{"id":234728,"date":"2025-12-15T22:57:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/234728\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T22:57:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:57:17","slug":"pictures-holly-bough-challenge-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/234728\/","title":{"rendered":"Pictures: Holly Bough challenge continues&#8230;."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">Last year we boldly asked the question.. could 2025 be the year we would complete our  Holly Bough tour of the USA?<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Our quest to have readers send us their pictures from the States dates back for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Back in 2022, my predecessor John Dolan wrote about the enduring success of the our picture gallery &#8211; at that time there were just nine states that readers had not visited. By 2023, that figure was five, and last year it was three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Well, readers, you\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Last year, I called on people to capture pictures in Wyoming, South Dakota and Oklahoma, and you delivered!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896545_2_articleinlinemobile_US_20Neil_20Buckley_20_20Mount_20Rushmore_20South_20Dakota_20June_2020.jpeg\" alt=\"Neil Buckley at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota\u00a0\" title=\"Neil Buckley at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota\u00a0\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Neil Buckley at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Neil Buckley sent us a fantastic picture from Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Thomas Buckley and Jane Molofsky made it to Devil\u2019s Tower, Wyoming, and finally, Justine McCarthy was in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896548_2_articleinlinemobile_US_20Thomas_20Buckley_20and_20Jane_20Molofsky_20at_20Devils_20Tower_20.jpeg\" alt=\"Thomas Buckley and Jane Molofsky in Wyoming.\" title=\"Thomas Buckley and Jane Molofsky in Wyoming.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Thomas Buckley and Jane Molofsky in Wyoming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">And that\u2019s not the only good news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">We\u2019ve ticked another one off our card on the European countries left to visit with Deirdre Richardson\u2019s visit to Andorra.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896551_2_articleinlinemobile_HB_202025_20Chile.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"Jim and Katie Corbett in Puerto Natales, Southern Chile.\" title=\"Jim and Katie Corbett in Puerto Natales, Southern Chile.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Jim and Katie Corbett in Puerto Natales, Southern Chile.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Five left to go:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listbullet\">\n<li>Belarus<\/li>\n<li>Moldova<\/li>\n<li>Albania<\/li>\n<li>North Macedonia<\/li>\n<li>San Marino<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">We had not one, but two pictures from Antarctica!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896554_2_articleinlinemobile_US_20Justine_20McCarthy_20_parents_20both_20Corkonians_20outside_20_27.jpeg\" alt=\"Justine McCarthy outside 'The Palace on the Prairie' - Football Stadium of the University of Oklahoma Sooners in Oklahoma.\u00a0\" title=\"Justine McCarthy outside 'The Palace on the Prairie' - Football Stadium of the University of Oklahoma Sooners in Oklahoma.\u00a0\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Justine McCarthy outside &#8216;The Palace on the Prairie&#8217; &#8211; Football Stadium of the University of Oklahoma Sooners in Oklahoma.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">We\u2019ve also received our first pictures from the Isle of Wight and Bristol.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896557_2_articleinlinemobile_UK_20Emma_20and_20my_20boyfriend_20Killian._20We_e2_80_99re_20both_20f.jpeg\" alt=\"Emma and Killian, both from Cork but living in Bristol, at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.\u00a0\" title=\"Emma and Killian, both from Cork but living in Bristol, at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.\u00a0\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Emma and Killian, both from Cork but living in Bristol, at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Just nine more counties to go: Cumbria, Herefordshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">SEND US YOUR PICTURES<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The  Holly Bough is quite the global phenomenon as evidenced by the pages of our annual picture gallery.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896560_2_articleinlinemobile_ANTARTICA_20Tony_20Smith_20from_20Australia_20_20in_20Antarctica.jpeg..jpeg\" alt=\"Tony Smith in Antarctica.\" title=\"Tony Smith in Antarctica.\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Tony Smith in Antarctica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Each year we ask our readers to have a picture taken with the Holly Bough and to send it to us to share with our readers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896563_2_articleinlinemobile_SOUTH_20GEORGIA_20Claire_20_20visiting_20the_20penguins_.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"Claire Horgan visiting the king penguins in South Georgia.\u00a0\" title=\"Claire Horgan visiting the king penguins in South Georgia.\u00a0\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Claire Horgan visiting the king penguins in South Georgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If you would like to send us your pictures to appear in the 2026 Holly Bough, simply capture a snap in an interesting location with the publication and send your picture to one of the addresses below.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4896566_2_articleinlinemobile_Andorra_20la_20Vella_20capital_20of_20Andorra_20Deirdre_20Richardson_2.jpeg\" alt=\"Deirdre Richardson nee Sheehan from Balineen and now living in Calgary in Canada with her husband Bill at Andorra la Vella.\u00a0\" title=\"Deirdre Richardson nee Sheehan from Balineen and now living in Calgary in Canada with her husband Bill at Andorra la Vella.\u00a0\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Deirdre Richardson nee Sheehan from Balineen and now living in Calgary in Canada with her husband Bill at Andorra la Vella.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Email: hollybough@theecho.ie or send your photos via our website echolive.ie\/hollybough Post: Holly Bough, c\/o The Echo, Linn Dubh, Assumption Road, Blackpool, Cork, Ireland Details: Please include the names of all the people pictured, the location, their links to Cork, as well as your contact details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">CLOSING DATE<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The closing date for submissions for the 2026 edition is October 1, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year we boldly asked the question.. could 2025 be the year we would complete our Holly Bough&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,97751,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-234728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-holly-bough","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115726060538236095","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}