50 | LOCAL TOURIST
Crystal Balls & Comedy: A Happy Medium Steps on Stage Across NI
www.nitravelnews.com
Grand Central Hotel Celbrates Being Named Best 5-Star Hotel in Ireland
BY ERIN ENGLISH
erin@nitravelnews.com
NI TRAVEL NEWS’ Erin English took a step into the spiritual world at the Grand Opera House by attending a preview of May McFettridge's (John Linehan) new comedy show, A Happy Medium.
A Happy Medium is set to take to the
stage of The Grand Opera House, Belfast between the 18th-22nd of April 2023 before touring across NI theatres in April.
Dabbling into the Spirit World, May
is a woman from the 'Glens of Gormley' who enlisted the help of Mr. Proudfoot, a part-time medium from Carrickfergus. May turn her hand to become a medium in hopes of contacting her dead sister to fulfill a promise made years ago on the top of Cave Hill. A Happy Medium follows May's
journey
into the spirit world alongside the hilarious e n c o u n t e r s between May and her customers.
May McFettridge brings to the part all the warmth, comedy, and feeling
for
the flawed humanity she is famous for. Not to mention, May is joined on the stage by Olivia Nash (aka 'Ma' from The Hole in The Wall Gang) whose character, Mrs. Cameron, gets a reading from May. A Happy Medium is a stellar demonstration of McFettridge's comical brilliance and is a performance not to be missed!
Make sure that catching a performance of A Happy Medium is on your tarot cards for 2023!
A Happy Medium will be in the following venues: Grand Opera House Belfast – 18 -22
April
Alley Theatre, Strabane – 13 April Theatre at The Mill, Newtownabbey
– 14 + 15 April Millennium Theatre, Derry – 25
April April
April
Tickets are available from theatre box offices.
Strule Arts Centre, Omagh – 26
Market Place, Armagh – 27 April The Braid, Ballymena – 28 April The Ardhowen Enniskillen – 29
and the Europa Hotel has received a Merit Award at the CIE Tours International 31st Annual Awards. Our guests are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on providing a first-class service and an enjoyable stay each and every time, so the fact that these prestigious accolades have been won based on the feedback from our guests makes both wins extra special. I would like to thank our employees as they are the reason for our continued success and their hard- work and dedication are recognised through these awards.” Elizabeth Crabill, Chief Executive
of CIE Tours said: “The Irish holiday experience is unique and its popularity is very evident in the strong rebound we witnessed once international travel trade reopened following the pandemic. I want to acknowledge the resilience of our tourism partners who, having had a very difficult few years, enthusiastically welcomed back our visitors once restrictions were lifted. Your professionalism is reflected in the feedback from our visitors and in these awards.”
Belfast City Cemetery Visitor Centre Now Open
A NEW visitor centre documenting the history of Belfast City Cemetery and the people buried within it has opened.
The building is a key element of a £2.8 million heritage project funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities.
The centre includes an interpretive exhibition,
digital touchscreens,
interactive features for children, genealogy research workstations and indoor and outdoor educational space for schools and youth groups.
THE Grand Central Hotel has been named the Best 5-Star Hotel in Ireland and the Europa Hotel has picked up a Merit Award at the CIE Tours International 31st Annual Awards of Excellence which took place in Dublin. The two Hastings Hotels’ properties were the only hotels in Northern Ireland to be recognised at the prestigious event. Organised by CIE Tours, the largest operator of guided tours to Ireland in the North American market, which brought over 25,000 to the island of Ireland last year, the awards recognise Ireland’s hospitality ambassadors – the people and businesses who put Irish tourism on the global stage through the warmth of welcome and quality of service provided to international visitors. Each category is based on post-stay feedback received from nearly 20,000 customers surveyed by CIE Tours throughout 2022 and the winners have all delivered an exceptional quality experience and welcome to visitors, achieving a customer satisfaction rating of over 92%. James McGinn, Managing Director of Hastings Hotels said: “We are absolutely delighted that the Grand Central has been named the Best 5-Star Hotel in Ireland
NIGEL HEATH ADVENTURES...
March/April 2023
Head off on a UK minibreak with NIGEL HEATH as he explores the picturesque and historical city of Wells...
“IT’S just like being in France,”
my wife Jenny remarked as we wandered around this small historic city’s crowded and colourful market square in the towering shadow of a magnificent Gothic cathedral. No we were not in Tours or Rouen, but
on a winter minibreak to picturesque Wells on the edge of the rolling Mendip Hills in mid Somerset.
And our ideally placed base for two
nights was the nearby Swan Hotel, which has been welcoming guests for some six hundred years.
Back in the bustling Wednesday market, our noses led us to a stall displaying freshly baked filo pastry pies with a mouth-watering selection of fillings which left us feeling frustrated that we could not buy a dozen to take home and pop in the freezer. Marked out on the pavement in one corner of the square was the amazing twenty- two foot, two and a quarter- inches jumped by local athlete Mary Bignal Rand to take the gold medal at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. She was the first British female to win
a gold medal in track and field and the only British woman to win three medals in a single games.
Her amazing success will likely be remembered by older readers because it caused such a sensation at the time. Now a stone archway close by, led us straight through to the green in front of the magnificent cathedral where building work began back in 1175. It was Bishop Reginald de Bohon who brought the ideal of revolutionary architecture
from France, so Wells
became the first English cathedral to be built entirely in the new Gothic style. Here beautiful inverted scissor arches support the central tower, but the first building phase took over sixty years to complete for the simple reason that it was only warm enough for the lime mortar to set between April and October, a blue sashed guide told us. Today, a crowd gathering feature of
Wells Cathedral, and dating back to 1392, is the oldest twenty-four clock in the world to have a face with a large golden sun pointer against a backdrop of stars. In keeping with the medieval view of the world, the sun progresses around the earth against a backdrop of stars. We had booked a late lunch in Roots, a modern veg-led plate sharing restaurant opened by Michelin starred Master Chef finalist Josh Eggleton, who grew up in the nearby Chew Valley.
The food was delicious so anyone following in our footsteps should book early to avoid disappointment. It was refreshing to browse around a High Street with a good selection of independent shops before returning to The Swan in the aptly medievally named Sadler Street.
After breakfast the following morning, we made the twenty-minute drive
through mostly country lanes to the small and picturesque market town of Bruton, set amid rolling Somerset hills and now well known for its eclectic mix of antique and other independent shops.
Built mainly above the meandering River Brue, this small town with tightly knit streets is overlooked by a 16 th Century watch tower sitting atop a nearby hill. The town’s old and galleried Congregational
Church with its
impressive floor to ceiling windows and dating back to 1806 is now an eatery with its own wood-fired pizza oven and coffee shop, so we could not resist stopping for a warming Cappuccino and a freshly baked croissant for dunking. Bruton is a great place to visit while staying in Wells, the only down side being a lack of parking.
Now we were back on the road again for another short cross country drive to Street and a browse around its famous designer outlet village.
A cold and overcast February day was not really conducive to our favourite pastime of country walking, so a little retail therapy was now in order we decided.
It was back in 1825 that Clarks of
Street first began making slippers from the off cuts of sheepskin rugs. Then in 1993 the country’s first designer outlet village was opened in the grounds of their old factory and a new era in UK retail had begun. From Street it was an even shorter drive into another historic market town
whose name,
is synonymous with a world-wide phenomenon, namely its pop festival. It was back in 1970 that local farmer Michael Evis decided to organise his own, pop, folk and blues festival having been inspired by an open- air event he’d attended.
His farm site at Pilton is clearly visible from the top of a conical hill with a stone tower which gives Glastonbury its other far older claim to fame, namely its magnificent tor and nearby ruined abbey which fell victim to Henry V111’s dissolution of the monasteries back in 1539.
While according to local folk lore,
Joseph of Arimathea established a church there in ancient times, Glastonbury can also have the feel of a spiritual place where Christian, Pagan and New Age beliefs are shared. Just walking down its busy High
Street with shops selling crystals and scented candles one can sense a feeling of other worldliness.
After dining and spending another comfortable night at, The Swan, it was time to head back home to Wales, but not before we had crossed the road for a finale visit to the historic Bishop’s Palace set in fourteen acres of fabulous gardens.
Here are the spring water wells which are carried in subterranean streams from the east Mendips to give the town its name, fill the palace moat and feature in its gardens.
While all the snowdrops and shrubs, poised to burst into bud, made the gardens a delight, even on that cold February morning, we knew we’d simply have to return in June to feast our eyes on all in bloom.
Glastonbury,
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
