The Dublin Community Blog

I’m Roseanne Smith, a newly recruited blogger to the Dublin Community Blog. Actually I’m not that newly recruited having been moved to volunteer when Red Mum was collecting the blog’s award at the Irish Blog Awards in February and mentioned that they were looking for some actual Dubliners to blog. So I’m an actual Dubliner. You can find out more about me on my own blog because I’m here to talk about what’s going on in Dublin not in my head (as a general rule…). I’m hoping once I get into the swing of things and have lulled you into a false sense of security to contribute the odd blog in Irish. Enough of the intros, here goes!

I am a cyclist. I wouldn’t say avid or fanatical while I’m just sitting here at my laptop. Not at all.

But get me onto the saddle and I become something else. Half woman, half bike: melded with my machine, senses heightened, coordination controlled, I’m a dynamic dynamo and I’m getting there faster than all of you.

Well except for anyone who’s running. Really I’m a very average cyclist. I always stop at red lights. I wear nerdy hi-viz clothing on all my limbs and a helmet. I have front and rear lights and I move at a leisurely pace.

I do cycle everywhere. I cycle to and from work, the kids’ school and creche, to meetings, out at the weekend; come rain or shine. I even sometimes bring our bikes on holidays. I do lots of  thinking on the bike when I’m not avoiding potholes or pedestrians. I find it’s a great way to start the day.

Dublin is a grand place to cycle. Okay it’s no Amsterdam or even Groningen. It’s fairly flat, there are new bits of bike lane all the time. (I’m trying to accentuate the positive here, folks! It’s my first post – I don’t want to come across as crabby on Day 1) As you will see I live close to the canal and there’s nothing like zipping along the canal no matter what the weather.

One of the main reasons people often give for not cycling is the weather: they are worried that they will get drenched on their way to work. As another cyclist puts it on his blog “it’s the prospect of getting wet that puts people off.” Well I’ve been doing a little experiment since January. Everyday I get stopped on Sally’s Bridge on the canal on the way home. It’s just not possible to get from one set of traffic lights to the other at my pedestrian pace. So every day I take a snap and post it to my Flickr account. You can see the set here. Or better still:

Now I’ll admit straight off that due to the fact that I was in Santry for work recently I failed to take a photo between the 20 and 23 May when there was some torrential rain. This is also just snaps from weekdays and there’s some days when I’d be so deeply in thought that I would forget to take a photo.

So even adding in, say, about five wet days that I missed, that is not a lot of wet in nearly six months. And, as your mammy would say (and I am a mammy so I know about these things), there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad dressing. A good set of raingear will get you to and from work dry as a bone. Although I will admit to getting a bit cheesed off lugging my raingear around and unlike my other half I haven’t gone as far as gaiters so I keep dry footwear under my desk for days that I am caught on the hop.

So why have I chosen now to out myself as a wannabe fanatical cyclist? Next week is National Bike Week. Two years ago we took part in the Dublin City Cycle and it was a great day. As proof of my very average cycling, I was the very last back to the finish – I blame the youngest for my poor performance as he fell asleep which slowed me down something rotten! Here are a few of my snaps.

So I was delighted when I read that the activities have been extended to not only a full week but they have gone national. Among the events are free bike check-ups, charity cycles, cycling workshops and family fun days. I love the idea that Parnassus theatre company have: show your bike light at their production of Abigail’s Party in the Samuel Beckett Centre in TCD and you’ll get 33% off on the 16th, 17th and 16th June. Bargain! And it’s a very entertaining play so win-win!

This year the Dublin City Cycle takes place on Wednesday 17 June and while it may not be so family oriented it will draw more Dubliners’ attention to the cyclists in their midst. This was actually my biggest gripe with the Dublin City Cycle two years ago: it happened on a Sunday so there was no real impact on the rest of the citizens. I think a city cycle like this should remind other road users that cyclists are really there.

So keep an eye out for me at the Dublin City Cycle or taking pics on Sally’s Bridge of an evening!

It’s just made it into the flickr blog, flickr member, Colleenm has put together a fantastic collection of scans of images taken around Ireland during a trip in 1972. Of particular interest to readers of this blog would be the set of images in and around County Dublin. It’s amazing to see just how much the city has changed since then, and even more so just how much the people have changed as well. This is a fantastic collection that’s well, well worth checking out when you have a spare moment.

Colleen has also been in touch with me, and would love to try and identify some of the people in the pictures here. If you know, or indeed are one of the people photographed, please feel free to leave a comment here, or over on Colleen’s photos.

Over the weekend a big gang of photobloggers met up at the George Bernard Shaw pub Toe Jam carboot sale. Its a small venue with a small number of stalls selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things and certainly one to look out for, I think the next one is planned for July, so if you are a member of Facebook you can join the group (in the above link) and get notified when the next one takes place.

In keeping with the outdoor market theme we then headed to the Temple Bar farmers’ markets for more snaps. Here’s some shots of the day and you can see more of everyone’s in the dedicated Flickr group, go on and get lost in some excellent photography. And if you fancy joining us the next time, keep an eye out as I will post details here.

As written about in the previous post, last night saw Dublin’s participation in Earth Hour. I was at the Customs House to watch the lights  go off and the pics below show before and afterwards. A video of the lights going out is available here.

According to news reports today there was a drop of 50 megawatts nationwide in energy demand last night in comparison with last week. You can read more on Ireland.com, on the Earth Hour blog and the official Earth Hour website.

You have another opportunity to participate in a great show ‘Pearl’ in George’s Dock. It starts tomorrow at 7.30. Official Festival’s website requires (free) tickets for that show, but no one was checking them.

Take your children, they will love it.

With St Patrick’s Day (March 17th) coming closer and closer, the question is what on earth are you going to do over the five-day festival?

Whether you are from Dublin, living in Dublin or just coming for the craic there is bound to be something for everyone. Now an annual feature the funfair in Merrion Sq will run from Friday March 14th until Monday March 17th, there is a Babyrave in Temple Bar running from Friday till Sunday and the Ceili Mor will be held in Earlsfort Terrace on St Patrick’s Day itself.

But there is more, Kila play the Olympia on St Patrick’s Day, Mary Black is in the National Concert Hall. There are various Irish language and culture workshops and Irish language tours as well as speed dating As Gaeilge so brush up on your coupla focal.

You can find out lots lots more on the Festival website. You can book tickets for different events on the website though some things are already sold out. However don’t worry about not getting tickets for something you wanted, there will be something else to take its place. And let us not forget the stalwart of every St Patrick’s Day, the parade, two hours of fun and frolics and a long way away from the parade that used to happen when I first moved to Dublin 17 years ago. Then it was just groups of tourists with shamrock hats walking in formation waving, marching bands and being very very cold looking at the back of the people in front. Trust me it is a lot more fun now The festival map is located on the website at this link.

All of this is of course only a fraction of things that are taking place, different things will be happening all over the city and they will be hard to miss, just follow your nose.

Last year some of the Dublin Blog contributors were out and about taking pics and here is what we had to say last year. No doubt you can expect more of the same and probably even better this year. You can also see lots of images of St Patrick’s Day from all around the world on Flickr and don’t forget to keep an eye out over the festival on photographs as they are uploaded to our own Dublin Blog group on Flickr.

Dublin has had a Lord Mayor as its first citizen, only surpassed in authority by the President, since Sir Daniel Bellingham in 1665. However the first citizen of the city has been in place since 1229, just without the Lord part of the title. The Lord Mayor is elected at Dublin City Council once a year though there is a campaign for the term to be lengthened. The current Lord Mayor is Cllr Paddy Bourke. I imagine there are many highlights being Lord Mayor, one being getting to ride in the City’s coach for the St Patrick Day Parade.

The official residence of the Dublin Lord Mayor is the Mansion House which is located on Dawson Street and was built in 1710 by property developer Joshua Dawson. While Joshua lived in the house the powers that be decided to purchase the house for the city at a cost of £3,500 and a yearly rent of 40 shillings and a loaf of double-refined sugar weighing 6lbs each Christmas.

Joshua Dawson also agreed to build another room, the Oak room, to be used for civic receptions. The Oak Room is to this day still used for civic functions and is decorated with the crests of all the Lord Mayors. The bottom photograph shows the crest of Daniel O’Connell who was Lord Mayor between 1841 and 1842.

Most of this information was cogged together from the Dublin City Council website and you can find out lots more about Dublin’s history at the council website.

Photos: 1. Inside the Lord Mayor’s office, the chain. 2. Inside the Oak Room. 3. The front of the Mansion House. 4. The Oak Room crests showing Daniel O’Connell’s crest (top left). 5. Portraits of previous Lord Mayors including the current Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who can be seen in the image.

There are all sorts of things happening for Chinese New Year, you can find out more at Dublin.ie. Meanwhile here’s some pics from yesterday’s fun on Georges Street. There are more pics on Flickr.

If you are not into all that popular music you can see in TV or hear on the radio or if you just want to take a brake form all that noise, you should search for some concert of Ewa Gigon. Recently she performed at BoomBoomRoom . A nice guy with a guitar who played before her, seemed not to impress the audience and the noise in the room only could confirm that.

The first notes of Ewa’s performance calmed down the crowd imediately. But who would not pay attention to skilled soprano voice multiplied by some electronic devices. A very strange feeling just after another guitar player.

In another song Ewa guided surprised audience to darker moods of her imagination using digital noise samples and empty beer glasses. After that part followed a cover song of Talk Talk with nicely multilplied ‘talktalk’ phrace to add the rythm.
Unfortunately the gig finished as suddenly as it started. Ewa took everyone’s attention so 45 minutes performance seemed to last just a while. She sang one more song and disappeared.

We have to wait for her upcoming album this yea and check her website http://www.myspace.com/ewagigon for more gig information.

Ewa Gigon at BoomBoomRoom.

For who?

Bjork fans, ‘reaserching electronica’ lovers, free jazz and dark moods aficionados.

Over the weekend I met up with some of the members of the Meet Dublin group on Flickr. Flickr meets are where a group of people (mostly members of Flickr) go around and take photographs and my idea of bliss. This month (January) the group is exploring Dublin 7 with different events each weekend, last weekend was the turn of the Horse Fair in Smithfield.

The Smithfield Horse Fair meets once a month in Smithfield, on the first Sunday of the month. There were nearly as many photographers as horses last weekend as well as the presence of Gardai and the DSPCA. Dublin City Council would like to move the fair out of Smithfield but so far it remains in Dublin 7.

Flickr meets are an excellent opportunity to meet up with people whose work you have been admiring on Flickr. Not only are they are a great social outing but you can also learn lots from others. It is fascinating to see how different people approach the same shot.

So if you fancy some photography projects and a bit of craic too, check out Meet Dublin on Flickr as well as their Facebook group.

Anyway here’s some of my favourite shots of the day, you can check out more here and more in the Meet Dublin photo pool here.