Comments on: Down to Dublin http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/ London to Shanghai, by land Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:44:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: JunYan Tang http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-167937 Fri, 09 May 2008 17:29:41 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-167937 This is my most interetsed blog among all of your travel records. Cause, Iain, you know that I'd been in Dublin for 2 years. Altough is takes me more time to read this with my poor English, I still felt a lot when I was reading these words. I miss Dublin, miss Ireland, but China is the only country that i'll love forever. Anyway, thanks for Iain, it is you to let me have a chance to read it, and also thank you for Claire who wrote such a wonderful article. This is my most interetsed blog among all of your travel records. Cause, Iain, you know that I’d been in Dublin for 2 years. Altough is takes me more time to read this with my poor English, I still felt a lot when I was reading these words. I miss Dublin, miss Ireland, but China is the only country that i’ll love forever.

Anyway, thanks for Iain, it is you to let me have a chance to read it, and also thank you for Claire who wrote such a wonderful article.

]]> by: Megan Jones http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-194 Tue, 25 Jul 2006 13:32:37 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-194 Wow, sounds like you are having so much fun on your travels! You have inspired me! See you next year definately! Wow, sounds like you are having so much fun on your travels! You have inspired me! See you next year definately!

]]> by: Dara http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-193 Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:53:14 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-193 Just to clarify Ben's comments. Bulmers in Ireland is a totally different cider. It was made by Guinness in Clonmel but could not be sold in UK as Bulmers because of a much smaller company called 'Bulmers' making the same thing! Cider did suffer from a bad image, and this directly affected sales of the drink in Ireland. To counteract this, the government reduced the duty on ciders and Bulmers rehashed their image. With a new image and a favourable price, cider sales soared. Roll on a few years, and the tax concession that (mainly) Bulmers enjoyed, was withdrawn. The government felt that they could not justify giving cider preferential treatment any more. That is when the price rose substantially. On the sideline, Guinness merged with Grand Met to form Diageo. As part of the 'monolopy and mergers' ruling, the merger was allowed, on condition that C&C and Bulmers were disposed of. As a result, the two were put together, and a manager buyout was arranged. Very well written article, and as a Dubliner, I hope you now see why we avoid Templebar like The Plague! (If you go to Clonmel at the right time of year, the Bulmers factory sends out a sweet smell over the town. Not nearly as nice a smell as when Guinness roast the hops though!) Just to clarify Ben’s comments. Bulmers in Ireland is a totally different cider. It was made by Guinness in Clonmel but could not be sold in UK as Bulmers because of a much smaller company called ‘Bulmers’ making the same thing!

Cider did suffer from a bad image, and this directly affected sales of the drink in Ireland. To counteract this, the government reduced the duty on ciders and Bulmers rehashed their image. With a new image and a favourable price, cider sales soared.

Roll on a few years, and the tax concession that (mainly) Bulmers enjoyed, was withdrawn. The government felt that they could not justify giving cider preferential treatment any more. That is when the price rose substantially.

On the sideline, Guinness merged with Grand Met to form Diageo. As part of the ‘monolopy and mergers’ ruling, the merger was allowed, on condition that C&C and Bulmers were disposed of. As a result, the two were put together, and a manager buyout was arranged.

Very well written article, and as a Dubliner, I hope you now see why we avoid Templebar like The Plague!

(If you go to Clonmel at the right time of year, the Bulmers factory sends out a sweet smell over the town. Not nearly as nice a smell as when Guinness roast the hops though!)

]]> by: Benjamin http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-160 Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:29:24 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-160 I can clear up some of the Bulmers confusion. The trading name "Bulmers" is owned by two separate cider companies in two different markets- one in Britain, one in Ireland. In the nineties, the Irish company C&C reduced the amount of alcohol in their cider, increased the price, and repositioned it a high-end summer drink, to be drunk over a pint glass full of ice (before this, cider in Ireland had typically been cheap, quite strong, and sold in huge plastic flaggon bottles for home and eh.. extra-mural consumption). The makeover proved hugely popular, and they expanded to Britain, where they sell it now in London and Scotland as Magners (as the Blumers name is still owned by the Herefordshire people in Britain.) Don't agree with Chris's other comments at all- your blog is well written, very respectful of local sensitivities, and interesting to read, even as a native. Keep it up, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your travels. I can clear up some of the Bulmers confusion. The trading name “Bulmers” is owned by two separate cider companies in two different markets- one in Britain, one in Ireland. In the nineties, the Irish company C&C reduced the amount of alcohol in their cider, increased the price, and repositioned it a high-end summer drink, to be drunk over a pint glass full of ice (before this, cider in Ireland had typically been cheap, quite strong, and sold in huge plastic flaggon bottles for home and eh.. extra-mural consumption). The makeover proved hugely popular, and they expanded to Britain, where they sell it now in London and Scotland as Magners (as the Blumers name is still owned by the Herefordshire people in Britain.)

Don’t agree with Chris’s other comments at all- your blog is well written, very respectful of local sensitivities, and interesting to read, even as a native. Keep it up, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your travels.

]]> by: H http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-145 Sat, 15 Jul 2006 18:42:11 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-145 Wonderful. Filled with delightful and often "laugh-out-loud" details. Glad to see you are attracting a wider audience, critical or not. Wonderful. Filled with delightful and often “laugh-out-loud” details.
Glad to see you are attracting a wider audience, critical or not.

]]> by: Kerrie http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-139 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:12:09 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-139 love reading the updates BUT I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxox love reading the updates
BUT
I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxox

]]> by: Juliet van den Heever http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-138 Fri, 14 Jul 2006 09:07:58 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-138 Really enjoyed this piece Claire, interesting to read about your Irish relatives and see pictures of "the farm". Well done Really enjoyed this piece Claire, interesting to read about your Irish relatives and see pictures of “the farm”. Well done

]]> by: Iain http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-135 Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:45:58 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-135 Hi Chris, Thanks. We appreciate well intended criticism and we're glad you like our "sense of style". I'm interested in examples of where our potted histories are innacurate. Bulmers, or the Bulmers we are referring to, is made in Clonmel, Tipperary. More on that <a href="http://www.bulmers.ie/about-us/" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Travel writing is full of short accounts of local history. It helps readers ease into a place, and into the presumably informed mind of the writer. But history is difficult to summarise, especially when about an issue as contentious as the Irish "Troubles". Hi Chris,

Thanks. We appreciate well intended criticism and we’re glad you like our “sense of style”.

I’m interested in examples of where our potted histories are innacurate. Bulmers, or the Bulmers we are referring to, is made in Clonmel, Tipperary. More on that here.

Travel writing is full of short accounts of local history. It helps readers ease into a place, and into the presumably informed mind of the writer. But history is difficult to summarise, especially when about an issue as contentious as the Irish “Troubles”.

]]> by: Chris Hughes http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-132 Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:42:59 +0000 http://www.oldworldwandering.com/2006/07/13/dublin-and-county-armagh/#comment-132 The well informed travelogue is indeed a fine thing. And indeed the kind of accounts given here are a useful way of keeping friends and family at home abreast of one's progression around the planet. But this account is so full of little inaccuracies (eg. Bulmer's Cider comes from Herefordshire, not from Ireland), and rehearsals of half understood or half remembered histories, that its impact and value, if indeed it is ever intended for a wider public, is sorely diminished. Travel, by all means; look, enquire; but the sorts of potted renderings of Scottish and Irish history which have been featured here in previous postings serve no-one well. That said, it is all written with a great sense of style, and I much liked the witty interpretation of Wilde in Dublin. The well informed travelogue is indeed a fine thing. And indeed the kind of accounts given here are a useful way of keeping friends and family at home abreast of one’s progression around the planet. But this account is so full of little inaccuracies (eg. Bulmer’s Cider comes from Herefordshire, not from Ireland), and rehearsals of half understood or half remembered histories, that its impact and value, if indeed it is ever intended for a wider public, is sorely diminished. Travel, by all means; look, enquire; but the sorts of potted renderings of Scottish and Irish history which have been featured here in previous postings serve no-one well. That said, it is all written with a great sense of style, and I much liked the witty interpretation of Wilde in Dublin.

]]>