The Dublin Community Blog

I posted a while back about Leinster’s new signings for the upcoming season and a potential pre-season friendly in Donnybrook against the Queensland Reds.

Today I noticed this press release on the club website.

The game has been confirmed for Saturday 30th August. Tickets will be sold to season ticket holders only due to capacity limitations so start begging from friends who have them!

Perhaps of greater interest to non-rugby/Leinster fans is the day’s ‘green’ theme.

As part of the day, Ecocem, a company which specialises in producing cement which leaves a smaller carbon footprint, are off-setting the carbon footprint of the Queensland Reds return flights, and are also offsetting 6 tons of carbon for every point scored.

In order to reduce the impact on the environment of paper, the match programme will only be available via Bluetooth to your mobile, and paperless ticketing is in operation.

There will also be a bike park in operation within the ground for anyone travelling to the ground by bicycle.

To mark the occasion the team will wear a specially commissioned green kit.

A very commendable initiave- it will be interesting to see how successful the paperless ticketing and bluetooth programmes are.

So, on August 30th in Donnybrook, listen out for the chants of Allez les Bleus Verts!

Today, I took the fam into Dublin city centre, primarily to sit back and watch my wife soak up Dublin’s first Temple Bar Chocolate Festival. I’m not sure what we were expecting (life-size chocolate Molly Malone statues and chocolate fountains on every corner maybe?), but we were a bit disappointed by the lack of chocolateness around us as we wandered through Temple Bar. Turns out, the big chocolate “exhibition” isn’t on until tomorrow in Meeting House Square. However, my wife did manage to get into a lecture in the Film Base on the health benefits of chocolate. Did you know that raw cacoa beans are chalk full of anti-oxidants, neurotransmitters (sounds like Star Trek) and other things that are healthy for the brain? Unfortunately, with all of the processing and other ingredients that get thrown in to make chocolate, the health benefits are largely lost. (That’s right – you learn something new every time you stop by Dublin Blog.) =)

So while my wife was in the seminar, I headed over to the Kings of Concrete festival at Dublin City Council on Wood Quay. It was an interesting convergence of “establishment” (i.e., city government) and “anti-establishment” (urban youth culture). Lots of cool stuff going on: graffiti art, skateboard ramps, breakdance, parkour, hip-hop music, etc. One wonders: Are city officials giving urban youth an outlet to express themselves in a controlled environment? You know, let ‘em get it out of their system a bit? Or are they trying to communicate that, despite the “no skateboarding” signs around the city and the relative lack of public space and tolerance for urban youth culture, the city really don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with urban youth culture?

Whatever the case, the event seemed to be a big success and it continues tomorrow until 6ish.

Some pics of Grand Canal Square that I took a while ago and only just found!

I love living here. It’s got its own little buzz going on, it’s close to town (if you’re a slowcoach like me, it’s about eight minutes from Pearse Street DART station), but still quiet and the Docklands Authority are really trying to make sure that some culture and fun is injected into the area.

There are lots of nice places to eat and drink – Riva, Milano, Ely HQ, Ocean, The Ferryman. There’s Fresh for nice supermarket food, KC Peaches for yummy brunches, an Italian bakery for fancy coffee and fabulous bread and, of course, a nice square to lounge around in.

It’s well worth a visit. (And, as an added bonus, every now and again a swan wanders up from the canal and throws you dirty looks).

While I was walking down O’Connell St tonight the Spire was being repaired so I thought I’d throw up some photos. The lights on the spire have been out for months and seem to break far too frequently.

More pictures here on Flickr

This weekend the new Analog Festival is taking place at the Grand Canal Square in Dublin’s Docklands, the chq building and the Sugar Club. One of the highlights is definitively the live-performance of Hal Willner’s Rogue’s Gallery, the line-up featuring sich illustrous names as Lou Reed, Tim Robbins (!) and Shane McGowan. That’s some nice pirate shanties to listen to…For myself, I am definetively looking forward to Saturday’s peformance of Danish Ambient/Electro-minimalists Elfterklang. Sunday’s programme will conclude with a free performance of “the real gypsy kings” Taraf De Haïdouks.

If you are more into visual arts, the Irish Museum of Modern Art has extended its opening times for the summer, now closing its doors at 8 PM – so there’s plenty of time to see the current exhibitions of Janaina Tschäpe and Miquel Barceló, for example.

Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk is reporting that Dublin Airport is closed. The Irish Aviation Authority told Newstalk that the radar system in the airport failed twice today so they now have no faith in the system and have closed the airport. It is not known how long this closure will last they expect it to be open later today but it does sound like a serious problem.

If you are planning on travelling through Dublin Airport today or indeed anytime over the next couple of days you should check with your airline and the Dublin Airport Autority.

Update: RTE are reporting that the airport is open but the number of flights have been capped at 14 an hour so the DAA is telling passengers to expect delays but to show up as normal.

Update: There is some confusion about the airport. The Irish Times is reporting that the airport radar has been shut down so flights are not allowed to land or take off.

Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) spokeswoman Lilian Cassin said that the system had to be completely shut down and would not be operational until at least 3pm.

She described the situation as “fluid” and said it was possible that it would take considerably longer before the flights were allowed take off or land at the airport.

From urban beaches to urban gardens…! Smithfield Square in Dublin 7 will be transformed into a colourful civic garden this coming Saturday, July 12th, for the second annual Urban Garden event.

Organised by Dublin City Council, the event aims to add colour to urban spaces through gardening initiatives on both an individual and community level. Talks and workshops include a Life In Your Garden workshop by Australian environmentalist Dale Treadwell, an interactive workshop on wildlife in urban spaces by Dublin City Council’s Biodiversity Officer, Mairead Stack, and a series of gardening demonstrations by landscape gardener (and blogger) Peter Donegan.

A number of market stalls selling food, jewellery and clothing will also be set up on the day. Admission is free and the event runs from noon to 6pm – further details can be found here.

I went to Custom Quay House last Sunday, in order to see what Dublin Urban Beach is all about. So, a plenty of sand, a few hundred people with a lot of kids, but all of them wearing anything but swim suites:).
Free entrance, free drinks, free food (ok, kidding about food&drinks).
Being a Romanian and having the hot Black Sea at about 200 km of Bucharest,  I must say that Dublin Urban Beach is like a joke for me. But hey, I really understand the action and right now I only want the sun to be more powerfull in Dublin.
And when I’m thinking that these days in Romania the average temperature is about 35 degrees Celsius……..
More pictures.