the queen has been addressing msps at holyrood to mark the opening of the sixth session of the scottish parliament. this will be the snp�*s fourth consecutive term in government following their election victory in may. alexandra mackenzie has a story. the queen was joined at holyrood by the duke and duchess of rothesay. they were greeted by party leaders, including the first minister. pomp and fanfare. msps looked on as the mace and the crown of scotland were placed in the chamber, symbolising the challenges of this parliamentary term. marking this new session brings a sense of beginning and renewal. the scottish parliament has been at the heart of scotland's response to the pandemic, with people across this country looking to you for leadership and stewardship. due to the pandemic, much of the music was recorded around the country. here in plockton... and this group of asylum seeking and refugee musicians in nicola sturgeon�*s glasgow constituency. we are a nation proud to call itself simply home for everyone who chooses to live here. and it is indeed fitting that the growing diversity of modern scotland is now reflected more clearly in this new parliament. the queen spoke of fond memories of time spent in scotland with her late husband, the duke of edinburgh. she also said it was a moment to look to a new generation. alexandra mackenzie, bbc news. now on bbc news, the travel show. you've gotta love it, proper british coastline. earlier this summer we went on an adventure across the uk, as it opened up for travel again. yes, we're open! from rugged coastlines to breathtaking landscapes... how you doing, guys? ..we met all kinds of people along the way, as we headed down the road to recovery in our head—turning, all—electric travel show van. this time we're leaving britain and heading to the republic of ireland. i am going to be finding out how this country has adapted, both to the challenges of the pandemic... that was a real smack. ..and to changes in irish society as a whole. we are ireland's first drag house, and now you see all these different styles of drag and performers which we didn't have before. to rediscover a modern ireland, looking forward to a world beyond covid. i'm going to be travelling from the capital city of dublin through cork and onto ireland's most south—westerly point at mizen head. now, i've actually only been to ireland once or twice before, and that was quite a while ago, so i'm looking forward seeing how it's changing. and of course covid has changed the country in many ways, at least in the short term. ireland's cautious approach to covid meant that some of its pubs and bars were closed for 18 months, and as the industry begins to recover, i'd heard that there might be the signs of more changes on the horizon. so myjourney begins at ireland's most visited tourist attraction — the guinness storehouse, which had to close its doors to tourists during the pandemic. the story of the brand is told over seven floors, at a site that has been here in dublin since the 18th century. this is our historic passenger tunnel, it was built in 1895. do you know how much guinness is made here at the moment? would you believe that we produce about 25 pints of guinness every single second, that's 880 million pints every single year, and sometimes you would have three generations of the same family working for the brewery at the same time. but i'm heading up to the top floor for a taste of the brand's future in the form of a new 0% alcohol beer. while other brands may have had alcohol—free beers for some time, the question is, does this still deliver on its iconic flavour? clock ticking. you genuinely wouldn't know, well i genuinely wouldn't know. tell me though, why you think this will be popular? why will people want to buy this? well, there's a number of reasons. 0ccasions are changing, people are looking for alternative options to alcohol, and zero alcohol is becoming very popular, and it is essential i think in today's society, people want to have those options. we brew it in the exact same way, it is brewed as guinness and right at the end of the process we decide ok, that vessel is our guinness zero vessel and we remove the alcohol from that vessel using a cold filtration process to remove the alcohol, so you retain all of those flavours, you just remove the alcohol. so the pandemic has been terrible for the whole world, but when visitors come here, can you see that they're really happy to be somewhere like this now? can you feel the excitement? sure, even irish visitors and tourists alike, a huge amount of irish people are coming into the store, and the excitement to see the building open. over the last 18 monts the store has been talking to the world virtually an hour it's great to see people coming back and through the doors people are excited. it's notjust the drinks that are changing. irish pubs are found all around the world, but back home here in dublin, the city's first alcohol free bar has just opened its doors. we offer a wide range of drinks, we offer pie and cocktails, to local beers, like the one you're drinking there from dundalk, and i think reallyjust gives people the choice because when they go to establishments that have alcohol, the choice is very limited when it comes to non—alcoholic. a lot of people have mentioned that there is a mindset of people taking care of themselves more because of the pandemic or the psychological effects. do you see that as being a better time, a better climate for you in a way to prosper? definitely, because we're moving away from an alcohol free bar to being a well—being bar. a lot of the drinks we have here are plant—based drinks, they are very good for you, they can help boost your immune system, they are full of vitamin c, they can calm you down in a way that a red wine might calm you down. you are kind of surfing the zeitgeist in a way, aren't you? well, we are. that has been a great experience, that bar is really cool. and to think that i spent a whole day in dublin in bars drinking, but not actually drinking alcohol, it goes to show that the stereotypes we have of these cities have got to change because i suspect this is going to be a big part of the future of socialising in places like dublin, and i will drink to that. nice. next, i'm leaving dublin and beginning myjourney west. charging the van shouldn;t be too much of a problem here. there are around 2000 charging points which actually compares better than the uk by charger per person basis. so, this is ennis, in county clare, a lovely little town, narrow streets, bookshops, just what you'd expect from an irish town. but where i'm going, now south of ennis, is actually a car park, because it's here where the aerial dance company fidget feet are doing a performance of the first show since the start of the pandemic, made possible largely through local authority finding. the show is designed to give a child's view of the world, as it emerges from the pandemic. the group is led by chantelle mccormack who's been a leading voice in the challenges for the arts in ireland during the covid crisis. in terms of the performers, how much training, education, how much they have to learn before they can do something like this? it's a long journey because it's a very high skill that you need to get, and that was hard during lockdown because these artists need to keep their skills because they need to do it every day. we're kind of looking at ireland almost through a post—pandemic lands. how can you see irish culture moving forward and progressing? are you seeing optimistic signs? it's like, when you're a company, a lot of the times i feel to be recognised as an aerial company or a dance company,it�*s like you have to go international and when you are international, then you can come back to ireland and then you are famous, and it's really interesting when what this pandemic has taught us is we cannot rely on constantly going out of your own country to be big, so what is the riches inside of here, so for me it's the irish language, the dancers and the music and it's the area we now have, so i don't doubt that cultur will not survive the pandemic, because sometimes it's not a choice that you choose, like, it's something inside you that goes i have to dance, or i have to do aerial, or i have to sing, you know, and you just have to keep doing it. and what better way to finish the show in ireland then with a traditional dance. if you think about it, during the pandemic these guys couldn't really perform, and that must be desperately sad for them, and thank goodness they were funded and kept going by grants, because the results of them being able to perform again today, now, that is incredible, the joy and pleasure they give people. wow. long may that live. give yourself a huge round of applause. go on!— give yourself a huge round of applause. go on! cheering and applause- — the next part of my journey will take me south towards ireland's second largest city, cork, but i couldn't pass by it without stopping at one particular famous landmark. the place we're going to now is somewhere i've heard an awful lot about, and you may have too, but if i told you it's connected to a little town and castle called blarney, and by going there i will improve my social skills to no end, you might guess what i'm talking about. the 600 year old blarney castle is set across a 60 acre site, but its most famous attraction is of course the blarney stone. it said that the gift of the gab is given to those who kiss it. this is our first view of where the famous blarney stone is. up there? can i have a go? absolutely, let's do it. the stone was brought to the castle from the holy land during the crusades. the lord of the castle saved a witch from drowning, who thanked him by casting a spell on the stone to cure his speech impediment once he'd kissed it. of course, with the onset of the pandemic, kissing the blarney stone stopped, but now, with a strict disinfecting procedure in place, it's once again open to those eager to pucker up to stone. and here we are. this is the world—famous blarney stone. just here? 0k. so it's the last six inches of the wall, they're just cleaning it there now for us, so to kiss it today you are going to have to lie down on your back, grab the two bars, and then you will slide in, but dave will be holding on to you the whole time so you are in a safe pair of hands, but you have it easier nowadays. the old way to kiss it, we would have got you by your ankles and held you and outside of the wall. literally dangling over the wall? absolutely. ok, i feel lucky. whenever you're ready. 0ver we go, down. dave's gonna lower your down, grab the two bars and slide back and kiss the last six inches, right at the bottom. the last six inches. 0k. that was a real smacker. it feels like a real proper old—fashioned ritual, that's gone through centuries and i was part of it. thank you! but the question is this. paul, i'm now supposed to be more eloquent and charming? yes, so after kissing the stone, we've now bestowed the gift of eloquence or the gift of gab on you. well, i don't know about that, but at the risk of being platitudinous, you do look particularly handsome at the moment. oh, how kind of you — appreciate it. now i'm taking a short drive to the east of cork, out to the coast. this part of the country is considered by many to be the culinary capital of ireland. one big reason for that is ballymaloe cookery school. it's a place where people have been coming from around the world in recent years to learn cooking skills, and taste some of the food created by internationally renowned cook darina allen. darina, thank you so much for having us here. you're going to demonstrate something to cook for us, but what is it? very simple. i can't let you leave ireland without being able to make a soda bread. irish soda bread is thought to date back to the early 1800s and was popular partly due to its simplicity. really important thing to remember with soda bread is you don't knead it, so no need to knead. it can be made in minutes from just four ingredients — flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk. do you see how lovely and gloopy that is? yeah. that's from my own jersey cows. how cool is that? so just flatten it out. finally, darina adds the traditional blessing of the bread by scoring a cross in the top of the dough to help it open out as it cooks. and then — very important — you've got to let the fairies out of the bread. you prick it in the four corners like that and that lets the fairies out of the bread, because the fairies are always up to mischief in ireland, and they'lljinx your bread if you don't let them out. so if you're pure of heart or if you've had a good night in an irish pub last night, you'll have seen those fairies coming out. and now we need to put it straight in the oven. so you have a huge estate here, darina. well, it's.. darina began the cooking school here in the �*80s on the same estate where her mother—in—law, myrta allen, established a restaurant two decades earlier. within a few years of starting the school, people began coming from around the world. so, if you had to define what irish cuisine is, what would you say? well, know, i know a lot of people might have thought we live on corned beef and cabbage, but of course it's changed so much over the years. but the fantastic thing is that here in ireland we have such brilliant raw materials and such great produce. so what we would serve at ballymaloe — our basis of what we do is irish country house cooking, but then with all kinds of influences from all over the world — from india, mexico. because we can grow things — we can grow epazote from mexican food. of course, we grow those curry leaves, lime leaves — all kinds of things. and there we go. and before i leave darina, there is one more thing we must do. that is so nice. it's soft, spongy almost, you know. it's — the taste is lovely. and you made that, just like that. back on the road, i'm heading into cork city. here, old stereotypes of ireland's conservative outlook are once again becoming outdated. a growing drag community has emerged in cork. they've been through a difficult covid period and tonight will be the first public performance for some drag artists here since the pandemic began. just so many different genres of the drag in cork. i mean, you have everything from your club kid to your more burlesque to your more classic drag. yeah. and there is the likes of me, say, a girl doing drag. that was certainly quite unusual, you know, in ireland anyway. change has come here only relatively recently, however. but legendary female impersonator danny la rue came from cork and went on to become one of the 1960s' highest—paid entertainers. but that success and acceptance was mostly found in britain after moving there as a child. ireland back then was such a different place, entirely different — different attitudes and different outlook. it was only in, i believe, �*93 that homosexuality was actually decriminalised. so i — lots of people that i know from that time upped sticks and moved. they might have gone to the uk or wherever they went, went to a country that was more liberal with its attitudes, or where the community was larger so you could feel that security. and then, of course, ireland has progressed so much. # gonna get married... ireland was the first country to legalise gay marriage in 2015 through a referendum. all cheer. covid aside, cork has vibrant pride celebrations, and now danny la rue's grandnephew has established a leading collective of drag performers — the house of mockie ah! we're ireland first drag house and we're now the biggest house. other ones are springing up. and there's this incredible scene where, like, you see all of these different styles of drag and performers which we didn't have before. and a lot of that comes down to the fact that we now have social media and things like ru paul's drag race, which bring drag into your home. so it's like — you know, before, we found out about drag through, you know, through family. but now you can literally go on instagram, so there's styles of drag everywhere. so it's more easy to be inspired, which is great. and tell me about how the pandemic affected you and the whole scene here. specifically with queer people and the lgbt+ community, again, our space has been taken away. and for the likes of myself and the other queens, our work was taken away. yeah, it's taught us a lot and what i've loved personally seeing is how resourceful queer people are. i haven't seen some of my friends in 18 months all in the same room. i haven't a proper audience in so long, but i'm ready to not do drag in my bedroom anymore! i'm pretty excited to come back on stage. soft music plays. so you didn't think you'd do it again after the first time? no, no. what?! no. well, the first time i was in drag i fell on the parade stage, broke my heels, my wig came off, — and i still kept going. persistence and determination. soft music continues. well, that was brilliant fun. flamboyant, yes, but also wickedly satirical in places. but what i ultimately saw was a bunch of really good friends — brilliant entertainers, but loving performing live together in front of an audience who loved it as much as they did. soft music continues. to finish, i'm heading to the most south—westerly point in ireland, mizen head. well, this is simply glorious. beautiful sandy beaches, aome brave souls out there in the sea. wow! they call this coastal region the wild atlantic way. stunning stretches of coastline go on for miles and miles. so that's it — the most south—westerly tip of ireland, and there the vast atlantic, stretching all the way over to the americas. soft music plays. embracing change is nothing new for people here. this is the last sight of home that many irish migrants saw as they headed to a new life in america in the 19th and early 20th century, and a lot has changed since then. the famous dublin—born writer george bernard shaw once said that the heart of an irish man is nothing but his imagination. and while i've been here, i've witnessed first—hand how people have used their power of imagination to survive, adapt and stay in business during the pandemic. their creativity, good sense of humour and sheer grit and determination have been truly inspiring, and ifor one wouldn't have missed any of this for the world. hello. saturday was a soaker where you are. sunday will be a much brighter day. there'll still be showers around, it's still going to be windy, but there will also be some spells of sunshine to be had as well. of course, low pressure responsible for the soaking rain, which affected some parts of the uk on saturday. for sunday it's close to northern scotland. this is where we'll start the day with strongest winds, with the northern isles, especially shetland, gusting 60—70 mph. starting temperatures and coldest areas will be across the north of mainland scotland, some spots close to freezing as the day begins. most of the early showers are going to be western areas. they will travel gradually further east as we go on through the day, and by the afternoon many of the showers are going to be reasonably hit and miss, though a longer spell of rain pushing back across northern scotland and the northern isles. these are average wind speeds. there'll be gusts up to around 35—45 mph. those very strong winds in the northern isles ease a little but it remains very windy here, with gales. as for temperatures, mostly in the range of around 12, 13 to 17 celsius. as for the london marathon, it looks like there'll be plenty of sunshine around during the morning. into the afternoon, increasing cloud and there will be the chance of catching a shower moving through those that take a little longer, perhaps, to complete the course. now, as we go on into the evening, the showers will continue, particularly across western areas. 0vernight and into monday morning there'll be a few more pushing and across south wales and southern parts of england. and as for temperatures, may just start the day on monday a degree or so higher than on sunday morning. and monday will be another day of sunshine and showers, whilst many will be focused across western areas, some again will travel further east during the day. but it's across eastern parts you're most likely to stay dry, with some sunshine. rain gathering to the south—west as monday comes to an end, a bit of uncertainty about how quickly it's wanting to move in. but that's tied in with more weather fronts and another area of low pressure. something to play for in the detail and the position of this going into tuesday, but it's likely to bring another spell of heavy rain and strong winds, particular into wales and england, although maybe some towards the west and south—west clear up as the day goes on, there will still be some strong winds and gales around. northern ireland may mist most of it, some of the rain could well push towards the south—east of scotland. yet more wet and the weather on the way. you're watching bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories... thousands march for abortion rights across the united states as pro—choice supporters fear the supreme court could impose further restrictions. nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "i want to get an abortion today". it's the hardest decision that a women will have to make in her entire life and we should trust women to make that decision for themselves. hundreds forced to evacuate on a resort island in honduras as fire destroys dozens of homes. thousands demonstrate across brazil against president jair bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic. after days of queueing at the pumps, the army will begin delivering fuel across the uk from monday. and this is the live scene on la palma where two new streams of lava threaten further destruction

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