Of all the pictures that have been planted in my memory over years of travelling through Ireland, the one that features a pair of toddlers haring down the strand at Ventry Bay, buck naked and shrieking their heads off, must be my favourite.

It wasn't just their glee, nor the glorious setting of the crescent beach backed by the grassy dunes and the peak of Mount Eagle. It was the fact that two small children were having the time of their lives running in and out of an unpolluted sea on a sunny afternoon in midsummer on a clean sandy beach with only three other people on it. Where else but on an Irish coast?

The coasts of Ireland are wonderful at any time of year in my book. I love County Clare's flowery Burren hills in spring, the wild geese in autumn on Strangford Lough, and a winter storm up in Donegal that howls round some firelit bar where a fiddler is tuning up over his pint.

But it's summer that brings out the best in the coastal landscape and the people; summer for the festivals and the long evenings listening to polkas and reels outside the seaside pubs; summer for the uncrowded beaches and the back-country agricultural shows that turn into family parties and come-all-ye dances under starlight within sound of the sea.

As far as shows and festivals go, you'd have to travel a long way to beat Dingle in high summer. The knobbly-backed green peninsula that juts into the Atlantic from the north-west coast of Kerry buzzes all July and August with fun and frolics. Dingle Regatta sees the semi-circular bay filled with craft of every shape and size - notably the famous black currachs or fishing canoes of the west.

But you might prefer a blast of jazz at the music festival. Or maybe you'd rather join the locals around the horse ring at the Dingle Show. Then there are all these great music pubs, like the Small Bridge, where there'll be a blazing session of traditional music.

And when you've had it up to here with people and noise, there's the wide open space and the peace and quiet of the Dingle Way long-distance footpath. Unless you happen to get side-tracked as you walk, by the sand-sculptors of Ballyferriter or the beach barbecue babes of Castlegregory...

But then Dingle is just one of the dozens of magical seaside spots in Ireland where this sort of thing happens in summer. Some of the fun is well planned and scheduled: Kinsale Regatta down in Cork, for example, where thousands of emigrants return home for an emotional festival, or the tremendous Viking Battle Day up at little Annagassan on the coast of County Louth in the north-east.

And some just seems to sort of bubble up spontaneously out of the general atmosphere of good craic and laid-backness. There never is a session of music to equal the one that catches fire when that girl from Queensland and those boys from Copenhagen and Belfast just happen to bring their flutes and guitars to the beach.

Maybe the best summer memories of all are the ones that you harvest when you're away from the mainstream of pub and party. A couple of summers ago we took our teenagers to Ballyconneely in the westernmost corner of Connemara, out in County Galway on the edge of the Atlantic.

They were wholly captivated by this, their first taste of Ireland. Swimming in water of a Mediterranean turquoise off the mile-long strand called An Trá Mhóir, the Great Beach, in the early hours under a pristine blue sky as white cattle munched the seaweed on the beach, we thought that Connemara could easily be a slice of heaven on earth.

Page 2: Blue Flag Beaches()

Blue Flag Beaches:

In Northern Ireland, County Antrim's Portrush (off A2, 8 miles west of the Giant's Causeway) boasts the excellent West Strand - especially good for youngish families with its fine sandcastle-friendly sand, dog restrictions, Punch and Judy men and other beach entertainers, 'lost child' centre, and amusement arcade for the teenagers.

In the Republic, Culdaff (off R238 in the north of the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal) is another great family beach with smooth gold sands and fine paddling and bathing. Surfers head for Lahinch on N67 in County Clare, where everyone from beginners to true surfies is catered for on the one strand. In the south-east Curracloe Strand (off R742 coast road 5 miles north-east of Wexford) is long, lonely and backed by superb dunes.

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