{"id":674122,"date":"2026-11-03T23:04:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T23:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/674122\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T23:04:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T23:04:28","slug":"the-lough-in-all-its-christmas-glory-features-on-cover-of-129th-edition-of-the-holly-bough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/674122\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lough in all its Christmas glory features on cover of 129th edition of the Holly Bough\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The arrival of the Holly Bough on newsstands across the city and county this week will signal the beginning of the countdown to Christmas in Cork <\/a>for many.<\/p>\n

First published back in 1897, this year marks the 129th year of the festive publication, which is staple for households not just across Cork, but among the diaspora around the world.<\/p>\n

The colourful cover art for this year’s edition was created by Cork artist Susan Mulcahy of Saucy Pups.<\/p>\n

The scene, depicting the Lough, is one that will be recognisable to many.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy vision of it was that it was the Lough without any people, which is actually unusual for me. I normally have people bustling around in the background, but I wanted this to be like very early on a Christmas morning when it\u2019s just the ducks and the geese out there. And I just thought it\u2019d be fun that they\u2019d all be wearing Christmas hats and that they\u2019d be all having their own little Christmas while it\u2019s like still and the air is crispy and there\u2019s nobody around,” said Susan.<\/p>\n

The Cork artist vividly remembers driving past the Lough as a child at Christmas after her family would visit friends or relatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Christmas lights in the crib are on, and the little kind of lanterns all around are lit, and it just gives me Central Park vibes with the lighting at night. And it\u2019s always just a cosy feeling of, do you know that song, Driving Home for Christmas? They\u2019re all kind of tied together in my head, just that feeling of being young, going home, and you\u2019re cosy in the backseat of the car, and it\u2019s Christmas time, and like the air feels like it\u2019s Christmas time. It\u2019s all very exciting.\u201d Susan is very proud to be a part of the 2026 Holly Bough.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSeeing the covers by Jason O\u2019Gorman and Fiona Foley, I thought it was so cool. I had my eyes set on it for years and thought, wouldn\u2019t I love to do something like that. It\u2019s like being a part of history of Cork. It\u2019s genuinely an honour.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

This year’s edition features a host of fascinating stories and interviews with plenty of history, sports, arts and entertainment across 164 pages.<\/p>\n

It also features a much-expanded reader picture gallery section.<\/p>\n

“I was really struck by the sheer volume of letters and pictures from readers over the past year who spoke of the importance of the Holly Bough to their families, and to their Christmas traditions. We received pictures of families with the Holly Bough on milestone birthdays, family trips, at weddings, even meeting their grandchildren for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For many, getting the Holly Bough at Christmas is something that has been passed down through the generations, and it is really special to see how today, it’s a tradition that they continue to pass down to their children,” said Holly Bough editor Mary Corcoran.<\/p>\n

The 2026 edition also features all the usual favourites including our children’s section, the Diffney, the Film Quiz and the Humdinger, as well as the crossword. It also includes a selection of short stories and poems, with the artwork for our fiction section created by the talented students at Col\u00e1iste \u00c9amann R\u00eds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The arrival of the Holly Bough on newsstands across the city and county this week will signal the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[79,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-674122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cork-news","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}