The Dublin Community Blog

The good people of Dublin hit the streets of Dublin in their thousands over the weekend to check out the Street Performance World Championships. We made it along but not quite in time to participate in the world record attempt. From what I read on Twitter it seems like too many people hopped along! Congratulations to all who particpated in this wonky bit of history!

Congratulations too to the staff and volunteers at SPWC for organising another great free festival. We managed to catch JP Koala, Dr. Kaboom and Thom Sellectomy. We couldn’t get next or near last year’s winners, USA Breakdancers, but had we managed to catch them we would have missed our favourite this year, Dr. Kaboom so all’s well. Like last year the Festijeux were a big hit with three generations of our family and I eventually had to drag my father away!

This Friday (i.e. the day after tomorrow!) the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef, which has been on display in the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin since March, will be packed away to continue its world tour elsewhere. I have yet to see this exhibition myself – the timing was a bit off for me with all that has been going on but I am heading to the gallery on Friday to catch a tour of the reef. I’m sorry to be leaving my trip to see this fascinating marriage of science and craft so late, being a bit of a hooker myself. I even rustled up a few pieces of coral myself which are still languishing at the bottom of my crochet box: as I said there’s been a lot of changes recently!

Photo owned by superfem (cc)

What in the heck is hyperbolic crochet I hear you ask? Well you can read Karlin Lillington’s excellent column from last week’s Irish Times to get an idea of this amazing process of modelling 3 dimensional geometry which was first developed by Latvian Dr Daina Taimina. Taimina was in the Science Gallery during the week to talk about her work. This was one of many events organised by the Gallery throughout the coral’s visit to Dublin.

You can also watch this brilliant TED talk given by Margaret Wertheim who, with her sister Christine, has used this modelling method to raise awareness of the dangers to the world’s coral reefs.

Some of my co-bloggers here on Dublinblog.ie have written a post or two about the Science Gallery and really it’s a gem. If you are visiting Dublin, planning a trip to the Gallery via the grounds of Trinity is well worth it. It’s easily accessed from a number of bus routes or you can alight at Pearse Dart Station and the Science Gallery is just around the corner. There’s a full calendar of events with something to suit all types, from ubernerds to schoolkids.

While I don’t think my children’s patience will stretch to it on Friday, I’m delighted to see that the Science Gallery’s Friday Tapas are back as I heard a number of favourable comments. Some day I’ll make it

I took myself and my three children along to the RHA Gallagher Gallery on Ely Place (map) to check out their annual exhibition. It runs until 31st July and I would recommend that you get yourself along to it. It’s a hop, skip and a jump from Stephen’s Green so we combined our visit with a picnic in the park. (This was originally supposed to be a playground post but the playground in Stephen’s Green is closed for refurbishment but looks like it will be ace!)

To be honest my visit to the exhibition was kind of a duty: my brother, Blaise Smith, and brother-in-law, John O’Reilly, both have paintings on display. The painting right is by  the brother in law.

That’s the thing about the RHA Annnual exhibition: if you know any Irish artists chances are you will see some of their work exhibited here. It’s a great opportunity to see the work of up-and-coming or established artists. I am the farthest thing from an art critic. I look at the paintings and think about what they make me think about. I like this or that because the colours appeal to me or it evokes memories or reminds me of a person, place or thing. Some paintings I enjoy because they make me smile or conjure up other emotions. I have a very rudimentary art history education so I won’t even attempt to review the exhibition in those terms but as a way to spend an afternoon in Dublin you could do a lot worse. You are bound to see something that will make you melt inside, raise your hackles or that will feature in your dreams or nightmares. All types of materials are used and while painting features heavily there are also prints, photography, sculpture, architecture and even one brooch featured! The refurbished gallery is a beautiful exhibition space (it’s probably been refurbished for ages but y’know I don’t get out much!) It was a fine way to spend the afternoon with two lively under 7s and there was no difficulty getting the buggy around and up and down.

My husband was very glad when I told him I didn’t get a catalogue and buy any paintings but if you are looking to invest in some work this is a great place to pick up some iconic Irish art as many of the items are for sale. I hadn’t planned to write a blog post about the exhibition so while I know which items would be my top five I can’t remember all the details. I do plan to go back so I might take notes next time!

180th Annual Exhibition, Opening hours:
The RHA Gallery will revert to opening ALL Exhibition AREAS, 7 days a week, for the 180th Annual Exhibition, from 24 May – 30 July.
Monday & Tuesday 11 – 5pm
Wednesday – Saturday 11 – 7pm
Sunday 2 – 5pm

As a mammy-ish aside I also note that the RHA run children’s workshops throughout the year. My older son was very interested in the exhibition so I’m off to book him into the workshop that focuses on the exhibtion.

Our friends at The Dubliner magazine are at it again (you know, that sassy, satirical, ‘progressive’ publication that occasionally gets into some controversy with golfers’ wives) with Old City, New Dreams. This year finds an expanded list of events and venues to play host to the lively debates involving various Dublin luminaries.

Only problem is, if you haven’t ordered your free tickets by now, you’ve only got a few choices left. Most of the events next week are all booked, leaving only two left, as of this afternoon. I’m hoping to get to the ‘Fluffy Capitalism’ event myself. But only after I convince a friend who works in finance to come with me so he can feed me questions to throw out that make me sound like I know what I’m talking about.

And while you’re looking through The Dubliner blog, be sure to check out the ‘Dublin’s 10 New Commandments’ posts. After walking through the city centre in the rain today, I can really appreciate this one: Thou shalt not carry a golf umbrella through the city.

The annual Open House Dublin is on again this year, in fact it’s on next weekend October 8th to 11th. It’s a wonderful opportunity to visit some of the iconic buildings in Dublin. For photographers there is the opportunity to go up onto the viewing deck of Liberty Hall to take photos of the city skyline. For political fans there is the chance to visit Leinster House and Government Buildings. It’s well worth having a look at the schedule, some buildings require an advance booking others are on a first come first served basis.

The free Mind the Gap Operetta will be running again next Friday night, as will a few other public art exhibitions in conjunction with Fringe Fest. And yes, there will also be plenty of buskers and stag do/hen party folks around next weekend. Can’t guarantee that we’ll see another group of Austin Powers look-a-likes running around (anybody else see Elvis suddenly appear in that video?), but in Temple Bar, you just never know.

For the 4th time, the “Let’s French”-festival will be happening in selected venues all over Dublin next week. To give Dubliners an overview of French music (and culture) and to celebrate this year’s Fete de la Musique,  the Alliance Francaise of Dublin has invited some interesting contemporary French artists, and there are also screenings of French music movies at the Denzille Cinema and an open mic day.

Kick-off will be a show of Parisian HipHop-three piece DSL at the Andrews Lane theatre on Thursday, 18.06., and my personal highlight of the festival, a show of Housse de Racket at the Twisted Pepper on Abbey Street follows up on Saturday 20th. Concluding all the events will be a free (! – its the Fete de la Musique) show of Singer/Songwriter Marie Cherrier at the Village on Wexford Street Sunday evening. Alors, on y va, dear Frankophiles. And watch out for reviews here on the Dublinblog.

SYNTHE TEASER Р(( Housse de Racket РSynth̩tiseur )) from Housse De Racket on Vimeo.

And did I mention that there’s a free Henessy-cocktail included when you purchase a ticket for one of the shows?

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!

As you may know, there will be loads of women in trainers running around in the city tomorrow afternoon.  And all will be running for a good cause – or good causes:

The Flora Women’s Mini Marathon is the biggest all women’s event of its kind in the world. It has grown steadily in numbers since it began in 1983 with its popularity increasing significantly over the last few years.

Over those years some 600,000 women have entered the event – and the Flora Women’s Mini Marathon had a record field of 40,516 on Bank Holiday Monday, June 2nd, 2008.

Charities are the big winners. In 2008 it is estimated in excess of €10m was raised by the participants bringing the total since the race started in 1983 close to €100m. All charities benefit. The women decide themselves who they will support and many local causes gain vital revenue from the event. It is now the biggest single day charity event in the country.

Supported charities include the Dublin RSPCA, Barnados, Debra Ireland and many more. You will find all necessary information on the official website of the marathon. So if you have nothing planned for tomorrow’s bank holiday (and the perfect weather), please go and cheer for the good cause(s).

Please note that the following roads will be closed due to the marathon between 2.45 and 5.30 PM:

Nutley Lane
Stillorgan Road from Belfield to Donnybrook
Doimybrook Village
Morehampton Road
Leeson Street

From today on you will be able to see a vast selection from the Natural History Museum’s collection in Collins Barracks. As the original Natural History building on Merrion street is closed for renovation, the museum have decided to set up this temporary exhibition for the time being.
A mix of familiar and new animals and geological specimens will be there to greet you!

Opening hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10:00-17:00 and Sunday 14:00-17:00 at Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin 7