The Dublin Community Blog

As written about in the previous post, last night saw Dublin’s participation in Earth Hour. I was at the Customs House to watch the lights  go off and the pics below show before and afterwards. A video of the lights going out is available here.

According to news reports today there was a drop of 50 megawatts nationwide in energy demand last night in comparison with last week. You can read more on Ireland.com, on the Earth Hour blog and the official Earth Hour website.

Tonight, from 8-9pm, Dublin will be participating in the global Earth Hour. 24 major cities around the world are participating this year, including Sydney (where the idea apparently started), Copenhagen, Chicago, Atlanta, and Toronto. Businesses and individuals are being asked to turn off all non-essential lights and appliances for the hour as a way of communicating the need for action against global warming.

Have a look at these links for more:
DublinCity.ie
EarthHour (Dublin)
CNN Report
Dublin Chamber of Commerce

Following the success of their first event on Grafton Street last month, the folks at Dublin Improv are planning another public “freeze” tomorrow, Saturday March 21st. The venue this time is Dundrum Shopping Centre.

If you’d like to take part, please make your way to the Dundrum or Ballally Luas stops at 2pm sharp tomorrow. A Dublin Improv agent will be on hand to give out further instructions on the freeze, including the exact location (which is being kept under wraps for now to maximise the effect!) The freeze may happen indoors or outdoors so come prepared for either.

And, if you happen to be shopping in Dundrum tomorrow afternoon, keep your eyes peeled for unusual goings on!

In one previous posts I mentioned how great looked St. Patrick as young Robert de Niro. But well it was only last year. It seems that low dollar exchange rates are connected with saints as well, because this year’s Paddy impersonator was ‘bored and cheap’ version as well:

He was just the beginning of the parade, but showed the whole truth about the show we were to see.: cheap and boring. Some great (French) balloons, dozen of poor American marching bands. Fortunately, St Paddy gave us good weather this year.

There was a rare opportunity to listen to traditional Central European music played on original instruments like hurdygurdy and dulcimer, on Merrion Square yesterday during the St’ Patrick’s Fair. Everything happened in yurt constructed in the park. You could attend to classes of traditional, artistic paper cutting and procession and whirl dances.

There’s certainly something for everyone in Dublin for this year’s St. Patrick’s Festival – even for parents who miss their clubbin’ days! I took my daughter to SS Michael and John in the West end of Temple Bar yesterday for her first rave party, where ‘the only drug is calpol,’ according to the group’s MySpace page. The Baby Rave is being put on by Belfast arts charity, Young at Art.

If you’re a parent of a child 0-4 years old, I would wholeheartedly recommend taking him/her/them to this multi-sensory experience. Even at five-and-a-half months old, my little girl was wide-eyed in wonder as she watched the colourful flower-shaped lights float up the walls and across the ceiling. The music was just the right volume to “thump,” but not so loud that I felt my little one’s ears were at risk. The staff were also very helpful, friendly, and sensitive.

The Baby Rave continues today and tomorrow. Be sure to visit the St. Patrick’s Festival site for details (CLICK HERE). You can pay the EUR 8.50 charge (per person) at the door like we did, but to guarantee your entrance, you’re better off booking in advance the day before. So book now for one of the three raves happening tomorrow. Given the wet weather Dublin seems to be getting, an indoor event such as this is sure to be very attractive for young families!

You have another opportunity to participate in a great show ‘Pearl’ in George’s Dock. It starts tomorrow at 7.30. Official Festival’s website requires (free) tickets for that show, but no one was checking them.

Take your children, they will love it.

If you can’t be in Dublin for the St Patrick’s festival parade and would like to be then don’t worry because RTE is going to stream all the fun live here. They will also, when available, stream other parades around the world live at this link. The largest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world has already taken place in Savannah with some 250k participants. Other parades will take place between now and Monday so if you want to check out the parade in other cities just make sure you check when it is happening (roll your mouse over the city to find out when).

You will also be able to check out parades from all over Ireland too including the Skyfest fireworks spectacular taking place in Cashel in Tipperary. Nice one RTE.

Meanwhile here’s a couple of different You Tube videos from last year’s parade.

EDIT: putting up the videos is making the whole site go mad, so I will just link to them instead GGRGRRRR. The first is from Balcony TV and the other isn’t   If anyone of the Dublin Blog people know where I am going wrong and can fix this, please do.

The BBC 5 day forecast today reaches to Monday (St Patrick’s Day) and tells us that the rain over the weekend should pass by Monday and there will be sunny spells with a max temp of 6C or 42F.

So the weather is expected to be dry but cold. If you are travelling to Dublin and plan to attend the parade make sure to pack a warm hat, scarf and gloves since you will probably be standing on the same spot along the route for 2 to 3 hours.

Just in time for rush hour today Pearse Street station has been closed due to storm damage and will remain closed for the rest of the day. Rail services are running as normal through the station so go to the next nearest station and travel from there.

Iarnród Éireann advises customers that due to storm damage to the roof of Dublin’s Pearse Station, the station has been closed for the remainder of the day.

Rail services will operate normally, through Pearse Station, but will not stop at Pearse Station.

Update: The station reopened this morning.