The Dublin Community Blog

Vicar St hosts the final round of the Emergenza battle of the bands competition that has been running in Dublin since February. The Emergenza Music Festival is an international music festival/competition for up and coming unsigned bands and has been running for 15 years around the world.

On Sat next there are 12 bands playing, starting at 18.45. Each band plays a 30 minute set and the audience and a jury select the winner. The winning band will fly to Germany to play at Emergenza’s International Final. Pretty cool.

And heres where I add a shameless plug! I’ve been following this competition from the beginning since one of the contenders, Revolution for Dogs, are friends of mine. So, if ye’ve nothing planned for Sat night, drop over to Vicar St for a nights entertainment. Revolution for Dogs are on stage approx 10pm and would appreciate support. Check out their website for some very cool songs and t-shirts . I’m going along too so if anyones interested drop me a line.

UPDATE Jun 27: The band came third, which is pretty good going. Even better is their guitarist won “best guitarist of the competition” and got a custom Musicman guitar as a prize. Next Revolution for Dogs gig is in Whelans on Sat Aug 5th.

Righty so. After my first recommendation a while back my next suggested stop is a small spot called Idelwilde in Dalkey Village (just down the side street from Xtravision). I started going there a few years ago when my little boy was in Montessori in Dalkey for a short time and only started going back there in the last year.

It’s a busy spot with great black coffee, killer poached eggs on granary toast, a fry if you fancy it and a cosmo mix of Dalkeyites with time on their hands, builders (why are there always builders everywhere you find breakfast?!?) and Sinead O’Connor and David McWilliams on occasion!

Inside is lovely (as are the very efficient staff) but it was only when the weather took up a few weeks ago that I thought to brave their open air garden out the back and it’s a little oasis in a mad world. It’s worth heading out into even when the weather doesn’t demand it…

Top spot.

R

PS Did quite an extensive post recently on my first trip back to the refurbished Hugh Lane – it’s HERE if you fancy a gander.

I hope this isn’t too cheeky of me Daragh since I’ve been involved in organising this event…but it’s all in a good cause.

The Harding University Chorus is a group of 45 singers from Arkansas that are touring Europe this summer performing in about 28 different countries. Their repertoire covers classics, spirituals, opera and folksongs and they’ve released ten CDs. You can listen to some of their music on their website.

The choir is here in Dublin for just one performance tonight at 8pm in St Patrick’s church in Dalkey. Admission is €15 and all proceeds will go to the Barretstown Camp charity for children with serious illnesses.

The concert should be amazing; St Patrick’s is a beautiful old church and was chosen by Anúna to record their last album in. So, if you fancy a change from yet another night of football and Big Brother on the telly and want to support a good cause, please come along.

Map of St Patrick’s

Pamela Anderson will be visiting Brown Thomas on Grafton St tomorrow, Thur between 1-2pm in her role as MAC AIDS fund spokesperson. Apparently if you buy a MAC Viva Glam lipstick, you’ll receive a ticket to meet Pamela.

 

So boys, what are you waiting for

I see the Luas has made a profit surplus in the year 2005 and will no longer require Government grants. To be honest thats no big surprise. I always admired the Luas operators ability to squeeze a bit extra out of the passengers. I live near the Green line, St Stephens Green to Sandyford and while I think it’s very handy, a few of things about it annoy me.

For starters Central 1 is only 3 stops, so if you actually want to go anywhere other than Charlemont you need to pay the €1.70 fare. Do many people get on at the Green and off at Charlemont? Would it not have been a lot fairer to move it on one stop to a more popular stop like Ranelagh?

Secondly, and this one really pisses me off, Balally the first station in Green 3, and the station closest to the Dundrum shopping center town center. It costs 30c to 40c extra to go to the shopping center. Especially annoying is the fact that they used to hang a huge Dundrum sign at the Balally station, Dundrum being the previous station. This meant people were paying the wrong fair to the “Dundrum” station and then getting caught by the ticket inspectors.

Finally the fares are a little expensive, and the one thing you can be certain about is that even though the tax payers paid for the Luas to be built, and even though they make a surplus, next January the fare prices will go up, just like a Government tax on public transportation.

Half a million computers will get chucked out in Ireland over the next 5 years.  500,000 CPUs, monitors and keyboards will get thrown away and WEEEd on, if you’ll excuse the pun. Mice too, the ones that aren’t sold for scientific experimentation.

But in this age of green bins, composting and Diarmuid Gavin’s desireable arse (?) no computer should go to waste. Thankfully, they don’t have to.

Camara is a Dublin-based NGO that refurbishes computers and sends them out to where they’re needed most. They collect the computers until there’s enough to fill a container, and they they’re shipped out to sub-Saharan Africa.

So if you or your organisation are thinking of chucking that computer, and want to dispose of it in a way that enriches the lives of others, instead of becoming landfill, then get in touch with them and they’ll come and collect it.

Camara’s workers are out in Ethiopia at the moment, working with the Harambee Teacher Training College, and their blog is here.

 (A disclosure: Back in a previous life, before I scribbled to make ends meet, I studied Development studies in UCD, and Cormac, who runs Camara, was one of the good people I met on the course.  So I can personally vouch for this one, it’s run by a great guy.)

Anyone else hearing that Eamon Dunphy is to leave Dublin’s Newstalk 106? Or is this old news/a total lie by now?!

Sorry Eamo if it’s untrue!

Mad Cow Market

Originally uploaded by DjMagra.

Spotted this sign today as I was crawling along the Naas Road heading toward Dublin, and the infamous Red Cow Roundabout, which, is quite often referred to as the Mad Cow Roundabout.

The Mad Cow title has now leant its name to a market which takes place alongside the roundabout on the Dublin Bound side just opposide the Luas Park and Ride station. Brought a smile to my face as the rain came down and it took me an hour to get from Citywest to the M50 today!

Today we wanted to go out to dinner for Boyfriend’s mother’s last night in Dublin (she’s been here since the 1st of June). We wanted to go to La Paloma for clarico and tapas but they were closed. Disappointed, we thought that we would try our luck at Elephant and Castle even though it was 7:15 PM. We were told that we would have to wait an hour. So, disappointed again, we decided to head over to Porterhouse Central since they have a bigger menu than Porterhouse on Parliment Street.

On our way, we saw O’Shea’s on Anglesea Street in Temple Bar. We decided that the menu looked alright and they had OK specials so we went in. There were four other people in the place who were having dessert. It is a small place and we were seated at a table set for three that was really the size for two. We looked at the menu again and Boyfriend and his mom ordered two specials. His mom said it was the special, he did not. I ordered charcoal chicken. Boyfriend ordered the Whiskey sausages and his mom ordered spring chicken with bacon. Boyfriend also ordered a Smithwicks.

The service was fast and the food came up quickly. All the food had a beef gravy on it that tasted like salty beef. By had beefy gravy on it, I mean swimming in it. I don’t eat beef. I don’t like beef. Boyfriend’s mom’s chicken was also swimming in beef gravy. She didn’t like her gravy, either. The chips that came with the food were acceptable. The salad that came as a side dish was dirty. The Whiskey sausages were pretty tasty. The mashed potatoes were made from real potatoes. The mushy peas that came with the sausages reeked of vinegar. He tried to give me a taste but it burned my nose!

So, we ate our meals. Meanwhile, a couple near us had arrived and ordered. They both got some sort of stews that looked better than our meals. The brown bread looked good. After we declined dessert, we got the bill. They gave Boyfriend’s mother the specials price, not Boyfriend even though he had ordered a special listed in the window (which they took down after we ordered). We questioned it and were told that because he didn’t say he wanted the special he didn’t get the specials price. The waitress claimed that the portions were smaller for the specials. The portions all looked the same to us. We paid the bill exactly, no tip, and left.

So, moral: don’t go to O’Sheas unless you want a mediocre meal at best at high average Temple Bar prices.

After dinner, we went home and I made yummy chocolate brownies for dessert.

What better team to give Croke Park it’s first full house of the season than the Super Dubs. Dublin meet last years beaten Leinster finalists Laois in front of a packed 82,500 house in Croke Park this Sunday with a throw in time of 2:00. Dublin will be looking to improve greatly on their lacklustre first round defeat of Longford in Pearse Park. Defensive holes were a major concern for Pillar Caffrey who now looks certain to call on the services of one Stephen O’Shaughnessy who was the most impressive defender from Dublins 2005 All Ireland campaign.

One thing’s for sure – It’ll be an excellent game!