The Dublin Community Blog

It’s a bit late for anyone trying to get a taxi in Dublin this morning but there is a 24 hour nation wide taxi strike from 4am to 4am today.  This strike is a organised by Taxi Drivers for Change, a non union organisation but the action appears to have the support of NTDU and SIPTU drivers. The areas affected include Dublin Airport, however the strike there is an official SIPTU strike and only runs from 7am to 11 am so there should be some taxis available at the airport after that.

As last year, most major cities and landmarks all over the world will deliberately switch off as many lights as possible for one hour at 8.30 PM local time tonight.

This year Earth Hour is the biggest grassroots marketing campaign the world has seen. [...] Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the iconic ‘Change, Progress, Hope’ imagery for Barack Obama in the recent US Presidential Election, has created the artwork for WWF’s 2009 Earth Hour called ‘Vote Earth’.

[...]

The target WAS 1,000 cities and 1 billion people. Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Belfast and Dublin will mean 6 Irish cities have helped swell the numbers participating to 3934 cities.

John Gormley, Irish Minister for the Environment, is calling on all local authorities to support Earth Hour. The Office of Public work is going to darken Irish flood-lit national monuments – including the Rock of Cashel.

Via FIE. Astonishingly I could not find much information on Dublin buildings going dark tonight. But I assume the Customs House will again get “shut down” – and of course every private home can participate as well.

Funnily enough, Ireland is not even listed as participating on the official Earth Hour website.

Get yourself down to Dawson St this afternoon to congratulate the Irish rugby team on their wonderful win yesterday.

From the RTE website:

Dawson Street will be closed to traffic all day due to the event, which is scheduled for approximately 4.30pm.
Entry to the reception will be via Nassau Street only and those wishing to attend are advised to arrive no later than 4.00pm.

Next weekend, the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar will be screening four state-of-the-art Anime/Manga movies in the course of the Japanese Anime Weekend, amongst others the brilliant “Ghost in the Shell 2″.

This event offers Irish audiences a rare chance to see four 21st-century anime movies on the big screen, where their artistry can be fully appreciated. The films are different in style, approach and content, but they represent a snapshot of the current state of this art form.

There will also be 2 supporting lectures to provide background to this cultural phenomenon, “A brief history of post-war Japanese animation” and “Japanese animation for adults” on Saturday and Sunday between screenings.

As I am still fending off yesterday’s aftereffects, just a short post of a flashmob performing a nice jig outside the Central Bank on St. Patrick’s Eve. Via Darragh.

THANKS to Pixie a gang of us had great viewing spots on the parade route yesterday, needless to say such a vantage point meant I took about 1,000 pics which will take me a good few days to sort through. In the meantime here’s a taster of some the pics, with more being uploaded to the St Patrick’s Festival group on Pixie as as when I finish them.

Hope you all had a great day, it was absolute bedlam in Dublin, crazy, I have never seen so many people hanging about the streets after a parade, mostly due to the wonderful weather I suppose. Anyway it is my intention to write more about the parade when I get a chance but for now here’s some images from the day.

YESTERDAY a small gang of us went with my two and a half year old Goddaughter to the Denny Big Day Out at Merrion Square organised as part of the St Patrick’s Festival.

The whole way to Merrion Square all the little one could talk about was the big wheel so that was the first thing we did and the fearless little dote wasn’t in the slightest bit afraid, not at all, in fact she absolutely loved it. Once we were done we set off among the crowd to see what we could find. Unfortunately it wasn’t really ideal for a child of her age (it was more geared towards kids that bit older) but she did really enjoy some of the music and made us stay to hear it all. We finished off the afternoon in the sand pit, as you do.

Next up in my St Patrick’s Festival calender is the parade tomorrow (from a special viewing platform no less thanks to Pixie), I’ll be uploading my photographs to Pix as will loads of other people, so do check out the St Patrick’s Festival group pool and do check back here as, I said in the previous post, other Dublin Blog members always post their images here too.

Going to bend the rules here slightly, but, it’s St Patrick’s Day (in Oz already!) so that’s my excuse, and I’ll mention Dublin somewhere, promise!!

Attended the Paddy’s Day Parade here in Brisbane at the weekend, along with the younger brother and best mate. I was actually surprised by just how many people turned out (there were estimates of 30,000, which knocks the socks off London’s 10,000) and how good everything was. It was a nice balmy autumns day, temp hovering around the late 20′s and the sun shining and everyone out in shorts, not quite your typical Paddy’s day!!

There was a good mix of Aussie’s, Paddy’s and just about every other nation in the world around town to watch the parade too! St Patrick himself even turned up for the occasion, and in true Aussie style, traveled on the back of a ‘Ute’

But, just to remind us that we are Irish, and to ensure that we don’t miss home too much, about 10 minutes into the parade, the sky opened and the rain began! Now, being Irish we’re well used to rain, however, rain in Queensland is slightly different (warmer and a hell of a lot heavier) than anything we’re used to back in Ireland.

However, the bands marched on, and everyone continued to have a fantastic time. More photos below and at this link. Hope everyone, no matter what part of the world that they are in today has a fantastic day.

WELL the funfairs up in Merrion Square and all sorts of events are happening around Dublin as part of the annual St Patrick’s Festival 2009. We were one of the first to get on the ferris wheel and the views over the city at night were fantastic.

There are loads and loads of things happening, culminating in Tuesday’s St Patrick’s Day parade. I’m going to be there in a special viewing area on O’Connell Street where I’m hoping I can get some great shots of the parade without the back of someone’s head, all thanks to Pixie who have managed to secure all sorts of fantastic passes for people to cover the parade. I will upload some pics here for those of you who will miss out n the day. Also keep an eye on the Pixie festival pool of pics for a flavour of the festival. And why not upload your pics of everything too.

So if you are in Dublin over the next couple of days you’ll find something for everyone. Check out the different events on the St Patrick’s Festival website. And keep checking back here as I am sure the Dublin Blog team will be out in force over the festival. Have fun and remember its St Patrick’s/Patrick’s/Paddy’s Day NOT Patty

I’ve been on holidays for 1,5 weeks, and after I was back online/read some news this week I was shocked by all the terrible things that happened – the horrible shootings in the North, the two killing sprees in the States and Germany and finally the collapse of the Historical Archive of my hometown Cologne, killing two people. The collapse of this building was seemingly caused by the construction of an underground railway. And even though experts carried out examinations of ground- and building-structure of the areas where the tunnel is build, it still collapsed out of the blue.

The new Dublin Metro North tunnels will be constructed beneath such historic landmarks as the GPO and the Rotunda Hospital/Ambassador Theatre – I hope that the ground examinations in Dublin are more exact than the ones made in Germany, especially as both cities share the same type of subsoil, a quite unstable type called “Loess” which is prevailing on river banks.

All quite fitting for Friday the 13th.