by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Up here it’s different! Pat Gallagher of the late lamented Goats Don’t Shave wrote a cracking song called “Las Vegas in the Hills of Donegal”. The chorus goes like this: And if I could I’d build a wall around old Donegal The north and south to keep them out,… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence is a long and sometimes tedious story of love gone wrong, told in the first person by an intensely annoying, socially privileged narrator whom, most of the time, you want to slap. It’s also a deeply engaging account of… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC Bodrum used to be called Halicarnassus, was the birthplace of Herodotus, the father of History and was home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. I learned this from classical scholar and teacher, Pádraic O’Sullivan, under an azure sky… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua Cycling the Ring of Kerry – sometime after 04:00 A thin frame of bright light leaks out in the gap between the heavy drapes and the wall of the room. You reach for the phone. 4:30am. Too early. Far too little sleep for what lies ahead. You turn from… Read more »
by Padraic Giligan, Vice President Industry Relations, MCI Astoria 100 – A Grand and Lavish Affair I have a lot to say about St Petersburg but I’ll start with the party because, after all, that’s the reason I went there. The Hotel Astoria is celebrating 100 years of hospitality in 2012 /2103. I anticipated something… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Industry Relations, MCI Defining the Destination Experience Destinations need hotels like Villa Kennedy. Hotels like Villa Kennedy lift the destination experience beyond the ordinary and alter outdated destination perceptions and lazy prejudices. When you stay at Villa Kennedy your image of Frankfurt changes the way Clark Kent becomes Superman. The… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC I Like Mexicans In a previous post I stated that I’d never met a Neapolitan that I didn’t like. The same applies to Mexicans and probably for the same reasons. It’s their relentless humanity, their passionate joie de vivre, their cultivation of chaos. This week I’m back in Mexico,… Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Managing Partner, SoolNua First published in 2013 I’m re-publishing this post to mark the launch of Fáilte Ireland’s new tourism brand – Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands Cornafurrish is the townland in Co Offaly where my late father was born 100 years ago this year. It’s also the best place to holiday in Ireland…. Read more »
by Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC Naples and Ireland have many things in common none more so than the cast-iron connection, in both locations, between people and place. Ireland, as a destination, is largely defined in and through its people. So is Naples. This is mainly a good thing as it roots the… Read more »
By Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC Florence – 18 April 2013 I’ve visited Rocco Forte hotels in Brussels, Berlin, Prague and St Petersburg but this was my first visit to a Rocco Forte property in Italy, the country of origin of the eponymous founder and of his talented sister, Olga Polizzi, interior designer… Read more »