The Dublin Community Blog

A company called Energy Answers have applied for PP to build a 365k tonne/year incinerator in a quarry site in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.

Local residents have set up a website to voice their concerns: www.rathcooleincinerator.org

They have collated some information which will be interesting reading for Dublin, Kildare & Wicklow residents! Not only residents, but people working in the area (Citywest and Greenogue are less than 3km from the site) . Up to now, this plan has crept in under the radar with very little press coverage. We need to use the (super) power of the internet to let the people of Dublin know what is being built on their doorstep and what are the consequences of same! So, I urge you to do a bit of research and educate yourself to whether you would like an incinerator built 20km away from O’Connell Bridge.

Information on how to agree/disagree/help/meet/discuss is or will be on the website.

Not far from busy city centre you can spot animals that usually live deep in the wild. But there are herons hunting in Liffey, Dodder or Dublin Bay. Close to Milltown lives this lazy fox, catching some sun at the top of some shed. Nice.

I’ve only just heard about the Pipeworks festival which has been running since June 20th.

Here is a timetable of events for this weekend. Most events are ticketed, but there is a free choral event tomorrow afternoon:

Choral Cornucopia, 3pm, City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin

New Dublin Voices
Mornington Singers
Cois Cladaigh
Resurgam

To celebrate the departure of the Sea Stallion, Dublin’s own Viking longship replica, the Dublin Viking Festival is held in Temple Bar and on Wood Quay over the weekend. Festivities will include a farmers/food market, a Viking village, living history displays, battle re-enactment (my favourite part), strolling Danish fiddlers and outdoor screenings in Temple Bar. And of course the departure of the Sea Stallion from Docklands on Sunday afternoon.

More information can be found here, and this is what I am looking forward to:

Leinster fans will have reason to feel confident ahead of the new season thanks to the imminent arrival of two new signings from the Southern Hemisphere.

In an announcement on the club’s website today, coach Michael Cheika confirmed the signing of Springbok CJ Van Der Linde and Wallaby Rocky Elsom.

Van Der Linde joins the Blues from South African team the Free State Cheetah’s. The 27 year old prop has the ability to play in both the tighhead and loosehead position. He has won 48 caps for South Africa, scoring 4 tries.

Elsom joins Leinster on a 1 year contract from NSW Waratahs. The 25 year old flanker has the ability to play at all three back row positions and even as a utility forward on occasion. He has played 55 times for Australia and is one of the dominant members of the Australian forward pack.

Also joining Leinster this season is Harlequins’ scrum half Simon Keogh and Connaught and Ireland ‘A’ hooker John Fogarty.

Leinster have scheduled pre-season warm up matches away to Treviso and Padavo but the game that will be most anticipated will be a home match in Donnybrook (with its shiny new Grandstand!) against the Queensland Reds on a date TBC in late August.

In more good news for fans….there are still a limited number of season tickets available for the coming year however with today’s announcement I would imagine they will be snapped up like hot-cakes!

Could this be Leinster’s year in Europe?

For more on Leinster’s squad announcement and information on season tickets see: http://www.leinsterrugby.ie/members/index.asp?docID=2267

Coffee used to be a common topic here in times past with conversations about where the best coffee was to be found around the city. Some of us have forced our bodies to the next stage in human evolution. Unfortunately that is the stage where caffeine is required to keep us alive and functioning just as much as air, food.

So it is with great pleasure that I send congratulations to fellow Dubliner Stephen Morrissey who has just won the World Barista Championship beating champions from 50 other countries.

Each competitor prepared 4 espressos, 4 cappuccinos and 4 original signature drinks of their own creation to exacting standards using state of the art La Marzocco FB/80 espresso machines and Compak K-10 WBC coffee grinders for a panel of experienced WBC certified judges. Seven judges, including one head judge, 4 sensory judges and 2 technical judges evaluated the taste of beverages served, cleanliness, creativity, technical skill and overall presentation of the competitors.

I would bet those were some nice cups of coffee.

It’s just made it into the flickr blog, flickr member, Colleenm has put together a fantastic collection of scans of images taken around Ireland during a trip in 1972. Of particular interest to readers of this blog would be the set of images in and around County Dublin. It’s amazing to see just how much the city has changed since then, and even more so just how much the people have changed as well. This is a fantastic collection that’s well, well worth checking out when you have a spare moment.

Colleen has also been in touch with me, and would love to try and identify some of the people in the pictures here. If you know, or indeed are one of the people photographed, please feel free to leave a comment here, or over on Colleen’s photos.

Once again St Stephen’s Green is host to an outdoor photographic exhibition this time featuring photographs of Polish wildlife by Artur Tabor. There was a previous outdoor gallery held last year in the park and from what I can gather it was very popular with visitors to the park so it is well worth a visit.  This year’s exhibition was officially opened at the end of last week and will run until September 6th. You can find out more information about the exhibit on the website. Meanwhile here is some of what you can expect.

Today most Irish people do not attend mass regularly yet most of us still call ourselves Catholic. We want to be married in church, have our children baptized, receive their first communion and confirmation, attend mass at Easter and Christmas, then finally we want a church funeral. I count myself in this group, I do not attend mass anything close to regularly yet I still consider myself to be Catholic. The divide between our everyday religious beliefs and our special occasion religious beliefs may make many of us seem like hypocrites to those with stronger faith and a more traditional observance of the Catholic religion. It is interesting therefore that in 4 years time the 50th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Dublin.

Eucharistic Congresses are gatherings of ecclesiastics and laymen for the purpose of celebrating and glorifying the Holy Eucharist and of seeking the best means to spread its knowledge and love throughout the world.

These days it is easy to find people to knock the Catholic, or indeed any, religion. The Eucharistic Congress in 2012 should see more debate and consideration of the role of the Church in Ireland of the future. It could also see a Papal visit to Dublin. The Catholic church has not had many good news stories in Ireland in the last few years so perhaps this could be a turning point for the Church in Ireland?

The OPW have announced details of this year’s summer cultural programme at Farmleigh House, the official Irish State guest residence and rumoured future pied-a-terre of Taoiseach Brian Cowen. The house and its beautiful gardens are nestled in the north western corner of the Phoenix Park and are open from March to December each year.

Some of the events will be ticketed, such as their drive-in movie programme and a concert series. Tickets are free and will be issued on a lottery basis. Other highlights include regular farmers’ markets, a family fitness day, and an Irish version of Oktoberfest (Septemberfest!)

Full programme details and ticket lottery information can be found here. Now, if only the weather would improve…