Christy Moore live at the Galway Arts Festival - VIDEO

Christy Moore

Christy Moore recently wowed audiences at the annual Galway Arts Festival.

An acclaimed Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. Moore was one of the founding members of the Irish traditional group Planxty.

Galway Arts Festival is Ireland's largest international arts festival. Founded in 1978 it has grown into an event with a significant reputation where, in 2011, there were 162,000 attendances at 176 performances, talks and exhibitions in 27 venues over 14 days. The Festival showcases a wide variety of international artists alongside the best of Irish talent and includes music (popular, contemporary, jazz, world, classical and traditional), theatre (indoor and outdoor), visual arts, dance, talks, discussions, family events and comedy in its programme. The festival is currently running from July 16 to 29.

Watch more videos from the GAF here.

Dublin Zoo welcomes new baby giraffe

The new baby giraffe at Dublin zoo

Dublin Zoo is celebrating the birth of a female Rothschild giraffe, which was born on June 27th.

The calf stands tall at six foot and takes after her mother Maeve with her light tan coat. This is Maeve’s second calf at Dublin Zoo as she gave birth to Arria nearly two years ago.

The giraffe calf made her first appearance in the African Savanna just three days after she was born. She joins a herd of ten giraffes of which six are pure Rothschild giraffes, including her sister Arria.

Helen Clarke-Bennet, team leader of the African Plains said, “She is a beautiful, strong and healthy calf.  She is very confident for her age as most calves would not join the herd until a week after they are born, however she is has integrated very well.  We are delighted with our new addition.”

The youngest member of the giraffe family is yet to be named and keepers are asking the public to provide suggestions for names based on her African origin. The keepers offered some tips on names they like to choose. They said, “We like names that are original, based on the animal’s country of origin and tell us something about the newborn.”

Name suggestions will be accepted can be submitted through Facebook www.facebook.com/dublinzoo and the in Learning & Discovery Centre at Dublin Zoo.

Rory McIlroy shows off his skills - hits goal post crossbar from 450 feet - VIDEO

Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy is honing his skills in advance of the British Open tee off next week by showing off at an EA Sports event.

The Northern Irish golfer hit the crossbar of a soccer goal post from 150 yards.

McIlroy admits that this stunt took several attempts, but it’s still very impressive.

Here’s the clip:

Ireland’s largest zoo has unveiled its first adult bull elephant in 100 years

At 17-years-old, Upali measures three meters tall and weighs more than 6,000 kilos, reports RTE news.

The Asian bull elephant will live at Dublin zoo for the next 15 to 20 years with four females as part of the international breeding programme.

Speaking at the ceremony, Leo Oosterweghel, director at Dublin Zoo, said, “Upali’s arrival is a hugely significant occasion for us as part of the international breeding programme.

“We are especially pleased to have Minister Brian Hayes with us today to celebrate the arrival of Upali and opening of the Bull Elephant House. We are also very grateful to the Government and the OPW for the funding and technical support they have provided over the past 18 years.

“Without the commitment from the Government we could not have transformed Dublin Zoo into Ireland’s number-one family attraction with over one million visitors per annum.”

For more on Upali, visit: www.dublinzoo.ie.

1,400 people dressed as nuns in Kerry break Guinness World Record -VIDEO

Supporting Nunday!

More than 1,400 revellers dressed as nuns flocked to a village in Kerry last weekend to smash a Guinness world record.

Men and women dressed as nuns descended on Listowel on Saturday for ‘Nunday’ to help raise funds for Pieta House, a charity aimed at preventing suicide and self-harm.

The crowd broke the previous record, which stood at 250 for the largest meeting of people dressed as nuns.

Organizer Cora O’Brien told TheJournal.ie how they ran out of habits for the participants.

“We’d initially expected a couple of hundred people to take part but the whole thing just took off over the past week and we actually ran out of nuns’ habits a few days ago,” said O’Brien, who lost her son to suicide in 2007.

“The excitement in the town was immense and everyone really got into the spirit of things,” said O’Brien.

Organizers provided all registered participants with a black habit, a white coif, and a black veil for the event. 

The official count took place at 6 o’clock in a football field in Listowel . Afterwards, the 1,436 nuns paraded through the town.

Irish police on the hunt for a man with ‘huge man boobs’

Irish police have described a man who robbed a cash in transit van in Dublin on Friday as having “huge man boobs”.

According to the Herald, Irish cops are looking for a man who was wearing a blue hoodie, jeans and a baseball cap and had rather large man boobs, or moobs as they are also known.

The Dublin based newspaper posted the following on Twitter: “Gardai hunting for Dundrum cash-in-transit robber have describing him as having “hug man boobs. #Herald”