The Dublin Community Blog

It seems the cold weather came quite suddenly earlier in the week. So why not embrace the chill in the air and celebrate winter with a little ice skating? You wouldn’t know it from the online promotional buzz (or complete lack thereof), but an ice rink is now open in Sandyford’s Beacon South Quarter (PDF). Last year’s Dublin on Ice site has yet to be updated (as of this post anyway) and I can’t confirm that the rink is opened in Smithfield. (If YOU can, please let us know in the comments.)

The lack of information on the rink(s) is a bit odd, begging the question, why spend money and other resources on something like an ice rink without getting the word out? Where are the models in Santa outfits? (Maybe we’ll see the advertising ramp up a bit the closer we get to Christmas.)

For now, here’s last year’s promo video from City Channel.

The Rathmines Festival kicked off on the 14th of this month and will pick up again today, finishing late on Sunday night. The festival features a variety of events, workshops, and galleries, all happening along Rathmines Road (Upper and Lower) just south of Grand Canal. Most events are free and those that come with a price tag (like some music performances) never rise above a tenner. Dance, theatre, literature, music, photography, film, sports, history – there really does seem to be something for just about everyone!

For more, including a downloadable schedule, surf over to the festival website at www.RathminesFestival.com. Alternatively, the good folks at Cafe Moda have agreed to allow the use of their coffee shop as the festival club house, so if you happen to be in the area, stop by for brochures, booking, or any other information.

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

To avoid too many men in kilts in the city, I decided to spend half of my Saturday with a nice walk along the Royal Canal Way. Though the promised “sunny spells” failed to appear, it was a pleasant walk, especially the part from Maynooth to Leixlip. So, if you’re looking for gentle walk with almost no obstacles – except the omnipresent Dublin rubbish along the way from Leixlip on – board your nearest DART and take a stroll.

It was confirmed today that the Green Luas line will be further extended from the still to be completed terminus in Cherrywood all the way out to Bray. It is hoped that the line will be completed by 2015.

The Bray Chamber are naturally delighted, but, being devils advocate, I have to ask if this is really the best way to extend the Luas? After all Bray is currently served by the Dart, which the Luas will interconnect with in Bray as well as at the new inter-connector to be built at St Stephens Green. I wonder would other parts of Dublin have been better served by a new rail/tram link than Bray? Does anyone feel their area is getting overlooked in the public transport plans?

Screwdrivers at the ready, IKEA has finally gotten the go ahead from An Bord Pleanála. A 30,000 square foot shop can now be constructed in Ballymun subject to 30 conditions “aimed at preventing traffic congestion, protecting the visual amenity of the area and promoting sustainable development”. Visual amenity? So that’ll be a multi-story grey concrete warehouse then?

Update: One of the reported conditions was that the store did not open until after the M50 upgrade completed in 2009. The IKEA manager was on Matt Coopers show and believes this is not the case. He hopes to negogiate with others to get the store open in 16 months time, late summer 2008. In fairness to them if they had to wait for the M50 to be completed they could be waiting for a long time after 2009.

One of the most fascinating things about living in Ireland for many of us “Yankees� is the ancient history. This fascination is due in part to the relatively brief history of our own country. I just can’t help but look at old Irish churches and castles and cathedrals and think to myself, “This structure is hundreds of years older than my home country!�

Okay, maybe I’m just a nerd. But bear with me.

Recently, I’ve discovered a few historical sites of interest on the outskirts of South Dublin, all within a 10 minute drive from our estate. The gorgeous weather over Easter weekend afforded my wife and I the opportunity to explore them.

First, there’s Kilgobbin Castle, located on what looks to be private property on Kilgobbin Road. However, the large gates are always open and the castle is far removed from the residence. The castle (or what’s left of it) is only a few walls overgrown with wild shrubbery and locals just think of it as a pile of rubble. However, given the height of the walls, there’s still enough there to imagine what it may have looked like when it was in use, circa 17th century.

Just up the road further into Stepaside are the ruins of Kilgobbin Church and cemetery. Also at the site is a granite high cross from the 12th century which was uncovered in the early 1800’s.

Moving on past Stepaside, through Kiltiernan and down to Rathmichael is another castle known as Puck’s Castle (pictured below). Situated in a farmer’s field, it has a great view of Dublin and the bay. King James II is known to have visited the castle in 1690 after he was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne.

Down a little further and up a gravel road is what remains of Rathmichael Church. According to Megalithomania.com, some of the stones hanging on the walls of the church show traces of pre-Celtic Neolithic art forms. (This of course isn’t to suggest that the actual church has been around since then, given the fact that neither Christianity nor “churches” existed.) While we were there, we noticed that the wall surrounding the church yard was very much intact, though overgrown in places. The place feels very secluded, until you stop long enough to realize you can hear traffic on the M50 in the distance.

Tom over at Megalithomania.com documents loads of these kinds of things around Ireland and even provides GPS coordinates for the ultra-nerdy. (Personally, I haven’t gone that far . . . yet.) He also provides decent directions to the sites that we visited in particular.

One of the results of economic progress in Ireland is the relentless construction that surrounds. Here in Dublin’s suburbs, we see it on the motorway. We see it near the supermarkets. We drive through it to get to the train or LUAS station. Often, it even seems to be in our back garden.

Since my wife and I moved in to our house 7 or 8 months ago, there’s been an apartment building project just over the wall from our back garden. Recently, we noticed a large shadow moving across our estate, like a massive bird flying overhead. When we looked up, we saw that it was a crane. No, not the feathered, egg-laying type, but rather the steel kind that you might remember seeing the new 007 jump around on in pursuit of a bad guy. Fortunately, I’m quite certain that this crane won’t cause the noise and earth quakes that the large, machine operated jack hammers have done over the last 2 months. I’m also quite certain we’ve even had a stray rock, a little larger than the size of a golf ball, fly over and chip the windscreen of our car.

Just last week, we noticed construction crews beginning to clear a path to extend the LUAS line from Sandyford, across the M50 and down through Carickmines where (rumour has it) a Sainsbury’s supermarket is scheduled to go in, across the car park from PC World and Woodie’s.

Most suburbanite Dubliners find the constant construction a little unnerving at times, but seem very aware that it’s a necessary result of the “Celtic Tiger� economy. While local government and construction crews can always do more to make it less invasive, people seem to recognize that every individual project has an end. Which can never seem to come quite soon enough.

Daragh here posting this on behalf of RedMum….

I went looking on YouTube for the video of a happy slapping incident which has been reported in a lot of newspapers in Ballymun where a young girl’s alleged assault was captured on video and posted to the popular site. I found this clip instead and think it is probably better that I didn’t find it, hopefully that clip has been removed. This one show a time lapse demolition of one of the towers in Ballymun and is cool. There’s more from the author here.

There has been some discussion recently regarding the plans by the owner of Dartmouth Square in Ranelagh to open it as a commercial car park (charging €10 per car per day) and to build a crèche and gym.

Some background. The owner, Mr. Noel O’Gara, purchased the freehold of the 2 acre park sometime last year for a nominal price (believed to be in the region of €10k) from the Darley Estate, the family that originally developed the square. According to the Dublin City Council (formally Dublin Corporation) website: “This 0.8 hectare park in Ranelagh was in private ownership up until 1987 when it was acquired and developed as a public park by the Corporation�. It seems that Dublin City Council never renewed the lease when it was up and Mr. O’Gara snapped it up.

An injunction preventing the park from being used as a car park was lifted by the High Court last week after Mr. O’Gara gave an undertaking that he would not use it for that purpose. The case is back in the High Court on Oct 9th. I hope Mr O’Gara and Dublin City Council can come to some agreement that doesn’t involve the taxpayer forking out millions or involve the park being turned into a concrete jungle.

I’m all for people protecting their investment and trying to make a profit, but I think wanting to make a quick buck by turning a lovely, well maintained, park into a car park is just wrong. I sincerely hope that all Councils are going through their records and ensuring public parks remain public. It’s easy to feel smothered by concrete in cities and green areas are a welcome respite.

Some photos of the park can be found on this Archiseek thread.

UPDATE 25/09/06

An Bord Pleanála have this morning ruled that Dublin City Council can compulsorily purchase Dartmouth Square. Further details here.