The Dublin Community Blog

It has been on for a short while, but the Polish Art exhibition at the National Gallery is well worth going to see before it ends on 27th January. The exhibition charts the evolution of Modern Art in Poland in the period 1880-1939. This period is particularly significant in Polish history as both Russia and Germany threatened the country’s very existence by their expansionist views on its territory which ultimately aimed to eradicate Polish culture and language. In the face of these pressures, the Polish people resisted in a positivist fashion, forging themselves a strong sense of national identity, very much visible in the art of the period. In a sense, Poland shares a common cultural history with Ireland, as both forged their own national identities in the face of a hostile other. This, as well as the burgeoning Polish presence in Dublin and Ireland, makes this exhibition poignant as well as relevant.

Moreover, the exhibition is free, and thus accessible to all and sundry. For more details go to www.nationalgallery.ie

In case you are not already aware, but there are gonna be some serious disruptions to Dublin Bus services in the morning. I am copying the notice that was posted on Dublin Bus’s webpage earlier. So check and make sure if your bus service is affected that you have other means to get to work.

Due to industrial action by bus drivers in Harristown Bus Garage, services operating from this garage will be disrupted on Monday 12th November 2007.

Dublin Bus wish to apologise for this disruption.

The Food Safety Authority yesterday published a list of enforcement orders served on food premises for October. I was quite surprised and shocked to see two places on the list that I have frequented: O’Briens Sandwich Bar in St. Stephens Green Shopping Centre and Ba Mizu under Powerscourt Townhouse.

Closure Orders are served when it is deemed, upon inspection, that there is, or there is likely to be, a grave and immediate danger to public health at or in the premises.

I like Ba Mizu and have enjoyed many a good feed there. I’m not sure I’ll be running back!

I enjoy food and am lucky enough to often eat out, but I’m wondering can we really trust what we are served in restaurants?

Walking down Grafton Street on a clear day, you’re likely to run in to a crowd surrounding a street performer outside Stephen’s Green shopping centre. Usually, I peer over the heads of the onlookers for a moment and decide it’s not worth my time as I head back to the LUAS or to whatever meeting I’m already running late for.

Today, however, I stopped briefly for a routine glance at the unofficial “Grafton Street Performers’ Stage” – and got hooked. It wasn’t the fact that your man with a Kiwi accent was doing an impressive job of juggling basketballs or that he could also balance himself on a unicycle 3 meters high. I think I was most impressed with the way he made people a part of his act.

For example, at one stage, he called on a 5 year-old boy to hold the basketballs. Now, the sight of a small boy holding 3 basketballs, each one twice the size of the boy’s head, is funny enough. (See picture below.) But as he interacted with the boy and joked around with him, he cleverly made the boy a participant in the act without patronizing him. He did the same with the other 3 adults that he pulled from the audience.

Brilliant stuff. Makes me look forward to the next Street Performance World Championship next summer! It also makes me wonder what it takes for YOU to actually stop and watch these performers, if anything at all. What do you think? Feel free to leave some feedback or stories in the comments section. And we’ll gladly pass along your suggestions to Daragh for his next visit to Dublin with his juggling hedgehogs act. =)

When moving to a new city, it can be a challenge to figure many thing out.  You need to learn the way the city works, the names of utility companies, where to get groceries, perhaps what banks are in the area.  Since many people have asked more about cost of living in Dublin, I am providing some information so that people can find out what they need to know themselves. 

So, grocery stores.  The main grocery stores are Tesco, Superquinn,  Dunnes stores, and Marks and Spencers.

The electric company is ESB and the gas company is  Bord Gais.

You can get cable from Sky TV or NTL or Smart Telecom if you are in their area.

Telephone: you have a lot of choices based on where you live.  The main phone company is Eircom  but you can also get phone service from Smart Telecom, NTL, or BT.

Internet: you can get your internet service with the phone service from any of the above service providers and there are many others as well.

Banks: the main ones are Halifax, Permanent TSB, Bank of Ireland, AIB, Bank of Scotland, and Ulster bank.

    I would like to share my concerns with the Dublin community over the obscene rise in gig prices over the last couple of years. When I first moved to Dublin in 2003, concerts were still, bar a few ‘big names’* affordable and allowed for a relatively inexpensive evening. One could see a good act and have a couple of pints for under 30€. I remember seeing The Skatalites at The Village in 2004, and it cost me 15€.  I believe, although I could not verify this, that a ticket last time around cost something in the region of 30€. In recent times, I have missed out on a number of gigs that I would have liked to see due to the steep entry fee- Soulwax cost 33€, and Groove Armada (DJ set!) followed by Dizzee Rascal was a mere 44€95! Why is this happening? The music industry is in danger of pricing out many fans. As a student, I probably have more time for fun and games than a professional, but I can’t afford to spend that time at concerts. This is wrong. What is the justification for this? Has the average Skatalites fan become twice as rich in the last 3 years? I think not.

     I believe that the causes for this lie in the quasi-despotic monopoly on gigs held by large promotion companies such as MCD, an organisation that has more than erupted onto the Dublin music scene in the last few years. Their sole aim is to make money rather than to spread the love of music. Two examples- the first LCD Soundsystem gig was moved to Tripod from The Button Factory, so as to allow for more tickets to be sold. The Groove Armada/Dizzee gig, originally set in Kilmainham Jail (which to some extent would have justified the hefty sum demanded of the unsuspecting public) was also moved to the aforementioned venue of the many names (Pod, POGO, Crawdaddy, Tripod, Redbox- make your minds up, please) for the same reasons. Enough of these outrageous capitalistic practices, I say, and more independence of mind from the bands, venues, and, if necessary, promoters. Bonde do Role, a Brazilian electro-funk band from Curitiba, are coming back to Dublin for their third gig in over a year in November. Seeing them will set you back 15€, as it did the first time they played here, despite a very succesful year that saw them recording an MTV hit. However, they have stayed level-headed and, their fans will be able to carry on following them without submitting to the tyranical organisations governing the Dublin music scene. Obrigado, Bonde, e ate pronto.    

* Big names? When the unsuspecting public pays 70-something euros to see Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake something is wrong, but the point of this particular rant is not to question the public’s tastes. Maybe another time.