Birr Castle Demesne is open to the public every day of the year and attracts an average of over fifty thousand visitors annually. The castle itself however remains a private residence, still the home of the family which originally built it and has lived there ever since for some fourteen generations. Two hundred years ago, this family, called Parsons, inherited the Earldom of Rosse, and the present head of the family living at Birr Castle is Brendan Parsons, Seventh Earl of Rosse.

This special tour created by Adams & Butler includes visits to houses & collections to which the public does not normally have access. You will visit the sites associated with James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Olive Goldsmith & a host of other literary greats. During the tour you will enjoy a lunch in Chapter One, a literary restaurant, with a visit to The Writer's Museum upstairs. The museum houses copies of the magical works of most of the great Irish story tellers: Bram Stoker and George Bernard Shaw amongst others.   Visit Greene's Bookshop & Oscar Wilde's old home on Merrion Square, then enjoy a pub dinner and a visit to the historic and quintessentially Irish, Abbey Theatre.

St Patrick's Cathedral is home of Dean Swift & Marsh's Library is where Sherian LeFanu worked. Christchurch Cathedral is the site of the first production of Handel's Messiah in 1742.  Dublin is also the home of George Bernard Shaw.. Would you fancy dinner at The House of The Dead?  The house is named this as it was the setting of Joyce's famous story "The Dead".  It is claimed that the building has one of the greatest literary addresses in the world, whose pedigree is hard to beat. Most of the characters are based on people Joyce would have met there while visiting his aunt's. It merits a further mention in Ulysses (Circe Chapter), and John Huston topped it all off with his own masterpiece and swansong.

On 23 May 2015, Ireland became the first country to legalise same sex marriage through a nationwide referendum. The Irish Pride community is very welcoming. There are parades and festivals during Gay Pride in all Irish cities and many smaller towns. If your visit to Dublin coincides with the first Saturday of the month then a visit to the Excise Bar Affinity 4 Girls is a must!

If you are a LGBT member these towns should be on your list.

Dublin has long been a centre of art and culture. Stroll through the elegant Georgian streets of Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares, shop in the elegant emporiums of Grafton Street and Powerscourt Townhouse, explore the collections of the National Museum and National Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and many fine small private collections. The range of art and artefacts is enormous, and you will have no problem spending many hours enthralled... The city is over a thousand years old, and many of the towns and settlements that surround it are equally ancient. Successive centuries have left their distinctive overlays of character and architecture which means that Dublin has a wealth of historically significant and fascinating sights to explore such as Dublin Castle, where the Normans ruled from the 12th Century, St Patrick's Cathedral, of which Jonathan Swift was Dean, and Trinity College, famous for The Book of Kells and for its alumni who include Oscar Wilde and Oliver Goldsmith. And no visit to Dublin could be complete without visiting either the Old Whiskey Distillery or the Guinness Storehouse!

In Kilkenny enjoy a tour through the craftworkers' studios of the valleys of the Nore and Barrow to Woodstock House, which is the home of an enduring emblem of Sapphic friendship. In 1778 Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby eloped to Wales where they lived together for over fifty years. Best known as the Ladies of Llangollen, after the Welsh village where they lived in "delicious retirement".

Kenmare is a smaller less frenetic town than its neighbour Killarney, and a tiny bit classier. It also has a faint whiff of hippydom - in the 60s it was Ireland's San Francisco!! They are all now organic farmers, film directors or writers.  If Killarney is the preferred destination, the town has magnificent views of the lakes and mountains.

If you tour the Ring of Kerry, don't miss the lunch at Cill Rialaig artists' retreat. It is run by former magazine publisher and socialite Noelle Campbell-Sharpe. This is a place where artists are invited to spend a residency period, contributing some piece of their work to the centre afterwards, and also combines a shop, café and gallery .

Please note  Siobhan Byrne Learat our Found & CEO will be representing Adams & Butler at Proud Experiences in New York from 22nd to 24th of June 2020.