Ireland Around the Web: 05.23.08

Here are some Ireland items in the news lately:

• Aer Lingus is having a serious discount on summer fares to Ireland in business class, but you have to book by May 31 and travel between July 7 and September 15 to take advantage of these cheap air tickets.
• Ireland makes Frommers’ list of the seven best places to travel solo.
• This is a great line: “Ireland can be that place you missed as you traveled around Ireland, looking for Ireland.” Great article, too.
• The Diageo company, producers of Guinness, is closing two of its breweries in Kilkenny and Dundalk, and reducing capacity at St. James’s Gate. They’ll be building a new brewery outside Dublin, however.
• Here’s a fun selection of Ireland’s submissions to the Eurovision song contest over the years, all having to do with either “love” or “the world.”
• Irish writer Nuala O’Faolain has died at age 68.
• Ireland’s earthworms are worth more than €700 million to the Irish environment. Don’t tell the worms that, or they’ll be expecting compensation.
• Ireland will commemorate the victims of the Irish Famine with a new memorial day added to the calendar. A newly-formed committee will decide on the day and what events will occur to recognize the more than 1 million people who died in the 1840s.