The Dublin Community Blog

Tuesday night in Marley Park Morrissey demonstrated what he does best; surrounds himself with talented musicians and sings with attitude. In front of a small, but appreciative, crowd he performed many songs from his solo catalogue and a few Smiths favourites such as “Panic” and “Girlfriend in a Coma”. He ended on a crescendo with a great rendition of “How Soon is Now” (which I’m told is the theme music to Charmed). 19 years on from the demise of the Smiths and now in his late 40′s, Morrissey proved last night that he is still a great performer. His voice is note perfect and his physique is looking good too as he demonstrated during his 4 shirt disrobing.

In true Moz dedication to vegetarianism, there was no meat served at any of the stalls in Marley Park.

As an aside, MCD have been getting a lot of abuse lately in relation to that festival. However they do have to be applauded for their organisation of the Marley Park gigs. The site was constantly being cleared of plastic and rubbish. As portaloos go, these were the cleanest and least smelliest I have ever experienced (and there have been many, many experiences). And they came complete with toilet paper, running water and hand disinfectant. Nice one MCD.

If Radiohead sing “Fake Plastic Trees” on Thursday night my Marley Park experience will be complete

Once again my plans for a post have been thwarted by tardiness. Well in fairness we had spent all afternoon in Dublin Zoo after which we decided to stop off at the elegant Phoenix Park tea rooms, only they were closing for the day. D’Oh.

The tea rooms are a lovely and enchanting place to stop off for some lunch, afternoon snack or just a lovely coffee. I first went there about six years ago and it was where I discovered panninis, and they look just as delicious now.We stopped in for a take-away coffee on our way to the zoo and the food looked yum. It looked so good that we decided to go back after the zoo, only as I said they were closing.

If you are up in the Phoenix Park make the tea rooms one of your stops. (And more on the zoo later.)

I came across this image of the tea rooms from 1929 on this site while looking for more information. The caption reads “Humpfrey Cook’s Bentley passes the Phoenix Park Tea Rooms at the 1929 Irish Grand Prix, Eireann Cup race”. Here’s another link to the Rough Guide’s section on this spot.

Okies, a little bit of an abuse of power posting this here, but anyways….

I’m arranging a bucket collection at this weeks Bellewstown Races in order to help raise funds for my trip to South Africa with the Niall Mellon Challenge. If you have any tips or ideas, have arranged a bucket collection before, or fancy coming along to help out, please let me know.

Also, I’m trying to source buckets in order to use for this, probably about 10 in total, anyone have any ideas?

Of course, as always, you can donate through PayPal to this cause also.

Next weekend sees a return of the wonderful Festival of World Cultures to DunLaoghaire. It is well worth hopping on the DART and heading out there for a few hours of entertainment. From Mr Whippy Sound System to a Chinese Kite Show, Tibetan Folk Dancing to Punch and Judy shows, you are guaranteed to find something of interest.

A full list of events can be found on the festival website here.

No visit to Dun Laoghaire would be complete without checking out the legendary* Teddy’s icecream.

Lets hope, like last year, the rain stays away.

* has the same legendary status as Elephant & Castle chicken wings.

Mr Whippy Sound System

Belly Dancers at Harbour Plaza

Next weekend sees the Peoples Photography Exhibition take place around Stephens Green and from previous experience, it is a must see event.

If you are planning on attending as an exhibitor, and would like a little exposure here at the Dublin Blog before hand, drop a mail to daragh@dublinblog.ie including some sample images and letting me know where you will be exhibiting and I’ll be writing about it later in the week.

Breaking News.ie is reporting that the Gardai have mounted an operation to tackle anti-social behaviour on the Liffey boardwalk.

“Gardaí in Dublin have made almost 50 arrests in the first two months of an operation to tackle anti-social behaviour on Dublin’s Liffey boardwalk.

Gardaí mounted a crackdown on drug-dealing and alcohol consumption on the boardwalk in April and say they arrested 46 people during the first two months of the operation.” (Breaking News)

The boardwalk is a lovely spot to enjoy watching people go by, relax and have a coffee and even enjoy the sniffy Liffey.

While I do believe everyone has a right to enjoy the boardwalk it is intimidating to be surrounded on both sides by gangs drinking hard, throwing cans into the river and occasionally being obnoxious and threatening to passers by. The photograph shows a fella who was twisted and who was falling all over people and as you can see there are families with kids trying to enjoy the day.

While there are aspects of anti social behaviour happening on the boardwalk which need to be addressed I do not at all wish to see people being moved along by the Gardai simply because they are an addict or whatever. Regular walks by gardai on the beat would go a long way. What do you think?

St Stephen’s Green is surrounded by lots and lots of art today and probably over the weekend too. Go have a look and maybe buy yourself a piece of art. Don’t forget as well to catch the annual People’s Photography exhibition which will be held around St Stephen’s Green on August 26 and 27. And you will definitely want to buy something there, check out Rymus one of the photographers who will be exhibiting and selling over that weekend.

Sorry about the above pix they were taken from a bus…

EDIT: Just including some more pics.

Two Dublin hotels were evacuated briefly last night due to fires. In the first incident, at 1am, The Regency Airport Hotel was evacuated of its 400 guests, as a fire broke out in a new development at the hotel that is currently under construction.

Then, at 3:30am, the well known Gresham Hotel on O’ Connell Street had its 400 or so guests evacuated, due to a fire that occured in a store room. 30 firefighters tackled the blaze for an hour or so before it was brough under control.

In light of the recent spate of Real IRA attacks in Newry / Dundalk, let’s hope that these were just purely coincidental events and nothing more sinister.

A group of NCAD students, The Stozan Sundries, will hold their debut exhibition at Film Base in Temple Bar from the 16th (preview) to the 19th of August. The opening on Thursday 17th (6pm) will feature live performances (soundart, dance, groupart) and again on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th. Admission is free. Film Base is located on Curved St across from the Temple Bar Music Centre.

I’m going along tomorrow evening. Pop in if you are around.

More information about the exhibiting artists can be found here

So, we are averaging over 1,200 unique hits a week here on The Dublin Community Blog, which is very cool. Thank you one and all for coming to visit us!

Obviously, to know this, I have some idea of how people get here, via our stats, however, I’m interested to see how many regular readers we have. So, if you’re here, and reading this, take a moment to fill out the poll over there on the right hand side detailing how you got here.

This is going to be the first of many polls that I hope to run on the site. If you have any ideas for polls you’d like to see run, let me know and I’ll work on getting it up there.

And as always, if you’re interested in writing for the blog, or have any ideas for topics you would like to see covered, drop a mail to write4us@dublinblog.ie