Following an avalanche of almost 10,000 entries in less than one month for “Your Very Own Ireland” podcast contest – we selected three Americans to go to “work” as podcasters for Tourism Ireland.

The result were these very personal impressions from Nancy Daly, Blair Ciecko and Bob Aldrich. As you will hear, each is unique as the podcasters themselves.

Their assignment was simple: each was to invite a guest and spend a week roaming about Ireland. “Go wherever your imagination tells you,” we said, “speak with whomever you like and report on whatever is of interest – all without any guidance, supervision or direction from us.”

We gave them a bit of help, of course: we provided round-trip airfare on Aer Lingus, a car rental and an MP3 player, and made hotel reservations for them along the way. We also sent along a representative only for “MP3 player” support (always shadowing them at a discreet distance, allowing each to wander, meander, and get lost to their heart’s content).

How to listen: You can listen to the podcasts using our flash player by clicking on the links to the left or alternatively you can use our RSS feeds if your PC is confugured with a feed reader. Click on the RSS Podcast icon for more information.