The Dublin Community Blog

Tonight, from 8-9pm, Dublin will be participating in the global Earth Hour. 24 major cities around the world are participating this year, including Sydney (where the idea apparently started), Copenhagen, Chicago, Atlanta, and Toronto. Businesses and individuals are being asked to turn off all non-essential lights and appliances for the hour as a way of communicating the need for action against global warming.

Have a look at these links for more:
DublinCity.ie
EarthHour (Dublin)
CNN Report
Dublin Chamber of Commerce

I hope that this year St. Patrick impersonator will be the same person that last year. I call him ‘de Niro’

Well, Catherine mentioned about it come time ago and so…. it happed.

Maybe it was not extremely popular, but people who ‘got frozen’ were visible. And for one ‘freezing performer’ there was one photographer.

Cheers to all brave ones!

Enjoyed meeting up with around 25 or 30 eager amateur photographers on Saturday at the Dublin Flickr event. We gathered at the spire on O’Connell Street and then headed out from there to shoot the city. These people take their photography – and their cameras – pretty seriously. And there I was, with my pocket-size Canon PowerShot, surrounded by these impressive kazillion megapixel cameras with monster lenses. I was way out of my league. There was no need to feel intimidated, however, and everyone was eager to answer my questions about such things as what to look for in a good camera, what brands they prefer, etc. The passion and pure enjoyment of photography, whether as a hobby or an art form, was contagious. And of course, the pictures themselves turned out brilliantly. Be sure to check ‘em out at the “meet Dublin� Flickr pool.

Something that struck me as we walked through Dublin was the number of people out to protest or demonstrate about a variety of issues. There was a demonstration right there on O’Connell against “Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.� (Is it really that simple?!) There was also protesting against abortion, racism in the Irish government, and the fur trade. (The fur trade folks are there on Grafton pretty regularly throughout the year.) There was even some guy holding a sign with something about an Anglo-Freemasons conspiracy.

So, if you were in Dublin city centre on Saturday, whether as a demonstrator, a tourist, or simply to shop, you may very well have been caught on camera!

Breaking News.ie is reporting that a group of Shell to Sea protestors have occupied the headquarters of Shell Ireland which are located on Leeson Street. Some are inside the building and some are on a one-storey roof.
Gardai have been called to the scene.

Pic from Breaking News

UPDATE: 4.12pm

As Daragh says in the comments, the protest is now over, according to the breaking news section of the Ireland.com (sub required)

Pic by Luke Cassidy and shown on Ireland.com

Today’s anti-war demonstration was a loud, colourful and well-attended protest. From a slow start at the Gardens of Rememberance with too many long speeches (sorry but they really were however the duration allowed many late-comers to catch up) it certainly was a success.

The march proceeded along O’Connell Street, up to the Dail, and back to Central Bank. I stood at one stage opposite Trinity and there were thousands on the march passing me. It was an excellent turn out.

By the time it got to Central Bank for more speeches the numbers had dwindled some. But it was an excellent show of people, from young to old, to members of our Muslim community, to punters who happened upon the march on their Saturday shopping day.

There are more pics on my flickr account as well some from Decs.

I’ll also be loading more over the next couple of days.

For those who are opposed to the war there is a National Anti War demonstration tomorrow, Saturday July 29th from 2pm at the Garden of Rememberance.