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Kurt’s Fender in Newbridge

Kurt Cobain founded the band whose music has been described as the soundtrack to "Generation X", and now one of Nirvana's frontman’s most famous guitars is on display at the Museum of Style Icons at Newbridge Silverware, Newbridge, Co. Kildare from Thursday 5th to Sat 7th of May, 2022.

In what is a world exclusive event for the home of style in Ireland, Newbridge Silverware will display Kurt Cobain’s 1969 Fender Mustang, Lake Placid blue finish electric guitar. The left-handed guitar was used by the Nirvana frontman in the band’s seminal and culture defining 1991 music video, "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Cobain and the music of Nirvana are regarded as being the fire starter to the alternative rock revolution and generations later is still igniting the alternative rock world. Cobain’s painting of Michael Jackson and his own "Nevermind" Australian Tour 1992 laminated personal back stage pass is also on display.

Hospitality Fears End of Supports

Bars, hotels and restaurants fear they risk going out of business if Government fails to retain some Covid supports this year.

According to a survey by insolvency experts Kroll and the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), more than 85pc of hospitality firms say they would not have survived without government supports.

Out of 150 companies surveyed, 42pc said they will not have enough working capital after the end of supports, such as the employment wage subsidy scheme, which will stop this month.

"My own personal view is that we are likely to see an increase in insolvencies as we go through the year, particularly in the back end of the year," said Declan Taite, managing director in Kroll’s restructuring team.

‘Pedestrians Only’ on Capel Street

Capel Street in Dublin City Centre is to be pedestrianised starting in May after Dublin City Council received an "overwhelming" response in favour of making the street traffic-free.

The proposal, which was supported by Dublin City councillors, is set to come into effect within the next three to four weeks. While the street will be traffic-free for a majority of the day, delivery vehicles will still be able to access the street between 6am and 11am on a daily basis.

There were over 1,700 submissions sent to DCC on the proposed pedestrianisation, with 91% of these supporting the proposal. 97% of the submissions from the general public (1,311) were in favour of pedestrianisation.

Ryanair Sells More Seats

Ryanair's load factor - a measure of how well an airline is filling available seats - rose above 90% for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic as traffic rose sharply during the key Easter holiday period.

Ryanair said it flew 14.2 million people in April compared to just over 1 million during lockdown a year ago - an increase of 1,267%. The airline had carried 13.5 million passengers in April 2019. This marks the second month in a row it has carried more passengers than in the corresponding pre-pandemic period. Ryanair, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said it operated over 82,600 flights in April with a 91% load factor.

Golf Media Play East Courses

Fáilte Ireland is hosting a group of international golfing media from the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, France and Italy with a combined reach of one million ahead of the Horizon Irish Open, which takes place at Mount Juliet Golf Club from 30th June to 3rd July 2022.

Organised by Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, the journalists are in Ireland to play some of Ireland’s top golf courses in Ireland’s Ancient East. The group played at The European Club, Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow; the Rosslare golf links in County Wexford; and Mount Juliet golf course in County Kilkenny.

Explaining the importance of such media trips, Emma Woods, Head of Marketing Communications with Fáilte Ireland, said: