of year-round events, check out www.visitdublin.com SHOPPING Avoca 11–13 Suffolk Street, Dublin 2 is a ‘yummy mummy’ haven and has beautiful clothes for all ages but especially lovely things for children. Tel: 00 353 1 677 4215; www.avoca.ieBrown Thomas

(aka The Glasgow Boys), as well as Turner Prize nominees. The gallery runs a free drop-in art workshop for children aged three to 12 on Saturdays from 10.30am to 1pm. These are held in the old rooftop café where there is also a working studio

to Gatorland. But Busch Gardens was our next destination. Home to over 20,000 exotic animals: giraffes, deer, rhinos, meercats, monkeys and, in the new Jungala area, two of the world’s most endangered species, Bengal tigers and orang-utans. The highlight for us