The Dublin Community Blog

The winner of the second annual Dublin Soul Award was announced recently after six months of searching. Organisers surprised the eventual winner, Joan Freeman, Psychologist and Founder of Pieta House, the Centre for the Prevention of Self-Harm and Suicide, as she went about her daily routine.

Pieta House offer a holistic solution and groundbreaking approach involving daily, one-to-one counselling for people who have attempted to take their lives or for people who have engaged in self-harming behaviours. Pieta House provide coping mechanisms for people who are in crisis and aim to move the suicidal person away from ideas of suicide as quickly as possible by helping them to identify reasons to live. Their intensive approach is remarkably effective and available for free to those in need.

The Dublin Soul Award, part of the Dublin City Soul Festival, was launched in May 2008 and are a search for Dublin’s most outstanding soul. Once again Organisers were hoping to uncover some truly remarkable stories of Dubliners who regularly and selflessly give up their time and invest their energy to help others, making a real difference in the local community and believe they found a truly deserving winner for 2009 in the guise of Joan Freeman – Founder of Pieta House.

As winner, Joan Freeman was presented with an exclusive Soul Festival glass plaque, and of course the title of ‘Outstanding Dublin Soul’.

Joan Freeman said; “Firstly I am so honoured to be even considered for this beautiful award – however I can only accept it on behalf of the organisation rather than as an individual. Anyone can have a vision – but it takes many, many souls to carry through that vision. Pieta house is a wonderful success – because of the staff, the volunteers and because of the public. But it is because of the belief and the trust of the people in crisis who attend Pieta house – makes it a honour for us all to work there.”

The Dublin Soul Awards were launched in 2008 as part of the annual Dublin City Soul Festival, last years winner was Brother Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre.

Chris Maher, Founder of the Awards said; “We are delighted to have found such a worthy winner again this year. The work Joan and her team do is absolutely vital and they deserve all the praise and support possible for providing such a life saving service.”

Apologies folks, there has been a little more downtime than I would have liked to this blog over the past day or so. This is due to the fact that I had to move hosts a little unexpectedly and did not have enough time to prep things just the way that I would have liked.

Hopefully everything should be running pretty smoothly now. Any issues, please leave a comment.

As Christmas is virtually around the corner, and as books always make the best presents (at least in my personal opinion), Dublinblog would like to give you an overview of the top bookstores in Dublin. And no, Eason’s will not be featured in this list. And also I think that Amazon and Co. are not comparable when it comes to browsing through dusty encyclopedias, holding a book in your hand and chatting to knowledgeable staff and with regulars while standing amongst hundreds of old and new books. Go away, Kindle. So, to help support active reading and distribution of real books, why not buy a book (or 5 – one in each store) in one of these shops instead of purchasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at Gamestop this Christmas.

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If you share the same Ebenezer Scrooge-approach to Christmas that I have, I’ve got a little something for you. For us Christmas-dislikers, the Bewleys Cafe Theatre is doing something nice: they are running the Santaland Diaries.

It’s a classic story – one man suffers for our sins, and we are all saved. This year, that man is an elf. Based on David Sedaris’ own experience, THE SANTALAND DIARIES divulges the wickedly funny journey of Crumpet, a 33-year-old starving artist turned Macy’s Santaland elf. At first the job is simply humiliating, but as he contends with cranky parents, badly behaved children and colorful career elves, Crumpet becomes battle-weary and bitter.

As I’m reading Sedaris’ “Holidays on Ice” most festive seasons to not get in the right mood, I can thoroughly recommend this play. It is running until December 22nd, and bookings can be made via the website. In addition, admission will also get you a light lunch. But please note: as the theatre rightly states, this is a Christmas show for adults and contains lots of bad words. Lots!

An extension to the Red Luas line opens today with four new stations George’s Dock, Mayor Square (NCI), Spencer Dock and The Point. It seems work has been underway on that extension for years now, in my mind it seems as if the construction has been taking place almost since the original line opened so it’s good to see the works finally complete.

This extension should be very useful to the workers in the IFSC and concert goers heading to the O2 but I personally wish the focus and the investment would shift from extensions and branch lines and onto constructing completely new lines connecting other communities around the city. The Luas is a great resource for those of us lucky enough to live close one of the two lines but for much of the city the Luas is of little use.

Most times I take the bus in Dublin, I almost always come hurtling down the stairs. On Monday, I was about to descend from the penultimate step, when the bus sharply turned a corner. I grabbed the hand rail like it was a ballet dancer’s bar. I inelegantly extended my right leg to rebalance myself, much to the amusement of the passengers downstairs. I regained my composure and alighted the bus only feet from my house.

I have examined myself for the causes of so many occasions when I have come close to breaking a leg or two. My taste in fancy footwear – that lacks grip – is definitely a contributing factor. As is my severe lack of co-ordination; I am the type of person who trips over his left leg or embarrassingly misses the kerb on a busy street. I am about as graceful as a hippo in a strange animal performance of Swan Lake.

More frequently, I’ve noticed myself tumbling down the stairs of the more modern buses. I am no scientist, but I think it has something to do with the fact the newer buses are bigger, closer to the ground and have a greater acceleration than that of older models. If my theory is correct, and future buses are bigger, lower and accelerate at a faster pace, then I am going to bounce my way down the stairs and ultimately come to my demise on a Dublin Bus.

Today marks the return of the annual German Film Festival, presented by the IFI in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Irland and German Films Services + Marketing.

Continuing a trend that has been much commented on, modern German cinema seems fascinated with exploring the country’s troubled past. Kaspar Heidelbach’s Berlin ’36 tells the extraordinary true story of Gretel Bergmann, who was destined for an Olympic gold medal before she was forced out of the German team for being a Jew. Max Färberböck’s A Woman in Berlin is based on the diary of the only woman to write about the taboo topic of the rape of German women by Red Army soldiers at the end of World War II.

So, if you are up for better German cinema experience than…let’s say last year’s “Baader-Meinhof Komplex”, I strongly recommend to pay a visit to the IFI over the next 10 days. My personal pick is Oskar Roehler’s (Atomised) David Lynch/Baz Luhrmann-hommage “Lulu & Jimi”. Apologies for this German trailer, I could not find a sub-titled one – but I hope the images are sufficient .

I recently came across a notice in the Irish Times seeking out attendees for a public forum on developing the Café Culture in Dublin. The topic for discussion was less about coffee quality and more to do with the Café becoming a “third place” away from work or home and thus an alternative to the good old Irish Pub. The role of the traditional pub in Ireland is deep rooted but the forum focused on an ideal that the café could in future become a hub for socialising, business and the arts.
 
Among the speakers were Professor Kieran M. Bonner of St. Jerome’s University Canada, actor Glynis Casson, divisional librarian with Dublin City Council Maire Kennedy and Dick Gleeson. The latter, a Dublin city Planner, gave a fascinating presentation (worth a post by itself) on the future of Dublin from a planning perspective, with cafes playing a key role in linking the inner city regions.
 
People from all backgrounds and industries spoke at the meeting and the consensus was that Dublin needs an alternative to the pub when it comes to a “third place” but there is a conflict between what the perceived ideal café is and what the business owners are willing to provide.
 
I have thought a lot since the talk about whether Dubliners would ever change their socialising habits and pick a café over a pint. Michael McDowell was lampooned for this suggestion in the not so distant past and although there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that a change is called for by Dubliners, the question still remains whether or not they would turn up once a week rather than once a month.
 
I often hear people complain about the lack of cafes in the city that have real atmosphere and character. Cafes in Dublin tend to be more like convenience stores that happen to sell coffee. Sandwiches, pastries, fizzy drinks and smoothies are all laid out in an effort to maximise the earning potential per square foot. Café owners need to make a certain number of transactions a day just to make ends meet and all the trouble starts to arise when customers start requesting jazz lunches, free wi-fi and a single comfy couch in a space that fits 12 seats.
 
The other side of this argument is that café owners in Dublin pay very large rents most of the time. An average enough (small) café in a reasonably busy street in the city will often set you back rents of somewhere between 35-45k and that’s before rates, insurance and all those other wonderful add-ons.
 
There are two models for a café and I suppose you could use a fishing analogy to describe them. The first works like a large scale fishing boat that drops a net and sieves the ocean waves. Large chains open cafes on busy streets with the knowledge that they will net a certain percentage of passers by. It’s a formula that works and continues to work for many businesses. The turnover is huge but so are the costs unfortunately. As a rule the quality also tends to suffer as a result but as long as it’s of a “reasonably” high standard they are ensured of a certain amount of sales based on convenience and curiosity alone.
 
The second approach is less scale-focused and more quality focused, like line fishing in a way. The overheads are nowhere near as large but the quality can be maintained more rigidly. This is a business built on the basis that they will use knowledge, experience and craftsmanship to ensure quality and thus repeat business from customers. (Unfortunately there is also a third type of café that tries to combine low quality with low volumes but we’ll try to ignore that for the time being)
 
Admittedly the second example is less frequent in this country. Despite having a World Barista Champion in 2008 (he now works in Chicago after a spell in London), a number of really innovative machine and equipment manufacturers and a growing online coffee community there is a distinct lack of high quality, small cafes in the city. Is this down to a lack of creativity on the part of the proprietors or the failure of patrons to support small cafe business? I’m not so sure.
 
This question is all the more poignant for me in that I myself am on the verge of opening my first cafe. I’ve had countless people wish me well but all have done so with a reminder that I will have to make some sort of compromise in order to be commercially viable. I’ve always wanted to provide a space where Dubliners can enjoy a decent cup in a comfortable environment but as I approach d-day those doubts begin to whisper in the back of my mind.