Podcasts about Waterford Crystal

Paul Marden heads to the AVEA conference in front of a LIVE audience to find out why gift shops are such an important part of the attraction mix. Joining him is Jennifer Kennedy, Retail Consultant, JK Consulting and Michael Dolan, MD of Shamrock Gift Company. They discuss why your gift shop is an integral part of your brand and why it needs to be just as good as the experience you have on offer. This coinsides with the launch of our brand new playbook: ‘The Retail Ready Guide To Going Beyond The Gift Shop', where you can find out exactly how to improve your online offering to take your ecommerce to the next level. Download your FREE copy here:  https://pages.crowdconvert.co.uk/skip-the-queue-playbookBut that's not all. Paul walks the conference floor and speaks to:Susanne Reid, CEO of Christchurch Cathedral Dublin, on how they are celebrating their millennium anniversary - 1000 years!Charles Coyle, Managing Director, Emerald Park, on how they are bringing AI integrations to enhance their booking processesRay Dempsey, General Manager of The Old Jamerson Distillery on how they offering more accessible touring optionsIt's a mega episode and one you'll not want to miss. Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on LinkedIn. Show references:  Jennifer Kennedy — Founder, JK Consultinghttps://jkconsultingnyc.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-kennedy-aba75712/Michael Dolan — Managing Director, Shamrock Gift Companyhttps://www.shamrockgiftcompany.com/Catherine Toolan — Managing Director, Guinness Storehouse & Global Head of Brand Homes, Diageohttp://diageo.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinetoolan/Máirín Walsh — Operations Manager, Waterford Museumhttps://www.waterfordtreasures.com/Dean Kelly — Photography & Visitor Experience Specialist https://www.wearephotoexperience.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-kelly-1259a316/Charles Coyle — Managing Director, Emerald Parkhttps://www.emeraldpark.ieSusanne Reid — CEO, Christ Church Cathedral Dublinhttp://www.christchurchcathedral.iehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/susannereid/Ray Dempsey — General Manager, Jameson Distilleryhttps://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/en-ie/visit-our-distilleries/jameson-bow-street-distillery-tour/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-dempsey-37a8665a/ Transcription: Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, the podcast that tells the stories behind the world's best attractions and the amazing people that work in them. In today's episode, I'm at the AVEA 2025 conference in Waterford, Ireland, and we're talking about gift shop best practices. With Jennifer Kennedy from JK Consulting, a tourism and retail consultancy. And Jennifer led retail at Guinness Storehouse for more years than she would care to mention, I think. And we're also here with Michael Dolan, MD of Shamrock Gift Company, who has brought along the most amazing array of gift shop merchandise, which I'm sure we'll get into talking a little something about later on. And I've also got an amazing live audience. Say hello, everybody.Everyone: Hello.Paul Marden: There we go. So we always start with icebreaker that I don't prepare the two of you. Now this is probably a very unfair question for the pair of you, actually. What's the quirkiest souvenir you've ever bought? I can think of those little, the ones that you get in Spain are the little pooping santas.Jennifer  Kennedy: I have a thing for Christmas decorations when I go on travel, so for me, there always tends to be something around having a little decoration on my tree every year. That if I've had one or two holidays or I've been away, that has some little thing that comes back that ends up on the tree of Christmas. I have a lovely little lemon from Amalfi that's a Christmas decoration, and so you know, so a little kind of quirky things like that.Paul Marden: Michael, what about you? Michael  Dolan: One of our designers who will remain nameless? She has a thing about poo. So everyone brings her back to some poo relation. Paul Marden: Sadly, there's quite a lot of that around at the moment, isn't there? That's a bit disappointing. First question then, what's the point of a gift shop? If I put that in a more eloquent way, why are gift shops such an important part of the attraction mix?Jennifer  Kennedy: Okay, it was from my point of view, the gift shop in an attraction or a destination is the ultimate touch point that the brand has to leave a lasting memory when visitors go away. So for me, they're intrinsically important in the complete 360 of how your brand shows up— as a destination or an attraction. And without a really good gift shop and really good product to take away from it, you're letting your brand down. And it's an integral piece that people can share. From a marketing point of view, every piece of your own product that's been developed, that's taken away to any part of the world can sit in someone's kitchen. It can be in multiple forms. It can be a fridge magnet. It could be a tea towel. It could be anything. But it's a connection to your brand and the home that they visited when they chose to be wherever they're visiting. So for me, I'm very passionate about the fact that your gift shop should be as good as everything else your experience has to offer. So that's my view on it. Michael  Dolan: Sometimes it's neglected when people create a new visitor attraction. They don't put enough time into the retail element. I think that's changing, and a very good example of that would be Game of Thrones in Banbridge. We worked with them for two years developing the range, but also the shop. So the shop reflects the... I actually think the shop is the best part of the whole experience. But the shop reflects the actual whole experience.  Jennifer  Kennedy: The teaming.Michael  Dolan: The teaming. So you have banners throughout the shop, the music, the lighting, it looks like a dungeon. All the display stands have swords in them, reflecting the theme of the entrance.Jennifer  Kennedy: Yeah, it's a good example of how a brand like that has incorporated the full essence and theme of why they exist into their physical retail space.Paul Marden: They definitely loosened a few pounds out of my pocket. Michael  Dolan: Another good example is Titanic Belfast. So they spent 80 million on that visitor attraction, which was opened in 2012, but they forgot about the shop. So the architect who designed the building designed the shop that looked like something out of the Tate Gallery. Yeah, and we went and said, 'This shop is not functional; it won't work for our type of product.' They said, 'We don't have anything in the budget to redevelop the shop.' So we paid a Dublin architect to redesign the shop. So the shop you have today, that design was paid for by Shamrock Gift Company. And if you've been in the shop, it's all brass, wood, ropes. So it's an integral part of the overall experience. But unfortunately... you can miss the shop on the way out.Paul Marden: Yeah, it is very easy to walk out the building and not engage in the shop itself. It's a bit like a dessert for a meal, isn't it? The meal's not complete if you've not had a dessert. And I think the gift shop experience is a little bit like that. The trip to the experience isn't finished.  If you haven't exited through the gate. Michael  Dolan: But it's the lasting memories that people bring back to the office in New York, put the mug on the table to remind people of when they're in Belfast or Dublin to go to. You know, storehouse or Titanic. So those last impressions are indelibly, you know, set.Paul Marden: So we've already said the positioning of the shop then is super important, how it feels, but product is super important, isn't it? What product you fill into the shop is a make or break experience? How do you go about curating the right product? Michael  Dolan: Most important is authenticity. You know, it has to be relevant to the visitor attraction. So it's not a question of just banging out a few key rings and magnets. So I brought you along some samples there. So we're doing two new ranges, one for Titanic and one for the Royal Yacht Britannia, and they're totally different. But reflect the personality of each attraction.Paul Marden: Absolutely.Michael  Dolan: I mean, a good example, we worked together or collaborated together on many, many projects in Guinness. But we also worked in St. Patrick's Cathedral.Jennifer  Kennedy: Yeah.Michael  Dolan: You were the consultant.Jennifer  Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. So I suppose, again, from the product point of view. Yeah, if you can root product in why the experience exists. So in that example, a cathedral is a great example of how you can create really great product by utilising. Well, the main reason people are there is because this amazing building exists and the historic elements of it. So I suppose to make it real, some examples of products that connected with the audience in that environment are things like a little stone coaster. But the stone coaster is a replica of the floor you're standing on. So I suppose the other balance in attractions is realistic price points and realistic products. So there's no point in creating a range of products that's outside the price point of what your visitors are prepared to pay. So it's that fine balance of creating product that connects with them, which is, I'm using the cathedral as an example because you've got architraves, you've got stained glass windows, you've got stunning tiles. So all the elements of the fabric of that building. Can be utilised to create really beautiful products, but castles, you know, cathedrals, all of those sorts of spaces.Jennifer  Kennedy: When we start talking about product, always we go to, 'why are we here?' And also the storytelling elements. There's some beautiful stories that can, I can give you another really great example of a product that was created for another cathedral, which was... So in cathedral spaces, there's all these stunning doors that run the whole way through, like they're spectacular; they're like pieces of art in their own right. And every one of them has a very unique ornate key that unlocks each door. So one of the products that did one of the cathedrals was we wanted to create a ring of brass keys with replicas of all the keys in the cathedral. But as we were progressing, we forgot at the start— it was like we forgot to tell them to scale them down. They weren't the same size as all the keys in the cathedral. So it was a very intrinsically specific gift to this particular cathedral. And it's been used ever since as kind of the special gift they give to people who come to visit from all over the world. They get quite emotional about this particular gift because it's like this is the actual replica of all the keys to all the doors in the cathedral.Jennifer  Kennedy: So it's a product that's completely born. It can never be replicated anywhere else. And it's completely unique to that particular space. And I think that's the power of, for me, that's what authenticity feels and looks like in these environments. It has to be connected to the fabric of why you exist.Paul Marden: Yeah, so I was at Big Pit in Wales six months ago, I think it was. Museums Wales are redeveloping all of their gift shops and they are going through exactly that process that you're talking about, but bringing it back to the place itself because all, I think, it's six of their museums, the gift shops had much the same set of product. They described it as, you know, you were just walking into a generic Welsh gift shop with the dressed lady.Jennifer  Kennedy: And it's hard— like it really takes an awful lot of work— like it doesn't just happen, like you really have to put a lot of thought and planning into what our product should and could look like. And then, when you've aligned on with the team of people managing and running these businesses, that this is the direction you want to take, then it's the operational element of it. It's about sourcing, MOQs, and price, and all of that stuff that comes into it. Minimum order quantities.Michael  Dolan: That's where we come in. So, you know, we met Jennifer in St. Patrick's and we met Liz then, we met the Dean. So we really sat around and talked about what were the most important elements in the cathedral that we wanted to celebrate in product.Michael  Dolan: And St. Patrick obviously was the obvious number one element. Then they have a harp stained glass window. And then they have a shamrock version of that as well. So they were the three elements that we hit on. You know, it took a year to put those three ranges together. So we would have started out with our concept drawings, which we presented to the team in St. Patrick's. They would have approved them. Then we would have talked to them about the size of the range and what products we were looking at. So then we would have done the artwork for those separate ranges, brought them back in to get them approved, go to sampling, bring the samples back in, then sit down and talk about pricing, minimum order quantities, delivery times.Michael  Dolan: So the sample, you know, so that all goes out to order and then it arrives in about four or five months later into our warehouse. So we carry all the risk. We design everything, we source it, make sure that it's safely made, all the tests are confirmed that the products are good. In conformity with all EU legislation. It'll be in our warehouse and then it's called off the weekly basis. So we carry, we do everything.  So one stop shop. Paul Marden: So the traction isn't even sitting on stock that they've invested in. We know what we're doing and we're quite happy to carry the risk. So one of the things we were talking about just before we started the episode was the challenges of sourcing locally. It's really important, isn't it? But it can be challenging to do that.Jennifer  Kennedy: It can. And, you know, but I would say in recent years, there's a lot more creators and makers have come to the fore after COVID. So in kind of more... Specifically, kind of artisan kind of product types. So things like candles are a great example where, you know, now you can find great candle makers all over Ireland with, you know, small minimum quantity requirements. And also they can bespoke or tailor it to your brand. So if you're a museum or if you're a, again, whatever the nature of your brand is, a national store or whatever, you can have a small batch made. Which lets you have something that has provenance. And here it's Irish made, it's Irish owned. And then there's some, you know, it just it gives you an opportunity.Jennifer  Kennedy: Unfortunately, we're never going to be in a position where we can source everything we want in Ireland. It just isn't realistic. And commercially, it's not viable. As much as you can, you should try and connect with the makers and creators that they are available and see if small batches are available. And they're beautiful to have within your gift store, but they also have to be the balance of other commercial products that will have to be sourced outside of Ireland will also have to play a significant role as well.Máirín Walsh: I think there needs to be a good price point as well. Like, you know, we find that in our museum, that, you know, if something is above 20, 25 euro, the customer has to kind of really think about purchasing it, where if it's 20 euro or under, you know, it's...Michael  Dolan: More of an input item, yeah.Máirín Walsh: Yes, exactly, yeah.Paul Marden: And so when it's over that price point, that's when you need to be sourcing locally again. Máirín Walsh: It's a harder sell. You're kind of maybe explaining a bit more to them and trying to get them to purchase it. You know, they have to think about it.Jennifer  Kennedy: But it's also good for the storytelling elements as well because it helps you engage. So I've often found as well that even train the teams and the customer service. It's actually a lovely space to have, to be able to use it as part of storytelling that we have this locally made or it's made in Cork or wherever it's coming from, that it's Irish made.Máirín Walsh: We have, what have we got? We've kind of got scarves and that and we have local— we had candles a few years ago actually. I think they were made or... up the country or whatever. But anyway, it was at Reginald's Tower and there were different kinds of candles of different attractions around and they really connected with your audience.Michael  Dolan: So 20% of our turnover would be food and all that is made in Ireland. Virtually all of that is sourced locally here in Ireland. And that's a very important part of our overall product portfolio and growing as well.Paul Marden: Is it important to serve different audiences with the right product? So I'm thinking... Making sure that there's pocket money items in there for kids, because often when they come to a museum or attraction, it's their first time they ever get to spend their own money on a transaction. Yeah, that would be their first memory of shopping. So giving them what they need, but at the same time having that 25 euro and over price point. To have a real set piece item is?Jennifer  Kennedy: I would say that's very specific to the brand. Paul Marden: Really? Jennifer  Kennedy: Yes, because some brands can't actually sell products or shouldn't be selling products to children. Paul Marden: Really? I'm looking at the Guinness items at the end of the table.Jennifer  Kennedy: So it depends on the brand. So obviously, in many of the destinations around Ireland, some of them are quite heavily family-oriented. And absolutely in those environments where you've got gardens, playgrounds or theme parks. Absolutely. You have to have that range of product that's very much tailored to young families and children. In other environments, not necessarily. But you still need to have a range that appeals to the masses. Because you will have visitors from all walks of life and with all perspectives. So it's more about having something. I'm going to keep bringing it back to it. It's specific to why this brand is here. And if you can create product within a fair price point, and Mairin is absolutely right. The balance of how much your products cost to the consumer will make or break how your retail performs. And in most destinations, what you're actually aiming to do is basket size. You want them to go away with three, four, five products from you, not necessarily one.Jennifer  Kennedy: Because if you think about it, that's more beneficial for the brand. I mean, most people are buying for gifting purposes. They're bringing things back to multiple people. So, if I'm able to pick up a nice candle and it's eight or 10 euros, well, I might buy three of them if it's a beautiful candle in a nice package. Whereas, if I went in and the only option available to me was a 35-euro candle, I probably might buy that, but I'm only buying one product. And I'm only giving that to either myself or one other person. Whereas, if you can create a range that's a good price, but it's also appealing and very connected to why they came to visit you in the first place, then that's a much more powerful, for the brand point of view, that's a much more... Powerful purchasing options are available to have a basket size that's growing.Michael  Dolan: We worked together in the National Stud in Kildare, so we did a great kids range of stationery, which worked really well. We've just done a new range for the GAA museum, all stationery-related, because they get a lot of kids. Again, we would have collaborated on that.Jennifer  Kennedy: And actually, the natural studs are a really nice example as well, because from even a textile point of view, you can lean into equine as the, so you can do beautiful products with ponies and horses. Yeah. You know, so again, some brands make it very, it's easy to see the path that you can take with product. And then others are, you know, you have to think harder. It's a little bit more challenging. So, and particularly for cultural and heritage sites, then that really has to be grounded in what are the collections, what is on offer in these sites, in these museums, in these heritage sites, and really start to unravel the stories that you can turn into product.Paul Marden: But a product isn't enough, is it?Jennifer  Kennedy: Absolutely not.Paul Marden: Set making, merchandising, storytelling, they all engage the customer, don't they?Jennifer  Kennedy: 100%.Paul Marden: Where have you seen that being done well in Ireland?Michael  Dolan: Get a store is the preeminent example, I would think. I mean, it's a stunning shop. Have you met Catherine too? Paul Marden: No, not yet. Lovely to meet you, Catherine.  Michael  Dolan: Catherine is in charge of getting the stories. Paul Marden: Okay. Any other examples that aren't, maybe, sat at the table? Game of Thrones is a really good example and Titanic.Michael  Dolan: Game of Thrones.  I think Titanic's good. The new shop in Trinity College is very strong, I think. So it's a temporary digital exhibition while they're revamping the library. They've done an excellent job in creating a wonderful new shop, even on a temporary basis.Jennifer  Kennedy: I would say Crowe Park as well. The GAA museum there has undergone a full refurbishment and it's very tailored towards their audience. So they're very, it's high volume, very specific to their... And the look and feel is very much in keeping with the nature of the reason why people go to Crowe Park. I would say the Irish National Asteroid as well. And Colmar Abbey, Cliffs of Moher. We've got some really great offers all over the island of Ireland.Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. I was at W5 recently in Belfast and I think that is a brilliant example of what a Science Centre gift shop could be like. Because often there will be the kind of generic stuff that you'll see in any attraction— a notebook with rubber and a pencil— but they also had lots of, there were lots of science-led toys and engineering-led toys, so they had... big Lego section. It was like going into a proper toy shop. It was just a really impressive gift shop that you could imagine engaging a kid.Catherine Toolan: And if I could come in there for an example outside of Ireland, you've got the House of Lego in Billund. I don't know if anybody has been there, but they've got a customised range, which is only available. Really? Yes, and it's so special. They've got a really unique building, so the Lego set is in the shape of the building. They've got their original dock. But the retail store in that space, it's very geared towards children as Lego is, but also imagination play. So they've done a brilliant job on looking at, you know, the texture of their product, the colour of their product. And whilst it's usually geared to children, it's also geared to adult lovers of Lego. So it's beautiful. Huge tech as well. They've incredible RFID wristbands, which you get from your ticket at the beginning of the experience. So all of your photo ops and everything you can download from the RFID wristband. Very cool.Jennifer  Kennedy: Actually, I would say it's probably from a tech point of view, one of the best attractions I've been to in recent years. Like, it's phenomenal. I remember going there the year it opened first because it was fascinating. I have two boys who are absolutely Lego nuts. And I just— we went to the home of LEGO in Billund when it opened that year and I just was blown away. I had never experienced, and I go to experiences everywhere, but I've never, from a tech point of view and a brand engagement perspective, understood the nature, the type of product that they deliver. For me, it's, like I said, I tell everyone to go to Billund. Paul Marden: Really? We've got such amazing jobs, haven't we? However, as you're both talking, I'm thinking you're a bit like me. You don't get to go and enjoy the experience for the experience's own sake because you're looking at what everybody's doing.Jennifer  Kennedy: But can I actually just add to that? There's another one in the Swarovski Crystal in Austria.Paul Marden: Really?Jennifer  Kennedy: That is phenomenal. And in terms of their retail space, it's like, I like a bit of sparkle, so I'm not going to lie. It was like walking into heaven. And their retail offering there is world-class in that store. And the whole brand experience from start to finish, which is what you're always trying to achieve. It's the full 360 of full immersion. You're literally standing inside a giant crystal. It's like being in a dream. Right. A crystal, sparkly dream from start to finish. And then, every year, they partner and collaborate with whoever— designers, musicians, whoever's iconic or, you know, very... present in that year or whatever. And they do these wonderful collaborations and partnerships with artists, designers, you name it.Paul Marden: Sorry, Catherine, there you go.Catherine Toolan: Thank you very much. It's on my list of places to go, but I do know the team there and what they're also doing is looking at the premiumization. So they close their retail store for high net worth individuals to come in and buy unique and special pieces. You know, they use their core experience for the daytime. And we all talk about the challenges. I know, Tom, you talk about this, you know, how do you scale up visitor experience when you're at capacity and still make sure you've a brilliant net promoter score and that the experience of the customer is fantastic. So that is about sweating the acid and you know it's that good, better, best. You know they have something for everybody but they have that halo effect as well.  So it's really cool.Paul Marden: Wow. Thank you. I'm a bit of a geek. I love a bit of technology. What do you think technology is doing to the gift shop experience? Are there new technologies that are coming along that are going to fundamentally change the way the gift shop experience works?Jennifer  Kennedy: I think that's rooted in the overall experience. So I don't think it's a separate piece. I think there's loads of things out there now where you can, you know, virtual mirrors have been around for years and all these other really interesting. The whole gamification piece, if you're in an amazing experience and you're getting prompts and things to move an offer today, but so that's that's been around for quite some time. I'm not sure that it's been fully utilised yet across the board, especially in I would say there's a way to go in how it influences the stores in Ireland in attractions at the moment. There'll be only a handful who I'd say are using technology, mainly digital screens, is what I'm experiencing and seeing generally. And then, if there is a big attraction, some sort of prompts throughout that and how you're communicating digitally through the whole experience to get people back into the retail space. Paul Marden: Yeah, I can imagine using tech to be able to prompt somebody at the quiet times of the gift shop. Michael  Dolan: Yeah, also Guinness now you can order a pint glass with your own message on it in advance. It's ready for you when you finish your tour. You go to a locker and you just open the locker and you walk out with your glass. Catherine Toolan: Could I just say, though, that you just don't open a locker like it's actually lockers? There's a lot of customisation to the lockers because the idea came from the original Parcel Motel. So the locker is actually you key in a code and then when you open the customised locker, there's a Guinness quote inside it and your personalised glass is inside it. And the amount of customers and guests that we get to say, could we lock the door again? We want to actually open it and have that. whole experience so you know that's where I think in you know and one of the questions that would be really interesting to talk about is you know, what about self-scanning and you know, the idea of checkouts that are not having the human connection. Is that a thing that will work when you've got real experiences? I don't know. But we know that the personalisation of the engraved glasses and how we've custom designed the lockers— not to just be set of lockers— has made that difference. So they're very unique, they're colourful, they're very Guinnessified. And of course, the little personal quote that you get when you open the locker from our archives, make that a retail experience that's elevated. Paul Marden: Wow.Jennifer  Kennedy: But I would also say to your point on that, that the actual, the real magic is also in the people, in the destinations, because it's not like gift shops and destinations and experiences. They're not like high street and they shouldn't be. It should be a very different experience that people are having when they've paid to come and participate with you in your destination. So I actually think technology inevitably plays a role and it's a support and it will create lovely quirks and unusual little elements throughout the years.Paul Marden: I think personalisation is great.  Jennifer  Kennedy: And personalisation, absolutely. But the actual, like I would be quite against the idea of automating checkout and payouts in gift shops, in destinations, because for me... That takes away the whole essence of the final touch point is actually whoever's talked to you when you did that transaction and whoever said goodbye or asked how your experience was or did you enjoy yourself? So those you can't you can't replace that with without a human personal touch. So for me, that's intrinsically important, that it has to be retained, that the personal touch is always there for the goodbye.Dean Kelly: I'm very happy that you brought up the human touch. I'm a photo company, I do pictures. And all the time when we're talking to operators, they're like, 'Can we make it self-serve? Can we get rid of the staffing costs?' I'm like, 'I'm a photographer. Photographers take pictures of people. We need each other to engage, react, and put the groups together. No, we don't want the staff costs. But I'm like, it's not about the staff costs. It's about the customer's experience. So all day long, our challenge is, more so in the UK now, because we operate in the UK, and everybody over there is very, we don't want the staff.' And I think, if you lose the staff engagement, especially taking a picture, you lose the memory and you lose the moment. And photographers have a really good job to do, a very interesting job, is where to capture people together. And if you lose that person— touch point of getting the togetherness— You just have people touching the screen, which they might as well be on their phone.Paul Marden: And the photo won't look as good, will it? Anybody could take a photo, but it takes a photographer to make people look like they're engaged and happy and in the moment.Dean Kelly: Yeah, exactly, and a couple of other points that you mentioned— with the brand, personalisation, gamification, all that kind of cool, juicy stuff, all the retail stuff, people going home with the memory, the moment, all that stuff's cool, but nobody mentioned photos until Cashin, you mentioned photos. We've had a long conversation with photos for a long time, and we'll probably be still chatting for another long time as well. But photography is a super, super retail revenue stream. But it's not about the revenue, it's about the moment and the magic. Jennifer  Kennedy: Yeah, you're capturing the magic. Dean Kelly: Capturing it. And fair enough that what you guys do at Shamrock is very interesting because you talk to the operators. You kind of go, 'What gifts are going to work for your visitors?' And you turn that into a product. And that's exactly what we do with all the experiences. We take pictures.Dean Kelly: But what's your demographic saying? What's your price points? What's your brand? What's your message? And let's turn that into a personalised souvenir, put the people in the brand, and let them take it home and engage with it.Paul Marden: So... I think one of the most important things is how you blend the gift shop with the rest of the experience. You were giving a good example of exiting through the gift shop. It's a very important thing, isn't it? But if you put it in the wrong place, you don't get that. How do you blend the gift shop into the experience?Jennifer  Kennedy: Well, I would say I wouldn't call it a blend. For me, the retail element of the brand should be a wow. Like it should be as invaluable, as important as everything else. So my perspective would be get eyes on your retail offering sooner rather than later. Not necessarily that they will participate there and then.Jennifer  Kennedy: The visual and the impact it has on seeing a wow— this looks like an amazing space. This looks like with all these products, but it's also— I was always chasing the wow. I want you to go, wow, this looks amazing. Because, to me, that's when you've engaged someone that they're not leaving until they've gotten in there. It is important that people can potentially move through it at the end. And, you know, it depends on the building. It depends on the structure. You know, a lot of these things are taken out of your hands. You've got to work with what you've got. Jennifer  Kennedy: But you have to work with what you've got, not just to blend it, to make it stand out as exceptional. Because that's actually where the magic really starts. And it doesn't matter what brand that is. The aim should always be that your retail offering is exceptional from every touch point. And it shouldn't be obvious that we've spent millions in creating this wonderful experience. And now you're being shoehorned into the poor relation that was forgotten a little bit and now has ten years later looks a bit ramshackle. And we're trying to figure out why we don't get what we should out of it.Michael  Dolan: And it has to be an integral part of the whole experience.Jennifer  Kennedy: Yeah, and I think for new experiences that are in planning stages, I've seen that more and more in recent years. Now, where I was being called to retrofix or rip out things going, this doesn't work, I'm like, okay, well, we have to retro do this. Now, when people are doing new builds or new investments into new spaces, I'm getting those calls at the planning stages where it's like, we've allocated this amount of space to retail. Do you think that's enough? And I don't think I've ever said yes, ever. At every single turn, I'm like... No, it's not enough. And, you know, what's your anticipated football? Oh, that's the numbers start to play a role in it. But it's not just about that. It's about the future proofing. It's like what happens in five years, 10 years, 15? Because I've been very lucky to work in buildings where it's not easy to figure out where you're going to go next. And particularly heritage sites and cultural heritage. Like I can't go in and knock a hole in the crypt in Christchurch Cathedral. But I need a bigger retail space there.Jennifer  Kennedy: The earlier you start to put retail as a central commercial revenue stream in your business, the more eyes you have on it from the get-go, the more likely it is that it will be successful. Not now, not in five years, not in ten years, but that you're building blocks for this, what can become. Like it should be one of your strongest revenue streams after ticket sales because that's what it can become. But you have to go at it as this is going to be amazing.Catherine Toolan: I think it's important that it's not a hard sell and that's in your face. And, you know, that's where, when you think about the consumer journey, we always think about the behavioural science of the beginning, the middle, and the end. And people remember three things. You know, there's lots of other touch points. But if retail is a really hard sell throughout the experience, I don't think the net promoter score of your overall experience will, you know, come out, especially if you're, you know, and we're not a children's destination. An over 25 adult destination at the Guinness Storehouse and at our alcohol brand homes. But what's really important is that it's authentic, it's really good, and it's highly merchandised, and that it's unique. I think that uniqueness is it— something that you can get that you can't get anywhere else. You know, how do you actually, one of the things that we would have done if we had it again, we would be able to make our retail store available to the domestic audience, to the public without buying a ticket. So, you know, you've got that opportunity if your brand is the right brand that you can have walk-in off the high street, for example.Catherine Toolan: So, you know, there's so many other things that you can think about because that's an extension of your revenue opportunity where you don't have to come in to do the whole experience. And that is a way to connect the domestic audience, which is something I know a lot of the members of the Association, AVEA are trying to do. You know, how do we engage and connect and get repeat visits and and retail is a big opportunity to do that, especially at gifting season.Paul Marden: Yeah, yeah, sustainability is increasingly important to the narrative of the whole retail experience, isn't it? How do you make sure that we're not going about just selling plastic tat that nobody's going to look after?Michael  Dolan: We've made this a core value for Shamrock Gift Company, so we've engaged with a company called Clearstream Solutions, the same company that Guinness Store has. have worked with them. So it's a long-term partnership. So they've measured our carbon footprint from 2019 to 2023. So we've set ourselves the ambitious target of being carbon neutral by 2030.Michael  Dolan: So just some of the elements that we've engaged in. So we put 700 solar panels on our roof as of last summer. All our deliveries in Dublin are done with electric vans, which we've recently purchased. All the lights in the building now are LED. Motion-sensored as well. All the cars are electric or that we've purchased recently, and we've got a gas boiler. So we've also now our shipments from China we're looking at biodiesel. So that's fully sustainable. And we also, where we can't use biodiesel, we're doing carbon offsetting as well.Paul Marden: So a lot of work being done in terms of the cost of CO2 of the transport that you're doing. What about the product itself? How do you make sure that the product itself is inherently something that people are going to treasure and is not a throwaway item?Michael  Dolan: We're using more sustainable materials, so a lot more stone, a lot more wood. Paul Marden: Oh, really? Michael  Dolan: Yeah. Also, it begins with great design. Yeah. So, you know, and obviously working with our retail partners, make sure that the goods are very well designed, very well manufactured. So we're working with some wonderful, well, best in class manufacturers around the world. Absolutely.Jennifer  Kennedy: I think as well, if... you can, and it's becoming easier to do, if you can collaborate with some creators and makers that are actually within your location.Jennifer  Kennedy: Within Ireland, there's a lot more of that happening, which means sourcing is closer to home. But you also have this other economy that's like the underbelly of the craft makers market in Ireland, which is fabulous, which needs to be brought to the fore. So collaborations with brands can also form a very integral part of product development that's close to home and connected to people who are here—people who are actually creating product in Ireland.Paul Marden: This is just instinct, not knowledge at all. But I would imagine that when you're dealing with those local crafters and makers, that they are inherently more sustainable because they're creating things local to you. It's not just the distance that's...Jennifer  Kennedy: Absolutely, but in any instances that I'm aware of that I've been involved with, anyway, even the materials and their mythology, yeah, is all grounded in sustainability and which is fabulous to see. Like, there's more and there's more and more coming all the time.Michael  Dolan: We've got rid of 3 million bags a year. Key rings, mags used to be individually bagged. And now there are 12 key rings in a bag that's biodegradable. That alone is 2 million bags.Paul Marden: It's amazing, isn't it? When you look at something as innocuous as the bag itself that it's packaged in before it's shipped out. You can engineer out of the supply chain quite a lot of unnecessary packaging Michael  Dolan: And likewise, then for the retailer, they don't have to dispose of all that packaging. So it's a lot easier and cleaner to put the product on the shelf. Yes.Paul Marden: Something close to my heart, online retail. Have you seen examples where Irish attractions have extended their gift shop experience online, particularly well?Jennifer  Kennedy: For instance, there are a few examples, but what I was thinking more about on that particular thought was around the nature of the brand again and the product that, in my experience, the brands that can do that successfully tend to have something on offer that's very nostalgic or collectible. Or memorabilia and I think there are some examples in the UK potentially that are where they can be successful online because they have a brand or a product that people are collecting.Paul Marden: Yeah, so one of my clients is Jane Austen House, only about two miles away from where I live. And it blew me away the importance of their online shop to them. They're tiny. I mean, it is a little cottage in the middle of Hampshire, but they have an international audience for their gift shop. And it's because they've got this really, really committed audience of Jane Austen fans who want to buy something from the house. Then everybody talks about the Tank Museum in Dorset.Paul Marden: Who make a fortune selling fluffy tank slippers and all you could possibly imagine memorabilia related to tanks. Because again, it's that collection of highly curated products and this really, really committed audience of people worldwide. Catherine Toolan: The Tank were here last year presenting at the AVEA conference and it was such an incredible story about their success and, you know, how they went from a very small museum with a lot of support from government to COVID to having an incredible retail store, which is now driving their commercial success.Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. Nick has done a load of work. Yeah, that leads me nicely onto a note. So listeners, for a long time, Skip the Queue has been totally focused on the podcast. But today we have launched our first playbook. Which is hopefully the first of many. But the playbook that we're launching today is all about how attractions can focus on best practice for gift shop e-commerce. So we work with partners, Rubber Cheese, Navigate, and Stephen Spencer Associates. So Steve and his team has helped us to contribute to some sections to the guide around, how do you curate your product? How do you identify who the audience is? How do you create that collection? The team at Rubber Cheese talk about the mechanics of how do you put it online and then our friends at Navigate help you to figure out what the best way is to get bums on seats. So it was a crackpot idea of mine six months ago to put it together, and it is now huge.Paul Marden: It's packed full of advice, and that's gone live today. So you can go over to skipthequeue.fm and click on the Playbooks link there to go and download that. Thank you. So, Jennifer, Michael, it has been absolutely wonderful to talk to both of you. Thank you to my audience. You've also been fabulous. Well done. And what a packed episode that was. I get the feeling you two quite enjoy gift shops and retailing. You could talk quite a lot about it.Jennifer  Kennedy: I mean, I love it.  Paul Marden: That didn't come over at all. Jennifer  Kennedy: Well, I just think it's such a lovely way of connecting with people and keeping a connection, particularly from a brand point of view. It should be the icing on the cake, you know?Paul Marden: You're not just a market store salesperson, are you?Jennifer  Kennedy: And I thoroughly believe that the most successful ones are because the experiences that they're a part of sow the seeds. They plant the love, the emotion, the energy. All you're really doing is making sure that that magic stays with people when they go away. The brand experience is the piece that's actually got them there in the first place. Paul Marden: Now let's go over to the conference floor to hear from some Irish operators and suppliers.Charles  Coyle: I'm Charles Coyle. I'm the managing director of Emerald Park. We're Ireland's only theme park and zoo. We opened in November 2010, which shows you how naive and foolish we were that we opened a visitor attraction in the middle of winter. Fortunately, we survived it.Paul Marden: But you wouldn't open a visitor attraction in the middle of summer, so give yourself a little bit of a run-up to it. It's not a bad idea.Charles  Coyle: Well, that's true, actually. You know what? I'll say that from now on, that we had the genius to open in the winter. We're open 15 years now, and we have grown from very small, humble aspirations of maybe getting 150,000 people a year to we welcomed 810,000 last year. And we'll probably be in and around the same this year as well.  Paul Marden: Wowzers, that is really impressive. So we are here on the floor. We've already heard some really interesting talks. We've been talking about AI in the most recent one. What can we expect to happen for you in the season coming in?Charles  Coyle: Well, we are hopefully going to be integrating a lot of AI. There's possibly putting in a new booking system and things like that. A lot of that will have AI dynamic pricing, which has got a bad rap recently, but it has been done for years and years in hotels.Paul Marden: Human nature, if you ask people, should I be punished for travelling during the summer holidays and visiting in a park? No, that sounds terrible. Should I be rewarded for visiting during a quiet period? Oh, yes! Yes, I should definitely. It's all about perspective, isn't it? Very much so. And it is how much you don't want to price gouge people. You've got to be really careful. But I do think dynamic pricing has its place.Charles  Coyle: Oh, absolutely. I mean, a perfect example of it is right now, our top price is not going to go any higher, but it'll just be our lower price will be there more constantly, you know, and we'll... Be encouraging people to come in on the Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as you said, rewarding people for coming in at times in which we're not that busy and they're probably going to have a better day as a result.Susanne Reid: Hi, Suzanne Reid here. I'm the CEO at Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin. What are you here to get out of the conference? First and foremost, the conference is a great opportunity every year to... catch up with people that you may only see once a year from all corners of the country and it's also an opportunity to find out what's new and trending within tourism. We've just come from a really energising session on AI and also a very thought-provoking session on crisis management and the dangers of solar panels.Paul Marden: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, the story of We the Curious is definitely an interesting one. So we've just come off the back of the summer season. So how was that for you?Susanne Reid:Summer season started slower than we would have liked this year in 2025, but the two big American football matches were very strong for us in Dublin. Dublin had a reasonable season, I would say, and we're very pleased so far on the 13th of the month at how October is playing out. So hoping for a very strong finish to the year. So coming up to Christmas at Christchurch, we'll have a number of cathedral events. So typically our carol concerts, they tend to sell out throughout the season. Then we have our normal pattern of services and things as well.Paul Marden: I think it's really important, isn't it? You have to think back to this being a place of worship. Yes, it is a visitor attraction. Yes, that's an aside, isn't it? And the reason it is a place of worship.Susanne Reid: I think that's obviously back to what our earlier speaker was talking about today. That's our charitable purpose, the promotion of religion, Christianity. However, you know, Christchurch is one of the most visited attractions in the city.Susanne Reid: Primarily, people do come because it will be there a thousand years in 2028. So there is, you know, the stones speak really. And, you know, one of the sessions I've really benefited from this morning was around accessible tourism. And certainly that's a journey we're on at the cathedral because, you know, a medieval building never designed for access, really. Paul Marden: No, not hugely. Susanne Reid: Not at all. So that's part of our programming and our thinking and our commitment to the city and to those that come to it from our local communities. But also from further afield, that they can come and enjoy the splendour of this sacred space.Paul Marden: I've been thinking long and hard, and been interviewing people, especially people like We The Curious, where they're coming into their 25th anniversary. They were a Millennium Project. I hadn't even thought about interviewing an attraction that was a thousand years old. A genuine millennium project.Susanne Reid: Yeah, so we're working towards that, Paul. And, you know, obviously there's a committee in-house thinking of how we might celebrate that. One of the things that, you know, I know others may have seen elsewhere, but... We've commissioned a Lego builder to build a Lego model of the cathedral. There will obviously be some beautiful music commissioned to surround the celebration of a thousand years of Christchurch at the heart of the city. There'll be a conference. We're also commissioning a new audio tour called the ACE Tour, Adults, Children and Everyone, which will read the cathedral for people who have no sense of what they're looking at when they maybe see a baptismal font, for example. You know, we're really excited about this and we're hoping the city will be celebratory mood with us in 2028.Paul Marden: Well, maybe you can bring me back and I'll come and do an episode and focus on your thousand year anniversary.Susanne Reid: You'd be so welcome.Paul Marden: Oh, wonderful. Thank you, Suzanne.Paul Marden: I am back on the floor. We have wrapped up day one. And I am here with Ray Dempsey from Jameson Distillery. Ray, what's it been like today?Ray  Dempsey: Paul, it's been a great day. I have to say, I always loved the AVEA conference. It brings in such great insights into our industry and into our sector. And it's hosted here in Waterford, a city that I'm a native of. And, you know, seeing it through the eyes of a tourist is just amazing, actually, because normally I fly through here. And I don't have the chance to kind of stop and think, but the overall development of Waterford and the presentation from the Waterford County Council was really, really good. It's fantastic. They have a plan. A plan that really is driving tourism. Waterford, as a tourist destination, whereas before, you passed through Waterford. It was Waterford Crystal's stop and that was it. But they have put so much into the restoration of buildings, the introduction of lovely artisan products, very complimentary to people coming to here, whether it is for a day, a weekend, or a week. Fantastic.Paul Marden: What is it? We're in the middle of October and it's a bit grey and drizzly out there. But let's be fair, the town has been packed. The town has been packed.With coaches outside, so my hotel this morning full of tourists.Ray  Dempsey: Amazing, yeah it's a great hub, a great hub, and they've done so much with the city to enable that, and you see, as you pass down the keys, you know that new bridge there to enable extra traffic coming straight into the heart of the city, it's fantastic. We're all learning from it, and hopefully, bring it all back to our own hometowns.Paul Marden: I think it's been really interesting. We were talking earlier on, before I got the microphone out, saying how it's been a real mixed bag this year across the island of Ireland, hasn't it? So some people really, really busy, some people rubbish year.Ray  Dempsey: Yeah, I mean, I feel privileged the fact that, you know, we haven't seen that in Dublin. So, you know, there's a it's been a very strong year, a little bit after a little bit of a bumpy start in January, February. But, like, for the rest of the year onwards, it's been fantastic. It's been back to back festivals and lots of things, lots of reasons why people come to Dublin. And, of course, with the introduction of the NFL. That's new to us this year. And hopefully, we'll see it for a number of years to come. But they're great builders for organic growth for our visitor numbers. So I'm happy to say that I'm seeing a growth in both revenue and in visitor numbers in the Jameson Distillery. So I'm happy to see that. Now, naturally, I'm going to have to work harder to make sure it happens next year and the year after. But I'm happy to say that the tourism product in Dublin has definitely improved. And Dublin-based visitor attractions are doing well. Paul Marden: Exciting plans for summer 26? Ray  Dempsey: Yes, every year is exciting, Paul. And every year brings a challenge and everything else. But I'm delighted to say that our focus for 2026 really is on building inclusion. So we're looking at language tours.Ray  Dempsey: We're looking at tours for... you know, margins in society. And I think it's a really interesting way for us to be able to embrace accessibility to our story. And also, we have increased our experience repertoire to engage more high-end experiences, not private experiences. More demand for those. Okay. So we're delighted to say that we have the product in order to be able to do that. So that's exciting for us, you know, to be building into 2026. Great. Paul Marden: Thank you so much for joining us. I am the only thing standing in the way of you and a drink at the cocktail reception later on. So I think we should call it quits. Ray  Dempsey: And for sure. Paul Marden: If you enjoyed today's episode, then please like and comment in your podcast app. It really does help others to find us. Today's episode was written by me, Paul Marden, with help from Emily Burrows from Plaster. It was edited by Steve Folland and produced by Wenalyn Dionaldo. See you next week. The 2025 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsTake the Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

Celebrate the vibrant culture of Ireland with us on the Michelson Travel Podcast as we journey through this enchanting land with Diana from Celtic Tours Vacations. Get ready to immerse yourself in the magic of St. Patrick's Day like never before! Discover the unique charm of small group travel as Diana shares her expertise on creating memorable experiences for travelers. With a capped group size of just 32, this intimate tour kicks off in the lively city of Dublin, where you'll enjoy the St. Patrick's Day parade, visit the iconic Man O' War pub, and explore the city's rich history at your own pace. As the adventure unfolds, we'll traverse from Dublin to Waterford, uncovering Viking roots and indulging in the world-famous craftsmanship of Waterford Crystal with some retail therapy in Kilkenny along the way.Our conversation with Diana also uncovers some must-see attractions and hidden gems throughout Ireland. Whether you're pouring your own pint at the Guinness Storehouse or soaking up the breathtaking vistas of the Dingle Peninsula, there's something for everyone in this episode. Diana offers insights into Ireland's delectable cuisine and erases the stereotype of the meat-and-potatoes diet, introducing us to fresh fish and chips from Dingle. For those planning an Irish getaway, she'll guide you through the flexible travel packages offered by Celtic Tours, from self-drive adventures to private chauffeur-driven journeys, making it easy for solo travelers and family groups alike. Book early to secure your spot on these exclusive tours and come discover why Ireland is an ideal destination for travelers of all ages.

Criostal na Rinne is a hand cut crystal studio workshop situated in Ireland's Ancient East in the picturesque Irish-speaking area of An Rinn, the Waterford Gaeltacht. Eamonn Terry, a master craftsman glass cutter of over 50 years experience, started his career with Waterford Crystal before establishing Criostal na Rinne in 1987, producing Irish crystal of incredible quality and beauty. We Are Makers Insta: @weare_makers Website: @www.wearemakers.shop Eamonn Terry (Criostal na Rinne) Insta: @criostalnarinne Website: https://criostal.com _________________________________________________________________________ Recorded on: Nomono Insta: @nomonosound Website: https://nomono.co/WAM

Come along on a 10-day self-drive itinerary across Ireland!  Wellness travel expert and travel agent, Barbara Tuckett devised this itinerary for a couple seeking a blend of iconic sights and unique experiences. In this episode she'll go through the highlights step by step. The itinerary begins in Dublin, offering a mix of old-world charm, modern comforts, and a diverse culinary adventure. Key highlights include the Dublin Castle, a food tour, scenic drives through Wicklow mountains to Waterford, home to the famed Waterford Crystal. The journey continues with explorations in Kilkenny and Killarney, embracing Ireland's rich history and natural beauty, notably the Ring of Kerry and Cliffs of Moher. The trip winds down through Galway, with a luxurious stay at the Ashford Castle, packed with indulgent activities and a special afternoon tea treat, before concluding back in Dublin. This trip through Ireland allows for a flexible pace in order to fully connect with Ireland's culture, landscapes, and people.Ready to book your trip through Ireland? Contact Suite Dreams Travel. As your wellness travel experts, we take care of all of the planning, research, and arrangements, so that you can focus on the important part: creating memories and changing your life, one travel experience at a time. Website: www.suitedreamstravel.net  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suitedreamstravel  Twitter: https://twitter.com/suitedreamstrav  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suitedreamstravel  Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/suitedreamstravel You're invited to sail with Barbara and French Chef Romina Rasmussen! Join us for "Impressions of the Seine & Paris" on board the beautiful AmaDante from Ama Waterways.October 19-26, 2024Discover popular sites and hidden gems of Paris and French towns along the Seine River. You'll visit the inspirational sites of famous Impressionist painters. Meander through the renowned gardens of Monet's home and gardens in Giverny. Indulge in Norman chocolate, cheese and cider and enhance your best self on guided bike tours through charming cities like Vernon. Visit the sobering and impressive sites from D-Day and the Normandy Beaches. This Seine river itinerary includes Giverny, Caudebec En Ceaux, the beaches at Normandy, and of course, Paris! Plus, you'll be cruising with chef Romina Rasmussen, former owner of Les Madeleines in Salt Lake City, Utah, who will give demos on board. She and Barbara are also planning on pre and post-excursion options.Learn more at: https://barbara6469.wixsite.com/rivercruise

Jane Pauley hosts our annual "Money Issue." In our cover story, Lee Cowan looks at how books, films and music falling out of copyright into the public domain are inspiring new works. Also: Mo Rocca talks with Jerry Seinfeld about his new film, "Unfrosted," a not-very-true origin story of Kellogg's Pop-Tarts; David Pogue finds out why Arkansas residents are complaining about the noise from bitcoin mines; Ben Tracy looks at the problems of recycling plastic; Martha Teichner examines how Houston is successfully reducing homelessness; Conor Knighton visits the Waterford Crystal factory, while Kelefa Sanneh checks out running shoe company New Balance; Robert Costa sits down with FTC chair Lina Khan; Tracy Smith talks with Hollywood psychic Tyler Henry; and Lilia Luciano visits flower growers in Colombia.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Next to Waterford Crystal, The Daughter-in-Law Rules may be the best wedding gift you can give!"Tim Bete, author of Guide to Pirate ParentingDo you dread visits with your mother-in-law? Do you find yourself dodging ruthless comments hurled your way at every possible moment? Is battling your mother-in-law a simple fact of life, or is there another way to mitigate the age old conflict between mother and wife? In her hilarious new book The Daughter-in-Law Rules author Sally Shields lays out simple and witty strategies to aid wives of all ages in the difficult art of mastering the mother-in-law. With her 101 rules to manage your mother-in-law she scrutinizes every element of MIL relations; from the decorum of housekeeping to the delicate world of child rearing. The Daughter-in-Law Rules provides a revolutionary set of strategies, making copasetic coexistence possible at last! MUST READ: DAUGHTER-N-LAW RULES - SALLY SHIELDS

Hear about a week-long road trip from Dublin to Cork through southeastern Ireland as the Amateur Traveler talks to Amber Hagerty from AmberEverywhere.com about this out-of-the-way corner of Ireland. https://amateurtraveler.com/dublin-to-cork-road-trip-in-southeastern-ireland/ Day 1: Dublin to Wicklow Morning: Arrive in Dublin and explore the city. Visit Bar 1661 for the best Irish coffee and Trinity College to admire the campus. Afternoon: Indulge in some delicious ice cream at Murphy's on Wicklow Street in Temple Bar. Evening: Rent a car and drive south to Bray. Enjoy a stroll along the promenade, have dinner at a local restaurant like Daata, and consider doing the cliff walk to Greystones for breathtaking views. Day 2: Exploring Wicklow Morning: Visit Enniskerry, a charming town with a picturesque setting used to film "Disenchanted". Midday: Explore Powerscourt Estate and Gardens, known for its stunning landscapes and themed gardens. Afternoon: Drive to Glendalough and embark on the Spinc Trail for a scenic hike with panoramic views. Evening: Consider staying overnight in Glendalough, perhaps trying out glamping for a unique experience. Day 3: Road Trip to Wexford Morning: Drive through the Wicklow Gap for breathtaking views of the Wicklow Mountains. Midday: Make a stop in Wicklow Town to visit the historic jail and explore the seaside harbor. Afternoon: Enjoy brunch at LoCo Grocer in Arklow and relax on Brittas Bay Beach. Evening: Arrive in Wexford City and consider attending a performance at the National Opera House. Day 4: Salty Islands and Waterford Morning: Take a ferry to the Salty Islands (book far in advance) for a unique birdwatching experience, especially to see puffins. Midday: Return to Kilmore Quay and indulge in a sauna experience at Salty Sauna. Afternoon: Drive to Waterford City and visit the House of Waterford Crystal for a tour and souvenir shopping. Evening: Dine at a local restaurant like the Seagull Bakery for delicious sourdough bread and pastries. Day 5: Exploring Tramore Morning: Start your day with a stroll through the charming seaside town of Tramore. Enjoy the picturesque hilly streets and take in the coastal atmosphere. Mid-morning: Head down to the seafront and take a leisurely walk along the boardwalk, perfect for families with kids. Explore the expansive sandy beach, keeping in mind that it may be covered by the tide at certain times. Afternoon: Visit the Japanese Gardens dedicated to Lafcadio Hearn, an Irish travel writer with a fascinating connection to Tramore. Learn about his life and legacy while enjoying the serene beauty of the gardens. Late Afternoon/Evening: Spend the rest of the day soaking in the laid-back atmosphere of this charming coastal town. Day 6: Outdoor Adventures in Waterford Morning: Embark on the Waterford Greenway, a scenic route along a converted train line. Choose to walk or cycle along this picturesque path, taking in views of aqueducts, lush greenery, and charming tunnels. Afternoon: Explore the stunning hike to Coumshingaun Lough. Enjoy breathtaking views of the lake and surrounding cliffs, but exercise caution if the weather is foggy. Opt for the shorter hike to the lake if visibility is poor. Late Afternoon/Evening: Return to Tramore or continue exploring the Waterford area at your leisure. Consider dining at a local restaurant or relaxing at your accommodation after a day of outdoor adventures. Day 7: Discovering the Copper Coast Morning: Drive along the scenic Copper Coast, a UNESCO Geopark known for its geological and cultural significance. Stop at Bunmahon Beach to enjoy the sandy shores and explore the dunes. Midday: Continue southward to discover the secluded Tra na mBó Beach, hidden among the cliffs. Spend some peaceful moments soaking in the natural beauty of this hidden gem. Afternoon: Explore the charming town of Dungarvan, known for its vibrant atmosphere and delicious churros. Consider starting your journey back towards Cork, taking in the scenic views along the way. Evening: Arrive in Cork and settle into your accommodation. Consider dining at a local restaurant or enjoying a relaxing evening in the city. Day 8: Exploring Cork City and Surroundings Morning: Visit Cobh, a picturesque town just outside of Cork, known for its colorful houses and historic landmarks such as St. Colman's Cathedral and Spike Island. Mid-morning: Embark on the Ballycotton Cliff Walk for stunning coastal views and invigorating sea air. Enjoy a leisurely stroll along the cliffs, taking in the natural beauty of the coastline. Afternoon: Explore Blarney Castle and its beautiful gardens, and consider kissing the Blarney Stone for the gift of eloquence. Take your time to explore the castle grounds and enjoy the surrounding scenery. Late Afternoon/Evening: Return to Cork City and visit Elizabeth Fort for panoramic views of the city and the River Lee. Enjoy a pint of Guinness or a cup of tea at a local pub, such as O'Sho, and savor the relaxed atmosphere. Night: Consider ending your trip with a visit to the Shelbourne Bar in the Victorian quarter for a taste of Whiskey. Reflect on your journey through southeastern Ireland and savor the memories made along the way.

A chat with Sean Egan, master engraver, formerly an engraver for Waterford Crystal. Meet Sean at the Bishops Palace, one of the Waterford Treasures museums in the city's Viking Quarter. Sean Egan Art Glass website Waterford to Cork Today has been really low key. We had a relaxing morning at Faithlegg then rambled our way […] The post Waterford Art Glass | Traveling in Ireland Podcast Episode 170 appeared first on Ireland Family Vacations.

So what is ME, you may ask? Read on. Our guest this episode is James Davis who lives North of ME in Washington State. He began life in the Midwest and lived there until he and his mother moved to Colorado to get Mom out of an abusive relationship.   James tells us how he went to college where he majored in history, a subject he hated in high school. It's interesting how often our perspectives change and in James' case, History became quite interesting for him. He then went into teaching, but as he puts it to us, he began experiencing “brain fog” and eventually had to cease teaching as a career.   It took years for him to learn what was happening to him. By the time he learned that he had a disease called ME, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis he had decided to commit suicide. He couldn't kill himself, however, without first talking about his decision with his wife. She convinced him not to leave the Earth quite yet and, eventually, he discovered what was going on with him. Our episode with James concludes with some great life observations from him such as not letting severe depression overwhelm you.   James had many times in his life where he could have just given up and bowed out. He did not. Unstoppable? Yes. James is easy to listen to and his stories are engaging. I hope you enjoy what he has to say including how he now serves on the board of ME International, an accessiBe customer.     About the Guest:   I was born in the Midwest and spent a majority of my youth moving around Illinois and Missouri. I spent some time in California and Colorado as well. I grew up in an ultra-conservative environment, but that never set well with me because I was always curious and wanting to know more. Asking the why of something was discouraged. I spent most of my youth exploring woods and creeks around places we lived. Those are my fondest memories of my youth. My earliest memory is with my dad. It was at night and we were parked next to a beach. My dad carried me down these large rocks with a flashlight. He was whispering to me, but I don't really remember what he was saying, only that he was excited. When we reached the sandy bottom, he shined his light under the rocks where I was amazed to see these little crabs scurrying about.  He reached under there and pulled one out. It was clearly agitated looking for something to latch onto with its claw. I loved seeing this tiny creature for the first time. My dad snatched me up into his other arm and climbed back up the rocks to our car. He sat me down and whispered, “Watch this” and proceeded to make my mother and sister scream in horror as he dangled the crab toward them. We laughed heartily at their expense. Not sure why that memory stuck with me, but it has definitely influenced my sense of humor.   My father was murdered when I was 16. My mother went from one abusive husband to another. One of them was a mean alcoholic and tried to stab me one day over some drunken delusion. After a brief altercation where I defended myself with a greasy cast iron skillet, I decided I had more than enough. I packed a duffle bag and hitched a ride to the nearest town where I spent some time couch surfing and being homeless. I was 16 years old when I left home. I went through a rather destructive phase and abused drugs and alcohol for some time and barely showed up for school. This went on for about a year before my mother found me and asked me to move to Colorado with her. She was trying to get away from her abusive husband, but she wouldn't leave without me, so I moved to Colorado with her and my siblings. I am not entirely certain what it was about the change of environments, but being in the mountains was a life affirming moment that had a profound impression on me. I stopped my delinquency and enrolled in an at-risk school where I finished my high school diploma. Many years later I would come back to teach there. I spent a lot of time biking, backpacking and fishing. I loved to fly fish but I was never especially good at it. I used to scout trails for overnight hikes for the Boy Scouts up in the mountains. I hiked the Grand Canyon, which was both amazing and grueling. I was not well prepared for the extremes. At the top of the South Rim it snowed 4 inches my first night there. I had foolishly decided to not bring a tent and sleep under the stars to save weight in my pack. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. After a hike to the bottom of the canyon, I was pleasantly surprised to find a balmy 70 degrees. It had been several days since I had a shower, so the first thing I wanted to do is wash myself. I made a foolish error of leaving my pack at my campsite while washing up along the river only to return and find a wild turkey had consumed an entire bag of granola leaving me short on food for my trip out. It was not a fun hike out. The last mile was excruciating and I was practically crawling. I heard it was called the wall by marathon runners where you have exhausted all of your energy reserves. This same feeling of exhaustion would revisit me years later, but not from over exertion or a turkey stealing my food. After I graduated from high school, I did end up going to college. I was the first in my family to attend college and I loved academics. If I hadn't become ill, I imagine I would probably still be taking classes to this day. My first school was South Western Illinois. I was an honor student, president of the Poetry club and editor of the school magazine. I started my first non-profit with some college friends called The River Foundation. Our thinking was we wanted a venue for novice writers to hone their skills to hopefully someday become professional writers. It was a lot of fun and work, but it fell apart when my college partners decided to go overseas for school or run off and get married. I completed an Associate of arts degree from here and then later moved to Colorado and attended Mesa University for my History degree with a teaching certificate. I was in the honors program here as well and on the editing staff of the literary magazine. This is where I developed a love of Bronze Age Cultures and did my honor's thesis on gender representation in Minoan art and iconography. After college, I was all set to teach high school until I became seriously ill. There were days I was so exhausted I could not lift myself out of bed. I had no idea what was wrong with me and neither did my doctors. At first, they thought I had AIDS, which was really scary. They tested me 3 times over the course of a year, but it was always negative. All my tests where fairly normal with some results just outside normal ranges. Nobody had any idea so I went through a period where new drugs where being thrown at me, some only exacerbating my illness. I remember taking Lyrica for the chronic pain. It helped at first, but over time made me have violent episodes. I am one of those types of people who love their dogs like their own children, so when I felt an urge to strike my dog, I knew something serious was wrong. Needless to say, I was weened quickly off that medicine. I can't remember all the drugs I was given in those years but they were numerous. I think in total, 8 anti-depressants were tried on me all of them made me feel worse. One, made me so agoraphobic, I couldn't leave my house. This dart board medical approach went on for several years being shuffled between specialists without ever having any answers. I was unable to work due to the horrible brain fog and memory problems, chronic pain, sleepless nights and a whole host of persistent symptoms. You can't really teach history if you can't remember the names of the historical figures. Hell, I often forgot the names of close family members. I remember thinking I had to have some horrible disease that was going to kill me any day. Between the unknowing, the chronic pain, the loss of my cognitive function, which was something I deemed very important to me, I just became overwhelmed and decided to end my life. I made a plan that I could carry out unassisted, but before I would execute my plan, I knew I had to make my wife understand my decision. She was such a sweet person and definitely would have blamed herself. I knew I couldn't do that to her. I thought because she saw my daily struggle, she would be sympathetic. Boy was I wrong. After a long conversation and some tearful chastisement, we came to the agreement that I would not give up until all avenues were exhausted to find some answers to this illness. It took several more years before I was finally diagnosed and it happened by pure accident. Because I was unable to work, I decided I needed something constructive to do with my time and was looking into ways of making money. I felt an enormous amount of guilt for not being able to contribute financially. While I was unable to do anything remotely physical, I had a pretty solid background with computers. I had worked several years as a webmaster in the mid 90s. So I started scouring the internet for ideas and ended up reading about a writer in the UK that was making a living writing. In his blog, he was discussing his illness and how it prevented him from working which led him to become a writer. As I read his description of his illness, I was floored that his symptoms were nearly identical to my own. I brought this to the attention of my physician who sent me to some specialists in Denver for a battery of tests and I was finally given a name to what had been plaquing me for years; Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. It was such a weird combination of emotions as I was elated to have a name to put to this horrible thing, but dismayed that little was known and there was no known cure or treatment. At the very least, I thought it would alleviate some of the shame people were making me feel because, if medicine recognized it, so should they. Things improved somewhat after getting a diagnosis. At least some of my symptoms were being treated and I learned how to cope better. I began writing in earnest and finished 2 fantasy books of a trilogy. Guardians of the Grove, and Daughter of the Forest. It was nice to feel accomplishment again despite the daily struggle to get by. I had trouble performing tasks for my basic necessities, but my wife was very supportive and did a lot to help me on a daily basis. I don't think I could have survived without her help. It certainly wasn't the life I envisioned for myself, but there was enough quality in it to keep me moving forward. Several years after my ME diagnosis, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was only 47 at the time. It really felt like I was cursed at this point. Between ME and the cancer, I was an emotional wreck. These two illnesses robbed me of my ability to become the person I was raised to be. I was raised in that traditional Midwest home where the “man” was to be the breadwinner and work hard for his family, the protector, and all that John Wayne sort of mentality. I didn't talk about my pain, my illness, the struggles I had, all of it was endured silently. My wife of course knew, she was there and could see it first hand, but that wasn't true for everyone else. When I was able to be around family and friends, I was always at my best, because that is the only time I was capable of leaving our home. When I was asked how I was feeling, it was always met with a smile and some pleasantry. This is how I was raised. You simply didn't burden others with your personal tribulations and as a man I wasn't allowed to show weakness. I remember when I was seven years old, I cut open my hand and had to get seven stitches. I was rewarded with money afterwards because I “took it like a man” and didn't cry.   Now, I have cancer and faced with some tough decisions. Unbeknownst to me, my wife's family began to openly question our relationship as I was a drain on their daughter. Now, these people are not mean spirited or malicious, they had genuine concern for the welfare of their daughter, sibling, niece etc. I can't fault them for their concern. It's not like I hadn't raised the same questions with myself. I often thought my wife deserved more than I could offer. My wife however, wasn't responsive to this, but she also has severe co-dependency with her family. She wants to make sure they are happy with her and approve of her. The enormous amount of pressure they put on her, eventually wore her down and they talked her into leaving me and file for divorce. This was happening while I was in the hospital undergoing surgery to save my life. To them, I simply wasn't living up to my duty as a man in our society.   I often wondered if I hadn't clung to those same beliefs, and spoke up about the numerous problems I was going through if it would have made a difference in their minds. I of course have no way of answering that question, but I have become a little more open about discussing my illness. I am not very good at it, but I do endeavor to be honest about my ailment. The expectation that as a man of my generation, I am to suffer in silence and manage to be a provider and protector no matter the personal cost is an unrealistic view. When I was going to college, I tended bar at a local pub. It was mostly retired factory workers who spent their whole lives being providers. Every last one of them were miserable wrecks drinking the days among strangers waiting to die. It was a sad realization and when I became ill, I realized I was trying to be one of them. It's a hard thing to come to terms with when you realize much of what you've been taught is a fallacy. Once I was able to find Facebook forums discussing ME, I almost never saw men among the posters. We were silent visitors lurking among the group trying to find some glimmer of hope for treatment options. It is a difficult struggle for many men to overcome our socialization and reach out for help. It is somewhat opposite for women, who are often deemed to have mental issues. That they are somehow fragile, emotional, and susceptible to delusions. These biases have kept thousands of suffering patients from getting proper care. But this is often the case for many diseases. It wasn't that different for patients in the early days of Multiple Sclerosis or even AIDS. Social biases caused many to suffer unfairly. This is why I joined ME International so I could help educate people with the science and numerous studies concerning ME in hope that we could get beyond the bias and move our understanding of ME forward. My philosophy in life is rather simple. I don't fight the current to be in a place I think I am supposed to be, but rather look for happiness where life takes me. So, once everything settled down from my cancer, I ended up packing up and moving to live in the Pacific Northwest. It has awoken that same sensation I felt when I first moved to Colorado. It's a place where I can feel alive even with this disease. Getting outdoors more often and implementing new diet regimens has increased my ability to function. I am nowhere near the days of backpacking 20 miles over mountainous terrain, but I can manage some short trips if I plan them well and allow recovery time. I often overdo things and end up on my back for days or weeks, but I am living life. When I built my first home, I put a stained-glass kit in the window of my front door that read, “May you live all the days of your life”. That is what I do. I have taken up photography to share all this beauty surrounding me. Every year I make a Calendar of my traveling pictures and give them to loved ones for Christmas. I am able to work a part time job because they allow me to work when I am capable. It feels nice to earn something even if a small amount. I volunteer on the board of ME International to give back to other ME patients and I stay far away from any family stress. I wake up and have my antioxidant shake and listen to some meditation and be thankful for the life I live. While it isn't the life I thought I was going to be living, I have found a place where some happiness can exist, and that is enough.         About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:20 Hi, there, and thanks for joining us once again on unstoppable mindset. I'm your host, Mike Hingson. And I wish you a pleasant day, wherever you happen to be. Today, we get to talk with James Davis. And he has got a great story to tell a challenging story at times. But I think a very inspirational story. He has been through a lot. He's helped a lot of people. And I met him through accessiBe. In fact, he has been working with our nonprofit partner, Sheldon Lewis, who we got to interview on the podcast, gosh, a long time ago now. And so Sheldon suggested that we should chat we have and James agreed to come on the podcast. So James, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   James Davis  02:09 Thank you glad to be here.   Michael Hingson  02:11 Well, we're really pleased and honored that you were able to join us. So tell us a little bit about you growing up, I love to start that way and just kind of let people talk about their, their world growing up. And I know you had a pretty big challenge. So I'll leave it to you.   James Davis  02:26 Well, I was born in East St. Louis, and I grew up in our area around St. Louis most of my life and some of the Midwest boy and moved around a lot didn't stay in any particular place for any length of time. And yeah, it's a mom went through several marriages. And so you know, I had some challenges with that. And yeah,   Michael Hingson  02:56 what what year were you born?   James Davis  02:58 66.   Michael Hingson  03:00 Okay, well, I beat you by a few years. I was born in Chicago in 1950. So, Midwest also, I moved to California when I was five. But my wife constantly told me no matter what, you weren't here for your first five years, so you're not a native.   James Davis  03:18 I did live in California for a couple years when I was apparently from about 18 months old to about two and a half, three years old. Something like that. My mom said in Santa Barbara. Oh,   Michael Hingson  03:30 well, that's a great place to live. Yeah. And   James Davis  03:33 it's actually my earliest memory because I remember my dad pulling alongside this rocky area next to a beach. And he wanted to show me so she grabbed a flashlight, it was getting dark. And we went down to the beach and he looked underneath these rocks and pulled out a little crab. And which I thought was just great, you know? And suddenly he said watch this. And he carried me back up to the car and proceeded to scare my mother and my older sister half to death with this crab and that's my earliest memory in life. And it's probably also where I get my honor a sense of humor as well.   Michael Hingson  04:16 Well, no, no one recency humor isn't isn't is the big problem. But that was kind of cruel to do but what happened to the crab?   James Davis  04:26 He put it back and then we'll Okay. Remember, it was just a little rock crab or something? Yeah.   Michael Hingson  04:32 Yeah. Well, you So you moved around a fair amount, obviously and so on. And eventually you? You went high school and went to college and all that.   James Davis  04:42 Yes. So I Well, my dad died when I was 16. He was killed in a bar. And then so for about a year or so there I was in just self destruct mode and dropped Go to school. And then my mom got with a guy that was an alcoholic. So I ended up leaving home. And I think I was about 16. When that happened, almost 17. So kind of lived on the streets for a while. And then my mom came to me and said, you know, let's move to Colorado because he was wanting to get away from this guy. And so I agreed, and yeah, and that's that moved sort of changed my life at that point. And I got back into school and finished high school and went on to college.   Michael Hingson  05:36 What did you major in?   James Davis  05:40 I ended up majoring in history, which is a little ironic because I hated history in high school. But what I realized was what I hated about history in high school was It was always my football coaches that were teaching the history and they didn't care much about history, there was no passion. They were all about the football. And so yeah, so when I got to college, you know, the professor's you know, they were passionate about it. And I realized what a fascinating topic it was in. Yeah, so I just fell in love with history.   Michael Hingson  06:17 You just made me think of the fact that a couple of days ago, we interviewed musician Kenny Aronoff and Kenny was and is a drummer, and grew up not really excited about rock, playing in classical orchestras and so on, and then decided he didn't really like classical nearly as much as rock and more modern music. And, and so he, he switched and has been extremely successful. But I hear what you're saying, you know, sometimes our attitudes changed in one way or another. So you like history today?   James Davis  06:53 Well, yeah, love history. Favorite is Bronze Age. So ancient history.   Michael Hingson  06:59 Now, why do you like the Bronze Age?   James Davis  07:03 You know, it's, it's one civilization was really sort of coming into its own, you know. And, and I find that very fascinating. It was a big melting pot, especially in the Mediterranean region. And so what really got me into it was how religion, how they adopted each other's deities and to each other's regions, and it just sort of CO opted them. And it's just a very fascinating development to me, you know, how that came about?   Michael Hingson  07:38 Then Christianity came along and sort of messed up the whole deity thing a little bit.   James Davis  07:45 Yeah, a monkey wrench in there, for sure. Well, you   Michael Hingson  07:47 know, on the other hand, we do progress. And there's value in doing that, and growing and recognizing, hopefully, what God's about. But that's, that's, of course, another whole story. So what did you do after college?   James Davis  08:02 So I did start teaching history at some high schools out there. In Colorado, I was living in Colorado at the time. And because of what happened in my youth, I was really wanting to go to these at risk youth centers, you know, like Job Corps, and there was a place called our five where I also graduated from, and I started working there with them as well. And so yeah, that's what I just started teaching. I just loved it.   Michael Hingson  08:40 Yeah. It's, it's extremely rewarding. And I've always been of the opinion that teachers never get paid or rewarded nearly enough for the work that they do. So I have a secondary teaching credential, but jobs took me in other directions. So I haven't taught professionally as it were. But I think that, you know, in a lot of ways I've always been teaching, so I appreciate what you're saying. So how long did you teach? Or do you still   James Davis  09:11 know I forced retirement so to speak, in 2009, I was having I had been having for several years, some problems, some health problems, and I wasn't sure what was going on. And it really sort of came to head around 2009 And I just the brain fog that I was experienced was so severe, that I really could have I was struggling to keep dates and times names in my head. And so it wasn't good for me to be a teacher in my mind because I wasn't able to present the material properly to the students. At least that's what I was thinking in my head and then it's probably true so so I just quit and and then I You know, I struggled for a couple years and depression and all of that trying to figure out I thought I was dying. I mean, I, I was so sick that, you know, I couldn't even get out of bed some days. And I've never knew any sort of illness that would do this. And doctors have no idea I go to them every few months trying to figure this out. And there was nothing. So yeah, so I just put me into a really deep depression.   Michael Hingson  10:27 What happened? Well,   James Davis  10:31 you know, I was the biggest part of my depression was twofold, one, chronic pain. And the chronic illness itself was very hard to deal with on a daily basis. And then the other thing was, is not been able to contribute to our household, a wife, and, you know, the kids that kids are old enough to move out at that point, but I was, just wasn't in a good place. And I just couldn't see a path forward. And plus, you know, think that I want to die anytime anyway, because I was so sick, that I decided to take on myself to do it myself. So I made a plan. And I was going to, just in the suffering of all this and let my wife move on. And, but I knew I couldn't do it without talking that over with her first because she is such a sensitive person that she would have thought that it was her fault that I did this. And I just couldn't do that to her. So I sat her down, I thought she would be sympathetic, cuz she knew how sick I was. She wasn't very sympathetic. She was actually quite mad at me. And so anyway, we talked and she made me promise not to do anything until we exhausted all of the medical avenues that we could. And so that started me on another journey of trying to figure out what was wrong with me. And   Michael Hingson  12:01 that sounds like it took a while to really figure out.   James Davis  12:06 Yeah, I wasn't diagnosed until 2013. And it didn't happen by accident. I was trying to figure out what I could do to bring some income into our house. Because I knew I couldn't do anything physical. But you know, I had some pretty good computer skills. And you know, I had my education. So I was like, just scouring the internet trying to find something I could do, you know, as I'm able to do it. And I ran across this blog from a young man in Great Britain, or the UK. And as I was reading it, he was talking about how he had become a writer because of his illness. And I thought this is promising. And then he started going through all the problems that he was suffering. And I was just going down and reading this, every single one of the things that he was talking about that he had, I had except for like, one out of like, 15 symptoms. And I was like, wow, that can't be a coincidence. So it took that information, you know, and he said he had me and I took all this to my doctor. And I said, What do you think, is like, I don't know, I have never heard of it. So he sent me to Denver University Hospital, and I went over there. And they did a battery of tests and sent me back and said, I had my LG conceptual immediate mellitus. And that that was the turning point for me, I guess.   Michael Hingson  13:38 So what is me?   James Davis  13:39 Good question. You know, they don't know for sure. I mean, there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that they know about it, but they don't know the actual costs for certain. In my case, it's believed that it was from the Epstein Barr Virus that triggered a post viral thing which happens to a lot of people, some people's, it's one of the herpes simplex viruses, and but it seems to be a post viral illness. not that different from long COVID symptoms are very similar. You know, they've also, with all this research they've been doing, they've just also discovered that Epstein Barr Virus is also associated with multiple sclerosis. And there might be a connection with that disease as well, which has a similar set of symptoms. So to me, and you know, this is just my personal view. It seems to be some sort of post viral illness. And if it's not treated early, caught early and treated early. I don't haven't heard of anybody actually recovering from it. If they hadn't caught it early, but you know, it causes severe fatigue with it. hauled penny or Pam, sometimes it's a post exhaustion, malaise or post exhaust. So I'm horrible with these acronyms. Yeah. It's an exhaustion from anything. It doesn't have to be physical, it could be stress causes exhaustion. And that's one of the key things, chronic pain, muscle pain, joint pain causes a problems with the endocrine system. So our immune system slightly off, T cells don't function quite well. The mitochondria does it produce the right energy, that's one of the big things that they're trying to figure out. So there's a lot of little things and it's just basically a complete system. Everything in your system is off, not by a whole lot, the buy enough to make everything feel horrible.   Michael Hingson  15:56 So once they diagnosed that in you, what were they able to do? Or what were you able to do about it?   James Davis  16:04 So there is no treatment, per se, there's, there's so there's no cure, there's, there's not a whole lot they can do except treat symptoms. So, you know, I was put on some pain pills for the chronic pain, and, you know, and then I started, I developed diabetes in that process, because, you know, my endocrine system was stressed. And so, you know, treated me for that. So they just treat you for the symptoms that you have. And then, but then I started doing my own research. And because you know, my doctor, he admitted he knew nothing about the disease, but he was willing to try anything. So I do I appreciated that. And so I got on the internet started searching and, and I bumped into some forums on Facebook that had information. So what I started to do was some anti antioxidants. So I do a morning antioxidant shake, you know, with my green tea, and some Reishi Mushrooms and stuff and, and I put all that together. And that's how I start my day is trying to get the anti inflammatories into my body. So that's been a big help and make sure the other biggest thing that is getting rest, because sleep deprivation can be a really serious problem for people with me. So those two things really changed the quality of my life.   Michael Hingson  17:33 So I assume you still though do experience chronic pain and so on? Or are you able to deal with most of it?   James Davis  17:43 Yeah, the chronic pain thing has been troublesome because of the opioids Of course. So I've been taking them in for shoot 12 years or more, and actually more 14 years. So at one point, when I went to my doctor, I said, you know, he kept bumping up my dosage, and I was at 10 milligrams. And so you know, it's, it's, I don't want to keep going down that path because that the efficacy is going to fade. And I don't want to keep taking more of this medicine. So he sent me to a neurologist. And the neurologist started me on three different pain pills that I would rotate every three weeks. So it was the Vikatan equivalent oxy, and I forget what the third one was. And so I was doing that I did that for a very brief time, I realized that I was getting dependent on it in a way that was very unhealthy. And so I took myself off of it. And from that point on I realized I had to manage it myself. So what I've learned over the years so I don't end up getting an addiction problem is I just take the minimal amount that I need just to get through the really rough patches. So I only take all my pain gets above a five and in no other time I never take it more than two or three days at a time. So so I've had to manage that aspect of it quite a bit.   Michael Hingson  19:19 Have you have you found any kind of natural remedies or not necessarily Western medicine kinds of things that help or have you looked into any of that?   James Davis  19:30 I have you know, I took I've tried marijuana both ingestion and smoking and it just wasn't effective for me and a lot of people it does help but for me it didn't you know it it was made me sleepy. So it just made me non functional. And you know, they tried me on some stuff like Lyrica and Gabapentin which Aren't opioid based but the Lyrica ended up making me horribly violent. It's just the weirdest thing because I'm a very passive kind of person. And, and I remember the day I sort of just had this epiphany of what was going on, as I was sitting there watching some television, I had this large dog who was, you know, tall, about 90 pounds and, and whenever he wanted to go to the bathroom, he would block up and lay his head on my lap. And when he did that, I just had this urge to strike at him. And I love my pet, I would never hit my pet. And that freaked me out. And I realized that it was the medicine, so I had to get off of that, and it was helping some. And so that was a benefit. But the side effects were just too much. Trying to take some of the other stuff I've tried. Magnesium helps a lot with with my cramping, muscle cramps, and some of the muscle pain. So I do some magnesium. But I can't take any of the B vitamins, I have this weird thing that when I take certain vitamins, it causes a really bad brain fog to occur. And I'm not sure why that's not that common. It's just something weird with me, I guess. So I've been very limited by try stuff all the time, I've got a whole cabinet over there of supplements and stuff that I try.   Michael Hingson  21:29 Well, but through all of it, you, you obviously didn't go off and execute the plan that you are going to execute. And I bet your wife is pretty happy about that.   James Davis  21:40 Yes, yes, you know, we ended up moving out to the Pacific Northwest, we live in Washington now. And that has been a bit of a game changer for me, it's I feel revitalized. It's new area. It's beautiful here that the country is just gorgeous. And so whenever I'm able, we take these little trips, you know, an hour here a couple hours here and just check out new parks and whatever, you know, beaches and all these beautiful locations. And that led me getting back into photography, I was in photography, when I was really young, I lived with a photographer for a while. And so I got back into photography and, and having that creative outlet has been wonderful, especially for countering depression. Because along with the depression from this illness, you know, I was, for my entire life, I've had seasonal affective disorder. So in the wintertime, it gets really brutal for me. And that photography, and those creative outlets I've found, and some, you know, some lights, some of those daylight stuff, I use all of those techniques. And that keeps me in a better place.   Michael Hingson  22:58 So are you are you still married? Is all that working out? Or?   James Davis  23:03 Yeah, I still still with my wife, and it's great. Yeah, she's a manager at apartment complex. And they've allowed me to work part time, you know, 1015 hours a week, just doing some maintenance stuff, like I take care of their security cameras for more computer tech stuff. And so yes, I'm able to contribute a little something to, to our little home here.   Michael Hingson  23:31 Well, you know, the, the thing that comes to mind is clearly in some senses, you're different, right? You have what people would classify, and I assume that you would, would also agree it's classified as a disability. And as I tell people disability does not mean lack of ability. It's a characteristic. And I've made the case on this podcast many times that not one single person on this planet is without a disability. The problem for most people is their light dependent and you don't do well when it gets dark. Some of us don't have that problem. But you know, you you are different. How does that affect both how you look at yourself or how people treat you what kind of biases and stuff do you encounter because you do have chronic pain and, and the things that you have?   James Davis  24:27 You know, I think the most difficult part of having m e is people only see you when you're when you have the energy and ability to get out and about. So they're only seeing you at your very best. They don't see you. When you come home and you're in bed for three days afterwards, right there. They don't experience that part of your life. So there's this tendency of people believing that there's nothing wrong with you. And I know when me first started Being diagnosed. More broadly, it was mostly women, I think somewhere around 70% or more people diagnosed with the illness is women. And so there was a tendency to treat woman women as that it was all in her head, you know, we have this, especially, you know, 40 years ago is, is very prevalent in the medical community, if they couldn't diagnose something that it had to be mental mental issue. That's what that's been a huge problem there. And then for me, I know, the men that have me, I just recently, like, a year or two ago, joined a men's forum on Facebook. And it really hit home how isolated men become, because, you know, especially men of my age, you know, we're taught that you're supposed to be the provider for your family, you know, and you have to be the protector and all of these things, you have that social construct, and you can't live up to that having me it's just impossible. And that, I think that shame that I felt over that was the worst emotional aspect of this disease is this shame that I felt. And then you know, of course, everybody's not being very sympathetic towards you, because they're only seeing at your best. So, you know, it's just just a bad place to be. So I've learned to not be so silent about it being more open about my illness. Because of that people understand that. Yeah, I am sick, and there's nothing I can do about it.   Michael Hingson  26:45 And you learned not to be so hard on yourself. Yes, yes. It's really part of the issue.   James Davis  26:53 It is definitely in ours. I was brought up watching John Wayne movies, and that's the kind of man I was supposed to be, you know, you get a job at the steel mill, you know, and you raise a family go to church on Sundays, and that's your life. And I was just too curious. And yeah, it just wasn't the thing for me. So.   Michael Hingson  27:19 So you, you deal with it?   James Davis  27:21 Yeah, yeah, you just you find a path forward and then move along.   Michael Hingson  27:25 And it is about learning. And it's always about education. And a lot of times when we find that we're not feeling very positive. If we don't grow, and we don't learn, we never figure out ways to deal with it. And that sends us down a spiral that isn't good, either.   James Davis  27:44 Yes. Well,   Michael Hingson  27:46 so you talked about photography. So do you do photography now professionally, or anything like that? Or what do you do in that regard?   James Davis  27:55 Yeah, I do it in the classification that they call an enthusiast. So I don't typically make money on it. But I do have some decent equipment. That $5,000 of photography equipment that professionals I mean, the guys that do this professionally, they have 50 100 grand in equipment, it's really expensive way out of my budget. It's taken me five years to build up what I've got. So yeah, I do that. And the nice thing that I do with that is because when we have family and friends that come out and visit us, you know, I take visit, I take pictures of their visit and all the places that we go to, and then for Christmas, every year, we make these little books through Shutterfly, you know, I just create these books and send it to them as a Christmas present to thank them as more of a thank you for their visit, and little memory. And then I also do calendars that we send all of our, our families, my wife's family, my family, so do you ever   Michael Hingson  28:58 sell any of it? Or is it all just basically for fun and to help you and reward you?   James Davis  29:06 It's been more as a fun thing to do. And, and for me, you know, it's personal enjoyment and that creative outlet. But, you know, I have several family members saying that I should try to make money at it. And I guess I want to look into it. I just haven't at this point because it's just, it's just been, you know, it's something I enjoy doing. It's like, if you enjoy walking on the beach, you don't just walk on the beach. So I joined started registered photography, right. So   Michael Hingson  29:38 similar interests that you mentioned a little bit about the fact that you like to write and so on, tell me more about that if you would.   James Davis  29:46 So, in college, I started writing in b&n poetry clubs, and ended up on literary magazines of both college So I want to. And so that really sort of stir my desire to write, you can't really make money at poetry. Do be honest, I'm not that great at poetry. I just love doing it as a personal exercise expungement motions and that sort of thing. But I ended up trying my hand at writing novels, and I did have written two novels to date. And I'm currently working on the third of a trilogy. So, and my favorite genre has always been, I think one of my first books that I ever read was The Hobbit. I love fantasy genres. So. So I wrote some fantasy books. But thing that I did differently was I used my history background, especially with my love of Minoan culture, as part of my world build worldbuilding. So I have these these matriarchal cultures in my book that that, that i is the focus of the book. And so it's yeah, it's, it's, that's been really fun and rewarding.   Michael Hingson  31:11 Have you so you publish them? I assume? Did you do it yourself? Or do you have a publisher   James Davis  31:16 self published? Just, yeah, I don't really promote myself, have a really hard time promoting myself on anything. I'm just not a salesperson at all.   Michael Hingson  31:27 Well, you know, what, if people liked the books, there's probably some value in it. Are you selling some, you know,   James Davis  31:34 a get these little trickle sales. So I get, you know, like, one, two, probably, maybe 10 or 12 books sell a year, something like that, you know, not a lot, but just kind of trickles in? Well, everybody has reviewed it and loved it. So   Michael Hingson  31:52 well, there's a message there somewhere, I would think,   James Davis  31:55 yeah, yeah, I think they're good books. Well,   Michael Hingson  31:58 and obviously, if you've had good reviews, somebody else does. So maybe, maybe you'll get some visibility because of our podcasts, because we certainly will be glad to feature the book covers and so on as part of what we do, which is, which is, which is great. Love to do that. So when will your next one be finished?   James Davis  32:20 You know, so hard, because the brain fog that I get from the enemy is very prohibitive to writing creatively. So, you know, and so I can't say for sure, you know, I was hoping to actually have it done last year. So, you know, it'd be nice if I could have it done by next summer, but there's no guarantee of that.   Michael Hingson  32:43 When was your first one published?   James Davis  32:46 My first one was published in 2014. I think then my second one I published in 2017. So it's taken me about four years to write a book. So I'm a little overdue for my third book.   Michael Hingson  33:00 There you go. What was the name of the first one?   James Davis  33:03 Guardians of the grove? The boatman Chronicles,   Michael Hingson  33:07 Guardians of the Grove, gr O. V. Okay. And what was the second one?   James Davis  33:12 Daughter of the forest?   Michael Hingson  33:15 Okay. And the third one, we'll have to wait till it comes out.   James Davis  33:19 Yeah, I haven't got a name for that yet. Because currently to see how the story unfolds?   Michael Hingson  33:25 Well, that's actually an interesting topic. Because a lot of times I find in talking to writers, especially when they're dealing with fiction, sometimes you never know where the book is gonna take you the characters take over. And it becomes a, perhaps a whole different thing than what you originally thought, but at the same time, it becomes a better thing than maybe what you thought.   James Davis  33:48 Yeah. I mean, I had my core characters, my first thing I did was I sat down with my core characters, like four main characters, and I, and I mapped them out what kind of personality they were going to have. And then the next thing I did was kind of build by my mythos of the of the world. So what was the religions? What's the politics and all of this? So when I was done with a world building, that's when I started writing. And you do realize that the structure that you gave that character in the beginning really dictates if you're doing it organically, at least really dictates how they progress in the story. And things that you thought were going to work actually don't work and you got to shift gears, and that I didn't mind that it's actually been kind of a rewarding thing to experience X. I didn't know that was and I'm not sure if all writers experienced that. But that's certainly been the case for me.   Michael Hingson  34:48 Well, and you know, it's, it's fun. I have not written fiction. I've written two books so far. And we just submitted a draft of a third one But it's been nonfiction I haven't figured out how to do for me fiction yet, and I had just haven't come up with it. So maybe one of these days that will happen, because I think there's, I love fiction because in reality fiction a lot of times is really an author speaking to us about their ideas and their attitudes and so on. And they use a fictional setting, but the reality is, it still is something that can teach us a whole lot.   James Davis  35:30 Yeah, yeah, I think if you got strong characters, that's definitely the case. One of the things that really sort of had this character who was a mother, who, whose husband gets killed early on, and, and I wasn't gonna plan on doing a therapy, it was just more of a catalyst for my book. But, you know, the feedback that I get got from that first book, everybody loves her character. So I had to rewrite her to continue her story arc through the whole series, because she was so loved so well. So those things happen as well.   Michael Hingson  36:05 Again, a message, isn't it? Which is, which is cool. Well, I know I'm excited to hear about the new one when it comes and I will have to go hunt down the the first two. You've published them as Kindle books, have you created audio versions, by any chance?   James Davis  36:21 There's an audio version of the first book. I was haven't got an audio version of the second book. I was going to use the same woman that did the first book, but I have lost the ability to get in touch with her. So I've got to find somebody to do that part for me to door.   Michael Hingson  36:40 So is that first one on Audible? Yes, it is. Okay, great. Well, that's, I will go hunted down. Yeah. And I hope that you're able to, to get the second one done in an audio format as well, that will be fun. You don't want to leave people hanging, you know?   James Davis  37:00 Yeah, no, that's everything I read. They said, You know, if you're doing a trilogy, like I'm doing, you don't really have good sales until you finished it, because nobody wants to start a series and ended up like, you know, like George Martin right now, where everybody has been waiting for, you know, over a decade for the book, you know, it's so good. So hopefully, I'll get them all out and get them all in audio here soon.   Michael Hingson  37:24 Yeah. Well, George Martin had several books out. And of course, he also was fortunate to have a TV series come out of it, too.   James Davis  37:32 Oh, yeah. He's amazing. Writer. So lots of respect there.   Michael Hingson  37:36 Yeah. So I love people with imaginations. I, I've been a Harry Potter fan. And I would love to see JK Rowling do something to continue that although I don't know that she will. But you know, the original seven books. And then there was a play, which I think wasn't really as imaginative as the the first seven. Of course, she's also written under another name to publish some detective stories. And she's clearly a good writer.   James Davis  38:05 Yeah, yeah. She's got an amazing story. Yeah, I love her work.   Michael Hingson  38:10 Yeah. And she's very creative. And she does good mysteries. So when I can't figure out a mystery, and we get to the end, and I really didn't figure it out. I love that.   James Davis  38:22 Yeah, that's hard to do these days.   Michael Hingson  38:25 It is. A lot of times, I'm able to figure it out before the end, when you're dealing with a mystery, but a good mystery is a puzzle. And yeah, maybe you can figure it out. So I in some, I enjoy figuring out because it really tests my brain, but then the ones where I don't figure it out. I can't say that I can complain about that. Because obviously, they did a good job. As long as when I go back and look at it afterward, I can see that the clues were really there to get it. Right. I just didn't, you know, they they hidden and didn't, I won't say hid them. But they put them in so well that you don't necessarily see it, which is   James Davis  39:05 subtle. What I really irritates me about other authors is when they take a character and they to advance the plot, they make the character do something that's out of character. Yeah. Without a catalyst. Right. You know, when somebody's a very passive person, and, you know, something tragic happens and they they become more aggressive, right? That's fine. But if nothing happens, they just all of a sudden become aggressive, then there's no reason for that. Except you're trying to make the plot move your characters follow the plot instead of your characters driving the plot. Are you Yeah.   Michael Hingson  39:45 Are you trying to do it to sell? Yeah, and do you think you got to do that and good character analysis and good character development? I would, I would think, tell you not to just go off and change a character unless you Something as you said, as a catalyst that makes it happen.   James Davis  40:03 Yeah. The other thing that seems to be very big these days is love triangles. And I really get annoyed with those. Yeah, some of them are done really well, and I enjoy them. But most of their doubt are gag. They just seem to be forced. And it's just trying to create drama where it doesn't need to be. Oh, whether   Michael Hingson  40:20 I would call it a love triangle. Have you ever read any of the Stephanie Plum series Janet Ivanovic?   James Davis  40:26 I have not.   Michael Hingson  40:28 Stephanie Plum is a well she became a bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey. They're funny mysteries. They're really clever. And she has a guy that she's involved with. But then she's also working with another almost superhero type bounty hunter Ranger who likes her as well. It's not really a love triangle, but it's really fun to to watch the byplay between all of these three of them. And there have now been 29 Stephanie Plum books and they're absolutely hilarious. So if you want an escape, you should go read Stephanie Plum the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Ivana, which they're really fun. It's definitely plum. That's her character. The first book is called one for the money. And the second is to for the dough. And it goes from there. They're they're really funny. And she's kept it very well.   James Davis  41:26 Yeah, one of my first humorous books that I've read was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Yes. An old college buddy turned me on to that. And yeah, that was just hilarious. I just love the irreverent humor.   Michael Hingson  41:39 Do not abuse a mouse   James Davis  41:44 that never ever read. Island. Oh, yes, Robert. Yeah, I don't think he would go over today very well. I mean, his stuff was pretty, pretty cutting edge for the time.   Michael Hingson  41:55 My favorite science fiction books still is the Moon is a Harsh Mistress by him. I think it's the most imaginative book he wrote. I like it better than Stranger in a Strange Land. It's always been my favorite book since I first read it soon after it came out. And I didn't even realize at the time, all about it. But I've read it a lot. And I absolutely enjoy it. It's one of my favorite books. Well, it's my favorite books, my favorite science fiction book.   James Davis  42:24 I always enjoy the fact cow in some of his books. He liked to kill off all the lawyers in the revolutions that he had always found that a little amusing.   Michael Hingson  42:35 Well, you know what the problem is, they keep coming back. It's cool. Well, so. So what do you do today, with your life and all that.   James Davis  42:50 Just basically, the photography, the little bit of work I do around here around the apartment complex. And, you know, we like to travel when I'm able, you know, that's the big thing. We've got a big map, down in the entryway into our apartment, and it's got all these little pins in it from all the different places we visited in Washington and Oregon. And so filling that map in has been my major endeavor these days.   Michael Hingson  43:20 What's the favorite place that you visited here or elsewhere in the world?   James Davis  43:24 My favorite place in the whole world was probably new cranes in Ireland. That was phenomenal. That was really, really the main house. Oh. So it's a it's a giant tomb was dome shaped tomb. And you get this really narrow entrance into it into this big rock chamber. So you get these huge monolithic rocks that have drawings on them and stuff and work your way in the inside, there's like these three separate chambers. And, of course, we don't really know exactly what the culture what all this meant culturally to the time because you know, we're talking 1000s of years ago. And, but it's perfectly aligned with the winter solstice. So the light on the shortest day of the year, shines directly into the back of the tomb, and reflects into those three little chambers in there. And going in there, and just sort of seeing all that in realizing that people from the Stone Age built this huge, huge structure. And it was just amazing. You know, it was It predates the pyramids, so.   Michael Hingson  44:39 So have you ever happened to be there on December 21?   James Davis  44:42 No, I guess it's very, very difficult to get to get a place in there on that date, because it's very tiny to get in. Probably 20 People at the most could fit in there.   Michael Hingson  44:55 Well, of course one has to ask since you've been to Ireland and so on, did you kiss The Blarney Stone.   James Davis  45:01 I went to the Blarney Stone, but I'm such a germaphobe there was no way I was guessing.   Michael Hingson  45:06 I hear you I had been to Ireland. I did not kiss the Blarney Stone either. Nope, not gonna do that too. Too risky. I understand you have to be somewhat of a contortionist to do it anyway.   James Davis  45:17 Yeah. Can't have to lean down and stick your head into a hole or something.   Michael Hingson  45:24 I don't need that. That's okay. No, I think they're, they're more important things to do. I loved Ireland. I very much enjoyed our two weeks there. I was there. Oh, gosh, it's been since 2003. I was there to do some speaking for Irish guide dogs. And that's the same year I was there. It was very enjoyable time. I loved it. And had had haggis pie while I was in Ireland. And enjoyed it. But I liked Ireland.   James Davis  45:56 We were planning our because I had been with my now wife for about five years, already six years maybe. And her family really wanted some sort of traditional structure in our lives as like, okay, let's just go get married. But I don't want to have to deal with inviting family. So we decided to have a trip to Ireland get married in Ireland and do a honeymoon in Ireland. But you can't do that in Ireland. Because you got to be living in the county for 30 days prior to getting married. It's part of their laws. And so then I called England, you know, the England section of UK and I said, Can we do that? They're like, No, there was like 20 days there. So then I called Scotland and called the town in Inverness, Scotland. They were like, yeah, just come on over just have two witnesses get married same day, didn't have any problems with it. So that's what happens. We flew in to Manchester, did a beeline to Scotland got married and then took a cut went over to Belfast and did our two weeks in Ireland.   Michael Hingson  47:08 We, I did a number of speeches over there, we actually had some interactions with Waterford I have a statue of it's actually a double statue was supposed to be a person and a dog but they only had dogs at the time. But I have this this whole very sophisticated platform that has two dogs facing each other. And then literally in print and in Braille it says as one Mike and Roselle, who, of course, was always the dog who was with me in the World Trade Center. And it's nice Waterford Crystal thing, which is really pretty cool. Wow, that is nice. Now that Irish guide dogs people were very kind about that and in all in setting that up. So it was wonderful to do that. I've not been to Scotland and I've not been to England, but I have been Ireland so but I've been to New Zealand. I love New Zealand.   James Davis  48:02 You know, we we thought about taking a trip to New Zealand. But after taking the trip to the UK, I realized that long plane flights do not agree with me for you know, like that was really kind of Miami was just starting to come on. So I wasn't really bad yet. But I was bi that was really rough on my body. So I haven't been on flights yet.   Michael Hingson  48:30 Now I understand that you work with an organization me International?   James Davis  48:34 Yes. When I one of the forums that I got hooked up with on the internet was me International, and a few others, a men's forum and in the advocacy is one of them. So anyway, so I got hooked up with them and and talking to one of the ladies on there, and she was helping me out with some vitamin supplements and whatnot. Colleen and yeah, and one thing led to another and they're like, well, you should join the board if you want. And so I joined the board and became a board member, probably eight months ago or something like that now.   Michael Hingson  49:11 So So what do you do with them now.   James Davis  49:14 So a sitting member of the board, and probably in January, there's going to be new officer positions, I'll probably fill in the role of the vice president that time. And then the other thing that I do form is maintain their website. I just recently did an upgrade to the website and updated it.   Michael Hingson  49:38 And that, of course is how you got connected with accessibe as I understand it.   James Davis  49:43 Yes. So we knew we wanted to have an app on there that helps people navigate the site because you know, one of the things with me people is they tend to be very sensitive to bright colors. And so we were looking at how to manage that. I mean the site it's selfies very pale. You know, it's very subtle colors. But everybody's a little bit different. So we wanted to have an application that would handle that. And one of our board members from Australia, she recommended that I looked into accessiBe being called accessibe. And they turned me on to talking to Sheldon. And yeah, and that turned out to be a great conversation. And we had been going with accessibe ever since cars have been working out. Good so far. I mean, everybody's been very happy with the site. Very happy with the accessibe program. Yeah, no complaints. It's all been positive so far.   Michael Hingson  50:45 Have you? Well, do you put videos and other things like that on the website?   James Davis  50:52 There are a few videos. They're more just information. More than just visual, right? It's just more of there are a few of them more about the history of the disease and how it's progressed over the years that our understanding of the disease?   Michael Hingson  51:12 Have you looked into working with accessibe to address the issue of either having audio descriptions of the video parts that aren't necessarily discussed about or for deaf and hard of hearing people anything regarding closed captioning or captioning of the the word so that people who can't hear it can also then at least read the text?   James Davis  51:37 You know, I don't? I haven't personally, but maybe Colleen or David might have done it because David's been talking to Sheldon too. But no, I have not. And they're the ones that put the video together. So I'm not really sure if that's in the progress or not definitely worth   James Davis  51:55 Me international.org Yes, yeah.   Michael Hingson  51:55 looking at, because accessibe has a whole department and a whole group of people under what you would find on the accessibe website called Access flow, that can help with the things that the artificial intelligent widget itself doesn't do. So it would be good to really try to be inclusive with that stuff is if the opportunity is there. I don't know anything about how all that works, in terms of costs for a nonprofit. And you know, you bring up a good point that me international isn't me international.org?   Michael Hingson  52:32 So the the cost for using accessibe isn't there. And I don't know how it works for the access flow stuff. But it would be worth exploring that to be sure to get the other inclusive parts up to make the website fully available.   James Davis  52:49 Yeah, one of the things that we're working with right now is trying to get the different apps to make sure they're friendly with one another. Also, because we're International, trying to get the website translated. So we got a translation app. And it's not been as friendly as accessibe's, trying to get all that stuff worked out at the moment. But you know, it's, it's having me, I can't devote 40 hours a week to this, I have to do it all for five hours here and there. And you know, whenever I can, so   Michael Hingson  53:17 yeah, well, I, you know, I suggest you explore that with Sheldon let him do some of the heavy lifting to help but he can get you in touch with the right people to explore that. But the whole idea is to make the website inclusive and nowadays is becoming more of a relevant thing to try to make websites work for everyone. And of course, for for us who happen to have a disability as we know, even the CDC says 25% of all Americans have some sort of disability. S

This podcast relates to a recording compiled with Paddy Hayes who recalled initially his climb to the top of the Ford factory in Cork before having to close the factory on 13th July 1980. He was then headhunted by Waterford Crystal, became Chairman of the company and again finding himself in a situation where, in April 1989, he had to leave because of reported accounting errors. The factory closed in January 2009. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marianna Dooley is an experienced marketing professional who has built a successful career in marketing and brand management. Her experience lies within fast moving consumer goods, working with brands such as Waterford Crystal and Premier Foods. She thrived on the pace, challenge, relationship building, and international travel in an ever changing exciting career.In 2009, Marianna took a 13 year career break to raise her young family and relocated many times during this period to support her husband's specialist medical career – 20 times in as many years to London, Ireland and Australia.As an expat in a new country, Marianna shares the challenges of uprooting her life, often with very little notice, and trying to build a new life in a new country with 3 young children in tow. She talks of how her professional skills came into play in helping her to manage these moves – research, planning, project managing and networking – and how reaching out to others in her new destination helped her to learn from their lived experience and smoothed the transition.Once back home in Dublin and ready to resume her professional career, Marianna proactively reached out to people she'd been in touch with before her career break and took steps to get professionally and personally ready for her return. On a professional level she upskilled, and on a personal level she got fit and healthy, helping to ensure her return to work would be sustainable. “I do feel a big part is not just being professionally ready. I think that part is actually not as important as being personally ready and in the head space to really assess why it is you want to work and what it is you're looking to get from work”Marianna found success through the Deloitte Ireland Returnship Programme. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3v9INYzFollow for free on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30rZZL6For advice, support, opportunities, and connection, see our Women Returners website: https://bit.ly/3eAhKQH

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://thecitylife.org/2022/12/27/gift-of-love-revealed-as-the-2023-waterford-crystal-times-square-new-years-eve-ball-theme/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/citylifeorg/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/citylifeorg/support

On this weeks The Last Drop, JB & Khody kick off the month of December with Armagnac/Cognac month. JB opens up with opening The Rare Armagnac Collection 1990 while talking about his new Waterford Crystal glasses. Then he opens a bottle of The Rare Armagnac Collection 1984. Then we wrap up things reacting to the Nas & 21 Savage track along with Khody taking a first listen to The Island Boys. As always, sit back, turn your headphones up, don't stop, keep pouring & your balls will thank us.  https://www.manscaped.com/ #Sponsored #Ad

Please join us in welcoming Crystal Gayle to our studio to chat with Heart of Indie Radio Host Captain Eddie & Co-Host- Emme Lentino Grammy Awards: Best Country Vocal Performance Female: 1978 “Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” Recorded a song on 3 Grammy winning children's albums: Best Children's Recording: 1981 – “Sesame Country” with various Artists Best Children's Recording: 1982 – “In Harmony 2” with various Artists Best Children's Recording: 2006 – “Songs from the Neighborhood - the Music of Mr. Rogers" with various Artists Grammy Nominations: Best Country Vocal Performance Female: 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987 Best Country Gospel Album: 1996 “Someday” Country Music Association Awards: CMA Awards: Female Vocalist of the Year: 1977 Female Vocalist of the Year: 1978 CMA Nominations: Female Vocalist of the Year: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 Entertainer of the Year: 1978 and 1979 Vocal Duo of the Year: 1983 with Eddie Rabbit, 1986 & 1987 with Gary Morris Academy of Country Music Awards: ACM Awards: Most Promising Female Vocalist: 1975 Female Vocalist of the Year: 1976 Female Vocalist of the Year: 1977 Female Vocalist of the Year: 1979 Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award - 2015 American Music Awards: AMA Awards: Favorite Country Female Artist: 1979 Favorite Country Female Artist: 1980 Favorite Country Female Artist: 1986 Favorite Country Female Video Artist: 1986 AMA Nominations: Favorite Country Female Artist: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1986 Favorite Country Single: 1981 “If You Ever Change Your Mind” Favorite Country Album: 1980 “Miss the Mississippi” American Eagle Awards AEA Awards: Lifetime Achievement Award (2017) Music City News Most Promising Female Artist of the Year (1975) - Crystal's first award! People Magazine The 50 Most Beautiful People In The World - Ranked #2 (1983) Radio & Records Most Performed Country Female Artist of the Decade on Radio (1975-1985) Nashville Symphony Received the Harmony Award for exemplifying the harmonious spirit of Nashville's musical community (1987) Celebration of Light Award Awarded by Waterford Crystal in recognition of Crystal's efforts on behalf of the American Lung Association (1988) Cherokee Medal Of Honor Awarded in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (2000) Native American Music Association Hall of Fame Inducted in 2001 Indiana Historical Society Indiana Living Legend Award (2005) American Entertainment Magazine Best Female Entertainer (2007) Kentucky Music Hall of Fame Inducted in 2008 Hollywood Walk of Fame 2,390th Star awarded on October 2, 2009 - located on the west side of the 1500 block of Vine Street Grand Ole Opry Induction Crystal was inducted at the Ryman by her sister Loretta Lynn on January 21, 2017 Lefthanders International Awarded Lefthander of the Year - Music (1985, 1988)

OPÉ has had a love for fashion ever since she was a child. She has been drawing clothes since she could hold a pencil.Born in St. Louis, MO. to Nigerian parents, Opé was able to see Nigeria for the first time as a teenager attending high school there. Living through huge cultural changes at the time, it tempered the way she sees a colorful world around her.Opé worked for Betsey Johnson for several years after leaving Howard University and fell into assisting stylists who would pull clothes for the local TV shows in the Washington, DC area. She later had an epiphany that she enjoyed doing this and worked as a stylist assistant for a year and a half after her discovery. Years later, she blossomed into freelance fashion styling.Notable Magazine clients like Italian Vogue Curvy, Elle, Zink, People and Blink.Welcome to Culture Factor Ope!Your work is so dynamic, from magazine covers to fashion styling direction with Waterford Crystal, Philip Lim, Tahari, Moncler, Vera Wang, Antik Batik, and Mimi Plange.We need to dish a bit why I reached out besides metaverse, Mimi Plange!!How would you define your style?Fashion Design and Styling in Web 2, what are you immersed in?Fashion Design and Styling in Web 3 ( how is it different)Metaverse building, what platforms are you buying parcels in and setting up e-commerce ?Do you have to use an oculus to work and play in Decentraland?Wearables, what are you working on and what programs do you use to create them as NFTS?3D printed items, can you use the jpeg to have jewelry or accessories recreated as NFTS or do you need different software to convert them to something else that effectively allows for adding it to clothing or digital representations of people in the Metaverse?Can you use a 3D scanner on actual jewelry or accessories to create the right file type to make into NFT for Wearables?What is your dream project?What is Ope style Lab and where do you see it in 5 years?Want to listen to the episode with Mimi Plange? Opé worked with her and so did I! https://culturefactor.simplecast.com/episodes/mimi-plange-her-unfashion-brand-partners-with-lebron-james-and-nikeOpé on InstagramOpé on TwitterOpé WebsiteHolly Shannon's WebsiteZero To Podcast on AmazonHolly Shannon, LinkedinHolly Shannon, InstagramHolly Shannon, ClubhouseCatch another episode with Dominic Andre and Kiara Aguillon, Episode 92:https://culturefactor.simplecast.com/episodes/kiara-aguillon-and-dominic-andre-tiktok-influence-tech-mental-health-and-nftshttps://youtu.be/C2jyJZhZNc8#Enterprise #socialmedia #community #oneofone #marketing #Bitcoin #Crypto #tech #Coach #nft #Podcast #equity #forthepeople #Ethereum #token #mentor #network #metaverse #blockchain #web3 #Dress #learning #create #fashion #avatar #wearables #fashionstyling #Horizons #VR #Stylist #DAO #VirtualReality #Decentraland #GravitySketch #Cryptovoxels #Infiniverse

We go to philosophical and thoughtful places in Episode 5 of Looking Outside with strategist Philip Ryan, Partner and Head of Innovation & Futures at Ipsos Strategy3. Today we're looking outside perspectives. Philip shares how his curious mind explores varied and broad topics, which allows him to pull in vast perspectives, that lead directly to more robust strategic thinking. Jo and Philip also discuss the benefit of pushing yourself into uncomfortable spaces and places in challenging your own personal status quo. Whether it's exploring new cultures, learning about how big ideas shape what we think today, or questioning your own preconceptions with new nuggets of thought provoking knowledge. Yup, it can even be as simple as sitting down and having a conversation with someone who has a vastly different life journey to yours. Fascinated with how big ideas were framed in the past, shape our present, and can influence our future, Philip also speaks on the history of ideas. -- To look beyond the familiar, Philip, unsurprisingly, has a broad range of sources to recommend: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Cvsbcjhtur7nplC148TWy (The Rest is History podcast), https://waitbutwhy.com/ (https://waitbutwhy.com) a blog breaking down surprising factors of big ideas, https://nowiknow.com/ (https://nowiknow.com) a daily newsletters educating on something new, https://nextdraft.com/ (https://nextdraft.com) a newsletter of fascinating news from Dave Pell, 'the editor of the internet', and Warren Berge's book https://www.amazon.com/More-Beautiful-Question-Inquiry-Breakthrough/dp/1632861054/ref=asc_df_1632861054/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312025907421&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10549091598708259971&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9003566&hvtargid=pla-504424109927&psc=1 (A More Beautiful Question). Philip's personal go to is also to literally go outside (a popular choice, I also highly recommend it). -- Philip Ryan is a Partner in Ipsos Strategy3, Ipsos' marketing strategy consultancy, where he leads the innovation and futures advisory business, supporting brands as as they look to envision and create the future. He brings two decades of expertise in both industry and consulting, having been an SVP at Citi and an executive at Accenture. Philip has also worked in Marketing Strategy at LG Electronics and within the Customer Care group at Waterford Crystal. His clients include American Express, The Coca-Cola Company, P&G, Cigna, Conagra, Delta, HP, Mars, Mastercard, Honda and Hilton.​ Philip holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in European Studies from Trinity College Dublin. He grew up primarily in Ireland and currently lives in Brooklyn, but bounced around, living in various cities in Europe, Asia and the US.               Connect with Philip https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipjryan/ (on Linkedin) or learn more about Ipsos Strategy3 https://www.ipsosstrategy3.com/ (https://www.ipsosstrategy3.com) -- Welcome to Looking Outside, a new podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. With each episode we'll hear from some of the most influential and original thinkers. The show is hosted by Joanna Lepore. Jo has been marketing and innovating inside of the consumer goods space for over a decade. Previously a marketer in Australia she recently moved to the United States to head up strategic foresight for Mars Wrigley North America. Jo follows her curiosity, seeking out fresh perspectives by looking outside her market, industry and field of knowledge. Starting 2022 she's taking some of her friends alongside some of the most inspiring industry leaders to explore more of this in the Looking Outside podcast. Find out more about Jo & Looking Outside at http://www.looking-outside.com/ (www.looking-outside.com). Connect...

Brian and "Ed" discuss the NFL playoffs, Joe Rogan, Waterford Crystal, Hall of famer (?) David Ortiz, Joey Bada$$, a girl named IKEA, Sean Penn and more.*a comedy podcast about sports, pop culture, movies and dicks*Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-baller-lifestyle-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Every December 31st, as the clock counts down to midnight, upwards of two million people pack into New York City's Times Square, huddling together in the cold eagerly awaiting the 60-second drop of the Waterford Crystal ball atop One Times Square. For the millions of us either too smart or too far away to join the festivities in NYC, most still participate in yet another New Year's Eve tradition; the making of a list of New Year's resolutions. This is a time-honored tradition that invites each of us into a fresh start; an unblemished 12 months/52 weeks/365 days/8,765 hours/525,948 minutes/31,556,926 seconds where we can renew broken commitments, dust off unrealized projects, set fresh goals, and dream new dreams. Each new year calls us to reflect on the previous year's journey while also providing us an opportunity to look ahead and chart our course forward. So every new year shortly after (or maybe even before), the crystal ball counts down to a new year. May I challenge you to carve out time for a checkup, an intentional time of reflection on your past year, and charting of what's to come? Let's count it down…

We have arrived in Ireland! Join us as we get accustomed to driving on the "wrong" side of the road...while lacking sleep from our flight from New York. We visit our first castle, get addicted to all things Cadbury, learn about Waterford Crystal, and start checking things off of our Ireland wish list! Key Takeaways: 1. Always order hot chocolate...and don't forget the Bailey's! 2. In three days, you will finally be comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road! 3. Make a wish list...and be flexible with what you are able to fit in! Remember to enjoy every moment! Off Your Beaten Path is a weekly travel podcast about trading in your daily grind for a life worth living! Take a new path each week as your hosts Nicole and George inspire you to live bold and explore outside the lines. Take that trip, work with purpose, and live a life less ordinary by getting Off Your Beaten Path. Please feel free to leave us a comment or question below! Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe to the Podcast on your favorite streaming service: Spotify, Apple, Google Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram. Buy us a dessert! Please, share with your friends! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/offyourbeatenpath/support

Canyon home is a podcast for anyone looking to learn more about Home, Food, Life & Style.We are back & so excited to share Season 2 with everyone. In this Season 2 premiere episode, we have a fabulous conversation with Lady Mary Beth an amazing expert on all things thrifting, collecting, and table setting.  After starting her career with Waterford Crystal she went on to learn all things china patterns and pottery. You can find Lady Mary Beth on YouTube, Instagram & Facebook.We are also excited to answer your questions on our Canyon Home Hotline! You can call 312-465-HOME (312-465-4663) and leave us a question to answer on the podcast relating to Home Food Life & Style.If you like what you hear please share our little podcast with your friends and family, rate, review, and subscribe.You may also like Season 1:Spring Cleaning Feel Better At Home Kristen From Big Flower Fight on Netflix I Don't Have It All Together Make Your Home Work For YouOur theme song is Friendly Fire by the incredible Brian Buckley Band.

Part Three of our four-part Ireland series hits the southern coast of the Emerald Isle! Take in the Copper Coast, Waterford Crystal, the Ring of Kerry, and find out about the Titanic Experience that will make you question Leonardo DiCaprio!   

I've just been on a lovely drive down to Akuna Bay in New South Wales in Sydney, where we were having a look at the new 2008 Peugeot small SUV. There I met Peugeot/Citroen Australia's Managing Director Kate Gillis. Kate has an interesting background in working for companies that place great importance on brand value and produce quality products. Waterford Crystal was one of her former employees. After the event we had a good chat about what Peugeot as a brand represents and where it might go with its products. Subjects covered include: • Peugeot's 210-year history • Should Peugeot have products that reflect its earlier activities such as coffee mills and salt and pepper shakers • The impact of COVID on our culture and travel habits • The use of the internet in marketing and selling cars • Electrification • Freight transport especially deliveries • The “beautiful” 2008. The GT model is more Sportwagon than SUV

Conor Tallon spoke to Curator Michael Waldron about a very unusual and hard to describework this week!It's a tale of heraldry, family, and decorative arts with this curious carved object that depicts the family crest of a noted family once prominent in Cork and Waterford. The Penrose family crest consists of an escutcheon or shield emblazoned with three bends (diagonal bars) that signify protection. Each of these contain three roses, which may denote grace or faith. The shield is set on an oval cartouche decorated with scroll and tassels, which in turn is surmounted by a trout or salmon naiant (in a horizontal position).The inclusion of the fish on this family crest relates to a legend regarding the origins of the Penroses at their traditional seat of Loe Pool in Cornwall. (The family was first documented here in 1281!) There is a long history of connection between Cornwall and the south coast of Ireland, particularly when it comes to fisheries. Today, ‘The Loe' – or An Logh in Cornish – is the largest freshwater lake in Cornwall and is administered by The National Trust.Born in 1736, the businessman Cooper Penrose was from the third generation of the Irish branch of the family. Having moved to Cork in 1763, he married Elizabeth Dennis, a fellow Quaker who was the daughter of his business partner. Together they lived at Woodhill on Lover's Walk and amassed a renowned art collection.Fun Fact: among other interests, the Penroses founded glass companies in Cork and Waterford, one of which eventually became the celebrated Waterford Crystal.Presented to the collection twelve years ago, this historic objectis displayed in our eighteenth-century Penrose Rooms (Floor 1) along with paintings, silverware, porcelain, furniture, and books from the period. Free entry and open daily. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When the Waterford Crystal bejeweled ball dropped in Times Square on January 1, 2020, most of us looked to 2020 as the year to remember. It has definitely been the year to remember, just not like we thought. But there is another way to label this year. Find out in this week's episode.    Purchase the devotional Simplify at https://pentecostalpublishing.com/search.aspx?searchterm=simplify%3a+fifty-two&searchtype=Any   Music provided by: Positive Happy by PeriTune https://soundcloud.com/sei_peridot Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/TutcA4JPa7Q

Episode 10 of Big Talk For Breeders. Cian O'Connor interviewed by Michael Doherty. Website: www.cianoconnor.com (https://gate.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cianoconnor.com&token=6e3fb8-1-1592347833841) Facebook: www.facebook.com/cianoconnorofficial/ (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcianoconnorofficial%2F&token=14f84c-1-1592347833841) Show Notes (Horses & Pedigrees): ABC Landliebe - bit.ly/2BdBeZG (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2BdBeZG&token=1c47b8-1-1592352031107) Arabella - bit.ly/30Quz2m (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F30Quz2m&token=20d7d6-1-1592352031107) Big Star - bit.ly/2zHGQei (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2zHGQei&token=a247db-1-1592352031107) Blue Loyd - bit.ly/2YHFKHN (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2YHFKHN&token=f607b8-1-1592352031107) Casper - bit.ly/2N0xZr8 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2N0xZr8&token=1357af-1-1592352031108) Clooney - bit.ly/3d8SdJJ (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3d8SdJJ&token=2ce7b7-1-1592352031108) Cloudio - bit.ly/3fxuHYE (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3fxuHYE&token=f567b4-1-1592352031108) Echo Beach - bit.ly/3e9RJ7A (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3e9RJ7A&token=ca27a7-1-1592352031108) Explosion W - bit.ly/2Y5xGlc (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2Y5xGlc&token=6b17d7-1-1592352031108) Good Luck - bit.ly/37z1jhI (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F37z1jhI&token=bba7bd-1-1592352031108) Irenice Horta - bit.ly/2zH7VOI (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2zH7VOI&token=3257b6-1-1592352031108) Je Maintiendrai - bit.ly/37CmrDU (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F37CmrDU&token=f4a7c1-1-1592352031108) K Club Lady - bit.ly/3fo0Cuu (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3fo0Cuu&token=8867ea-1-1592352031108) Knock Out Van’t Paradijs - bit.ly/37ASPGP (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F37ASPGP&token=2aa7bb-1-1592352031108) Larkhill Cruiser - bit.ly/2Y7vsSl (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2Y7vsSl&token=e517dc-1-1592352031108) Mangoon - bit.ly/2CfHlx5 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2CfHlx5&token=2697ae-1-1592352031108) PSG Final - bit.ly/3fyBdhw (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3fyBdhw&token=aa77eb-1-1592352031109) Quidam’s Cherie - bit.ly/3fvwltB (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3fvwltB&token=fb77ba-1-1592352031109) Rancorrado - bit.ly/3fwz9H3 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3fwz9H3&token=d8779d-1-1592352031109) Splendor - bit.ly/2C6OCz0 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2C6OCz0&token=2a7a7-1-1592352031109) Triest Star - bit.ly/3d8UHrE (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F3d8UHrE&token=74f7ba-1-1592352031109) Waterford Crystal - bit.ly/37BeRt3 (https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F37BeRt3&token=d3b7a9-1-1592352031109)

In Part 3 of our One Year Anniversary set of episodes, Guest Host, Mandie Carter, talks with me about my travel experiences in Portugal, Ukraine, England, Ireland, and Honduras. We discuss my espresso habit I developed in Lisbon, Fan Zone football excitement in Kiev, beautiful landscape in Bootle, England, Waterford Crystal in Ireland, and adventures on medical missions in Choluteca, Honduras. I'm enjoying talking about all these wild times we've had in all these wild places we've been and I really hope that these stories have been a source of blessing and entertainment to you all! Relax and enjoy yourselves!

Remembering the Waterford Crystal strike, home delivery service for Rramore and how to eat healthily while on lockdown

This week we are joined by the world renowned artist, Fred Curtis. Fred is a crystal glass cutter who has learned his craft at the world famous Waterford Crystal with a career that spans over 45 years. The list of celebrities & personalities that can place Fred's work on their mantle piece is wide ranging and very impressive. Barack Obama, Mother Teresa, Queen Elizabeth, Mohammed Ali, Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Carter are just a few of these people.When he was just a teenager he stumbled upon glass cutting by chance, he fell in love with the whole process and the rest is history. He started of by messing around and creating little animals and flowers from solid pieces of glass and when his colleagues found out what he could do, they started asking for pieces themselves. His expertise & skill grew as the years went on and he has created remarkable pieces of work such the shamrock bowl that was presented to Barrack Obama, awards for many occasions, such as the inductees of the world golf hall of fame, National Ploughing Championships, Formula One trophy, Tipperary international piece award, Miss America trophy and many others If you enjoy listening to the podcast, I would really appreciate if you would consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts / iTunes. This will help the podcast grow and convince hard to get guests.For show notes & past episodes, please visit chasingpassion.ieFollow Dom on:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/domantas_sniezka/LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/domantas-sniezka-553167142Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Chasing-Passion-Podcast-2249954258458997/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=WuJV0Y8ZUKE&feature=youtu.be

Women in business, ageing dogs, poisonous mushrooms, former Waterford Crystal workers.

Appraisal pro's Paul Kenny and his son Bogart Kenny discuss your stuff including Waterford Crystal and A Hundred Dollar Bill. Top notch advice on when to buy, sell, store or ditch your stuff.

Appraisal pro

In 1994 Waterford Crystal won the National Tops Of The Town title in the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. It was the last time a Waterford Group featured in a Tops final. Now - 25 years later - we hear from some of the people who were there that year in a celebration of that remarkable production.

Kim and Tamara are back from 10 days in Ireland and giving listeners the 411 on their trip. Tune in to hear about their adventures in Dublin, County Wicklow, Waterford, Kilkenny, Belfast, Derry, and the Coastal Causeway. Plus, Game of Thrones fans will love to hear about some of the filming destinations and experiences in Northern Ireland. ON THE PODCAST 00:30 - Talking with Kim and Tamara about adjusting from jet lag 03:07 - Driving in Ireland 07:10 - Guinness Storehouse tour in Dublin 11:36 - Dublin attractions 19:38 - County Wicklown in Ireland's Ancient East 25:50 - Wexford 28:04 - Waterford 34:50 - Kilkenny 40:40 - Waterford Greenway 47:00 - Game Of Thrones boat trip 58:20 - Belfast 1:10:10 - Causeway Coast 1:16:28 - Giants Causeway 1:19:50 - Derry 1:27:30 - Final Tips TIPS FOR VISITING IRELAND Ideally when visiting Ireland you would self-drive or hire a driver so that you can stop where you want and take your time exploring areas. The roads can be a little challenging and narrow, especially if you aren't used to driving on the left. You could definitely rent a car and drive around to explore more than the area you fly into. But when renting a car for your family you must keep in mind that the bigger the car the harder it will be in some areas to get around. Touring the Guinness Storehouse is a lot more than just seeing the beer being made. There are four restaurants and two bars. They will teach you the correct way to pour a Guinness and there is also a spot where you can get a picture of you on the head of your beer. Dublin is a young city in terms of population and a very walkable city to explore. The Ancient East area of Ireland is not far from Dublin and there is a lot of history in the area. Glendalough is an area with monastic ruins and two lakes that is very popular with visitors. There is a famine ship in Wexford and in Dublin. You really learn a lot by visiting just one of these ships but if you have a chance to tour both, you can see the differences and compare the stories and conditions. Waterford is Ireland's oldest city dating back to the vikings. There is much more to Waterford than the crystal. Though if you visit the Waterford Crystal there is a style that is only made for Ireland, so if you are going to buy a piece of crystal you should get that as it will be unique. Jerpoint park in Kilkenny has some great places to explore. There is an apple orchard that makes different products out of their apples. There is also a glass blowing studio that you can visit. Waterford Greenway is a really pretty biking trail, and if you continue you can explore Mount Congreve Gardens which is a very beautiful garden that has a lot of different walking paths. North of Dublin in the Boyne Valley, you can take a Game of Thrones boat tour with Boyne Boats. Game of Thrones fans should also visit Castle Ward for the Winterfell Experiences. You get to visit the area that is the backdrop for Winterfell in the beginning seasons of the show. You can dress up in the costumes and try out archery and axe throwing and maybe even meet a dire wolf. Downtown Belfast is very safe and walkable, with restaurants and bars. You wouldn't know about the Troubles that tore the city apart unless you visit the Peace Wall or the Catholic or Protestant neighborhoods. In the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, you can visit the Titanic Museum and the Titanic Hotel. Until September 2019, there is also a Game of Thrones touring exhibition in Belfast where you can see costumes and props used in the show. The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is in a gorgeous area. Keep in mind that they will close the bridge depending on the weather. You also need to stop at the first little booth to get you ticket for the bridge. They will not sell them at the entrance to the bridge. Giant’s Causeway is another beautiful site. Give yourself plenty of time to walk along the coast and there is even a path to walk up towards the cliffs and see another view of the coast. Derry is a walled city that has two sides that has a bridge that crosses to both sides called the Peace Bridge. There is some really great food all throughout the city. Make sure you leave extra time for the security in the airport when traveling through Dublin. There will be two seperate security areas that you will have to go through to get back to the US. Make sure to pack and wear layers throughout your trip. With the temperatures changing through the day you will want to shed or put layers back on. MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST Episode 19 - Ireland Family Travel Tips Guinness Tour in Dublin The Davenport Hotel The Morgan Hotel EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum Killruddery House Glendalough Brooklodge Dunbrody Famine Ship Granville Hotel Jerpoint Glass Pembroke Hotel Mount Congreve Gardens Mount Juliet Estate Grand Central Hotel - Belfast Titanic Museum Belfast Ulster Museum Belfast Titanic Hotel Bushmills Inn Trim Castle FOLLOW US AND SPREAD THE WORD! If you liked this show, please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, orGoogle Playand leave us a review! Have a question or comment? Send us an email or leave us a voicemail at +1.641.715.3900, ext. 926035#. You can also follow our travels on Stuffed Suitcaseand We3Travel, or follow the Vacation Mavens on Instagram, Facebookor Twitter. Thanks for listening!

Irish crystal is known for it's strength, sparkle and elegance.And it's still made by hand. In fact, at Waterford Crystal every piece is hand blown, hand cut and hand finished. And you can watch them making timeless art, and admire the results in every shape you can image. You know what else shines bright for the future? The Blackrock Castle Observatory. From a colorful history to a starry eyed future, the people of Cork have retained it's history and given it a new lease on life. All that plus A Broad Abroad in Episode 26 of Erin's Isle.  

Waterford Crystal, family therapy, nipples, and more on this weeks episode!

Tom Brennan is the global brand ambassador for Waterford Crystal and has unquestionably one of the coolest jobs in the world. He gets flown around the globe to attend luxurious events including limited edition whisky tastings, special dinners and the Waterford Crystal ball drop at Time Square in New York each New Years Eve. Not just a hired spokesperson Tom was born in Waterford, Ireland where the company first started and continues to operate today. On this episode we chat about his journey from a 15 year old apprentice glass blower in the middle of country Ireland to living in New York and travelling the globe working for one of the world's most recognisable luxury brands.  Support the show.

Cathal and Brian return to our old habits of bashing Offaly hurling, praise Galway's rediscovered form, explain who we felt 'won' the draw between Cork and Tipperary, discuss Waterford's terrible luck, and predict this weekend's matches.Send listener mail to mail@takeyourdatapoints.com or tweet us @TYDatapointsiTunes link herePocket casts link here

Ireland is more than just the ancestral home of millions of Americans, it's a destination for everyone. There are golf courses, streams and rivers for the avid fisherman, crystal and beautiful woolen goods at prices you can't get at home. The country's famed and iconic pubs are welcoming to all who come as friends. Travel is easy with a umber of gateways from the United States.  Our guest tonight is coming to us live from Wicklow, Ireland.

BUSINESS AND MARKETING PODCAST Rick Becker is a realtor with Keller Williams. He recently went through a big life change, moving from New York City to New Jersey, closing his business and starting a new career. Rick founded and ran a successful advertising photography studio for over 30 years  in New York City. You might have seen his work in catalogs like Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus and Waterford Crystal. With the changing world of photography he decided it was time to switch careers. Closing his business also meant finding a new home because he lived in his studio in downtown Soho. Over the years, Rick has bought and sold homes from Florida to New England, so real estate was a logical choice. He’s licensed in New Jersey and New York and in this conversation we talk about living in NJ vs. NYC and a few of the benefits of doing so. If you know someone looking to purchase a home in NJ or NYC and you need someone to help you through the process, connect with Rick.   In this episode, we talk about the transition and what he is doing to find success. BACKGROUND I wanted to share a little background, as I think it’s always good for you to know how I know the guests. Rick and I went to high school together but never really knew each other while we were in school. It was more we knew each others name, but not the person. We connected through a mutual friend a few years ago and we had a mutual desire to do triathlons. Those turned into 55+ mile bike events, half marathons and we just qualified for the NYC Marathon in 2018. I’ve spent a lot of time with he and his wife during the qualifying races and am forever grateful for their hospitality.   This recording started out by me showing him my new podcast equipment. It’s very relaxed, covers a lot of topics and isn’t as formal as most of my recordings. But I think you’ll find several good nuggets in the conversation. QUESTIONS WE ASK RICK What are you doing for marketing in your new business? How did you find the transition from NYC to NJ How did he get his radio voice? WHAT YOU’LL LEARN What it’s like starting a new career after 30 years in another business Benefits of living in NJ vs. NYC Why a lot of New Yorkers are moving out of the city and into NJ Transportation options for commuters RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO YOU Are you interested in learning more about Select Business Team? Check out where we have teams.  If we don’t have one in your area, we can help you start one in your area.  Give us a call to discuss further If you like what you heard, would you leave us a review on iTunes?  If you aren’t sure how,  CLICK HERE and follow these instructions. ABOUT OUR GUEST – RICK BECKER   If you want to connect with Rick and learn more about real estate in New York and New Jersey: Visit his website Connect with Rick on Facebook Connect with The Trefel Group Join Rick on LinkedIn  

Did you know that Waterford is Ireland’s oldest city with a rich history from its Viking founders? Did you know the Irish tricolor flag was first raised in Waterford by Thomas Meagher? And Thomas Meagher went on to become the first Governor of Montana? Oh, and don’t miss the Waterford Crystal factory and, best of … More Waterford, Ireland: Things to Do with Walking Tour The post Waterford, Ireland: Things to Do with Walking Tour appeared first on One Perfect Day In.

7 AM - 1 - Mister Thrump, David Duke, and the KKK. 2 - More Trump stuff. 3 - The News with Marshall Phillips. 4 - Joe talks being sick last week.

Come with Travel Brigade on a classic Irish journey in County Waterford. We’ll tour the factory where world-famous Waterford Crystal is made and learn about the history of Ireland’s oldest city. We’ll travel the beautiful coastline on the southeast corner of the Emerald Isle and then head inland to the beautiful valleys and friendly people in the towns of Lismore and Cappoquin. We’ll also talk about places you can stay in the area that will let you slow down and enjoy the countryside. Enjoy the trip! 

Speaker: Prof. S. O'Brien Abstract: In the context of the Macsi industrial mathematics group, we look at the types of problems which have arisen from industrial collaboration and examine a couple of these in detail. In particular, we look at a mathematical model for etching glass with acids which arose from a study group with industry problem presented by Waterford Crystal.

Speaker: Prof. S. O'Brien Abstract: In the context of the Macsi industrial mathematics group, we look at the types of problems which have arisen from industrial collaboration and examine a couple of these in detail. In particular, we look at a mathematical model for etching glass with acids which arose from a study group with industry problem presented by Waterford Crystal.

It’s the first episode of Talking GAA for 2012 and what a show we have in store. Joining Dave is Armagh and radio legend Damien McCullough. The Kerry duo of Eoin O’Shea and Ailbe O’Reilly are included along with Meath’s David Sheehan. Dave also gets a preview of the Waterford Crystal and Walsh Cup from Beat Fm’s Stephen Long. ..... On the show: Round up of the NFL games Why are they stopping Sean Johnston’s move Waterford Crystal and Walsh Cup games ..... Talking GAA is by the fans for the fans. If you would like to advertise, sponsor or just be involved with the show, drop us an email to TheWorldsTalking@gmail.com Don’t forget to ‘like’ the show on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Worlds-Talking/191923120895223 And follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TheWorldsTalkin

We take you on a tour of the brand new House of Waterford where crystal will again be made in Waterford!

In January 2009, Waterford Crystal went bankrupt. The company’s main factory, in Waterford, Ireland, was closed, and 480 people were fired. Many of them had worked there for more than forty years. But the Waterford workers refused to give up their jobs without a fight. They staged a sit-in that lasted for almost two months, […] The post Raise the Last Glass: Introduction appeared first on Wide Angle.

In January 2009, Waterford Crystal went bankrupt. The company’s main factory, in Waterford, Ireland, was closed, and 480 people were fired. Many of them had worked there for more than forty years. But the Waterford workers refused to give up their jobs without a fight. They staged a sit-in that lasted for almost two months, […] The post Raise the Last Glass: Introduction appeared first on Wide Angle.

We visit the Waterford Crystal Factory and some interesting sites nearby; then it’s time for our recipe for shin and Guinness and Liam sings The Old Dungarvan Oak.