The Dublin Community Blog

This summer, Dublin loves the circus! Earlier in the month, Temple Bar hosted their annual circus festival. This Saturday, 1 August, Wolfe Tone Park will host yet another circus themed event. Thought it looks to be a bit smaller than it’s south-of-the-river counterpart, it no doubt will be a good time. The Urban Circus will start up at 12 noon and end at 7 in the evening, with free performances and juggling workshops. (Hey, we’re in a recession. You should at least consider picking up some new skills!)

A host of wonderful entertaining acts are scheduled to perform including: Northern Ireland’s wacky Barren Carousel Aerial Troupe who will amaze you with their bandwagon of circus antics and death defying aerial feats, the highly original, funny and energetic show ‘Yodel’ where contemporary circus meets traditional alpine culture in a splendid display of stupidity performed by Colm O’Grady will charm audiences of all ages. Renowned performer Johnny D’Juggler will M.C. the event whilst juggling and performing and The Other Brothers will offer a unique brand of comedy in the form of escapology, magic and unbelievable stunts!

Just a few useful phrases to bear in mind when you’re visiting Dublin. There are probably hundreds I’m forgetting so feel free to add more in the comments.

Greetings

Howaya – Dublin for ‘how are you’?

Ah Jaysis Howaya! – same as the above, but more exuberant, for when you’re REALLY pleased to see someone.

Story? – Dublin for ‘what’s the story’ another greeting, when you’re just too lazy for howaya.

Take it handy – has many meanings, usually used as a goodbye, when you’re waving someone off, to mean ‘take it easy’ or ‘mind yourself’ but can also be used when giving directions to warn someone to watch their speed while driving, as in ‘take it handy on the road near the church, it’s very narrow’.

Swear words/curses

Jaysis – Dublin for ‘Jesus’ used in numerous different ways, both positive and negative. For example ‘Jaysis it’s great to see you’ or ‘Jaysis my wife got knocked down by a bus last night’ or ‘Jaysis, this dress is a terrible price’.

Feck – the Irish for f*ck, used in everyday speech, for example ‘for feck’s sake’.
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Walking through the city centre the other day, there was a LOT of energy and buzz. Seemed like every third person was a walking U2 advert. Tourist season is also in full swing, though there seemed to be fewer American tourists than usual. And, of course, Ikea is opening tomorrow, so they’re hoping you’ll “Be sick.”

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In the second instalment of Discovered in Dublin we are featuring a young lady with a little house in her tummy: Riona Hartman. This lady is an emerging songwriter from Dublin, who contributes vocals to Sami Moukaddem’s live band and also sings on his album “The facts of life for the Palestinian”; and has performed on the balcony of Balcony TV Dublin. Her songs tell little stories in their own right, reminding of early Tori Amos but with a more definite hint of jazz in there (listen to “Sea Snail”). And she’s not afraid to use the right language – this is definitevely no polished accoustic-pop.

Here’s what Riona has to say:

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THERE are three main ways to get around Dublin city using public transport – Dublin Bus, Luas and Dart – and while it’s been pointed out by comments in my previous post (thanks Sally) that public transport in Dublin isn’t the best, it’s still really the only way to see a bit of the town while you’re here. I can’t control the timetables, whether your bus will break down, or the general nastiness of hurtling down a street at 60km/h trapped in an overheated tin can with strangers, but I CAN give you some tips that might make your journey easier. Well, I’ll give it a bash, anyway!

Dublin Bus

Dublin Bus is the main bus operator for the city and buses are generally double decker and blue and yellow in colour. Bus stops are the same colour and most have a little sign on them telling you what buses stop there. They don’t unfortunately tell you what direction the bus is going in, so you could stand for ages at a stop only to discover when the bus trundles along eventually that it’s going to Finglas and not, as you thought, the city centre. So beware of this.

You hail a bus at a bus stop by sticking your hand out. If you don’t stick your hand out, there’s a chance the bus will pass you by and you’ll end up looking like a right looking eejit. Avoid this, people WILL stare and point! Generally the buses stop only at the designated stops, so running up to traffic lights begging for the driver to open the door won’t really cut it. Some of them will let you on, others won’t and you risk getting squished as the bus squeals away from the lights.
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Now that it’s allegedly summer, I thought I’d kinda resurrect a previous post and do up a little Visitor’s Guide to Dublin which might be useful to those of you coming on your holliers here over the next few months.

I thought I’d break it up into categories, to make it easier to read, so that you don’t all fall into a coma after paragraph 15, so for now I present to you, The Weather and Getting Around on Foot.

The Weather

There is really only one thing to remember when it comes to Irish weather – it rains. Every day. Without fail. See that blue sky up there? See the blazing sun? Feel the warm wind on your cheek?

All fake. Every bit of it. Don’t believe a word of it.

It waits, you see, the Irish weather. It waits for you to leave your hotel or guest house, clad only in shorts, Jesus sandals and an ‘I heart Dublin’ t-shirt and then it pisses down upon you with the wrath of Zeus. If you take nothing from this post at all, take the next three words as seriously as if your life depended on it – Pack. An. Umberella.
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One advantage of the festival season in Ireland is that most bands booked for these events include a stopover in Dublin in their touring schedule; so we can all avail of this without leaving the city boundaries and heading for the country. After last week’s visit of the Hot 8 Brass band in Whelan’s and Emmy the Great‘s show in Crawdaddy this Wednesday (both acts appearing at the Galway Art’s Festival), I’m especially looking forward to next week’s performance of O’Death from Brooklyn (again in Whelan’s).These five guys use fiddles, guitars, banjos and trombones to create an extremely interesting sound, fittingly titled “Folk Metal” on their Myspace page. Stay tuned to see if the Dublinblog can obtain a photo pass for this show What was Oxegen again?

O’Death – Legs To Sin – Live @ Bowery Ballroom from Kemado Records on Vimeo.

Green Dragon, the Irish/Chinese entry in the Volvo Round the World Ocean Race will visit Dun Laoghaire tomorrow.

The regatta concludes tomorrow with the homecoming for Green Dragon. The Irish round-the-world yacht will muster off Bulloch harbour at 12.30pm and will be escorted by the lifeboat in to Dún Laoghaire harbour.

I was in Galway for the Ocean Race stopover and the boats are very impressive. Green Dragon finished 5th in the race which is a great achievement.

Further event details on the Dun Laoghaire Regatta website.

Dublin has fallen out of the top 20 most expensive cities. On the surface of it that’s good news but in reality we dropped to number 25 because rents have fallen and because the euro has fallen against the dollar. Prices for day to day items will have to fall and stay low before most people will see a real change in the cost of living in Dublin. If you own your home rental costs don’t matter to you. If you, like most of us, get paid in euros it doesn’t matter how low the euro falls against the dollar, a pint of milk is still priced in euros and high value items imported from abroad are likely to go up in cost because the manufacturing company will price based on dollars not euros. It might make Dublin a cheaper city to visit but does anyone think it has become a cheaper city to live in?

Over the last couple of days a tribute to Michael Jackson has been growing outside HMV on Grafton Street. I was passing it last night and although Grafton Street was quiet it was still drawing a crowd, I imagine it is a busy spot during the day. You can see more pics on Flickr.