The Dublin Community Blog

The Dublin Bikes scheme is not operating today because of a technical fault with the terminals. They hope to have the bikes back in operation later today. There are none near me so I cant check but if you depend on them as part of your daily commute you might want to give yourself extra time.

Like Roseanne I spent most of Saturday at the Street Performance World Championships in Merrion Square, watching the performers and taking photos. Highlights for me were The Flying Dutchmen, whom I saw too little of, Dr Kaboom creating fireballs outside Government Buildings, Fire Guy learning sign language at the deaf stage and Sharon Mahoney’s apology for being Canadian.

Unfortunately I did not get to see the eventual winner Dublins own Jack Wise whose sword swallowing and glass walking won the crowd. Though who would vote against a Dub who can do all of that, not me.

Congratulations to 24-year-old Linda Byrne who won the 2010 Flora Womens Mini Marathon in heavy rain yesterday. Linda is from the Dundrum/South Dublin Athletic Club and according to the race announcer she is the first runner from that club to win the event. Over 40,000 women (and a few disguised men) took part in the event despite the heavy rain.

More photos can be found on my Flickr stream.

Last year I posted about the 1911 census being made available online. Today the 1901 census records have been added to the website and are now available free of charge. Last summer I did spend some time in the National Archives researching my family tree and going through the micro film records, the website makes this much easier, though I have to admit there was something nice about scrolling through all the records on the film and seeing who lived beside my family in 1901 and realising that many of the same families still lived near them 109 years later.

I was listening to the Sean Moncrief show and they interviewed Chris Maher the founder of the Dublin Soul Festival which is on this weekend. It starts tonight in Meeting House Square and there will be 3 days of music and food around the city.

Their mission statement is:

Soul ain’t nothing but a feeling so why not come out and celebrate with us, let the music capture your heart, the fine food fill your tummy and the laughter soothe your soul!

Plus he did have a bit of a pop at Jedward, which made me support his event even more, pointing out there are better musicians coming up in Ireland some of who will be performing at the Rising Stars concerts in Meeting House Square over the next three days. There is a Soul Picnic in Merrion Square on Sunday and other events over the weekend covering music, food and comedy in different venues.

The organisers try to make most of the events free to attend but they have to organise this on an ever decressing budget with large cuts in funds for festivals this year so hopefully a big turn out will help secure the future of this and other festivals.

It looks like there are big changes coming to the Dublin Bus route network over the next few months.

Dublin Bus plans to “increase efficiency and frequency, with a five-minute waiting time between services”. Good, though my bus is scheduled to run every 20 minutes and in the evening waits of an hour to an hour and a half would not be uncommon. There is a big difference between aiming to run a bus every 5 minutes and achieving it in Dublin traffic. I fear that the solution Dublin bus will opt for in some areas is to avoid traffic bottle necks completely which would remove the current bus service from many parts of Dublin. I’d rather have a bus that serves my area every 30 or 40 minutes than a bus every 5 minutes but with the bus stop miles away on the N11.

“The overall number of routes is to be increased, but some existing routes will be straightened out with fewer diversions off quality bus corridors, while others will be combined.” Sounds good again in theory but as with my previous point does this mean that many busses will run on main routes only and will not divert into housing estates or down side roads as they do at the moment? That actually reduces the service for many people especially the elderly or those with mobility difficulties.

Finally “A real-time passenger information service will also be rolled-out later this year”. Very good and I hope Dublin Bus have the sense to make this freely available online and to open up the API so that developers writing applications for iPhones and other smartphones will be able to write apps to allow consumers to look up the location and timing of different busses at home and on mobile phones without having to go to bus stops.

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.