I had the pleasure of visiting the new rooftop restaurant in Marks & Spencers on Grafton Street last Saturday. It was quite busy  but the queue for seating moved along quicky. A very cheery and efficient Hostess gave us the option of sitting outside or inside. Since we spotted a bright sun outside, we reckoned we’d check out the view. However, within 15 minutes a heavy rain shower shooed us all inside. They don’t have permanent covering outside, just large umbrellas that don’t cover all tables. Weather permitting, it really is a lovely space outside. The view of Grafton Street is great. The decor is quite modern, with clean lines and Eames style Eiffel Tower chairs.

Unfortunately I didn’t photograph the menu, and I can’t find any online. It is quite reasonable price from what I can remember and theres lots of choice. We went with the “special offer” which was a choice of mains, choice of dessert and a glass of wine all for eur12.99. I had sausage and mash for mains – 3 large sausages and a large portion of mash. Very yummy. My banana split for dessert was very good too. My friend had a very good lasagne (with chunky chips as extra) and the strawberry eton mess type dessert – which tasted as good as it looked!

Service is super efficient. I would recommend a visit and I’m looking forward to my return.

I’ve only just heard about the Pipeworks festival which has been running since June 20th.

Here is a timetable of events for this weekend. Most events are ticketed, but there is a free choral event tomorrow afternoon:

Choral Cornucopia, 3pm, City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin

New Dublin Voices
Mornington Singers
Cois Cladaigh
Resurgam

One of the advantages of working in Temple Bar for me is being able to pop into a bookshop and unwind for a few minutes. One of my favourites at the moment is the Winding Stair Bookshop, just at the Halfpenny Bridge. It carries a great range of Childrens books, Arts books, Irish interest books and second hand books. Today I came across a gem – Living in Dublin by Robert O’Byrne. The book is pictoral (Alex Ramsay), with detailed commentry (Robert O’Byrne) and includes sections on Georgian, literary, social and contemporary Dublin. Although published in 2003, the helpful visitors guide at the back appears mostly up-to-date. A book I’m happy to add to my ever expanding coffee table collection!

Dublin Docklands is host to a Maritime Festival this coming bank holiday weekend.

A spectacular fleet of tall ships; exciting maritime-related street theatre and musical entertainment performed by Waterford-based arts group Spraoi; Dublin’s largest outdoor market offering fine food, clothing, jewellery and plants; and boat trips along the river are just some of the delights awaiting visitors.

Sounds like fun. And its all free.

One of my favourite stores, Habitat has gone into voluntary liquidation and closed its Dublin and Galway stores suddenly on Friday last. According to news reports, staff were told of the closure on Fri evening and 60 are now out of work.

The notice on their website states:

Due to a severe downturn in sales in both our Galway and Dublin stores, it has become impossible to trade through the subsequent financial difficulties, particularly in light of the current economic environment.

Are companies too quick to cite “economic downturn” as an excuse for everything or is this really a sign of things to come?

There has been some discussion on Liveline today regarding outstanding orders and money owed to customers. Consumers rights in this case seem a little vague.

Its a sad day for former staff and customers.

UPDATE: 14th May 2008, London

Received this from Habitat this morning:

Habitat UK Ltd stands behind its valued customers in Ireland

Habitat UK Ltd has confirmed that it will honour all outstanding customer orders placed with Conai Designs (Ireland) Ltd.

Conai Designs (Ireland) Ltd, who have operated Habitat’s stores in Galway and Dublin under a franchise agreement for the past 6 years, ceased trading on 9th May 2008. In spite of this unfortunate situation, Habitat UK Ltd is pleased to confirm that it will honour all outstanding customer orders placed with Conai Designs (Ireland) Ltd. In addition, there is a process in place to ensure that all gift cards and vouchers will be redeemable in Habitat UK stores.

Habitat UK Ltd will be contacting all valued customers in Ireland with outstanding orders to secure arrangements on a one to one basis as a matter of priority.Customers wishing to contact Habitat UK Ltd in the meantime can do so via our dedicated email address below. However, we would like to reiterate that all customers will be contacted as soon as feasibly possible.

Customer enquiries can be sent to:

CustomerEnquiries.Ireland@habitat.co.uk

There is no doubt in my mind, today is a slow news day. Last night, Linfield came to play St. Patricks Athletic in Richmond Park, Inchicore in a Setanta Cup soccer match. St. Pats won the match 2-0.

Todays papers would lead you believe there was widespread rioting by the Linfield supporters. As an Inchicore resident living yards from Richmond Park, there was no such thing.

The Evening Herald says (I can’t find an online version):

many Inchicore locals say they were trapped in their own homes as chaos and violence ensued outside on the streets.

I don’t know what chaos and violence is being referred to because I certainly didn’t see or experience any. There were minor scuffles prior to the game kick off, however that was taken care of quickly and efficiently by the Gardai. I certainly did not witness “scenes of chaos” as stated in the Evening Herald.

There was huge Garda presence all evening, which included the Dog Unit, Mounted Unit, a Helicopter and the Riot Squad. Seems to me like the Gardai were well prepared in the event of any problems.

In my opinion all involved in organising this game should be commended for their hard work and reporting should be confined to events on the pitch.

St. Pats statement
Irish Independent
BBC
Belfast Telegraph

The funeral of Former President of Ireland (1976-1990) Patrick Hillery takes place in Dublin today in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral at 12 noon.

The President, Mary McAleese and Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will both read at the mass. Brian Cowen is to deliver the graveside oration.

Some roads around the Cathedral and along the route to St Fintan’s Cemetery in Sutton will be closed.

Marlborough Street, Dublin 1 will closed to traffic from 10.30am to approximately 2.30pm. Butt Bridge will be closed to traffic from 1pm to approximately 2.30pm.

Gardai said motorists travelling along Pearse Street will be diverted from Tara Street onto Burgh Quay and along O’Connell Street.

Eden Quay will be closed to traffic from 1.30pm to 2.30pm and traffic will be diverted up O’Connell Street or southbound across O’Connell Bridge. Commuters have been advised to avoid these areas during these hours if at all possible.

The funeral mass can be watched live via the RTE website.

Irish Times
RTE

One of my favourite features in Facebook is reading my friends updates. This is especially helpful when you are away on holidays for a few weeks and playing catchup. It was with huge surprise and delight that I came across a Dublinblogger friend update “joined Light House Cinema Smithfield group”.

In the late 80′s/90′s The Light House Cinema resided in Middle Abbey Street, in a plot that is now Arnotts Car Park. It was the only arthouse cinema in Dublin at the time and I had many pleasurable viewings there. Even though the Irish Film Institute (Centre) had opened by the time the Light House Cinema closed in 1996, its closure was a big disappointment.

The Light House Cinema reopens in Smithfield on May 9th next. Welcome back

The Light House Cinema has officially confirmed May 9th as the date for the re-opening of the venue at the new location in Smithfield Square, Dublin. The eagerly awaited re-opening comes following an extended “intermission” – the Light House, in its previous incarnation, closed in Abbey Street in 1996. The Light House Cinema team of Neil Connolly and Maretta Dillon continue to be committed to ambitious and adventurous programming, and the new four-screen cinema will act as a cultural hub for the Smithfield area.

A huge congrats to Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova on winning the Oscar for Original Song. A great achievement.

Speech content can be found on the official Oscar website and a video on YouTube (watch through to the end).

Yours truly had her car towed last Saturday. Visiting friends, I had parked partially in front of their neighbours gate. So, neighbour decides to phone a towing company, as advised by the Gardai, before knocking next door. Needless to say I was rather shocked when I walked out after two hours and discovered it gone!

Helpful Garda gives me the name and number of the towing company. Heres the bit that really, really, really bugs me. On phoning, I’m told they close at 1.30pm on a Saturday. This was 1pm. I was in Cabra. My car was on the back of a tow truck making its way to Donabate. This journey involves negotiating the M50 roadworks on a busy Saturday lunchtime and the M1.

Thankfully, I was lucky enough to get a lift from my friend and the nice(!) towing company people waited for me to arrive at about 1.45pm. My car was still on the truck when I arrived, 10 minutes after the driver!

How can a towing company be allowed get away with taking your car and then shutting up shop? Yes, some might say I deserve to be inconvenienced for inconveniencing my friends neighbour, however, am I not entitled to have the option of retrieving my car?

€181.50 poorer, thats one experience I’d rather not repeat!