The Dublin Community Blog

Today (Sunday Sept 13th) sees the long awaited launch of Dublin’s answer to the wonderfully successful Paris Velib bicycle rental scheme.

Having discovered this service in Paris a few years ago, I can vouch for this being an amazing transitional day for the city, be you a cyclist or not (I’m not!).

The service works like this, there are 40 bicycle stations throughout the city. These are located in close proximity to each other, every station has a minimum of 15 stands and there are a total of 450 bikes meaning that access to bikes should be relatively easy.

The best news about the scheme however, especially in the challenging economic climate, is that it’s free! Yes, that’s right, you can have your own personal bike to zip around the city all for free. There are certain conditions that have to be met, only the first 30 minutes of the rental is free, but this shouldn’t matter. From personal experience, you will very seldom cycle for more than 30 minutes around the city, and if you do need to, you can easily drop your bike back at a station, wait a few minutes, and then continue on for a new 30 minute segment, all for free.

All the details relating to the scheme, including pricing options etc are located on the newly created dublinbikes.ie. I know that everyone is going to be sceptical of this scheme, and I can see why, but having used it around Paris in the past, I can tell you that this will be a very successful and welcome addition to the Dublin transport area.

One last thing, for those in cars, and with a tendancy to wander off footpaths onto roads without warning, please be careful. This is a new thing for the city, and it will take a little time for everyone to get used to each other!

Now I’m sitting here with some hastily scribbled notes, pictures and loads of tweets tagged 15Euros and will try to relate what it’s like to go around Dublin on a limited budget. First of all, it’s possible. I know that this is harsh reality for loads of people out there, but normally I do not have to worry about buying a water in Spar and not to have enough money left to buy dinner. So it was / is quite an interesting experience. And, with a little help of my (online) friends a quite entertaining one as well.

After filling myself on tea & toast, my starting point was as promised the Litton Lane Hostel from where I headed towards the Temple Bar Food Market, hoping to get some free samples. But as it was just 10.30AM I was only able to get a sliced apple due to most stalls not being open yet.

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The other day, my family and I took the opportunity to have lunch in Alfie’s on William St. South after noticing their “€10 Lunch Box” promotion on a sign just outside the door. We were greeted by friendly staff who accommodated us and made us feel a little more at ease with a toddler and a buggy. (Any parents living in Dublin will tell you that some city centre restaurants are more accommodating to families than others.)
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It looks as if a recent upgrade to our theme to allow easier viewing on the iPhone and other mobile devices has somehow propagated itself as the default theme for standard computers. We apologize for the disruption in service and hope normal service will be restored as soon as possible.

This being the time of the recession, I thought it to be a good idea to try and find out what it feels like to be in Dublin on a limited budget. And maybe share my experiences and provide some hints and tips of how to entertain yourself without handing over 2,20 € for a breakfast roll and 6 Euros for a pint in Temple Bar. And as this blog is also read by (future) visitors to our dirty old town, I’ll pretend to be a backpacker on a shoestring. Especially as I am planning to do this on the next weekend and the next payday is far away.

And here’s the plan: On this Saturday & Sunday I’ll pretend to have stayed at the Litton Lane Hostel, because it is a) one of the most central ones, b) serves breakfast and c) the price for a dorm bed start at 12,50 €. Not that I am actually staying there (but did so when I came to Dublin for the first time though), but it is a good starting point. And from there on I’ll explore Dublin on foot with 15 Euros in my pocket, sharing my experiences on the go via the Dublinblog-Twitter-Account and my personal one as well.

And will need your help, dear reader: I have planned my days roughly until lunch, but from then on I need input of what to do and where to go FOR FREE (or as cheap as possible). And, pretending to be a tourist, will try to save enough money to finish the day with a (cheap) pint in the evening before writing a post about my experiences.

So please, keep on posting comments and have those tweets coming to avoid me being stranded and scratching at the St. James’ Gate with bloody fingers…

I wouldn’t normally post this, but I actually thought it was a really generous offer, so worth the plug.

One of our readers who is a musician has commented on a post here about the fact that they are an up and coming musician in need of some assistance from a photographer to do some live action / portrait shots for promo work for “posters/flyers/myspace/local press…etc”

The unfortunate part of this is the ‘up and coming’ part, as our dear reader is a struggling student / musician who cannot afford to pay cash for the shots. What she can offer instead is free tickets to a gig, and a home baked cake!

Now as a photographer, I know that I love cake, as do many other photographers. Unfortunately, being on the other side of the world to Dublin doesn’t really leave me with the option to do this work myself, but I’m sure there will be some photographers out there willing to help, who can do with adding some portrait and live action shots to add to their portfolio and a nice slice of cake.

Any queries should be directed to rionahartman _at_ hotmail _dot_ com

After looking up the 1911 census forms I decided I would head over to The National Archives on Bridge St to get copies of the 1901 census forms. On my way to and from the office I walked past a coffee shop The Bald Barista which had a sign on the window boasting “Voted the best espresso in Dublin”. This morning I thought “bah, what a boast, I bet it’s probably awful”. After some hours reading through microfilm census forms I *needed* coffee and was walking back into town when I came to the cafe again and thought to myself “Right, prove them right or prove them wrong”.

I have to now say that it is no idle boast. Quite simply it is the best take out coffee I have had in Dublin. Perviously I loved the coffees from the stall in the Saturday Temple Bar food market but they cannot hold a candle to The Bald Barista. Smooth and tasty, I felt bad putting the lid on since I thought I would ruin the froth. I’ll be heading there on weekends now for my Saturday hit of caffeine.

Coffee has been a subject on the Dublin Community Blog in times past and The Bald Barista got some praise. What do other people think now?  Is there some where better than The Bald Barista? Can there be?

The National Archives of Ireland have released the 1911 census. This is a fascinating resource with scanned copies of the original forms filled in by households around Ireland available to download. Personally when I downloaded the form for my grandfathers family I discovered that my great-grandfather was born during the famine. My great-grandparents spoke both Irish and English, something I can not do and neither could their children.They had 10 children, 7 of which were still alive at the time of the census. My father remembers that another 2 died young sometime after the census. Those were harsh times in Ireland.

But my family came from outside Dublin, for Dublin people there is even more than just their family history. The website contains lots of information about the city in 1911.

There were, by 1911, 330 trams operating on lines which ran for 60 miles along the city’s roads, drawing the suburbs tightly to the city.

Those trams ran on 17 routes around the city. Today the Luas has 2 routes, covers 15 miles and has 40 trams. Maybe in some ways times were not so bad in 1911…

Early September marks the beginning of the Dublin Fringe Festival for fans of all things “artsy.” Fringe Fest tackles artistic expression in both traditional forms (theatre, comedy, music, painting, etc.) and non-traditional (give aforementioned categories a creative twist and then add some improvisation and/or quirkiness of one sort or another.) The festival returns this Saturday and runs through Sunday, 20 Sept.

This year, Absolute vodka are sponsoring the festival and tomorrow evening is the launch of Absolut Original, from 6-8pm in the Smock Alley Theatre, Temple Bar. Sixteen Irish artists have been given the same brief that the legendary Andy Warhol was given in 1985: “Be inspired by the Absolut bottle.” The Absolut Original exhibition will be curated by The Small Print for the duration of the festival. After the festival, each piece will be submitted for inclusion into the international Absolut Art collection in Stockholm.

Here’s a video of one artist’s preparations for the exhibition (Irish street artist, Asbestos):