@Ireland Curator: Martin McKenna

Thanks for all your interesting tweets and contributions this week. You'll find my regular service on @martinjmckenna Over and out!

With the football on, perfect time to pass the @ireland baton to @fionakearney who will be tweeting to you tomorrow from Cork!

@tanhuiyi @sweden almost everyone in my peer group went straight for 3/4 year degrees. Some swedes do individual uni courses now and then

@swflcptr @sweden points.

One September two years ago 6 close friends of mine all spread out to different parts of the world. All had great success in their new homes

Of course the strained jobs market and emigration have been major topics for my generation. I've been lucky to land a full time job

It's more common for people to go straight from school to university in @ireland than it is in @sweden for example.

It's interesting to compare young adult life in @ireland and in @sweden. Marriage is definitely less of a big deal in @sweden than here.

Two friends of mine have babies, one set is getting married soon – it all happened so fast!

A lot of my peers are now in the business of amassing vuxenpoäng. It's a big transition from college life that I'm still getting used to.

It all felt very grown up. In @Sweden there is the concept of "vuxenpoäng" — "adult points". Going to dinner parties is defo a few points.

We got Rolling in the Deep, Someone like you and, er... Hit me baby one more time.

A session is usually where different people play an instrument or sing in turns.

Whew, what a weekend. Need another weekend imminently. Was at a great birthday party dinner last night. Ended with a bit of a "session".

Happy birthday @j_patz!

Incredible photo of a mother and son from 1890, from @NLIreland's fantastic Flickr feed flickr.com/photos/nlirela…

Right everyone, it's your round. #friday

@paulmwatson sure what else would you be doing of a Friday evening?

@jimlhopper sounds great! Roll on the weekend :)

@Britt_W trevligt!

@ErinsFiddle @irish_stew whopper!

@iandevlin enjoy!

@GLarAuna sláinte!

Is it Friday evening yet where you are? What are you getting up to?

#friday pic.twitter.com/BGnWByo9

Aaaaaaand see ya later Friday. Time for a lovely lovely pint.

@bethcovington A meal served once-off in a venue that isn't usually a restaurant!

@missdoyle2u Actually I'm a recent entrant to the market and an even more recent, er, exiter from the market; started my job in Feb

.@this1littlebird defo! Grogan's on South William St is my favourite for that!

Lots of lovely #dublife faves coming up!

Have any of you lived in or visited Dublin? Or live there now? Any favourite parts of #dublife to share?

Here's @ingeniousie talking about the night Dublin dissected an elephant: youtube.com/watch?v=vzVsgg… Well worth watching, only 5 mins! #dublife

Another #dublife hero: Mary Mulvihill from @ingeniousie who produce really fun and unusual audio walking tours of Dublin

Here's some beautiful quail served at @SuppaClubProjec #dublife pic.twitter.com/H0gJ2Lui

Carrying on from yesterday's #irishfood theme, Sandy and John from @SuppaClubProjec are #dublife heroes. Their pop-up dinners are fab

@xfirefishx Det gör jag!

Thought I'd highlight a couple of small ideas making big waves in this city this afternoon #dublife

I mentioned on Mon how much I enjoy living in this city. It's small enough that if you have a cool idea you can make a big impact. #dublife

So I'm a Dub (= Dubliner), born and bred, albeit a first generation Dub – dad from Belfast, mum from Stockholm.

Haaaaaaaapy Friday! Weather status: crazy. (That means normal).

@darraghdoyle Really enjoyed the interaction with everyone so far, it's been so positive & so engaged :)

@darraghdoyle Ah sure.

Congrats @unakavanagh on her degree results today! Well done!

@sextonireland Thanks!

@WeAreAustralia It's pretty bad down in Cork in the south I hear...

And now for a brief interruption to our #irishfood service for a message from Becks, who you'll remember said good morning the other day...

*books flights* RT @wholesomeIE: @ireland @andrewhennigan @irishfood I know that @DunbrodyHouse has an excellent restaurant in Florida. ;-)

Back in the day, Myrtle Allen courageously ran an Irish restaurant in Paris called La Ferme Irlandaise nytimes.com/1983/11/27/tra…

Anyone know of any outside Ireland? RT @andrewhennigan: This talk about @irishfood reminds me, are there Irish Restaurants anywhere?

One of my #irishfood heroes is Myrtle Allen of @Ballymaloe House: youtube.com/watch?v=OX9XiQ…

Controversial RT @AnseoAMuinteoir: @ireland @pthosford eh no its curry chips and cheese none of your garlic now #Irishfood

The food trucks in our farmers markets definitely rival the food truck trend in the US and elsewhere too #irishfood

@BasquesAbroad That's true, but I've always been unsure of what's actually in white pudding!

There's dozens of fantastic farmers markets around the country too, including loads in cities. Here's a list bordbia.ie/aboutfood/farm… #irishfood

@andrewhennigan Anywhere outside of Ireland do you mean?

.@mccarthykanturk is a champion of the Brotherhood of the Knights of the Blackpudding jackmccarthy.ie/shop/awards/ #irishfood

Black pudding is a breakfast dish; it's a kind of sausage made with blood and lots of spices #irishfood

And garlic cheese fries of course RT @PTHosford: @ireland You left out Supermacs. #irishfood

Superb beef, amazing fish & shellfish, soft fruits in season, a great baking tradition, a huge cheese scene… #Irishfood

So today I'd like to talk about #Irishfood. We've got some of the best raw ingredients in the world in this country

@iandevlin Yep, flooding in places!

Good morning! An even "softer" day today than yesterday...

@WeAreAustralia I'm feeling woozy just thinking about it. Just got into bed on Wednesday night

@WeAreAustralia I think so! What time is it with you? Don't tell me though if the answer might prompt a return to my jet lag... :)

Whew, what a busy day in work and at home. Tomorrow I've got one thing on my (tweet) brain: foooooood…

.@Chocolatemama38 Definitely! Being Irish is a state of mind! :)

Another great #onlyinireland RT coming up from @ChristineDMpr pointed out by @darraghdoyle

Frank McNally rounded up "a history of Ireland in 100 euphemisms": irishcentral.com/news/An-Irishm…

A grand soft day today. One of our many euphemisms — this one for rain

Good morning! For breakfast today, beautiful Irish strawberries pic.twitter.com/wT0K3li2

@DavidClinchNews @unakavanagh Yes, last week! worldirish.com/atireland/45

Dublin's outgoing Lord Mayor threw a giant spear into the sea to mark the end of his term thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/lord-mayor-of-… #onlyinireland

At a film in the cinema, killer disappears. Girl realises wife character in danger & shouts "The wife!" Whole room cracks up #onlyinireland

@ClaireNolan Come on, I love it here. I think these #onlyinireland stories are really charming and not at all negative.

Great #onlyinireland stories coming in. Keep 'em coming with the hashtag.

@mc_gough Great story!

Jaysis! RT @weareFrance: @ireland found a baby royal python in bathroom press in 1st bed sit I stayed in... #onlyinireland

@ClaireNolan So I now understand. Still bizarre

@crmagahy @cathyby Don't forget this was 4 years ago. It definitely happened though – saw it myself.

@noelahogan Haha, amazing story! #onlyinireland

@JohnMoynes Go on...

@tonyennis The RTs of the post are insane. Pages and pages and pages of them. Think people have plugged Mashable's feed into their Twitter.

A bus I was waiting for never showed up. I found out that it was because the bus that the bus driver had to take was late #onlyinireland

Great #onlyinireland story in two parts coming up from @scarie…

Got any of your own #onlyinireland stories?

@Britt_W Really isn't… got up to eat at 2am this morning :(

I queued to buy the original iPhone in '08. A guy in the queue let a priest take his place as he was a man of the cloth #onlyinireland

So this morning I thought we could share some "only in Ireland" stories. I've got one coming up to get started #onlyinireland

Jaysis, just literally spent minutes paging through RTs of that Mashable post. Literally hundreds. Their traffic must be insane.

Very cool to see @Ireland on Mashable – my "at"s are full of RTs of their post

Gooooood morning Twitter. How are you all this morning? Fairly epic RT coming up.

@aoifacrowley yes it does. Word to the wise: the blackberry sauce for duck took a day of my life I'll never get back.

@David_Ferrie @denisodonovan @EyeBlinks Cheers lads, will put these together into a couple of tweets

@weareFrance Nope, any suggestions?

Just for @Marcc68, a photo from outside of Dublin – this time from Ballymaloe House in Cork (about which more later…) yfrog.com/kkmtsvsj

@weareFrance nope, was in NY until this morning! Tweeting live and direct from Dublin

@weareFrance @blathnaidhealy bonjour!

@tonyennis Quiet you, I can have you deported you know

In case you're curious about how curators for @Ireland are selected, here's some details from the organisers: worldirish.com/blog/view/sele…

@frbryanshortall @eddiewhyte @brendadrumm Nice shot. What a place.

Returning to Ireland MT @EyeBlinks: My choice from Deirdre O'Callaghan deirdreocallaghan.com/images/books_1… Her book: amazon.co.uk/Hide-That-Can-…

Great idea from @EyeBlinks – Tommie Lehane, himself a great street photographer – to share more of Ireland's photographers' work

@EyeBlinks Fab idea – help please! Is that a ferry? The boat to England?

Our restaurant scene is very exciting at the moment too. It's very vibrant with lots of new openings: irishtimes.com/newspaper/week…

What did I say? MT @MetEireann: A few bright sunny breaks … generally cloudy. Rain in SW will spread gradually NE … Mild

In Dean & Deluca in NYC, was thrilled to see Irish produce on the shelves: Kerrygold, Kilbeggan Porrdige, Burren Smokehouse, Gubeen cheese…

So in addition to photography, which I love, I also love food. Luckily we have literally some of the best ingredients in the world here.

@eddiewhyte @frbryanshortall So get cracking on erudite tweets for me to RT, make my job easier!

@eddiewhyte @frbryanshortall good point!

@davemolloy So great. For high contrast scenes I sometimes do a HDR in Camera and then import to + for edits.

This shows the disused Blackrock baths and the Poolbeg Generating Station, a strangely loveable Dublin landmark yfrog.com/obmh6tqtj

@frbryanshortall Thanks, any tips?

In my family we joke that whenever you're wondering what the weather forecast is, the answer is always "Sunny spells and scattered showers"

@NinaLjFredman thanks!

@unakavanagh Whoops! *puts away jet pack*

@saltandsparkle Thanks! All iPhone.

@unakavanagh The jet pack that comes with this account comes in handy for the Malahide > Blackrock > Trinity commute in seconds

They were all taken on my iPhone though – easily one of my favourite cameras ever.

(These photos weren't all taken on the same day – our weather might be a bit mad but it's not that crazy).

And a double rainbow over @tcddublin's Campanile for good measure. yfrog.com/h0qyoxmj

We get every kind of weather in one afternoon in @Ireland. Here's a sun-soaked, rain-drenched Blackrock in south Dublin yfrog.com/hsmk0tfqj

We get some incredible skies in @Ireland. Here's a photo of a rainstorm over Malahide beach, just north of Dublin yfrog.com/mnvphdfj

Good morning! Ahem. Feeling a little sprightlier now, so thought I'd tweet a few photos I've taken around @Ireland

@conorjh @ingeniousie I think that idea makes a lot of sense – "scientists" aren't a homogenous group any more than a country is

@trollnystan Wow, my opposite! Spent much time in Ireland?

Just home, gonna conk out for a little while. Looking forward to getting stuck into tweets when my brain cooperates.

@flngn cheers!

@ScottArbs 1,110,627 in the urban area: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin#De…

@ThisIsKnit thank you!

@pontusbergman Vi får väl vänta och se!

@sweden Hejsan Henok! Ser fram emot att läsa dina tweets!

@phewsha thanks!

@ingeniousie thanks! Looking forward to it!

@EyeBlinks autographs are available, please form an orderly queue

@denisoregan Spent a lot of childhood summers in east Cork too which was wonderful

@denisoregan gimme a chance! My Dad's from Belfast, and it's another great city. Spent a couple of happy summers in Fermanagh too.

“@eddiewhyte: What is your favourite place in Dublin?” For nostalgia, got to be Trinity on a sunny day.

@eddiewhyte for nostalgia, got to be Trinity on a sunny day. If some cherry blossoms are involved all the better

In Dublin if you want to do something cool you can really make an impact on the city. Hope to highlight some such individuals this week.

@Britt_W vilken svensk profil-bild du har! Borde ha gissat att du var svensk!

@eatlikeagirl interesting!

@blablaman44 thanks!

I love living in Dublin; it's such a fantastic city. Small but perfectly formed in my opinion.

Right, while I wait for the Aircoach to take me home from the airport I can continue my biography, 140 characters at a time…

@rachpower10 photography was always my first love!

@josephdelaney so easy to say...

@TheCasinoMarino hope I can live up to expectations!

Oh jaysis @CarlowCountyMus recommends "shots of wasabi" to cure jet lag. A cure worse than the ailment?

@We_R_Russia yep! Takes me a day to get back into the swing of it when I visit

Any tips for defeating jet lag? Just landed and definitely can't promise tweets will make any sense at least for a while...

@runmurphyrun thanks! Definitely struggling with the jet lag at the moment

@paulmwatson I'm done with biochem; no regrets doing it, was a great education.

I recently graduated from @tcddublin (biochemistry). Before Trinity I studied photography in Stockholm.

A little about me: I'm 25, born and raised in Dublin. My Dad is from Belfast and my Mum is from Stockholm, Sweden.

@paulmwatson everyone in my class (2011) (except for me) went straight into or planned to go into postgraduate study imminently

@wholesomeIE thanks!

@Britt_W thanks! Feeling totally uninspired and jet lagged at the moment

Good morning from the red eye from NYC - just landed and feeling very groggy but looking forward to tweeting for Ireland!