The Dublin Community Blog

The Sunday Times yesterday had an article about Dominos in the Square Tallaght having the highest turnover of all its branches worldwide. Thats a staggering €2.35m or up to 200 pizzas an hour. Its the first of their 8000 branches to break the $3m mark. Is it just that Dominos have a monopoly in Tallaght? Seems to me that 200 pizzas an hour is a lot of cheese!

Full article can be found here.

Today’s anti-war demonstration was a loud, colourful and well-attended protest. From a slow start at the Gardens of Rememberance with too many long speeches (sorry but they really were however the duration allowed many late-comers to catch up) it certainly was a success.

The march proceeded along O’Connell Street, up to the Dail, and back to Central Bank. I stood at one stage opposite Trinity and there were thousands on the march passing me. It was an excellent turn out.

By the time it got to Central Bank for more speeches the numbers had dwindled some. But it was an excellent show of people, from young to old, to members of our Muslim community, to punters who happened upon the march on their Saturday shopping day.

There are more pics on my flickr account as well some from Decs.

I’ll also be loading more over the next couple of days.

For those who are opposed to the war there is a National Anti War demonstration tomorrow, Saturday July 29th from 2pm at the Garden of Rememberance.

The Evening Herald is reporting that Dublin bus drivers are refusing to work in some parts of Finglas after 7pm because of a spate of anti-social behaviour.

A spokesperson for Dublin Bus said the company fully supports the drivers.

While no one should be subjected to this kind of behaviour at all I remember some years ago buses to Cherry Orchard in Dublin being withdrawn for more than two weeks because of similar episodes.

However, the problem was there was no notice given, they were just pulled. This was absolutely devastating for some people who depended on the bus service to bring their children to school, to get to work, or pensioners who depended on the bus to get their pensions. Unfortunately withdrawing services like this does not hit the offenders, it hits people in communities.
The matter in Cherry Orchard was finally resolved after a number of public meetings where Dublin Bus called on parents to talk to their kids about throwing stones etc.

I was told at the time (though I have no verification of it) that there are more incidents of anti-social behaviour on the 46a which some of you may know travels through the more affluent areas of the city. Funny how that service is never withdrawn.

Update: August 1: The Northside People have an article on the attacks, read more here.

I took the day off today. As I was on my way back home from running some errands, I noticed a floating stage in the Liffey near the Ha’Penny Bridge. There must be some free concert going on soon. I have heard a band warming up a bit and people cheering every now and then so if you are in the area, come check it out! The band appears to be starting…

Yep, the band just started and they are loud. I can hear them quite well from my apartment.

 

 

After a disappointing summer of international rugby, the 4 proud provinces of Ireland (Well … Leinster, Munster and Ulster anyway!) will be looking to take the Magners Celtic League by storm. Last years campaign saw Ulster clinch the title on the final weekend by a single point with Leinster following in second and Munster taking 3rd spot.   

Leinster kick off their season with a pre-season friendly in Donnybrook on Friday August 25th in a friendly against London Irish, a fixture which is sure to attract a big crowd. With the Celtic League proper kicking off on September 1st, Leinster have been granted a free weekend which see’s them beginning their league campaign away to the Edinburgh Gunners on Friday September 8th. Thsi game will bring an an even more important meaning with both teams being in the same Heineken Cup Group!

The Cardiff Blues are Leinster’s first home game of the Celtic League. The Welshmen take on Leinster in Donnybrook on Saturday September 16th at 19:30. Fixtures to wwatch out for this season are below …

Saturday October 7th (19:30) – Leinster Vs Munster
Saturday December 2nd (19:30) - Ulster Vs Leinster
Wednesday December 27th (15:00) - Munster Vs Leinster
Sunday December 31st (14:30) – Leinster Vs Ulster

ROAR ON LEINSTER!

I was in Busaras one morning this week and it was as busy as you would expect on a summer morning. I normally travel to Belfast from Busaras until Aircoach.ie came along with hourly buses to Belfast which were cheaper. So Bus Eireann did the decent thing and dropped the price of their ticket, I imagine they were being slaughtered by the new route. Now they are also offering hourly departures which is great.

When I first started coming to Dublin for weekends years and years ago other than the expensive train the only way to get to Dublin which didn’t involve driving was a bus which left on a Friday afternoon and returned on Sunday night. Thankfully that’s now confined to the distant past with lots of services to and from Belfast.The only problem with aircoach is that it used to leave from the city centre now it appears to only leave from Dublin airport. I don’t understand the logic of that at all. So with my daughter travelling to Belfast this week Busaras was the only option.
One thing that struck me in Busaras on Wednesday morning was the fact that even though the station was quite busy there was only one person working ticket sales. The queue was huge. Imagine you are rushing for a bus that is leaving in 10 minutes and you are confronted with this line.

So tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for youuuuuu’
Only when the queue was this long was another ticket sales window opened. Come on Busaras wakey wakey.

Today on my way home from work, I sat near two people using MP3 players. I could hear the music of one of them over the music of my own MP3 player! If I can hear anything coming from your headphones, it is probably too loud. If I can understand what is coming out of your headphones, it is definately too loud.

But seriously, there is an increase in noise induced hearing loss in younger people and children and teens are at a very high risk these days due to personal electronic devices and the use of headphones. So, what is safe and what does that sound like? Well, here are the usual decibel (sound) levels of things:
40 dBA: refrigerator humming
60 dBA: normal conversation
80 dBA: city traffic
90 dBA: motorcycle
100 dBA: woodshop
110 dBA: chainsaw

The following are lengths of safe exposure:
85 dBA: 12 hours
90 dBA: 8 hours
95 dBA: 4 hours
100 dBA: 2 hours
105 dBA: 1 hour
110 dBA: 30 minutes
115 dBA: 15 minutes
More than 115 dBA: none

The obove exposures are from OSHA in America and they are maximum exposures, not intended to be regular exposures of time. So, if you are listening to you music at the level that is the same volume as a motorcycle sometimes, you are at less risk. If you listening to it any louder, you are at risk for noise induced hearing loss when you are older.

Another general rule of thumb is that if you take your headphones off, close your hand around them loosely, and play the music at the usual volume and you hear the music clearly, it is way too loud or you have really bad headphones. If you hear the tinny rhythm, it is a bit too loud. If you don’t hear anything, it is a good volume (or you have really good headphones and this test is null and void).

Yesterday we had power cuts, today it would appear that here in Temple Bar at least, we are without water. I don’t know where else is affected by the outage currently and haven’t seen or heard anything further, if you are in Dublin, without water, please let us know.

If you’ve been on Grafton Street any time recently, you’ve no doubt seen this girl, who has recently been joined by a partner in crime, and make for some pretty surreal street art. What is with the abundance of still life performers that have appeared on Grafton Street this year, seems to be far more than I can ever remember, and a lack of buskers, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, all the musical acts on Grafton Street this year seem to be of a really good quality, unlike what we’re subjected to here in Temple Bar every day!