The Dublin Community Blog

There is to be serious water disruptions across the north side of the city FOR TWO DAYS to facilitate works on the Dublin Port Tunnel. The areas to be affected are:

Fairview, Sutton Park

Clontarf, Bayside Park

Raheny, Baldoyle Village

Killester, Baldoyle Ind Estate

Kilbarrack, Menolly Homes, Baldoyle

And surrounding areas.

There will be stationary water tankers at

1. St Brigids Church, Howth Rd (near Sybil Hill Rd)

2. Behind UCI Coolock on Tonlegee Rd at Santry River.

The disruptions will begin at 8pm on Friday 1st December to 6pm on Sunday 3rd December 2006. More information available at Dublin City Council.

I was strolling along O’Connell Street yesterday around 5pm and I noticed it was closed off to traffic, so being the curious type that I am I took a walk up to the GPO and happened upon the unveiling of this years Christmas tree. Yes, love it or hate it, it’s that time again already folks…

Unfortunately had a pressing engagement to get to (ok, it was a pint of Guinness), so I didn’t hang around for the official light up.

Here’s a list of some of the events taking place in the city over Christmas taken from the official DublinCity.ie press release :

Live Animal Crib – (11 – 23 December) For the 11th year running, The Mansion House on Dawson Street will host a traditional nativity scene set with live animals in a specially constructed lifesize stable. This event has become a beloved Christmas tradition amongst families and has collected over €110,000 for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Fund. Organised by the Irish Farmers Association and Dublin City Council, this wonderful event is free but everyone should donate money to this worthy cause! A wonderful opportunity to bring a little bit of the country to city kids. ·

Smithfield on Ice, t.0818 946900 / http://www.smithfieldonice.ie/ – (10 November – 7 January)

Dublin’s original open-air Ice-Rink, returns to Smithfield for the fifth year running. A large skating rink, a Victorian carnival and Christmas market all contribute to a sense of the ‘White Christmas’ Bing Crosby sang about. Santa will be up the 170ft Smithfield chimney, there will be carols every Sunday, and everyone can get a chance to bump and slide on the ice! All together now: “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas!� ·

Santa’s Workshop – (every weekend in December) This year for the first time Santa has moved his workshop from Lapland in the North Pole to Dublin’s City Hall!! ·

Christmas Market – (1 – 10 December)

Dubliners will have the opportunity to savour the atmosphere, tastes and smells of a traditional Christmas market in Wolfe Tone Park with Christmas fare available from over 20 stalls offering a wide selection from which to choose. Dublin Docklands Authority, Georges Dock, IFSC, D1: http://www.ddda.ie/ · 12 Days of Christmas –

Traditional Festive Market – (12 – 23 December)

Featuring over 40 traders selling Christmas decorations, seasonal food and craft gifts from decorated stalls the market also offers the scent of mulled wine, a German-themed bar, carol-singing, an eating area and fairground attractions. Not only will it bring a bit of Christmas spirit to the city but it will also be an opportunity to see how the Docklands is changing.

The National Museum of Ireland, t.01 6777444: http://www.museum.ie/ ·

Christmas Open Day, Museum of Decorative Arts & History, Collins Barracks, D7 -(Saturday 2 December): children can make Christmas decorations and learn about old fashioned toys. ·

Get Ready for Christmas!, Museum of Archaeology & History, Kildare Street, D2 – (Saturday 16 December): children will be encouraged to make their own Christmas decorations and decorate a tree at this children’s art workshop (booking is essential). ·

 A Medieval Christmas, Museum of Archaeology & History, Kildare Street, D2 – (Sunday 17 December): presented by the Irish Arms Living History Group, enjoy the fun of the Medieval Fair – education amidst Christmas fun, what more could you want for your kids?

 Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA),Royal Hospital Kilmainham, D8: http://www.modernart.ie/ ·

A number of exciting exhibitions will be running for all the family to enjoy including Michael Craig-Martin (Until 14 January),Hearth: Concepts of Home from the IMMA Collection in collaboration with Focus Ireland (Until 1 April), Iran do Espírito Santo (Until 21 January) and All Hawaii Entrées (Until 18 February)

Dublin City Gallery – The Hugh Lane, Parnell Square North, D1: http://www.hughlane.ie/ ·

Children’s Art Workshops (see website for further details) Why not bring all the budding artists in the family along to explore their creative side:- Making Winter Tophats – (Saturday 2 December) 12 Days of Christmas – (Saturday 16 December) Little Christmas – (Saturday 6 January)

The Gaiety Theatre, South King Street, D2: http://www.gaietytheatre.net/ · Mother Goose Panto – (3 December – 4 February)

“He’s behind you! Oh no he isn’t! Oh yes he is!� The Gaiety Panto is the largest in the country and it’s always a great night out for the whole family. Expect lots of good guys, bad guys, good girls, bad girls, men dressed as women and the most important ingredient lots of happy, loud, shouting children.

The Olympia Theatre, 72 Dame Street, D2: t.01 670 3323/0818 719330 ·

 Cinders Panto – (26 December – 7 January) 98fm’s Little Becky and ITV’s Bel from Bel Boys are appearing live in pantomime this Christmas in the all time classic Cinders at the Olympia. With an all-Irish child cast of over 110, 4-16 year olds, two live ponies, Bebo the Dog and the biggest kid in the world, June Rogers, returning to panto for the first time in many years – this is bound to be an evening of fun and frolics for the entire family!

Liberty Hall, Eden Quay, D1:01 872 1122 / http://www.libertyhall.ie/ ·

Sleeping Beauty – The Lyons Tea Panto – (15 December – 21 January) Ireland AM’s Alan Hughes appears as Sammy Sausages with a host of other celebrities including Joe Conlon, George McMahon and Hazel O’Connor in this year’s classic panto production which is bound to entertain young and old alike!

The National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, D2: http://www.nch.ie/ ·

Christmas Crackers – (7 December, 8 pm) Hosted by showband legend Dickie Rock and Niamh Kavanagh the evening features a host of popular seasonal carols and Christmas hits including Silent Night, I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus, Christmas Song, O Holy Night and lots more. ·

 A Christmas Festival – (9 December, 8pm) Presented by Niamh Murray, this event will feature the Dublin County Choir, the Billie Barry Children and the Royal Irish Academy of Music Wind Ensemble. If you’re a fan of Christmas music then there is no better way to get into the spirit of the season!

A Silver Christmas ·

Dublin City Centre Christmas trees will be adorned with the glow of silver stars from Newbridge Silverware this year who have donated a series of 3,500 exclusively designed and crafted silver stars to Dublin City Council. They will be featured in Christmas trees in O’Connell Street, Lower Grafton St., City Hall and the home of the Lord Mayor – the Mansion House and will be auctioned off in aid of the Lord Mayor’s charity TRUST after Christmas.

Contemporary Music Centre,19 Fishamble Street, Temple Bar, D8: http://www.cmc.ie/ ·

 Mornington Singers – (7 December, 6.30 – 7.30pm) Will perform Christmas Carols old and new followed by seasonal refreshments at the Contemporary Music Centre and Handel Courtyard.

St Martin’s Church, 42 Parnell Square, D1, t.01 8745465 ·

The Moving Crib – (1 December – 15 January) Established in 1956 by Fr. Louis Coffey, the Moving Crib has now entertained generations of Dubliners. It does more than it says on the tin with a selection of biblical scenes acted out by mechanical puppets including Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, the Three Wise Men and of course the Nativity. A reminder of what Christmas is all about.

The Ark, Cultural Centre for Children,11a Eustace Street, Temple Bar, D2: http://www.ark.ie/ ·

The Butterfly Effect: An Arklink Retrospective – (29 November – 7 January) An exhibition celebrating the captivating artwork of the participating children of ArkLink, a six-year programme in the community of Fatima Mansions. Together with resident artists Jole Bortoli, Kieran McNulty and Katie Lincoln, the children have created a imaginative body of original paintings, sculptures and films. A truly inspirational exhibition not to be missed.

Phoenix Park, D8: tel.01-820 5800 ·

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer – (17 December, 2pm) Take a guided walk with Don Doran, Deer Keeper at the Phoenix Park and meet Rudolph and all his friends before they get ready to take flight around the world on Christmas Eve! This event is organised by the OPW. The James Joyce Centre, 35 North Great George’s Street, D1: http://www.jamesjoyce.ie/ ·

Christmas Magic – (1 – 21 December) The James Joyce Centre will transform from this date into a Victorian wonderland straight out of a Charles Dickens novel. Two period Christmas Trees and sumptuous décor will blend with the smells of mince pies, roasted chestnuts, mulled wine and apple cider, and the sounds of carols from the likes of the Belvedere choir. Every guest will receive a mince pie and a glass of warm spiced apple juice or mulled wine.

 Temple Bar Cultural Trust, East Essex Street, D2: http://www.templebar.ie/ ·

Christmas Movies on the Square – (every Thursday & Saturday in December) All movies take place on Meeting House Square, Temple Bar and are FREE. Movies DO NOT require tickets – just come along! Love Actually – Thursday 7th December, 6pm It’s a Wonderful Life – Saturday 9th December, 8pm Miracle on 34th Street – Thursday 14th December, 6pm The Santa Claus – Saturday 16th December, 8pm Santa Claus the Movie – Thursday 21st December, 6pm Scrooged – Saturday 23rd December, 8pm ·

Temple Bar Christmas Market – (14 – 17 December, 10am – 7pm)

A spectacular outdoor Christmas market in Old City Temple Bar, Essex Street West, for 4 days only this December! Over 50 stallholders will take to the streets offering you that alternative gift this Christmas. Santas in the City! · From Santas Grottos to snow mountains and a word with the man himself about what you want for Christmas – Christmas isn’t Christmas without a visit to see Santa in the City!
 

Ever since moving here, we have complained about the lack of good quality radio. It became a bad, predictable joke. “Dance music – it must be Saturday night.”

I realise Dervla already posted about this, but it bears repeating – there is finally an alternative (in both senses of the word) radio station. Phantom FM 105.2 is now broadcasting. If you’re sick of what Irish radio typically has to offer, check out Phantom.

Ok, it has been a long time since my first post about how to move to Dublin and I thought it was time to do another one. So, after you arrive in the country, you need to find a place to live. The two main websites for this are daft and my home. There are probably others but these are the two that most people I know look for. I personally prefer daft because it tells you exactly how old an advert is and I have found it updated more frequently with rental properties.

When I first looked for housing, I was very confused about all of the different types. So, here are some descriptions and general prices of housing within the Dublin area. Note, these prices vary GREATLY depending on where you are trying to live.

• Shared accomodation: pretty self explanitory. You are living with other people. However, some people share actual bedrooms in addition to rooms within a house so you would have to check if it is a room for let or a bed in a room with other people. Prices vary greatly but generally 400-600 Euros a month
• • Bedsit: this is usually one big room with a bed/couch, kitchen area. You may share a bathroom, may have a private bath. Pricing is generally 500-700 Euros a month
• • Studio: this is usually bigger than a bedsit. Most are still one large room but you would generally have a bed area, kitchen/dining area, and living area. Prices are usually 600-800 Euros a month
• • Apartment: come in different number of bedrooms, have private bath and are usually purpose built as apartments. Usually cost 850 and up
• • Flats: I am still not entirely sure what these are as people seem to use flat and apartment interchangeably. I believe that a flat is a floor of what used to be a house that has been converted to a self contained living space.

So, that is the basics on housing types. Where you want to live depends on a lot of factors such as if you have a car, how much money you are willing to spend, if you depend on public transport, how far you want to live from work, etc. If you are depending on public transport, city centre is by far the most convienent. Trying to get from one end of the metro area to the other is difficult no matter what but all public transport goes through city centre. That is how we ended up living where we do.

It is now possible to check the draft register of electors online. A new website called checktheregister has links to each Council so you can check if you are registered with your correct details.

Amendments cannot be made online but there is a pdf form that can be downloaded and posted to your Council before the November 25th closing date.

UPDATE 23/11/06:
As pointed out by Anthony, the closing date for amendments has been extended to December 9th.

What can I say? I’m only just recovering from the brilliance of this gig. So far in the noughties U2 at Slane Castle (the first one) has been my favourite gig. However, Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band performance in the Point last Fri is my new favourite. I’m a longtime Bruce fan and have all his albums – apart from the Seeger Sessions album – which I just never got around to purchasing. I was lucky enough to get a ticket for Fri night at the Point and went along wondering how different this performance was going to be from that with the E Street Band in the RDS in 2003. Different it certainly was.

Bruce and his 16 strong band came onstage at 8.20pm opening with a cajun version of “Atlantic City”. The music style is cajun/folk with a large hint of Irish trad also. The band are talented musicians who clearly enjoy performing, as does Bruce and his wife Patti. They sang and played practically non-stop for 3 hours. Mostly from the Seegers Sessions album, however “Devils and Dust” and “City of Ruins” were thrown in. I didn’t stop dancing for the whole show and I think most of the audience were the same, especially after Bruce encouraged “fine Irish asses” to get up off their seats. I left the Point wanting to go to Sat and Sun nights performances too but sadly I wasn’t lucky enough. Truly the gig of 2006 and possibly the noughties.

On Saturday, I wanted to go out to dinner.  Since it was only 6:30, we figured out chances were pretty good getting in somewhere.  We decided to chance Elephant and Castle.  They had a three hour wait.  We then went to Parliment Street to the Porterhouse.  They didn’t have anywhere to sit and we don’t like to stand while we eat.  Next, we went to a little Italian place near Dame and Parliment.  All tables booked. We tried the Italian place next door which we have eaten at before: also all booked.  We walked past Toscano.  Completely full iniside with people standing outside.

We then discussed which of our usual places are easy to get in to.  We headed for La Paloma because the sound of paella and clerico made us happy.  Even though there were only a few people in the restaurant, they said they were fully booked.  We then went to Morgans since they have good tapas.  Also appeared fully booked.

By this time, we didn’t know any other places other than the Indian we go to often that would be likely to have room for non-planners.  We passed on Indian since we were there Friday night.  Instead, we went home and I made pasta with cream sauce and garlic bread.

Moral of my story: book a table in advance on Saturdays in city centre during the Christmas season (possibly most Saturdays).

I love shopping. I find it therapeutic and realise its probably one of the reasons I am not yet a home owner. I’ve realised over the last few years that I keep going back to stores that make my shopping experience pleasant. Apart from obviously the merchandise, a number of things make me revisit. The shop should be easy to move around in, have clean, air conditioned changing rooms (nothing worse than smelly changing rooms yeuk) preferably queue free, staff should be friendly and returns should be hassle free. If its a Shopping Centre, toilets should be clean and easy to find and parking should be painless.

During the summer Karen wrote about enjoying Liffey Valley shopping centre. Here are some of my positive shopping experiences (in no particular order of preference):

* Dundrum Shopping Centre (deserved winners of International Shopping Centre of the Year)

* Topshop on St. Stephens Green

* Avoca Rathcoole

* Habitat on Suffolk St/College Green

* Any Marks and Spencer store – particularly the grocery store

* Wallis on Grafton St

* Fallon and Byrne foodhall on Exchequer St

* Dunnes Stores Homewares on Georges St

Please feel free to add your own.

An investigation by the BBC has apparently unearthed exiled Islamic cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed making a call for Dublin Airport to be attacked.

The BBC News website says:

During an online question and answer session a Vigil member asked Omar Bakri Mohammed if Dublin Airport should be a terrorist target because US troops transit there on the way to Iraq.

The cleric replied: “Hit the target and hit it very hard, that issue should be understood. Your situation there is quite difficult therefore the answer lies in your question.”

Not that it makes a difference to the impact of the story but we know the troops actually go from Shannon and there is an ongoing campaign against this. More on this story on the new look Irish Times website (now with free Breaking News), along with Breaking News.ie, Twenty Major, Fat Mammy Cat, MacDara in the Leb and TCAL.

EDIT: November 15 @11.08am -  An official opening date has been announced, December 20. (Spotted on TCAL)
Daragh wrote back in September that the Dublin Port Tunnel was to open in mid-November. It now appears that it will open before Christmas with an official date being made before the end of the month. (You would have thought getting it open in time for the Christmas rush would have been important particularly considering the crazy traffic on the quays yesterday evening which was made up of WWW wrestling fans (apparently there was a do in the Point Depot) and trucks and lorries making their way to the port for the evening sailing.
Before then there will be a 10km charity race through the tunnel on December 10. More information on that here and here. Sounds like a cool thing to do.
And back to tunnel news did you know 5,000 people worked 7.5million people hours constructing the €752m project. At 4.5km long it is the longest urban tunnel in Europe and should transport traffic from the M50 to Dublin Port in six minutes. (The site actually contradicts itself on this fact, on one page it says six minutes while on the map at the front it says 10.)
Check out the Dublin Port Tunnel website which has lots of really cool photographs, some of which I am reproducing here. Who knew Star Wars was going on underneath our feet…

Above pic by Mark Marshall

No accreditation for the above pic.

Above pic by Jason Clarke