After over 9 years living in Ireland, I thought it would be interesting to put together a page describing some of the many events that have taken place in Ireland during my years here which made an impression on me as a French expat. See below for a selection of sporting, cultural, political, artistic, and humorous highlights of recent Irish life...

Available years:
2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 2012

August-September 2011... A quiet summer? I tried to find some exciting events that happened during July, August and September but nothing came to mind... The weather was typically Irish: not too cold, not too warm, with the frequent odd shower coming to cool us down. While a lot of people were sunbathing on the French beaches and the economists were formulating solutions to save the Eurozone, Freisk! (The Business) received an interesting number of projects ranging from an automotive software review to cat food advertising, so unfortunately, I couldn’t spend a lot of time to visit new spots this year.

Nonetheless, I attended 2 events in Co. Westmeath: a dragon boat race on the River Shannon in Athlone (the Chinese human-powered watercraft) and the annual Moate Show (an agricultural show, with a number of competitions, including horse jumping, dog agility, sheep and poultry exhibition, see previous years). Enjoy!

July 2011... Athlone Triathlon seen from a volunteer angle... While 2011 has been officially declared the European year of volunteering (see europa.eu), I didn't need any EU encouragement to devote a bit of my free time to non-profit organisations. I've been involved in a local networking project called Enterprise Forum since November 2010 for small start-up businesses in the midland region.

On Saturday 2nd July 2011 I was accepted to volunteer for the now annual Athlone Triathlon (aka the triAthlone, see 2010). My role was simple: I was "positioned" at a junction of the cycling trail, between Athlone, Co. Westmeath and Ballinasloe, Co. Galway and I had to try and prevent cars accessing the main road and interfering with the cyclists/triathletes. Acting as a human traffic-cone I didn't save the world, but still provided a necessary role required by the Garda. As my "workload" was relatively quiet, I had plenty of time to enjoy reading the paper, picnicking and taking photos of this competition.

So you see, volunteering does not necessarily mean being constraint by the task and you do get to enjoy yourself. If you have a bit of free time, it's easy to do something positive and, in my case, it allowed me to see a large sports event from a different angle. What about you? What will be your good deed of the year?

July 2011. triAthlone Volunteers (cycling stage).

May 2011... The month of Welcomes! I was planning to post a little comment to congratulate France (Amaury Vassili) and Ireland (Jedward), who were both tipped to win the Eurovision Song Contest, but I should rather start with Azerbaijan, Italy, Sweden, Ukraine, Denmark, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, etc. Maybe next year?

In other news, preparations took place to welcome the Queen of England, H.M. Elizabeth II, who visited the Republic of Ireland for the first time. And that's not all! The Irish also welcomed the US President, Barack Obama, the following week. Obama even took time to visit Moneygall (Co. Offaly), the birth place of its great-great-great grand-father! Small World, eh?

March 2011... Galway celebrates Saint Patrick's Day! 17th March 2011 - It's Saint Patrick's Day! The entire world wishes that they were Irish (probably because we get a day off work !). On March 17th, everyone gets in touch with that little bit of "Irish" in them and embraces all things green. The clip below shows some photos taken during the 2011 parade in Galway. You'll be able to see acrobats, army representatives, members of various communities living in the city (French, Ukrainian, Indian, etc.).

March 2011. Celebrating Saint Patrick in Galway.

Japan is making the main news event of March 2011...It looked like a trailer for a disaster movie from the 1980’s, but this time reality was worse than fiction. On the 11th of March 2011, an earthquake of a magnitude of 8.9 hit Japan, followed by a tsunami with over 23m high waves and explosions at nuclear power plants, have wrought havoc in a large part of the country. If you want to help the Ireland-Japan Association, you can donate via this link .

January - February 2011... Arctic temperatures with high pressure in Ireland: Boyle's laws revisited... While my first winters as a French expat in Ireland were relatively mild, Winter 2011 was extremely cold with temperatures plunging down to -20 °C in the north of the country. This extreme weather benefited Irish plumbers, who were often called in emergency to fix burst water pipes in houses built during the Celtic Tiger era.

In other news, the pressure became too high for Brian Cowen, who, after losing support from his peers and most of the Irish people, decided to leave his position as a Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and to dissolve the Daíl (Parliament). Enda Kenny, leader of the Fine Gael Party, is now the new Taoiseach and has just created a government in coalition with the Labour Party. Expectations amongst Irish people for positive change is very high.