The Dublin Community Blog

Ok, there’s been a few words said about the lack of posting about the match here since Sunday. To be honest, it’s a Dublin blog, and being at the epicentre of Leinster, we’re (almost) all feeling just a little sore about what happened. Not about the fact that we lost to Munster, not in my opinion anyways, I don’t think we could have lost to a better, more deserving team, but, the nature by which that we lost.

From early Sunday morning, I was starting to think that the game was already lost. Walking around Dublin, there was not a single Leinster jersey visible (ok, ok, not true, there were one or two). What there was lots of however, were Munster jerseys. This, in the supposed home of Leinster rugby!!

Every pub was the same…

…as far as the eye could see!

Of course, it wasn’t just on the streets of D4 that the Munster boys had taken hold, as our own Declan writes, Munster men took over Leinster’s official pub, Kielys of Donnybrook.

Now, I’ve recently come back from supporting Leinster on that wonderful trip to Toulouse, where the Leinster support done the team proud, and almost 6,000 genuine Leinster rugby fans put on the most amazing support the team has ever seen. Whilst I have no doubt that every one of these were around the ground on Sunday, and inside the ground as well, they were most definately lost amongst the infamous D4 crowd (yes, there were a few there!) and amongst the amazing Munster fans….

Based on all this, it’s probably no suprise that the Leinster team didn’t turn up to play the match. Yes, yes, Munster were great (there, I said it!) and played the game necessary to beat Leinster (stifle Contipomi, retain posession), but, as my father said to me before the teams even came onto the pitch, Leinster were beat by the crowd, which was the equivalent of a sixteenth (seventeeth and eighteenth) man on the pitch.

Needless to say, once they had the match wrapped up, there was much celebrating done.

Roads, what roads?!

So, Munster, I salute a great team, and a great support base, and I wish you all the best in Cardiff. Leinster, both the team and the supporters need to take a serious look at themselves and realise their massive failings. Even more than that however, the rugby clubs within the Leinster branch who sold their ticket allocations to Munster clubs and punters, quite often at massively inflated prices need to be seriously investigated and outed for letting their players, genuine supporters, and Irish rugby in general down spectacularly!!!

Standing on the DART on the way out of town this evening, I saw a poster advertising the Bram Stoker Dracula Experience, and the fact that you can buy a discounted DART and Exhibition ticket in any DART station at the moment.

Prices are:

Adult: EUR 8.50
Child: EUR 4.50
Family: EUR 28

So, what is it? Well, according to their website “The Bram Stoker Dracula Experience is a uniquely different, most interesting, brilliantly, entertaining, interactive, educational and very scary adventure based on the life of Bram Stoker his great vampire creation (Dracula) and horror in general.”

Sounds like a lot of trumpet blowing alright, but, the centre itself is a part of the Westwood leisure complex beside Clontarf Rd DART station, and right across the road from where Bram Stoker actually grew up. Dracula itself was not written in that house, but, it’s still a historic location in the context of where the writer came from.

If you’re looking to do something with the kids for the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend, I could think of worse things then taking them along here, and then letting them run loose in the amusement arcade upstairs in Barcode whilst you sit down for a quiet (ish) drink or a bite to eat!

So, it has been going on for some time now… In fact the first time I remember seeing it was while I lived in Christchurch… Not Christchurch, New Zealand, Christchurch, Dublin – home to Burdocks, those bloody bells and the Splash Tour people who cheer at nothing…

Oh, there’s a post for another day… Grr

No, it, the thing I noticed, was missing letters.

Not little letters either, those big letters that stick out from shop fronts and are usually illuminated at night. They look complicated and probably expensive. But they go missing all the time.

The first incident I can recall was that the E’s in “Number One Shop” went missing.

Over the years, I’ve seen letters disappear from various signs, pubs, hotels, chemists, it seems like no one is immune to this weird affliction.

The thing is, it seems like it might be quite a complicated enterprise. I can only imagine it requires teams, well, maybe two people, a step ladder, screwdrivers etc…

Plus they are all in high profile locations.

Who goes out drinking with stepladders and screwdrivers? Vertically challenged electricians I hear you cry.

Do the guards turn a blind eye to this alphabetical criminality? Do they pass a team, or two people, on a ladder and not remark on their activities? I think we need to know…

The one that really caught my eye was the sign you can see from the DART as it rolls into Clontarf. Two letters are missing from the sign on Westwood or Westpoint or Westwhatever… The sign now proudly proclaims 50 MET_ _ POOL

See, that is the most annoying thing for me. There’s no joke involved. They’re not trying to be clever. They aren’t trying to make rude words. They’re just stealing letters at random.

And then, the answer came to in a flash.

And it’s scary.

Somebody, somewhere, or a team of somebodies, or two somebodies and a stepladder are preparing a giant ransom note.

All they need is a big enough piece of paper and an envelope to put it in.

I see that tickets go on sale tomorrow morning for George Michael’s concert in the Point Theatre this coming December (I know, I know, contain yourselves). According to the RTE website this will be his first time performing in Ireland. Hang on…I beg to differ! It may well be his first time here as a solo artist but I happen to know for a fact that in his Wham! days he graced our shores and played a concert in the RDS Simmonscourt…how do I know this? Well, because I was there.

I was about twelve years old, it was 1984 and it was my first concert. I was wearing my luminous pink socks and my fingerless gloves with pride and, as if that wasn’t bad enough…my parents were with me. My abiding memory of the night is of Andrew Ridgeley jumping around the stage strumming an electric guitar that wasn’t turned on. Not the coolest of musical debuts I think you’ll agree. I spent my teenage years trying to live it down by scoffing at boy bands, listening to the Cure and only going to concerts where the musicians had their instruments plugged in.

Why do I tell you all this? Well I just thought I needed to get it out in the open as part of my first post here for the times when I offer advice or critique on things cultural. Just remember, you might want to consider the source.

Daragh, I’m sure you’re delighted you asked me to contribute now that you know my credentials!

I am a speech and language therapist who moved with my boyfriend in June 2005. We came to Dublin in search of adventure and world travels. I enjoy photography, travelling, hiking, and cooking. My blogging reflects on life in Dublin, my travels around Europe and Ireland, my adjustment to a new country and city, and its adjustment to me.

It was, unkindly perhaps, suggested in the Indo this morning that the reason there were so many red jerseys in Lansdowne Road yesterday was that many Leinster fans had sold their tickets to their Munster counterparts because there was a sale on at Brown Thomas.

Nonetheless it did tie in with something I observed yesterday morning. I was over in Blackrock having breakfast in the village, in the hour or so I was there I must have seen 25 Munster jerseys and not a single blue Leinster representative.

In Blackrock…

Curious, non?

R

FOR those of you who are not able to watch the Munster v Leinster Heineken Cup semi-final Limerick Blogger is live blogging the rugby including a video of Munster’s first try.

And not everyone is watching, I for one am watching the Eastenders omnibus.

I was at a nice pre-cursor to the match this morning, day one of an Inter Provincial hockey tournament hosted by Leinster Hockey in Grange Road. It was great to watch the Leinster Ladies set the stage for the weekend, beating the Munster ladies by three goals to one. Now, lets see this trend continued for the rest of the weekend.

If you’re not going to the match tomorrow, and are wondering what to do for the day, you could do worse than to take a trip out to Three Rock for day two of the tournament, which sees both the Leinster Men and Women in action, along with all the other provinces.

Irish people, especially people living in and around Dublin spend quite a lot of their time talking about traffic, the length of their commute, and how poor public transport can be (when they’re not talking about the weather that is!). Damien Mulley has been writing about a Cisco employee in the US who commutes for an average of 7 hours every day to and from work, and is interested to find out about Ireland’s longest average commute, which I’m sure is going to come from someone living down the country and working in Dublin every day. I know I personally spend just under three hours commuting every day to and from Temple Bar, let us know what your commute is either here or on Damien’s site.

Ryanair have shafted Leinster Rugby by backing the muck savages eh, I mean Munster to beat Leinster this Sunday in the Heineken Cup Semi-Final. Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary (currently living in Mullingar, Westmeath, Leinster) turned his back on Leinster and offered 1,000 free seats out of Shannon for every point that Munster beat Leinster.

Ryanair, Europe’s leading low fares airline today offered 1,000 free seats from its Shannon base for every point by which Munster beats Leinster in the Heineken Cup semi final at Lansdowne Road this Sunday.

Announcing the initiative Ryanair’s Deputy Chief Executive, Michael Cawley said:“We believe the best way to celebrate Munster’s imminent victory over Leinster in the Heinken Cup semi-final on Sunday is to offer free seats to Munster supporters on flights from our Shannon base. We are making available 1,000 free seats for every point with which Munster beats Leinster on Sunday. These seats will be available for booking from Monday 24th April for flights from 15th May on many of our midweek services from Shannon to the 20 international destinations which we serve from our base there. Ryanair will this year carry 1.5 million passengers into and out of the airport, further evidence, that together with Munster rugby Ryanair is putting Limerick and Clare firmly on the map.�  

 

Michael O’Leary looking like a TWAT … AGAIN

Yours truly cannot wait for Leinster to do a number on Munster and adding insult to injury, I will be the first Leinster fan to email Ryanair on Sunday night and rub their faces in it.

Allez Les Bleus!