The Dublin Community Blog

The Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, has just announced the route for the new Metro North line from Dublin City Centre, to Dublin Airport.

Metro North will run for 17 kilometres will take in both Ballymun and Drumcondra along the way.

There will be 15 stops starting at St Stephen’s Green, O’Connell Bridge, Parnell Square (possible stop), Mater Hospital, Drumcondra, Griffith Avenue, Dublin City University, Ballymun, Santry Demense, Metropark (!?), Dublin Airport, Nevinstown, Swords, Seatown and Lissenhall. A journey from the city centre to the airport is expected to take 17 minutes.

The full route map is available here

The project is expected to be finished in 2012 and will use underground, surface and elevated tracks. It is estimated 34 million passengers a year will travel on the service, with trains running every four minutes in each direction, increasing to every 90 seconds during peak periods.

If it happens as is being proposed, and happens on time and on budget (two very, very difficult targets to achieve in major Irish infrastructure projects) it will be a hugely benificial service.

Let us know your thoughts on the Metro in our latest poll over there >>>>

Even though it is only October and I agree way to early to think about Christmas, I am thinking about it. A lot. I am coordinating a Christmas show at one of my units. However, I am having difficulty finding two items that I need. The first is a black light. The second: clear plastic ornaments. I want to have my clients decorate them and put them on the Christmas tree during the Christmas show. So, if you know where I can get either of these items, post it in the comments. I would prefer a shop in the Dublin area but will order online if I need to.

The former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Dermot Lacey, can often be seen riding around the capital on his e-bike, but sadly no more.

Leaving the City Hall on Tuesday October 17, Cllr Lacey was distraught to discover his beloved bike was no longer chained to the bike stand outside.

“The irony of all this is that I was at a meeting talking about the need for a proper transport sytem for Dublin and the failure of the Government to establish a democratic Dublin Transportation Authority and the need for a proper energy policy. Only to come out and find my own transport gone and my energy on this occasion sapped.

“Because of it’s internal operating methods without the individual key which I still have, the bike is actually of no use at all to anyone else. It is a heavy enough bike and would be of limited use to anyone without that key.

“There are few of these bikes in Ireland and they are very distinctive, so if anyone has any information can they contact me at 087 26 46 960.”
The  e-bike is an efficent electronic environmentally friendly bike that gets you to your destination with less effort than normal push bikes, Cllr Lacey explained.

This is the councillor’s second bike, the first had the honour of leading the St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin in 2003 and was also a familiar sight around the city. However the first one was also stolen from the same spot three years ago.

I hate this, HATE HATE HATE, did I mention HATE? Shops all around Dublin already have started putting their Christmas decorations / presents / cards etc out onto the shelves. In fact, it’s more than started, following on from a quick stroll around Dublin yesterday, it would already appear that the Christmas rush is in full swing, vying (and winning!) with halloween for shelf space!

I know this is one that gets many people going, and with so many people hating the fact that Christmas starts so early, it always makes me wonder why the shops go ahead with it…obviously there are some people out there who think it’s a great idea!

To that end, our latest poll asks the question, Some Dublin stores have already opened their Christmas shops. How do you feel about this?. Go answer, it’s over there, to the right of the page, and let’s see just how many people think Christmas shopping in early October is a good thing!!

November is a special month for crazed writers, thanks to a program started in the States – National Novel Writing Month. The premise is simple – to “win” you just have to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.

Sounds mad, you say, but what’s it got to do with Dublin? Like everything on the Internet, this is more than just a national thing – it’s a whole wide world thing. The whole point of NaNoWriMo is to share the pain and joy of writing. It’s usually a solitary activity, but this is a chance to get inspiration from others who are all struggling toward the same goal.

In addition to providing a word-count facility and a place to post excerpts, the site also has forums, including The Regional Lounge, where other Dublin writers can communicate on the Dublin-specific forum.

So, if you’ve ever said “One day, I’ll start writing a novel,” this 1 November might just be that day. The nights are long and dark – what else are you going to do? Hope to see you on the forum.

I went to see The Exonerated in Liberty Hall last night. It is a true story based on the experience of six innocent US citizens wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death row. The current cast stars David Soul and Neve Campbell. Earlier in the run, Aidan Quinn and Sunny Jacobs (who one of the characters is based on) starred.

Its subject matter is rather harrowing and I’ve found myself wanting to find out more about the six characters. Tonight is the last night unfortunately. Dublin Theatre Festival committee should be congratulated for bringing such a powerful subject to the Dublin stage.

There was a bit of commuting hell this evening along the northside of O’Connell Street, it was all down to a bump between the bus I was travelling in and a taxi. It caused mayhem on an already busy rush hour.

I take the number 10 home most evenings and it is increasingly becoming a pain. I board on Baggot Street and it is more than normal for buses to drive past full to the brim of commuters and for me to be left standing. When it happens once it is annoying but when it happens two and three times you find yourself putting your hand out for a taxi.

Not tonight though the bus driver squeezed as many of us as he could onto the bus and off we went. Normally the bus practically empties on Dawson Street and O’Connell Street which makes the case in my mind anyway for additional buses going from UCD  to town.

Anyway I digress as we travelled up O’Connell Street and dropped and picked up passengers at the bus stop there was a crunch as the bus pulled out onto the road smack bang into a taxi.

Thankfully there were no injuries and both the bus and taxi appear to be not too damaged. However we all got off the bus and stood at the bus stop with all the other people trying to get home. At the same time the rush hour traffic slowly weaved it’s way around the accident scene.

I waited a while for another bus meanwhile the sheer amount of people also waitig for a bus meant there was no way I was getting home soon, so I flagged a taxi and now I am sitting at home, in front of a fire and looking forward to a lovely dinner.

Breaking News.ie is reporting that a group of Shell to Sea protestors have occupied the headquarters of Shell Ireland which are located on Leeson Street. Some are inside the building and some are on a one-storey roof.
Gardai have been called to the scene.

Pic from Breaking News

UPDATE: 4.12pm

As Daragh says in the comments, the protest is now over, according to the breaking news section of the Ireland.com (sub required)

Pic by Luke Cassidy and shown on Ireland.com

I recently wrote about a photographic exhibition that’s currently, taking place to celebrate the 15 years of Temple Bar’s transformation. Following on from that, the following just arrived in to me.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HOW TEMPLE BAR WAS TRANSFORMED?

FREE SERIES OF TALKS BY RENOWNED GROUP 91 ARCHITECTS

DURING OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER AS PART OF TEMPLE BAR 15

Irish Architectural Archive

45 Merrion Square

Dublin 2

Tuesday 10th October at 1.15pm
Shane O’Toole Architect

Tuesday 17th October at 1.15pm
Derek Tynan Architects

Tuesday 24th October at 1.15pm
Paul Keogh Architects

Tuesday 31st October at 1.15pm
Shay Cleary Architects

Tuesday 7th November at 1.15pm
Grafton Architects

Tuesday 14th November at 1.15pm
McCullough Mulvin Architects

Tuesday 21st November at 1.15pm
O’Donnell and Tuomey Architects

Tuesday 28th November at 1.15pm
McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects

Admission is FREE and the talks take place every Tuesday until 28th November 2006. The talks begin at 1.15pm and end at approx. 1.50pm.

BOOKING ESSENTIAL – Places are strictly limited to 50

For booking and further information please contact the Archive at 01 6633040 or slincoln@iarc.ie

The following comment just arrived on this post (see here also)

This got me thinking about the 150,000 ducks that were released as part of a fundraiser for the Childrens Hospital in Crumlin, and where some of them may have ended up now. I’ve heard of some ending up in Cork and Waterford and even Anglesea!! If you’ve found one of the ducks in a strange or unusual location, I’d love to hear from you!