The Dublin Community Blog

Originally from the States, Brandon and his wife have lived in various parts of Europe for a combined 4 years and have lived here in Dublin working with non-profit status since late summer ’06.  While they’re at it, they’re soaking up Irish culture and having some great craic with their new Irish friends! 

Brandon is enjoying the Dublin music scene in particular and can often be found wandering through one of the city’s many art galleries or chatting with buskers, street artists, and the homeless. 

He hasn’t touched Jack Daniels since being introduced to Jameson and refuses to drink Guinness outside of Ireland (especially in the U.S. where it just isn’t the same!)

Is it acceptable practice for restaurants to tell you they need the table after you have eaten and are waiting for coffee? Having not mentioned it on booking or when you sat down?

Recently in one of my favourite restaurants in Temple Bar to which I’m a frequent visitor (should I name and shame?), I had booked a table that day for 7pm that evening and no mention of requiring the table back at 9pm was made, when booking or when taking our table. We were rather taken aback then when 2 different members of staff came up to us and said they needed the table back before we had gotten our coffee.

Is this the norm and should I not be surprised? I have to say its the first time its happened to me in this manner.

Recently, I met a woman who works for Irish immigration. While chatting, she mentioned that the work authorization scheme (which I am on), has been discontinued. In its place is a green card. So, there are now different options for the paperwork involved in working here legally. First, if you are an EU citizen, this doesn’t apply to you.

For non-EU citizens who may need to renew the ability to work in Ireland: I am not entirely sure what we do. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment site simply says this about work authorizations: “The Working Visa/Work Authorisation Scheme has ceased with effect from the 31st December 2006.

Any renewals of current Working Visa/Work Authorisation will continue to be processed by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Department of Foreign Affairs.”

If you are new to Ireland or will be moving over soon, then there are other options. They are the Green Card scheme, work permits, spouse/dependent permit, and intra- company transfer permit. Information about these can be found on Oasis’s website.

I have started reading the pdf file on the Green Cards and there appear to be some critical changes to the system. First, under the work authorization scheme, the employee only needed a contract and wasn’t tied to an employer. From what I have read and what the woman who works in immigration told me, the Green Cards are tied to the employer to some extent. You are required to stay with the same employer for the first year of the initial 2 year Green Card. You then have to apply for a new one if you want to change employers. Hence, a lot less flexibility for employees.

The second major change I notice is the price of the permits. The work authorization only cost me about 150 USD, I think about 100 Euros was the cost quoted on the Oasis site at the time. The new green cards are 1,000 Euro for an inital and 1,500 for a subsequent one (good for an indefinate amount of time). That is a huge difference. It also says that the employee must pay this fee! I guess I had bettr start saving now since I have been told that the guarda card also costs 100 Euro now while it was free two years ago.

The third difference that I see is that the shortest amount of time for a Green Card is two years. On the work authorization, you could get it for three months or two years. Not a big deal, but a bit of a hassle and huge expense if you don’t want to work the whole two years or if you want to work only a couple months after the work authorization is up (which a friend was planning on doing).

The fourth difference is who is elligible for the Green Card. Any professional making over 60,000 Euro is elligible. If you make between 30,000-60,000 Euro, then you have to be in one of the approved lists in the appendix. From scanning it (and looking for my profession), they appear to be mostly the same professions that were covered by the Work authorization scheme.

On an aside, according to the pdf, Green Cards will not be issued to prospective employees if more than 50% of its employees are non-EU nationals.

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival runs from 16th to 25th of February in several cinemas around the city. Tickets can be purchased online or by visiting the festival box office in Filmbase, Curved St, Temple Bar. A full schedule can be found here.

Unfortunately “Once” is already sold out but there are many other interesting films showing.

I have yet to find out what the music is thats used in the ad campaign. So, if you recognise it, please put me out of my misery!

Top 10 things to get photographs of, just some suggestions to get you started with your camera.

• 1) The Ha’Penny Bridge, the old icon of Dublin

• 2) The Spire, the new icon of Dublin

• 3) The Dublin St Patricks Day Parade, the official reason people come to Dublin on St Patricks Day

• 4) A pint of Guinness, the real reason people come to Dublin at any time

• 5) The Luas, Dublins attempt to bring public transport into the 20th Century

• 6) The Horse Drawn carriages at St Stephens Green, still the most reliable form of public transport.

• 7) Leinster House home of the Irish Governement

• Bonos House, the home of what we wish was the Irish Government

• 9) Croke Park, now the center of all Irish sport.

• 10) The Pub, always the center of Irish life.

That should fill one day of your time, the rest of your photo assignments are up to you.

Here are my suggestions for 10 things to bring to Dublin if visiting during St Patricks Day, or any other time of the year.

• 1) Camera and memory cards. Lots to photograph but electronics are expensive so if possible bring them with you.

• 2) Water proof jacket, umbrella, woolen jumper, and sun cream. Any of the above could be needed on St Patricks Day.

• 3) Lonely Planet Guide to Ireland, the LP’s are my personal favorite guide books, but any should do.

• 4) Walking shoes. You’ll do a lot of walking around Dublin while sight seeing, don’t depend on public transport, walking is often quicker and easier.

• 5) Euros. Obvious, but I always see tourists in shops looking for exchange rate on Sterling or Dollars and getting ripped off.

• 6) Your credit card. No matter how many Euros you bring in cash you’ll run out.

• 7) UK style power three pin adapters for your electronics. Ireland uses the 3 pin sockets and 220V AC, at 50Hz.

• Passport and drivers license, not just to get into the country but as ID. Not enough bartenders ask for ID but bouncers do.

• 9) Your WIFI enabled laptop or PDA, there are not enough internet access terminals in Dublin but most cafes and bars have wifi of one shape or another, but be prepared to pay, ALOT.

• 10) Your party attitude. It is St Patricks Day after all

Any others?

Continuing on my Dublin pubs series of posts, I present the Brazen Head. It is one of the many pubs that claim the oldest pub in Ireland title. But it is a lovely pub with great atmosphere and is popular not only with Dubliners but also tourists.

As always there are more pics on Flickr and in our Dublin Blog Flickr group.

BEFORE I start, I know it’s been an absolute age since I posted here (work literally crazy) but I haven’t forgotten about the writers or readers here and check in regularly.

When the nominations for the Irish Blog Awards began I nominated this blog as Best Group Blog because of all the hard work and dedication that has gone in to keeping it up and running from Daragh and everyone else. (Perhaps others nominated too, hopefully, as it’s a great blog)

So while I personally have fallen by the wayside, I still thought this blog deserved a mention so I’m delighted to report that we’ve made the long list for Best Group Blog and now all we need is for our readers to vote for us, to ensure we make it to the short list and be in with a chance to go before the judging panel.

We need your help. Please visit http://www.awards.ie/vote/ and vote for us in the Best Group Blog category. Whatever you do, don’t spam as that will result in your votes being discounted and us getting into trouble with Mr Mulley. Keep it to one vote each and everyone will be happy. The writers here all have ‘day jobs’ and so fit this blog into their spare time so I think they deserve some acknowledgement and I hope you’ll agree with me. If you’ve found this blog helpful, amusing, interesting or even just plain good then get your clicking finger out and vote for us.

While you’re there check out the other categories such as Best Personal Blog, Best Photo Blog and Most Humourous Post where some contributors here such as Red Mum, Rick O’Shea and myself (links in the sidebar) have also been nominated. If you could see your way to voting for us as well as this blog, that would be great.

As always, everyone is welcome to attend the Irish Blog Awards which will take place on March 3 in the Alexander Hotel. More details from www.awards.ie and www.mulley.net

Many thanks for your support and help over the past year and hope to see you at the Blog Awards. For now though, get a-voting – or I’ll send Twenty Major around!

EDIT: Also, could you maybe drop us a comment here when you’ve voted, so we’ll have an idea how well we’re doing? Cheers!

(Note to other contributors: The techies among you might be able to stick up an oul Blog Awards button or something? It’s beyond me but it might help to have it up in the corner there where the polls usually are. Cheers!)

It would appear that despite the forecasts and severe weather warnings, that the snow didn’t come to a whole lot on this little island of ours. There’s been nothing but rain and sleet in my part of the world, has anyone in other parts of Dublin experienced any levels of sticking? I hear that out around Sandyford there might be some, if you have pictures of stories of todays snow fall we’d love to know about them. You can add them to our flickr group and they will even appear on our blog here.

Marieke went to Dublin, back to the Netherlands and back to Dublin again. She will one day make her fortune with a scam involving a crying Virgin Mary statue, a paper machee Lourdes cave and overpriced merchandise.
Until that day she will be contributing to this blog about Dublin’s gems and oddities through the eyes of a Dutch girl.