The Dublin Community Blog

This year’s Dublin Writers Festival kicks off on June 1st, and I have to say that this year the list of featured authors is impressive: Ian McEwan, Anthony Beevor, Joseph O’Connor, Anne Enright, Hanif Kureishi, Yann Martel a. m. m. mark this year’s edition a festival not too miss. You’ll find the full programme here, and you can follow the festival both on Twitter and Facebook as well.

I’m really disappointed to miss it, as I’ll be on holidays at the time, but if you’re into books, please give it a go – tickets are between 12 and 20 €, and events take place at different venues throughout town, such as the Project Arts Centre, the Sugar Club and the Dublin Writers Museum. Go bookworms!

I used to walk past a living legend in Dublin quite often, nearly every day when I was working in Temple Bar. He’s a man who certainly brightened up my childhood, and that of many, many Irish people of my age. The man in question is poet and artist Pat Ingolsby. One thing I always wanted to do, both for my personal satisfaction, and also as it would have made for a fantastic post here on this blog, was to stop off for a chat with Pat. However, for reasons that are beyond me, that never happened!

There is a brilliant post by another Darragh (albeit with different spelling to my name!) over here that is well worth reading. And, if you are around and about Dublin, and pass by Pat, it really looks like you should stop off and say hello!

Some shots from the old U2 recording studio (in the pic above it’s on the right) on Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock; It’s the only one-story building left in the area, surrounded by 10-floor apartment blocks and large holes in the ground where 10-floor apartment blocks are being built. I think a few albums, including All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb were recorded here. Most of the graffiti is on the wall just across from it which I think is, sadly, going to be knocked down.

A compulsory purchase order was handed to the band back in 2001 when the Docklands was undergoing all that redevelopment and they went to court to fight it; an online petition to save the studio was even started. And even though the studio was saved, I doubt this wall was!

While I love the Grand Canal Dock area and all that’s being done to it, it’s a shame that this little bit of Dublin history may well be on it’s way to being knocked down – fans from all over the world have somehow managed to find their way though the building rubble to leave their messages.

Congratuations to author Anne Enright on winning the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her book The Gathering. According to media reports, this book had an outside chance of winning, being up against favourites Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones.

Howard Davies, Chair of the Booker judges describes ‘the Gathering’ as:

“an unflinching look at a grieving family. It’s the bleakness of one woman’s vision, a bleakness rooted in her family, her marriage and the death of her brother.”

Davies said that the winning title was a ‘powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book’ but went on to explain that the family epic was a ‘very readable and satisfying novel’.

The author herself describes the book as “the equivalent of a Hollywood weepie”. The prize is a wonderful achievement and I’m looking forward to reading the book.

Further media articles here:
Irish Times
The Guardian
The New York Times