BENRIACH DISTILLERY – Writing about booze is a gig that pays twice – in freebies and cash – but the hard stuff can be a ruinous thing to put words to. It can visit infirmities on its scribes that are more disabling than the shakes and slurred speech

THE TAIN WAY, COOLEY PENINSULA AND CU CHULAINN – Forget the hibernophiles, the neo-Celts, the fifth-generation Americans with a Dooley in the family – anyone who can spell Ireland will tell you it’s an enchanted place.

PANTI BLISS, QUEEN MEDB AND ME – Drag performer Rory O’Neill became a household name in Ireland when, as his alter ego Panti Bliss, he led the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage there. Together, they became the symbol of a forward-looking nation almost overnight