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.

February then brings more positive things: we are awarded the Best Group Blog at the Irish Blog Awards,

and my experiences as a volunteer help me to gain insight on the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Positiveness prevails in March, as Ireland wins the 6-Nations-Rugby-Championship. A well deserved boost. And as if to make up for the bad weather in January, St. Patrick’s Day 2009 is sunny and warm.

April then brought us all the full impact of the recession again as the 2009 budget was announced, and Dublin Bus drivers went on strike.

Sunny (almost tropical) May has temperatures of +25 Degrees Celcius, another Docklands Festival, a new bridge over the Liffey, some controversy on the media and last but not least an American expat rejoining the Dublinblog-team.

June sees the World’s best street artists returning to Dublin to battle it out at the annual Street Performance World Championship on Merrion Square.

We also start our regular musical feature for up- and coming Dublin bands and artists, Discovered in Dublin. And our biking-expert Roseanne starts blogging about bikes (amongst other things) on the Dublinblog.

Dubliners are as shocked as people all over the world about Michael Jackson’s untimely demise, so our first post in July is a sad one. Thankfully July also sees us publish Karen’s brilliant A Visitor’s Guide to Dublin to cheer us up and help tourists find their way around town without getting squashed in traffic.

Disaster almost struck in August as the Malahide Rail Bridge collapsed and all commuters to and from the north had to rely on buses for longer than expected. A more positive thing in August was the incredible illumination of Liberty Hall as part of the Playhouse project during the 2009 Dublin Theatre Festival. Very impressive.

After the summer holiday season Dublin town kicked up a gear in September as the Dublin Bike Scheme was introduced, and in our very own Dublinblog-recession-buster we showed that it is possible to get by in Dublin on 15 € a day and still have fun. Given that Twitter is working Also kicking up a gear was the driver of Dublinbus who tried to cross the street before the Luas and failed miserably:

October then was the month of festivals: Darklight X, the Oktoberfest, HWCH, DEAF and the Temple Bar Chocolate Festival showed us that the month definitively needs more days. And Daragh struck up some controversy with his suggestion that Dublin should grow up. Instead of out.

As everywhere around the world, Dublin also had its worries over the Swine Flu epidemic in November. And while RTE reported that more Irish people than ever are planning to emigrate to Australia and Canada, I felt it my duty as citizen to express my love for this dirty old town.

While everyone was preparing for the Christmas holidays in December, we welcomed two new Dublinbloggers and celebrated the fact that it is now possible to reach The Point errr the O2 by Luas. And also gave some valuable book-shopping tips for last-minute presents. And ended the year with way more snow than expected.

And there we are with even more snow now in January. And if the country does not come to a complete deadlock next week I think we all will survive this emergency as we survived others in the past. So, from all of us here on the Dublinblog a Happy New Year, with hoping for loads of great things for Dublin town. I’d like to end this post with a quote by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Interesting exhibition coming our way.

Bodies has already been to New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Budapest and features “real, whole and partial body specimens that have been dissected and preserved through an innovative process.”

Freaky or what?

Check out the site www.bodiesdublin.com for more info.

Some pics of Grand Canal Square that I took a while ago and only just found!

I love living here. It’s got its own little buzz going on, it’s close to town (if you’re a slowcoach like me, it’s about eight minutes from Pearse Street DART station), but still quiet and the Docklands Authority are really trying to make sure that some culture and fun is injected into the area.

There are lots of nice places to eat and drink – Riva, Milano, Ely HQ, Ocean, The Ferryman. There’s Fresh for nice supermarket food, KC Peaches for yummy brunches, an Italian bakery for fancy coffee and fabulous bread and, of course, a nice square to lounge around in.

It’s well worth a visit. (And, as an added bonus, every now and again a swan wanders up from the canal and throws you dirty looks).