Tolkien's links with NUI Galway are also charted on the Burren Tolkien Society website.

BBC: Did Gollum get his name from a cave in the Irish Burren?

What is known is that it wasn't until 1722, when a Dutch expedition arrived, that the Rapa Nui had any contact with outsiders.

CNN: 5 reasons to visit Easter Island

Once you have your sea legs, Rapa Nui is a choose-your-adventure kind of place, where you can tailor your surfing experience to your skill.

BBC: Surfing on Easter Island

Version 2.0 and on will also begin to feature an advanced Natural User Interface (NUI) based on hand gestures, eye tracking, and EEG brainwave sensors.

FORBES: Connect

As Nui explained to me, by earning these small amounts of money, they no longer need to dive as often for goods to trade, which can be dangerous for their health.

BBC: The end of a wandering way of life?

Every October attention turns to the sea during the Hawaiki Nui Va'a, an outrigger canoe race that attracts more than 100 teams which navigate around the Society Islands between Huahine, Raiatea, Taha'a and Bora Bora.

BBC: Getting in the Tahitian spirit

When the early settlers sailed to Rapa Nui from Polynesia, life on the lost island was all about living off the sea, and evidence indicates that crude surfboards were constructed for travel and fishing.

BBC: Surfing on Easter Island

Speaking on Irish state broadcaster Rates' News at One, Fr Twomey, the Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at NUI Maynooth, said he was shocked at the Pope's resignation, but in hindsight he had given "some signals" in an interview last year.

BBC: Pope Benedict XVI