McKennas’ Guides in partnership with DCU publish three new food and travel Apps in Ireland

The McKennas’ Guides, in partnership with lecturers and students from the DCU School of Communications, have launched their latest series of smart guides to hotel and dining experiences in Ireland.

The ‘Where to Eat and Stay on the Wild Atlantic Way’ App is a production in association with staff and students of the BSc in Multimedia and MA in Multimedia, via the Enterprise Ireland knowledge and partnership scheme. It leverages knowledge of mobile technologies and interaction design principles from the School and is built with the convenience of users who are planning or already have a trip to the WAW in mind.

GPS technologies not only orient the user with regard to great places to eat and stay nearby, but provide unintrusive but useful notifications of local specialities nearby. Time as well as location is a factor that the app seeks to address, with a handy "Open now" quick reference for users who are browsing the availability of nearby recommendations. Detailed information about the opening times is provided too, so whether you're planning for a later trip or are on the ground and need the best cup of coffee or the perfect sea view that's closest, the WAW App has you covered, bringing convenient technological features to the great writing and renowned recommendations of the McKennas.

“We have benefited from the experience of last year's 100 Best Restaurants App”, says DCU Lecturer Dónal Mulligan, who oversaw the development of all three Apps. “We've worked to make the year's version and the 100 Best Apps even better. The Apps are highly optimised, so they run faster and take up less space on your devices, while still giving you the same quality information and convenient links to social media and web for the establishments listed."

“In return, this project has provided invaluable experience for our students in applying their interactive multimedia research to industry and the workplace.”

John and Sally McKenna's annual 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland is the most radical guide to the cutting-edge of Irish cooking. With the 2015 smartguide edition, the McKennas rewrite the book, crowning Galway as the finest city to eat in Ireland and, for the first time ever, including food carts and a food shack amongst the 100 hottest places to eat throughout the country.

John McKenna adds: "In addition to food carts from Derry and West Cork, there is also a food shack, there is a canteen that is housed in a market, there is a surfer's paradise in County Sligo, and there is a pizza place in Donegal run by an hotelier, a baker and a craft brewer. Some of the hottest new talents, like Kevin Murphy of idas in Dingle, Marty Murphy of Howard Street in Belfast and Dan O'Brien of Vaughan Lodge in County Clare, make their debuts in the new guide."

“What unifies these places, is great cooking. These are places where people want to be, run by chefs who have served their time in some of the world’s greatest kitchens, but choose to produce something utterly different in Ireland.”

In the 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland there are twelve new places, including B&Bs, Guesthouses, grand hotels, and Country Houses.

All three Apps will be available from Sunday 8th March from both iTunes and Google Play. Each App costs €2.99.