Compiled by Nicoline Greer
WESTERN EYES
The empty beauty of the Beara peninsula has always attracted artists. Painters such as Charles Tyrrell and Tim Goulding have long settled here and more recently Sarah Walker and Maurice Henderson have set up galleries in Castletownbere. Close to the west Cork fishing port is the area's leading creative hub: the Mill Cove Gallery, run by painter John Brennan and his energetic partner John Goode. The gallery was founded four years ago and now represents 35 painters and sculptors living throughout Ireland, some of whom come from as far afield as Finland and the Ukraine. The gallery's current exhibition, which runs to August 14th, returns to its roots. Rabach's Glen is a series of subtly layered and textured landscapes by Beara painter Jacqueline O'Driscoll that cleverly evoke the traces of former boundary lines, settlements and cultivation. "We're exhibiting Jacqueline's work right in the heart of its inspiration," says John Goode. "People seem to relate and respond very powerfully to that." Contact 027-70393 and www.millcovegallery.com. - Alannah Hopkin
QUICK MARCH
Mooove, you miserable good-for-nothings! If you think that getting bawled at by a sergeant-major type might encourage you to get fit, then sign up for a Bootcamp Fitness course in Phoenix Park and Bushy Park, Dublin. Military training for civilians is taking off in Australia, and is also practised in London's Hyde Park. However, Lorraine Ho, one of the Dublin organisers, insists the experience is more pleasant than the name suggests: "Everybody can take it at their own pace." In fact, the vibe sounds more summer camp than boot-camp, with promises of "getting fit, looking fantastic, and having fun with like-minded individuals" (that's PR-speak for "you might end up with a date"). Courses starting this week with Bootcamp Ireland in Bushy Park, Dublin 6. See www. bootcampireland.com or call Lorraine on 086-8236376. (€90 for six weeks.)
REALITY BITES
The Irish track record in reality TV is pretty woeful (Cabin Fever/Celebrity Farm anyone?) but let's hope the latest effort can learn from their mistakes. On paper, Let's Talk About Me sounds quite promising. Five strangers are invited to a dinner party where they will scrutinise each other's looks, attitudes, personalities and body language. Afterwards they will be interviewed about their fellow dinner guests and asked to spill the beans on what they liked and loathed about them. The guests will then take part in the ultimate self-perception game show where they have to guess which comment - "absolutely gorgeous", "never shuts up", "a bore", for instance - was used to describe them. VIP Productions is looking for contestants who think they know themselves well enough to win the cash prize. Call 01-6601588 for more details.
ALL AT SEA
Each day looks different out on the water, but this collection captures 365 images of the sea. Marine photographer Philip Plisson has been shooting the waves for 25 years, and his latest book, The Sea, Day by Day, has just been translated from the original French. It includes lonely lighthouses, crashing breakers and sunset regattas from around the world, along with lengthy captions. Ireland's west coast features large, as you might expect. Pictured is La Jument lighthouse, off the Breton coast, paid for out of gratitude by the botanist Charles-Eugene Potron, after he survived a shipwreck in the area. Living conditions here were so harsh, we are told, the keepers called it "hell". Luckily for them, the lighthouse was automated in 1991. The Sea, Day by Day is published by Abrams at €36.90. - Clare McCarthy
TUMBLE DOWN
Austrian wineglass maker Riedel has released its O range of wineglasses and - lawks alive - they have no stem. It's a wine glass cunningly disguised as a tumbler. Riedel makes its glasses specifically for each wine, fine-tuning elements of the glass such as the shape of the tumbler, size and diameter of rim for grape varietals. Designed by Maximilian Riedel, the idea of a wine tumbler came to him when he was living in a small apartment in New York and didn't have much room to store his glasses. O is so far available in Ireland in the Cabernet and the Riesling types. No more wine glass stems falling victim to the dishwasher or clumsy picnic basket-packing, then. €10 each, available from Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants, 21 Kildare Street, Dublin 2, 01-6760766 and The Vine Inspiration, 54 Weafer Street, Enniscorthy, Wicklow, 054-33018.
CAN YOU KICK IT?
Capoeira has been big in Dublin for a few years, and now there are classes running in Cork. Instructor XuXu is from Belo Horizonte in Brazil and teaches the cross between a martial art and a dance with infectious rhythms. Capoeira began with the slaves that were being imported to Brazil from Africa. The slaves disguised their self-defence training as a dance so that the plantation owners couldn't complain, and a new art form was born. Catch a glimpse of the white-clad acrobatics most Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes at the top of Grafton Street in Dublin. Capoeira classes, Monday and Tuesday, 7.30 p.m. and Thursday, 8 p.m. in the Olympic Karate, Shandon Street, Cork. Tuesday is the beginners' class but anyone can come on any of the nights. For Dublin classes see www.odacapoeira.com.
BOUND TO IMPRESS
There was a day when Ireland was a world leader in leather book binding. Now, Gerry Kenny of Kenny's book bindery is practising what he says is a dying art. So few people are being trained in the painstaking art of hand binding books that the skill will not be around for much longer. Each binding is unique and they do a range of coverings, including soft calf, morocco, cloth, and hand-marbled paper. Kenny's do three or four special limited editions a year; just out is Neil Jordan's Shade, signed by the author, bound in goatskin leather and hand tooled in gold leaf, available for €395. Book binding starts at €220. Kenny's Book Bindery, bookshop and art galleries, High Street, Galway, 091-534760, www.kennys.ie.
CHEAP DEAL
Pigsback.com is a website that can be addictive: office productivity may go rapidly downhill when you start obsessing about earning more and more piggy points. You join online for free and look like you're working awfully hard at your computer. Of course it is a great opportunity for them to market things to you but in the process you earn piggy points. These count for things such as cinema tickets, restaurant vouchers, mobile phone credit and CDs. They also do grocery coupons worth up to €25 each week - if you can remember to use them rather than leaving them in the bottom of your bag. You choose. www.pigsback.com.
TELLING TALES
If walls could talk, most houses could probably write the script to an elaborate soap opera. Eneclann offers a house history research service for buildings in Ireland. Murderous plots, houses changing hands to settle gambling debts and famous artists as former residents are just some of its discoveries. It also found that somebody's conservatory was designed by Turner, renowned for the glasshouses in the National Botanic Gardens. Apart from being interesting in itself, the research can be used to support applications for planning for listed buildings, local authority maintenance grants and tax relief on historic buildings. If you want to buy a House History as a birthday or wedding gift, order it at least 10 weeks in advance. From €450 for a small house to €1,800 for a big country house. Eneclann, 01-6710338.