The Dublin Community Blog

I’m happy to post this guest article written by my friend, Melanie. Melanie has many years of experience in the arts and particularly in acting and she offers unique insight into the Dublin theatre scene.

Tom Creed, originally from Cork, has been living and working as a freelance theatre director in Dublin since 2006. Well known in the theatre community as a young and prodigious talent, his work is at once prolific and varied. Beginning his theatre work in Cork, he then trained with Rough Magic’s SEEDS programme, which seeks to identify and develop young theatrical talent. He got what he calls the ‘golden ticket’; he was made an Associate Director of the company, which allows him to work under their well established banner as well as pursuing some of his own work.

His latest departure is Una Santa Oscura, a theatrical staging of the music of Ian Wilson, inspired by the life of 12th century Christian visionary Hildegard of Bingen. Presented at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin’s Temple Bar, Tom is adamant that there’ll be no nuns on stage! Rather it’s an interpretation of a cloistered day interrupted by ecstatic visions, brought to life in a contemporary apartment setting and performed by a single musician, violinist Ioana Pectu-Colan. Although he wouldn’t call himself religious, Tom is intrigued by the collision of the sacred and profane and found himself fascinated by the life of this extraordinary proto-feminist, fundamentalist Christian nun who was famed in her own lifetime as a composer of hymns, expositor of theology and receiver of visions. Read the rest of this entry »

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!

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.

As a bit of a musical theatre geek and (relatively) recent returnee to Dublin, I’m delighted to see that there are lots of productions being put together around the city. Most are staged by amateur societies but the quality is generally great.

The Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) has a handy guide to productions around the country, with many being staged in Dublin. There are three shows on in the city this month, the first of which – Teachers’ Musical Society’s staging of Little Shop Of Horrors – opens tomorrow night in O’Reilly Hall, Belvedere College. Tickets are €20.30 including booking fee and are available from Ticketoffice.

Following the success of their first event on Grafton Street last month, the folks at Dublin Improv are planning another public “freeze” tomorrow, Saturday March 21st. The venue this time is Dundrum Shopping Centre.

If you’d like to take part, please make your way to the Dundrum or Ballally Luas stops at 2pm sharp tomorrow. A Dublin Improv agent will be on hand to give out further instructions on the freeze, including the exact location (which is being kept under wraps for now to maximise the effect!) The freeze may happen indoors or outdoors so come prepared for either.

And, if you happen to be shopping in Dundrum tomorrow afternoon, keep your eyes peeled for unusual goings on!

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.

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!

This clip has been doing the rounds recently and is proving extremely popular (on YouTube, at least).

If you like what you see, be sure to get down to Grafton Street this coming Saturday afternoon, when the Dublin Improv Movement will be attempting a similar feat on the stretch between Marks & Spencers and Brown Thomas. The fun starts at 4:30pm, and if you’d like to take part yourself, details can be found on this Facebook group. Definitely not one to miss, as a spectator or a participant!

For those of you unfortunate enough to miss the first run, the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly play will have a reprise in April!  ‘The Last days of the Celtic Tiger’ is a play based on the books of Paul Howard about hasbeen Rugby talent/womanizer who still expects a call from Eddie O’Sullivan any day now and is living off his parent’s trustfund untill that happens.

In the meantime he has to balance his time between his illegimate Northdide son, drinking, cheating on his wife with the nanny and visiting his dad in Mountjoy prison.

I saw the play a few months ago and was crying with laughter.

So put on your Leinster jerseys, fake tan and Ugg boots, straighten your hair and head off to the Olympia!

Tickets start at €25 and are on sale through Ticketmaster 

The Chinese New Year festivities are about to begin in Dublin as the city welcomes year 4076 of the traditional Chinese Lunar year. Chinese New Year is considered to be the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays and falls on the first day of the first month of the Chinese Lunar year. This year the New Year day arrives on February 7, 2008. It will be the year of the Rat, which is the first of the 12 year cycle of animals that form the Chinese Zodiac related to the Chinese New Years.

The Dublin Chinese New Year Festival Association (DCNYFA) has organized various events to celebrate the holiday. The first of these begins tomorrow (February 1, 2008) with the launch of a Chinese film ‘Still Life’ by directory Jia Zhangke in the Irish Film Institute, Temple Bar. This film is part of a seven-day Chinese film festival. Other events in various locations around the city include a Chinese arts and crafts show, an event celebrating Chinese literature and music, launch of a 2008 Beijing Olympic pack at UCD Sports Centre, international table tennis and badminton tournaments, dragon boat racing, lion dances, stage plays, and a three day Chinese carnival in Smithfield. The closing ceremonies will take place on Monday February 11, 2008 at 6m in Smithfield Square.

I believe that this is first time that a Chinese New Year festival is being held in Dublin and I have no doubt that it will be successful. We should all welcome the festival and make an attempt to attend at least some of the various events. We wish a very Happy New Year to the Dublin Chinese community!

A complete brochure with more details about the festival is available here.