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Saghmosavank Gorge, about 100kms from Yerevan. Before I visited Armenia and before I had done any research, the only thing I knew about the country was that it was (a) The birthplace of Christianity, as in the first country in the world to declare itself Christian, around the 3rd Century and (b) It was one of the fifteen republics of the old Soviet Union. I did have an inkling that the country might be reasonably well developed as I recalled the days when we worked in Moscow

Today I’m back to my theme of writing travel blogs on places I’ve visited often but have never written about. Spain is a country which offers a lot; some would say it has everything you’ll ever need. In Elton John’s song, ‘Daniel,’ he says it’s the best place he’s ever seen and it is hard to disagree with him. Spain is not just a destination — it’s an experience. A patchwork of ancient history, sunny beach resorts, dramatic mountain ranges, vibrant cities, beautiful timeless

A few years ago, while on a solo trip through southern Europe, I found myself in the south of Bulgaria on a Friday afternoon when I realised that the All-Ireland football final was taking place on the Sunday of that weekend. Dublin were playing Kerry and going for five-in-a-row and I was anxious to see it. So, I googled Irish pubs near me, and the nearest one I could find was in Thessaloniki, which, of course, was across the border in Greece. But that wasn’t a problem. It was

Before I visited Egypt, I should probably have paid more attention or cognizance to my history knowledge. I was aware that for a relatively long period from the 1950’s to the 1990’s or thereabouts, Egypt was allied with and to a large extent supplied by, the Soviet Union. This had been at the back of my mind but I had assumed that it was a military thing because the US was supplying Israel so Egypt turned to the Soviets. What I didn’t realise was that Egypt didn’t just import

On our recent trip to the Balkans, my partner and I visited four countries in eleven days. We started in Croatia, crossed into Montenegro, then Albania, back into Montenegro, then into Bosnia and back to Croatia. So we quickly got used to crossing borders in remote mountain enclaves; I think apart from one time, ours was the only car in the queue at the border posts and a cursory check on our passports was all that was required. Imagine our shock therefore, when we crossed th

Much of my writings recently are random and varied. This is because they stem from past experiences recounted to friends, who immediately said, ‘you should write that down.’ So here goes: It was the 21 st  of March 2015. Ireland were going reasonably well in the six nations rugby championship. We had won the previous year’s championship on points difference. In 2015, we weren’t setting the world on fire or anything like that but due to a combination of teams beating each othe

Driving in the Atlas Mountains - Algeria has excellent infrastructure. I’ve thought long and hard about how to start this travel blog because I don’t want to put people off the country at the outset. Firstly, perspective — Algeria is a huge country, the ninth largest on earth, almost one and a half times the size of Western Europe, so it’s not a place you’ll explore in a weekend. I was there for a week and I managed to see quite a bit of it — eventually. The explanation for t

Although similarly titled to some of my previous novels, this book is set in Bosnia during the 1990’s at the height of the Bosnian war. Attached are a synopsis and the first chapter: The war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1996 was among the most brutal conflicts ever seen in Europe. People could not believe that such heinous and sub-human acts thought to be consigned to history, could still happen in modern day Europe. But they did…. Drazen Itsakovic is a simple farmer; all he has ev

Cover of "No Margin for Error" This book was published in 2012 and received good reviews in the Sunday Times and Sunday Independent plus from many on line readers. It is still available from Amazon and other vendors. Here is a review and the prologue: The debut novel  No Margin for Error  by Liam Flood is a fast paced thriller which offers the reader an insight into a new world order in which the current social and economic paradigm is replaced with a new ideology in which fo

Elephants in the Masai Mara, Kenya. Small nations have always suffered at the hands and feet and weapons of larger, stronger and wealthier nations. I need only mention my own country’s occupation by its larger neighbour for 800 years. But we won’t talk of Ireland in this article. Looking at the history of the world, there is nowhere that has suffered as much as Africa. In this instance, it was a case of an entire continent being bullied by a more powerful neighbouring contine

Today’s story is inspired by a former colleague and a good mate, who when reading one of my blogs a few weeks ago, said whatever you do, don’t write about the time we got deported from Belarus. Unbeknownst to us both, I had done it two years ago, but it bears repeating….. Phase 1: It is said that to make a mistake once is forgivable, twice is careless and three times is unforgivable. I am therefore on my last chance in relation to Belarus. I have managed (almost) to get mysel

Byala - sunrise over the Black Sea. Lots of people have been asking me about writing and if I was doing anything or getting back to it. As I’ve visited many places, I’ve been told many times that I should do a travel blog or tourist reviews. I’ve done a lot of solo trips by car and just gone where the road takes me. A couple of years ago, I met some people in Bulgaria who told me I should make a business out of it. I’m not so sure about that but here is an unvarnished step–by