The Dublin Community Blog

In case you are not already aware, but there are gonna be some serious disruptions to Dublin Bus services in the morning. I am copying the notice that was posted on Dublin Bus’s webpage earlier. So check and make sure if your bus service is affected that you have other means to get to work.

Due to industrial action by bus drivers in Harristown Bus Garage, services operating from this garage will be disrupted on Monday 12th November 2007.

Dublin Bus wish to apologise for this disruption.

    I would like to share my concerns with the Dublin community over the obscene rise in gig prices over the last couple of years. When I first moved to Dublin in 2003, concerts were still, bar a few ‘big names’* affordable and allowed for a relatively inexpensive evening. One could see a good act and have a couple of pints for under 30€. I remember seeing The Skatalites at The Village in 2004, and it cost me 15€.  I believe, although I could not verify this, that a ticket last time around cost something in the region of 30€. In recent times, I have missed out on a number of gigs that I would have liked to see due to the steep entry fee- Soulwax cost 33€, and Groove Armada (DJ set!) followed by Dizzee Rascal was a mere 44€95! Why is this happening? The music industry is in danger of pricing out many fans. As a student, I probably have more time for fun and games than a professional, but I can’t afford to spend that time at concerts. This is wrong. What is the justification for this? Has the average Skatalites fan become twice as rich in the last 3 years? I think not.

     I believe that the causes for this lie in the quasi-despotic monopoly on gigs held by large promotion companies such as MCD, an organisation that has more than erupted onto the Dublin music scene in the last few years. Their sole aim is to make money rather than to spread the love of music. Two examples- the first LCD Soundsystem gig was moved to Tripod from The Button Factory, so as to allow for more tickets to be sold. The Groove Armada/Dizzee gig, originally set in Kilmainham Jail (which to some extent would have justified the hefty sum demanded of the unsuspecting public) was also moved to the aforementioned venue of the many names (Pod, POGO, Crawdaddy, Tripod, Redbox- make your minds up, please) for the same reasons. Enough of these outrageous capitalistic practices, I say, and more independence of mind from the bands, venues, and, if necessary, promoters. Bonde do Role, a Brazilian electro-funk band from Curitiba, are coming back to Dublin for their third gig in over a year in November. Seeing them will set you back 15€, as it did the first time they played here, despite a very succesful year that saw them recording an MTV hit. However, they have stayed level-headed and, their fans will be able to carry on following them without submitting to the tyranical organisations governing the Dublin music scene. Obrigado, Bonde, e ate pronto.    

* Big names? When the unsuspecting public pays 70-something euros to see Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake something is wrong, but the point of this particular rant is not to question the public’s tastes. Maybe another time. 

Last week, I found myself back in Dublin along with thousands of other students looking for a flat. I had been discarded by the Trinity accomodation services and was fortunate enough to have to look for a room in September, the most competitive of months in this respect. My search was crowned in success in under 4 days, but I realised along the way that it is extremely difficult to find somewhere that is both affordable and acceptable, and that prices have been steadily rising since I moved here in 2003.

Finding a place to live in Dublin is akin to a theatrical audition/beauty pageant. It is all about making a lasting first impression which will convince a landlord of your ability to pay the rent and keep a place clean. In these circumstances, being a student evidently does not help, and one is inevitably thanked for one’s interest upon delivering this news in an apologetic fashion. As if being a student wasn’t compatible with normality and responsibility, even more so for us male students who are deemed more likely to burn a house down at the end of a 4-day binge.

Initially, my search took me to public viewings along with dozens of other punters. Once I had shown interest in overpriced bedsits due to a lack of alternatives, I went through the usual rejection process whereby overwhelmed landlords rejected me based on prejudiced first impressions, choosing the most ‘respectable’ of candidates instead (ie. a young professional, a shit-for-brains accountant who likes getting ‘trolleyed’ 3 night a week, living solely for the weekend). Some use scare tactics, doubling or tripling the required deposits to narrow the field down. One memorable character took advantage of the situation and opened a bidding war: “Whoever gives me the most money gets the place.” In this world, students don’t have a chance. 

Eventually, it becomes clear that second-tier housing is the only remaining option to us low-lives. Here is proof: one letting agent, unaware of my student stigma due to my English accent (which, surprisingly, helps!), told me over the phone that he did have a 2 bedroom flat available but that he couldn’t really show it to me because it could only really be rented to students, and would I please wait for something more suitable to come up, please? So we worthless human beings are left with so-called ‘student housing’, synonymous with ’shit-rundown-cold-dreary-overpriced’. Some of the places on the market are appalling, and it is commonly thought that a student should be grateful enough to be given somewhere to live, and should accept whatever is thrown his way.

The solution, it seems, is for everyone to engage in a show of solidarity with the student population of our wonderful city, and give up all rented housing, and squat in the city centre until all accomodation is done up to standard. Then, and only then, should places be re-allocated randomly, and life can resume. Until then, I will carry on paying 650 Euros a month for the right to live in a damp, dark, dump in Dublin. Savage.         

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

I’ve just read with disgust that protestors from Monaghan, aggrieved (admittedly genuinely) with the downgrading of the emergency status of the hospital recently, are planning on taking their protest from their locality in Monaghan, to cause traffic and transport chaos along the M50 in Dublin.

They are operating under the belief that the seat of power for the country is in Dublin, and until they start to hurt the people of Dublin, that their local issues will not be listened to or addressed.

Now, I for one have serious issues with this. Whilst I have no issues with people expressing their grievances with various powers of authority on any occasion, such are the joys and benefits of democracy, I have a serious issue with people purposely setting out to cause misery and suffering to innocent bystanders who, in this case, already have a miserable time trying to negotiate their way through Dublin traffic to start with!!

What makes this all the more galling, is the fact that The Monaghan Community Hospital Alliance (MCHA) chairman, Peadar Mc Mahon, recognises the fact that he will cause innocent bystanders to suffer “People have died as a result of the downgrading of Monaghan Hospital. We are prepared to go to any lengths to remove that anxiety,”

If you wish to voice your anger, support or otherwise with this cause, please feel free to comment here, participate in our poll (see right) or, contact the Monaghan Hospital Alliance direct, contact details are:

County Monaghan Alliance
C/O Peadar McMahon
Mullan Road,
Emyvale,
Co. Monaghan.
Tel: 086-8156816
email: peadar@emyvale.net

Thursday’s taxi strike has been cancelled to allow talks to take place between taxi unions and the Department of Transport.
Traffic in Dublin was severely disrupted following yesterday’s protest when up to 1,000 taxis blocked O Connell Street according to news reports.

Yesterday’s protest was the fourth protest since July.

Taxi drivers are protesting against a number of changes which have been put in place by the Taxi Regulator and are due to come into action at the end of the month including doing away with luggage charges and the €1.50 hiring charge for picking up from Dublin Airport. The drivers are also protesting against increasing the fee paid by drivers who work the airport from €70 a year to €500.

News links: Breaking News, RTE and the Irish Times (sub required).

So, our last Poll asked who you thought was going to win the All Ireland Football Final, Mayo or Kerry, and 65% of you think that Mayo will win. We will know the outcome shortly.

But, to our new poll, over on the right, do you agree with the taxi drivers protests that have been taking place today, and over the past few weeks? Let us know your thoughts!

There is an on going protest Taxi on O’Connell Street. It is reported to be causing major traffic disruption with taxis parked all along the street, the drivers are marching up and down the street. Dublin Bus is not letting passengers off at O’Connell Street stops and traffic is backed up along the quays.

Traffic in Dublin city centre is now backed up from O’Connell Street to Parkgate Street.

The whole of Dublin’s north quays are affected as a result of an impromptu protest by taxi drivers taking place around O’Connell St.

Newstalk 106 reported that the drivers had a confrontation with their union representatives at the phoenix park when told that the taxi regulator would not meet with them. The drivers then abandoned the planned slow drive on the M50 and instead headed into O’Connell Street.

Breakingnews.ie are carrying a story that a fathers rights group, The Unmarried Fathers of Ireland, are planning to blockade Dublin’s M50 on what will be one of the busiest travel days of the year tomorrow. The group, who have no website with further details also say that they are planning further protests this week according to breakingnews.ie.

I cannot find any further details on the plans for tomorrow, or the rest of the week, but, if and when there are any, they will be reported here. My advice is to keep an ear out to the various travel reports tomorrow, or aaroadwatch.ie if you are planning on travelling the M50 at any stage tomorrow.

It would appear that this is entirely coincidental and has been arranged for a while now, but, is very poigniant and topical given the current situation in Lebanon.

Beirut before and after is a photographic exhibition by Mr Ayman Trawi, Personal Photographer of Late Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Harir, who was assinated in Beruit last year. The exhibition contains photographs of Beruit as it was in the days of the bombs it became infamously associated with, contrasted against the rejuvinated Beruit that existed until just a few weeks ago, a vibrant, hip, happening city that was once again becoming a mecca for tourists.

Unfortunately, it would appear that Lebanon is returning to the state of the early, bombed pictures at a rapid pace, so, I suggest you get out and show your support for our Lebanese friends and turn up to this exhibition. Whilst your there, sign the book of support that is being presented to the Irish Government, as well as the European Commission once the exhibition has concluded.

The exhibition takes place from Wednesday Aug 2nd through Thursday 10th in the Erin Room of Dublin Castle