It was a return to the familiar border crossings for me earlier in the year as I got the ferry from Belfast to Birkenhead. It’s a great way to get from Northern Ireland to England, and also avoids the hassle of flying, allows you to drive there by car, bring as much as you want…
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I thought recently about all the capital cities I’ve been to and how they don’t always live up to expectations. I’ve been to capital cities in about 55 of the 80 countries I’ve backpacked through and thought it was a good moment to do a top 5. I write this post from one of them…
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I’ve always loved media. There’s something about TV, newspapers, radio and the whole public sphere thing that I love. As a teenager I did some work experience in the BBC and Belfast Telegraph as well as studying a City and Guilds course in Journalism. At university I wrote for the magazine, starred in 2 TV…
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I’ll talk about my first ever job on today’s Working Wednesdays, a job which was unpaid but I got free football fanzines out of it, and I was helping support my country’s international football team. Aged 15, I wrote articles for and helped sell the Northern Ireland football fanzine, Arconada…Armstrong! Named after the ITV commentary…
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** STOP PRESS!! This article was written a while back and scheduled long before this week’s fire on the Belfast to Dublin train, so please bear that in mind…** (this is the first time since starting DSL in 2007 I have had to do this…) // I’m sure a lot of you reading will be…
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I often get asked about Europe and why I haven’t written much about my own continent for a while. The real answer is that all my travels in Europe were 2003 – 2009. In the last 4 years I’ve had less than 2 weeks travelling in Europe! This makes it my LEAST travelled continent in…
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The Crown Bar in Belfast in my home country of Northern Ireland is a brilliant place. I LOVE it and I take my friends there any time I’m showing them round my country. I’m pretty surprised this is the first time I’ve written about it, but buzzing at the thought of helping promote Belfast and…
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I was once described as a “football nut” and I’m not sure what that entails, but basically I LOVE football. Ever since I saw Norman Whiteside score for Northern Ireland against Algeria in the 1986 World Cup on a black and white TV, I have been a football fan. Firstly I played it – at…
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First off, Belfast the capital city of Northern Ireland is a wonderful place to visit. Within this historic city there is a cultured past, a blossoming present and a bright future. A unique mix of British and Irish influence is evident throughout the city. While the British flag flies nonchalantly over the City Hall (pictured…
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My entrance into Colombia couldn’t have been more dramatic. Actually, of course it could have been, but it wasn’t. If none of that makes sense, then neither does somehow boarding a flight you weren’t booked on within 20 minutes of a flight you were booked on with no rational explanation. I was happy. One of…
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