit like Oscar Wilde would write, and a quick internet search turns up thousands upon thousands of results saying that it is indeed his. But there’s only one problem: we have no evidence he authored it.
The Joys of Staying Close to Home
It might seem strange for the editor of a responsible travel platform to advocate less travel at times — but by sticking close to home, we discover that the small worlds around us can be at least as rewarding as any great adventure or grand tour.
Sausages and Shamrocks: A Full Irish Breakfast
[co-writer/uncredited] It’s Sunday morning in Ireland: I’m awakened by the smell of something delicious happening in the house, as mouthwatering breakfast aromas float down the hallway and up my nostrils. There’s definitely a fry in my near future. I jump out of bed drawn by that intoxicating prospect, already salivating.
Have We Lost Our Cool When It Comes to Travel Hotspots?
Searing heat waves have been breaking all known high-temperature records in popular northern summer holiday spots. Is this finally the moment for us to reconsider our approach to travel planning?
We can no longer pretend that there isn’t a climate crisis, treating mass tourism to warm-weather destinations like business as usual...
We can no longer pretend that there isn’t a climate crisis, treating mass tourism to warm-weather destinations like business as usual...
Leave No Trace
Dawn is breaking over the New Forest in southern England; we step lightly through the serene landscape, wanting to leave no trace of our having passed this way. It’s July, a warm morning with mist swirling in the rays of the rising sun, cuckoos calling, and spiderwebs glittering in dewdrop diamonds. As I walk with my companion, there’s a movement across the clearing and a small herd of red deer emerges from the trees.
Breakfast in a New York Minute
City hustle and bustle doesn’t come much more hectic than that of New York; you only need to stop and stand still for a moment during rush hour to appreciate the torrent of activity whooshing past. All this haste demands a speedy feed to match, and nothing says morning in Manhattan like a bagel grabbed fresh, hot… and fast.
Community Includes Everyone
What is a community? It’s many things to many people, but by definition, it’s a unified body of individuals. They can be brought together by similar interests, shared goals, common characteristics or identity; or simply through proximity.
A Local's Destination Guide to Dublin
Divided into the Northside and Southside by the River Liffey, Dublin’s fair city of nearly 1.5 million is home to a third of Ireland’s population. You can feel the brisk tempo of this busy capital — with its vibrant arts and culture, upsurge in restaurants, and classical Georgian neighbourhoods bumping up against rapidly changing areas like the Docklands. Local expert Emily Cathcart says there’s always something to see in Dublin when you know where to look.
6 ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve
Once Christmas has come and gone there’s still loads of festive fun to be had in European cities. The lights are twinkling, streets are bustling, and many markets carry on with a New Year’s twist. On the night itself, dazzling entertainment is designed to keep you carousing well into the wee small hours of January 1. Here are some top spots to ring in 2023 in Europe…
Preserving a slow art form
In an age of mass production and instant gratification, these handmade pieces take time and patience to create. Are La Manufacture Cogolin’s bespoke, artist-designed rugs the ultimate ‘slow’ art form? Managing Director Sarah Henry thinks so: “For sure it is a long process! We spend quite a bit of time on the design development and the transformation of a two-dimensional drawing into a textile piece. Most often we do one or two rounds of samples when developing a collection or working on a fully
Past and future meet at Carton House
After driving through the peaceful countryside, I approached the imposing 18th century building and sprinted through the deluge to be greeted by a surprisingly 21st century entrance—a new addition created as part of an extensive multi-million Euro refurbishment project completed in 2021. Welcomed with a warming cup of tea as I was drying out, I had only just settled into a comfortable velvet-upholstered sofa in the reception when Martin appeared. After the inevitable discussion of the weather (a
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