The Dublin Community Blog

The planned NBRU and Siptu bus strikes originally scheduled for Saturday and Monday have been called off. This should make things much easier for anyone planning on travelling to Dublin for the 6-Nations rugby game.

You should get yourself along to The Camden Court Hotel at 6pm, as Joe Rospars, founding partner of Blue State Digital and New Media Director of the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign will be giving a talk on how he worked to get Barack Obama into the Oval Office, and partaking in a Q&A session on same.

More details are available over on the Strawberry Media website, but if you are thinking of going along, make sure that you register in advance, as places will be limited.

UPDATE by Dervla 25/02: On the face of it this sounds like a great event, however, what the Strawberry Media website neglected to mention was the talk was hosted and run by Fianna Fail in relation to their website relaunch which Mr Rospars company assisted in designing. Far from “open seminar” as billed. Theres a lot of disgruntled bloggers out there feeling a little ambushed. Further details relating to what transpired at the event here and here.

Dublin Blog wins Best Group Blog at the Irish Blog Awards 2009

Originally uploaded by Red Mum

And doesn’t our trophy look pretty!

As an unexpected event prevented me from attending my last shift as a volunteer and delayed my posting here, I’ll just give you a short impression of what happened last week. A bigger and better researched post will follow once all has settled – and of course after today’s closing of the festival.

My personal highlight of the festival is definitively the screening of Sacha Gervasi’s incredible incredible documentary “Anvil! The story of Anvil!” and the incredible incredible live performance of the band directly after the show in front of the screen. An extraordinary event for everyone who attended the show. Some impression are here.

Thanks to entertainment.ie for the pic.

As everyone is watching tonight’s closing movie, “The Secret of Kells” at the Savoy while I am writing this post, I’ll now prepare to head off for the closing party of the festival. And with us having won the Irish blog awards there’s more than one reason to celebrate.

Well, I did say the other day that I wasn’t expecting this blog to win Best Group Blog at the Irish Blog Awards, but I’m starting to get news filter this way that in fact we have! A massive thank you to all involved, this really is a group effort and everyone who has been involved past and present deserves a big pat on the back for all their work!

Hopefully the party in Cork goes really well. Slightly raging that the first year I’m not there we win, but these things happen, I’m sure everyone will have a good time for me! For anyone not in Cork, keep an eye on #iba09 on Twitter for all the updates!

EDIT: (Red Mum) – February 24th – to include a pic of our lovely award.

Dublin city centre will come to a standstill this afternoon while the Irish Congress of Trade Unions march is in progress. The march sets off from Parnell Square at 2pm travelling to Merrion Square via O’Connell St, Westmoreland St, College Green and Nassau St. By all news accounts a massive crowd is expected. Thats no surprise really. People are not happy.

Dublin Bus have changed some routes. Full details can be found here.

Keep and eye on AA Roadwatch and news bulletins for up-to-date information.

The rescue helicopter has been hovering around Temple Bar/Liffey for the last couple of hours.  According to Breaking News

A search is underway in the River Liffey in Dublin following reports that a man jumped off O’Connell Bridge in the city centre this lunchtime.

Gardaí and emergency services are at the scene at Burgh Quay after being alerted by a member of the public at around midday.

AA Roadwatch is advising motorists of long delays in the area.

I do hope theres a positive result this afternoon.

As I realised yesterday, the International Guerilla Video Festival is currently taking place in Dublin.

The International Guerrilla Video Festival (IGVFest) is a mobile festival integrating video art with the urban and social environment. The festival removes the technologically complex medium of video out of the institutional situation re-positioning it as open and reflexive in the public domain.

As the first installments happened on Parnell Street yesterday evening, you can see tonight’s programme in Rathmines.

I’ve been long absent from writing for this blog (living the other side of the world from Dublin is a slight contributing factor!), but I’m still tinkering away in the background making things work and keeping it alive! Having come up with the idea for a Dublin Community Blog quite a few years ago, I’m delighted to see it still ticking along and with a healthy global readership and still plenty of interaction with those readers! Many people have come and gone over the years, but there’s still a hard core crew who started out on this project as part of the team, and still producing some great insights into life in and around Dublin.

Firstly, to, and secondly on behalf of all the team behind this blog, I’d like to thank everyone involved, writers, readers, commentators, who make it what it is. Secondly, for everyone who has nominated us once again in the ‘Best Group Blog’ category at tomorrow’s Irish Blog Awards, a massive thank you for your support! In the face of some excellent competition, I don’t expect us to pick up the gong (Red Mum, need you to collect it if we do win!), but just the satisfaction of being shortlisted is good enough.

As always, we are always on the lookout for new contributors, so if you are interested in joining the team, click on the ‘Write For Us’ link at the top of the page.

To everyone heading along to the awards, have a fantastic night, big shout out to Mr Mulley once again for all his efforts in putting together what I know will be a fantastic night based on previous experience!

Walking up High St earlier today I spotted a banner on a railing Recession Bus Tours.

# Transport from Dublin to Newry in a luxury coach

# After you ‘shop-til-you-drop’ we take all your bags off your hands in Newry and deliver them direct to your doorstep in our fleet of vans (in association with Sainsburys and The Quays Shopping Centre) sealed up in specially designed containers

# You can put your feet up, relax and listen to the radio or watch TV while getting transported in comfort back to Dublin

Coach leaves at approx. 8am – 6 days a week in a pick up point near you, and returns at 2.30pm approx. On receipt of your booking we will arrange a local pick up point near your house.

Sounds to me like a great idea. Yes some may say “what happened to buying Irish” but with the “R” world looming large, I wish this enterprise well. I may even use their service myself sometime. Certainly something to consider.