The Dublin Community Blog

I was having a coffee this afternoon with a pal when I spotted Eamon Dunphy on Baggot Street signing autographs for some fans. I even shooed away tourists who stood in front of me when I was taking the pic. Oh the lengths I go to and the depths I descend to for the Dublin Blog. Who needs Paris Hilton when we have Dunphy? Here’s a link to a Dunphy rant on Google Video (spotted on the wikipedia page.)

Following on from the comments in the last post on Phil Lynott’s missing hand, I phoned up the press office of Dublin City Council who told me the hand and guitar have been removed to fix the strings on the guitar. As the hand and guitar are one piece, they were taken away together (obviously).

The council expects the statue to be restored in the next couple of days.

Yesterday saw the launch of The Dubliner 2007 Restaurant Guide, an essential companion if you like eating out and about the city. I haven’t yet picked up my own copy, but, I suggest that you do. Not sure if you can buy it online, but, you can certainly pick it up in most good book stores and certain newsagents.

According to Breaking News.ie, since the Luas was launched in June 2004 some 50 million journeys have been made with 80,000 people travelling on it everyweek. The website has a handy list of attractions which are located close to the Luas, handy for tourists.

Taken from the Red line Luas in May 2005.

Last Fri Nov 3rd, Oxfam Records released a 9 track CD with all profits going to the Make Trade Fair campaign.

From The Cake Sale site

The Cake Sale are a band featuring a loose and expansive collective of musicians and writers who have combined to create a nine-song CD of the same name on Oxfam Records. All profits will go to support Oxfam Ireland’s Make Trade Fair campaign and their overseas programme work.

Songs on the album have been written by Dave Geraghty, Emm Gryner, Paul Noonan, Glen Hansard, Ollie Cole, Damien Rice, Conor Deasy and Matt Lunson.

Lead vocalists for the project include Lisa Hannigan, Nina Persson, Gary Lightbody, Gemma Hayes, Glen Hansard, Josh Ritter, Conor Deasy and Neil Hannon.

A host of other luminaries fill the roles of musicians.

Having listened to the album pretty much on a loop since last Fri (along with the new Damien Rice album which is fab) I have to admit it is a brilliant recording.

It costs eur19.99 and would make a great Christmas present. Its available in Road Records however it appears to be out of stock until Nov 15th. So, all you good music loving readers, ring up and reserve your copy today

UPDATE Nov 9th:
Brian Crosby from Bell X1 will be online with RTE at 1pm today to talk about the Cake Sale project.

Quite often I see the Garda Mounted Unit in Temple Bar. Usually 1 or 2 Gardai on horseback wandering around keeping an eye on things and being photographed by tourists. However, I’m tired of stepping into the horse poo. They deposit massive lumps on the path or road. Large and all as they are, twice today I managed to step into some during a day dream moment. Question is, who is responsible for cleaning up Garda horsey poo? I have looked on the Garda website but it only gives details of their care etc. Any ideas folks?

Or so I am told, I never liked the stuff. Here’s some early morning autumn (I know it is officially winter but hey) pics taken of the Guinness brewery.

I took them just after 8am on Friday morning outside Heuston Station.

We (Dublin Blog) should probably do a best Guinness in Dublin post but I wouldn’t be the best person to do it, considering I never got the taste for it.

Yesterday, I went out to the Porterhouse Central with some friends.  My friends had started drinking about 2:00 PM and none of us had any lunch.  When I got there at 5:30, they were pretty happy.  None of them seemed really drunk yet, but they certainly had drunk a lot by the time I had gotten there.

Anyway, we drank some more and a couple of us ordered a bit of dinner.  About 12:30 AM, I decided that I had had enough because people were looking at us a bit and we were turning into loud, obnoxious drunks.  We were still having good fun, but the wait staff were treating us a bit differently and others around us were giving us “looks.”

So, one of the group, who happens to be a bartender, was going to buy the round.  He asked me what I wanted and I said that I was finished for the night and only wanted water.  He then asked what another friend was drinking and I said that she should also be cut off for the night.  He said that it was fair enough that I had cut myself off but that the friend should decide for herself to be cut off (even though she was quite sloppy drunk).  He then turned to a third friend and asked what she was drinking.  She said that she was cutt off for the night and that the second friend should be cut off, too.  He still bought her another round.

So, Dublin blog readers, here is my question to you: when, if ever, do you “cut off” friends?

Passing by the Phil Lynott statue today which is located off Grafton Street in front of Bruxelles bar, it appears that someone has robbed his hand. The statue was only unveiled last year. It took a long time from when a statue to the Thin Lizzy star was first mooted to its unveiling. It would be nice if Dublin’s favourite son had his hand back, anyone know anything?

Daragh here posting this on behalf of RedMum….

I went looking on YouTube for the video of a happy slapping incident which has been reported in a lot of newspapers in Ballymun where a young girl’s alleged assault was captured on video and posted to the popular site. I found this clip instead and think it is probably better that I didn’t find it, hopefully that clip has been removed. This one show a time lapse demolition of one of the towers in Ballymun and is cool. There’s more from the author here.