Yolanda's blog

2nd September - 9th October 2016 The world famous Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival draws huge crowds of over 20,000 people to the busy pubs and hotels every year during the whole month of September. They come for love, dancing, music, racing and a good time, and they don’t leave disappointed! Matchmaking is one of Ireland's oldest traditions and a good deal of it has taken place in Lisdoonvarna during September and early October. The town developed into a tourist centre in the 18th-century when a well-respected Limerick surgeon discovered the positive effects of its mineral waters. People travelled from all over Ireland to bathe in, and drink the mineral waters. The water that was rich in iron, sulphur and magnesium gave relief from the symptoms of diseases such as rheumatism and glandular fever. It was due to the popularity of these mineral springs and the huge amount of people going there that led to the Lisdoonvarna "matchmaking tradition". September became the pea...

White House announces that the country's highest peak, Mount McKinley, will now be called by its Alaskan name, Denali President Barack Obama will change the name of Mount McKinley, the top of which is the country's highest point, back to its traditional Alaskan title, Denali. His administration announced the name change on Sunday, citing the authority of the Department of the Interior, ahead of a trip to Alaska on Monday that will see him become the first sitting president to visit the state's Arctic. Alaskans have long called the 20,320-foot mountain Denali, though pushes by its politicians to have the name changed have met with opposition from those in Ohio, the home state of the 25th president.  He was assassinated early in his second term in 1901.