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Plenty for us all.

Posted in Uncategorized on September 19, 2010| 2 Comments »

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Nothing to do, plenty of time to do it.

Posted in Uncategorized on September 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In a world full of shame and regret, do something to be proud of.

Parkgate Street, spotted from the top deck of a 26 bus.

From The Workman’s Club. A relic of the past which survived the leap.
My review of the pub is over here.

(more…)

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Float On.

Posted in Uncategorized on September 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

Liffeytown got a smile out of me, and just about everyone else, on the bus home from work today.

What is Liffeytown? Well, between September 12 and 26, the Liffey plays home to little red and green houses, popularly known as Monopoly homes to anyone old enough to stand. Anyone younger than that probably knows them as those things you stick in your mouth. I have an unopened Monopoly set upstairs that I’m now tempted to get out. It’s a nice piece of commentary on an economy that some treated like a game of Monopoly.

Moored between O’Connell Bridge and the Ha’penny Bridge, Liffeytown is a comment on the rise and fall of the property industry, bookmarking the end of an era. Throughout the boom, the city was surrounded by a forest of scaffolding and cranes constructing badly planned, badly designed, disposable architecture. ‘Liffeytown’ presents itself, hopefully, as the last of these ‘ghost estates’ — as a beacon that its time has passed and been replaced by a more sensitively attuned city.

-From Liffeytown.com

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A Random Drop Inn: The Church

Posted in Pubs, Uncategorized on September 8, 2010| 6 Comments »

The Church on Mary Street; a building I’ve walked past twice a day for the last year or so and never managed to set foot in. I’ve always got a feeling that the place would be too hoi- polloi for me, the kind of person who doesn’t mind a shabby interior or lack of dress code once his pint and choice of company are acceptable. While I got the great company and a good pint, I still felt a little out of place, my bad, not the pubs.

The Beautiful interior- from europealacarte.co.uk

Vying with Davy Byrnes for the title of Dublin’s most beautiful interior, the Church, which you’ll be suprised to learn used to be, wait for it… a church, still retains many of it’s old features. While it’s not the kind of place you’d go to to watch a game, or for a casual pint after work- this place is a no runners affair, and with pints at €5.50 (rising to €5.75 after eleven for some reason) you can guess the kind of crowd they’re aiming for. As I said, the place is absolutely stunning both inside and out- even the toilets look fantastic. A large enclosed smoking area with gazebos dotted around for shelter, patio heaters, shrubbery and candles finished off the decor.

I’m trying not to be hard on the place, for while it wasn’t my cup of tea, we had a great night there- two great friends of CHTM were celebrating their wedding vows   (uh oh… does that mean we’re getting older?) and they did so in style. The place is well spread out, and though I’ve heard it gets a little hectic on the ground floor on Friday nights, a mezzanine/ balcony rings the exterior wall of the building, a great place to retreat to if the crowd gets too much below. There’s also a club below, we didn’t venture that far, having found a nice spot outside, we settled ourselves there.

To summarise, it’s a beautiful bar, with a large selection of beers which, while expensive, are thankfully good. It has a great smoking garden, I’d argue and say the best in Dublin for its location. We had a great night in there, (major congrats to J & K) but I’m not sure if I’ll be back. The three trips to the ATM that night put paid to that!

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The Rubberbandits.

Posted in Uncategorized on September 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

God, this looks like the highlight of the Absolut Fringe in the city this year.

“Sat 11th September at 12 midnight. Arrive early to guarantee entry. €5 entry to Festival Club. Tickets available on the door only. Doors at 9.30pm.”

The gig is taking place in The Grand Social. Don’t know where that is? It’s Pravda. Or it was Pravda, apparently it looks a gem now. What can one say about the Bandits? Well, they are without doubt the best novelty act to come out of this country since Ding Dong Denny himself. They wear Tesco bags over their heads, and they’ve got a mate who DJs wearing a Willie O’ Dea mask. Along with Crystal Swing, they rocked the Little Big Tent in a great way last Friday at Electric Picnic.

“Stall the ball, Pope John Paul, Lets all go and egg the Dail….”

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The Voice of Labour

Posted in Uncategorized on September 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I got a strange notion into my head last week, went on a bit of a blitz and picked up as much Christy Moore stuff as I could get my hands on…  Now the following track might not be new to a lot of people on here, but I thought it a powerful rendition so I thought I’d share it with anyone who hasn’t heard it. Anyways; from the evergreen Christy Moore, I give you “James Larkin.”

"A labour man with a union tongue."

Just press play…

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Don’t suppose you’ve been down Bedford Lane lately?

Posted in Uncategorized on September 4, 2010| 1 Comment »

Just behind Temple Bar, I walked into this by surprise. Some excellent work.

‘Lennon’, keep going!

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Fringe

Posted in Events, Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 16 years, you will most definitely have heard about the annual Absolut Fringe Festival. In those 16 years, it has grown from humble begininnings to become Ireland most exciting multidisciplinary festival covering all walks of culture; music, art, literature and performance.

Spanning over two- and- a- bit weeks, and visiting over twenty venues, the festival is ambitious in it’s enormity, but then again, why shouldn’t it be going on the successes of the last couple of years.  While it would be close to impossible to list a full programme here ( you can check that out on the official website @ www.fringefest.com , or alternatively pick up the free guide from cafés and bookshops citywide,) below are some of the events I hope to attend, and suprise suprise, they’re Dublin-centric.

As You Are Now, So Once Were We

As You Are Now So Once Were We, The Company

Blurb from the fringefest site:

“Why haven’t you read Ulysses? Ulysses is Dublin. You live in Dublin. So do we. Four actors in a city we don’t really know pick up the most important and unread book in Irish history and follow James Joyce as he invents a whole city and its people. Returning to this year’s Festival with the Spirit of the Fringe 2009 award for ‘Who is Fergus Kilpatrick?’, The Company are back to delve into Joyce’s seminal work and ask – where are you in this story? Join us as we rediscover what it means to be Irish. By the way, we haven’t read Ulysses either… yet. The Company are part of Project Catalyst, an initiative of Project Arts Centre.”

—-

Having laboured my way through Ulysees in my UCD days, I’m interested to see what the good folks from The Company make of it. The questions of nationhood and identity always stood out in the book, and this show looks set to examine both.

The Project Arts  Centre Space Upstairs, Sat 11th – Wed 15th, 9pm, €14/12

World’s End Lane

World's End Lane, Anu Productions

Blurb from the fringefest site:

“For over 100 years, Monto was the most notorious red light district in Europe. Presided over by infamous Madams and fortune-tellers, lost strangers sought sex, guidance and the divine. You and I will be the strangers. Immerse yourself in a fragile and intimate encounter, exhuming an area of Dublin that no longer exists, as presented by the multi-award winning company that brought you last year’s festival favourite, ‘Basin’. Presented in association with The Lab. Supported by Rough Magic Hub.”

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Monto; An area sung about in a thousand songs and the backdrop for a hundred thousand stories of woe and debauchery, lonliness and violence, intrigue and legend. Some say that a branch of the current Monarchy flourishes in Dublin City due a night on the town by a British prince here in the late 19th Century. It is written into revolutionary lore as it’s many brothels and slums were used as safehouses in the period 1916- 22. In World’s End Lane, we get a unique look at this unique period in Dublin’s past.

The Lab,  Foley Street, Mon 13th- Sat 25th, (times can be found here ,) €15.

The Hidden Garden

The Hidden Garden, Garvan Gallagher Photography

Blurb from the fringefest site:

“‘It’s like going to mass’ is how one local resident describes her time in one of the most charming and unlikely secret retreats in the city. This uplifting film maps the transformation of an urban dumping ground in the North Inner City into a vibrant community growing space. Winter surrenders to spring as the characters and the space come to life while the goodwill and honest nature of the local residents spill out like the cups of tea poured in their hundreds. As informative as it is inspirational, don’t miss the chance to see this heart-warming film screened in The Hidden Garden. Arrive early if you’d like to potter around the garden!”

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Whilst over the last couple of years, developers have tried to rid us of any green spaces we have in the inner city, there has been a struggle within some local communities to take back some peace and tranquility. With inner- city community spirit diminishing as office and retail developments push people into the suburbs, projects like the Summer Row Community Garden are to be applauded.

Summer Row Community Garden, Summer St. North. Thurs 23rd – Sat 25th, 8.30pm, €8.

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All details, blurbs and pictures (apart from my own interjections of course) are taken from the excellently informative www.fringefest.com . For up to date information, tickets and more details, check it out.

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Derek Doyle Byrne (whoever that is) would love a satay.

Posted in Uncategorized on August 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Ah lads.

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A Random Drop Inn: Mulligan’s of Stoneybatter.

Posted in Pubs, Reviews, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 19, 2010| 5 Comments »

Not the best of evenings to go for a pint to be honest, with the future of the team I’m about to go shout for hanging severely in the balance. But still, pre- match pints are part of the ritual of going to games, and where better for five supporters to mourn and lament about Bohemian FC than in the heartland of Stoneybatter, half way between the clubs birthplace in the Phoenix Park and its current residence in Phibsboro.

Mulligan's of Stoneybatter, from The Tale of Ale Blog.

Mulligan’s of Stoneybatter is certainly not to be confused with Mulligan’s of Poolbeg Street fame.  Whereas the latter has been discussed about in length around these parts, having one of the best pints in Dublin, you can’t get a pint of Guinness in the former. A pub in Dublin without Guinness? Yes, even though this place is a stone’s throw away from the Guinness brewery, it’s a “brewery pub” in the line of the Porterhouse. And yet what did I stump up for? A pint of… Becks.  All the fancy lagers and stout on show and I went for the drink only there to service the plebians…

Apparently one time the haunt of those who couldn’t get served anywhere else in the locality, the proprietors did well to clean the place up and present drinkers with a nicely laid out bar area, stretching way back with nooks and crannies in which a solitary drinker can hide. The bar staff, well presented in pinstripe aprons and with a colossal knowledge of the wares they ply from behind a bar that harks back to the establishments past as a green grocers store. While the pint of Becks was, admittedly great (icy cold, with a head that kept to the bottom of the glass- something you don’t get much in Dublin pubs…) there was not much the staff could tell me about it. But when one of our Bohs comrades bought a fancy bottle of 7% stout, served to him in what looked like a trifle dish, the barman was able to tell him what temperature it should be stored at and what angle it should be poured at… Mad stuff.

And with that, we were off to witness arguably the worst Bohs game I’ve been to in my time. A 2-0 loss to a Galway Utd. reduced to nine men. I wish I could say the couple of beers stifled the blow, but, as nice as they were, they didn’t!

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‘Glimpses of Erin’ 1934

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 12, 2010| 2 Comments »

Some beautiful scenes of Dublin in the early 1930s. Skip to 06:51 minutes in. College Green, Trinity College, O’Connell Street, Nelson’s Pillar, the GPO, the Four Courts and the Liffey all make an appearance.

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Sinn Féin Rebellion Handbook (Irish Times, 1917)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on August 9, 2010| 8 Comments »

Sad state of affairs when it takes the Boston Public Library (4,811 km away from the GPO) to digitize such a historically valuable document. Read the 308 page booklet here.

The Rebellion Handbook was published by the Irish Times in 1917, and is based on articles carried in the Irish Times in May 1916. The handbook provides a fascinating insight into the Easter rising. It is one of the key sources and contains a wealth of information, including an official list of casualties, names of prisoners, photographs and a map showing the key locations in Dublin.

The handbook contains 308 pages of information. It includes:

* facsimiles of documents
* articles from the Irish Times
* photographs of principal rebels and government & security personnel
* a detailed account of the events in Dublin and around the country
* detailed list of buildings destroyed
* official and rebel documents
* names and personal details of 1,306 casualties (including 300 deaths) from army, navy, RIC, DMP, civilians and rebels.
* full account of court martial hearings and execution of 15 rebels
* names, addresses and occupations of over 3,000 rebels arrested and interned.
* a detailed Whos Who of the people of the time.
* full court details of the Casement trial.

It remains one of the most detailed accounts of the rising, and is an essential resource for those studying the people and events of this tumultuous event.

Front cover.

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