The Dublin Community Blog

This years Grand Marshal for the 2010 St Patricks Parade in Dublin has been announced and it’s Packie Bonner. The former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper is a national hero for his save in the penalty shootout against Romania during Italia 90. I think we can say the parade is in a safe pair of hands this year (oh God did I really just say that?)

Being snowed in can have it’s advantages. After doing the laundry and cleaning the living room, I will no try to summarise the year 2009 on the Dublin Community Blog.

Gloomy January showed us that the recession is in full swing, as Dublin indie institution Road Records was forced to close its doors (which thankfully re-opened later due to massive support from many a successfull Irish musician) and Dublin Bus announced massive cutbacks, laying off 200 staff. Add some snow causing massive disruptions to traffic and you had a very bleak start into the new year.

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A fall of snow last night means Dublin Bus has withdrawn all busses from service for today Friday 1st January 2010. They are also monitoring the weather conditions for Saturday 2nd. Check the Dublin Bus website for updates.

I suppose the good news is the government has refused to give permission for fare increases in 2010.

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.

I was asked yesterday if Christmas FM from last year was coming back. A quick look at the Christmas FM website tells me it is  Not only is it coming back but it’s expanding to Cork as well. 28 days of Christmas music played 24 hours a day starting November 28th.

I might roll my eyes when I see the first Christmas tree or complain when the shops start putting up decorations in October but deep down inside I love Christmas and really enjoyed Christmas FM last year. Hopefully they will play the Bing Crosby Christmas specials again this year, there is something wonderfully christmasy about those old broadcasts.

This morning in Clonskeagh church the priest gave over a few minutes to discuss swine flu. A couple had recently approached him and asked what the parish was going to do to reduce the risk of spreading swine flu. You see the woman is pregnant and they felt that the sign of peace where they shake hands with fellow church goers was an unacceptable risk to her and the baby. They wanted the priest to ban the gesture in the church. The priest tried to reason with them, pointing out that it is not necessary for people to shake hands. Church goers can just make a gesture towards others by raising their hands in a wave like motion and that other parishioners would understand. This was not good enough for the couple, unfortunately they feel bad when they refuse to shake hands with the others in the church so the only solution for them was to have the sign of peace banned in the church and then no one would try to shake hands with them.

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The annual Open House Dublin is on again this year, in fact it’s on next weekend October 8th to 11th. It’s a wonderful opportunity to visit some of the iconic buildings in Dublin. For photographers there is the opportunity to go up onto the viewing deck of Liberty Hall to take photos of the city skyline. For political fans there is the chance to visit Leinster House and Government Buildings. It’s well worth having a look at the schedule, some buildings require an advance booking others are on a first come first served basis.

Traffic on Westmoreland St was briefly disrupted today by a fire in the nutrition supplement shop Nutrition Connection. Three units of the fire brigade were present and the fire appeared to be quickly contained.

The good news is Westmoreland St is now open and O’Connell Street is open as well now that the taxi dispute has been resolved. The bad news is the llamas have gone missing again so drivers on the M50 beware

Voting is reported as slow in many areas of the country with turn of 2 and 3% in parts of Dublin. Which ever way you vote you should go out and vote.

Update: Good news, turn out in Dublin is well up and is better than most of the rest of the country.

The end of the world is coming in 10 years time and it appears to have started in Dublin. That is according to the new movie The Road starring Charlize Theron and Viggo Mortensen. The movie is described as “A post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible”.

In typical disaster movie style the trailer starts with news footage of the start apocalypse. In prominent position is footage that looks to be from the 2006 Dublin riots. That means we have 7 years until most of us are dead and the survivors are pursued by gangs of lawless killers. So really if things keep going the way they have with mass protests, taxi drivers blocking the city center driving commuters crazy and herds of llamas running rampage around the suburbs 7 years might be an optimistic estimate to the apocalypse.