The Dublin Community Blog

After the brilliant Street Performance Festival one week ago the next interesting festival in this year’s event calendar will start next week – the Temple Bar Circus Festival.

For four action-packed summer days Dublin’s Cultural Quarter will echo with peals of laughter and gasps of amazement as the streets and spaces spring to life, offering you the chance to experience a full and exciting spectrum of circus skills; from dazzling acrobatics and aerial shows, daring Chinese pole and contortion, to outdoor movies and musical mayhem!

An colourfull mixture of acrobatics, dance acts and even outdoor movies will be on display in Temple Bar from July 9th to July 12th – and the best thing about it is that’s everything for free! You will find the complete programme (PDF) here.

As Dec mentioned yesterday, the Google Streetview cars are in Dublin at the moment, taking advantage of the good weather whilst it lasts!

Now that I live on the other side of the world, I for one can’t wait to see when the Dublin imagery is uploaded!

But, I thought we could have a little fun with this here on the blog. Whilst the streetview cars are out and about taking pictures of Dublin, why don’t we grab some pictures of them doing their thing. If you do happen to spot some cars around the place, grab a picture and then post it to our flickr group. We will post a selection of the best / funniest / strangest images here to the blog over the coming days and weeks.

This sounds like a fantastic opportunity to grab you camera and get some rare action shots! This Sunday 28th June 2009 at 3PM a Sea Search and Rescue demonstration will take place in Howth, Co Dublin. The operation will involve Coast Guard Rescue Helicopters, Irish Coast Guard Patrol Boats, RNLI Rescue Boats and the local Civil Defence Boats.

The demonstration will take place between the East Pier and Ireland’s Eye. It will consist of a number of scenarios including rescuing casualties from over turned boats in the water. A Coast Guard Helicopter Winch man will then descend to an R.N.L.I. All Weather lifeboat and winch some of the casualties aboard the helicopter.

With the number of rescue boats, helicopters and scenarios the demonstration should prove to be a speculator sight and is best viewed from the middle of the East Pier in Howth. It also shows the continued co-operation between the different agencies including volunteers and professionals that help save lives on a daily basis around the coast and inland waterways of Ireland.

The demonstration is being held as part of the Howth Festival which is running over the weekend. The Coast Guard station on Howth’s West Pier will be open to the public on the Sunday from 10am. Howth Coast Guard would like to use this opportunity to ask members of the public if they see anyone who they think may be in trouble on the Cliffs, Beaches or at Sea to please dial 999/112 and ask for the Coast Guard. Don’t’ assume someone else has made the call!

Today FM this morning tells us that the Google Map cars will be all over Dublin City today. They picked a lovely sunny day for it and if you happen to catch sight of one wave.

The Street Performance World Championships returned to Merrion Square for another summer. As is traditional now the weather was a little overcast and damp at times but that didn’t stop people from having a good time. Unfortunately I missed seeing the winners and even the second place, but I did see Bendy Em who came third and lets just say, she had at least third place wrapped up and in the box if not in the bag.

Another set of photos, this time from the Taste Of Dublin Festival. This was my first time attending the festival and I have to admit that while the food was very nice I did think there was very little value for money. The celebrity chefs attracted crowds and the food stands did a great trade but I have to wonder if next year prices will drop and how many of those restaurants will still be around. Was this the last day out for the Celtic Tiger?

It’s been a busy June in Dublin, I’ve decided to catch up on some photos that I’ve taken and intended to post to the Dublin Community Blog.

First we had the Dublin Docklands Festival. A great sunny weekend packed with food, music and tall ships. Click on the image to see more photos from Flickr.

Rob Williams sends his greetings to the readers of Dublin Blog from the Street Performance World Championship in Merrion Square:

(For more video interviews with Rob and other performers in this year’s SPWC, CLICK HERE.)

Also, be sure to keep visiting the Dublin Blog Flickr group for pictures. I saw Dec there today with his massive camera, so we should see some nice pics going up soon! =) Tomorrow’s the last day of this year’s event, so get there while you still can!

Last weekend, the Dublin City Business Association launched a campaign to encourage families to discover (or re-discover?) Dublin this summer. Many of the highlights of the campaign are events or festivals that we’ve mentioned here on the Dublin Community Blog. However, there are a few others that are worth having a look at as well, especially for families. Here’s the press release from Conway Communications:
Read the rest of this entry »

Big thanks to Matt from The Expeditioner for directing our attention to a video travel guide that he did recently here in Dublin. It’s a well produced mini-documentary with some great iconic shots of our beloved city. (Not to mention some great background tunes from The Walkmen, Bell X1, etc.)

However, our Irish readers will have to forgive a line in “Part II” about Christchurch Cathedral having the largest crypt “in all the UK.” (Ooooo, oh no he did NOT.) Matt, we’ve posted a DVD to your Brooklyn address entitled, Michael Collins, compliments of The Dublin Community Blog. (No worries, mate. You’re not the first to make that mistake.)

Below is Matt’s Dublin travel guide. CLICK HERE for Part II.