ROSSLARE-CHERBOURG ROUTE GETS A BOOST WITH NEW STENA VISION….

Brian Ogle

…… NOW DEPARTURES ON SIX DAYS EACH WEEK AND 12 WEEKLY SAILINGS

Stena Vision – boosting capacity and number of sailings from Rosslare to Cherbourg

STENA Line has expanded its service from Rosslare to Cherbourg with the inaugural voyage of Stena Vision, making the company the operator with the most frequent Irish crossings to continental Europe.

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MORE CAPACITY, MORE SPACE AND PET CABINS TOO ON STENA LINE’S NEW CHERBOURG SERVICE

Brian Ogle

NEWS LINES………….. NEWS LINES……………. NEWS LINES…………….. NEWS LINES…………….. NEWS LINES…………….. NEWS

AS the peak summer season draws closer, Irish tourists looking for a holiday in France will have an added option this year, with Stena Line operating a second cruise ferry on its Rosslare to Cherbourg service.

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A WELCOME, OR A WARNING, ‘MOTHER MOTHERLAND’ STILL DOMINATES THE KIEV SKYLINE

Brian Ogle

As speculation persists about an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine, and perhaps an attempt to take the capital Kiev, one of a fast disappearing number of Soviet era monuments dominates the skyline over the Ukrainian capital. BRIAN OGLE visited Rodina Mat and the Great Patriotic War Museum which ironically is being continually updated to include events in the ongoing separatist war in the Donbas…...

Mother Motherland in Kiev puts the Statue of Liberty and Rio’s Christ the Redeemer in their place and can be seen from many miles away

PROBABLY the world’s two most iconic tourist landmarks are New York’s Statue of Liberty and the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking Rio de Janeiro.

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ERIC BOGLE: SCOTSMAN WHO MADE WILLIE McBRIDE AN ICON OF THE GREAT WAR….

Brian Ogle

……….DID THIS HEADSTONE PROVIDE INSPIRATION FOR ‘GREEN FIELDS OF FRANCE’?

Willie McBride headstone in Authuille CWG cemetery near the Ulster Tower

ONE of the best known and most popular ballads about the Great War is Eric Bogle’s No Man’s Land, re-christened The Green Fields of France by Irish group The Fureys, but alternatively more popularly identified by many in this part of the world as The Ballad of Willie McBride.

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THE DAY EVERY YEAR MY THOUGHTS ARE IN CANDADA FARM IN FLANDERS FIELDS

Brian Ogle

BRIAN OGLE REFLECTS ON HIS MANY VISITS TO THE BATTLEFIELDS OF YPRES AND THE SOMME

One of my first visits to Canada Farm cemetery at Elverdinge outside Ypres

ON Remembrance Day I will as always be following BBC TV’s coverage of events at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, but my thoughts for at least some of the time will be hundreds of miles away at Canada Farm cemetery at Elverdinge, a few miles outside Ypres in West Flanders.

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A THIRD OF THE HEIGHT OF EVEREST IN ONE DAY…..IN THE MOURNES!

Brian Ogle

……. YOUTH HOSTEL ASSOCIATION’S MOURNE WALL WALK WAS TOO DEMANDING – AND FAR TOO POPULAR!

BY BRIAN OGLE

AFTER my short piece the other day about running the first Belfast City Marathon with virtually no training or preparation, and at the risk of appearing the athletic equivalent of an anti-Vaxer – an anti-Trainer, I recall completing the Mourne Wall Walk with not only no preparation, no proper weather-proof clothes, no suitable footwear and apart from a couple of Mars bars, no sustenance for the 22-mile journey, rather expedition.

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