Come Here To Me!

That’d be The Workman’s Club in Inchicore, not the one on the quays 😉

Spotted up by The Bernard Shaw drinking establishment, this will go down well with the Garda Street Art Division.

You know that old turn of phrase “You should never judge a book by it’s cover?” I really hope it doesn’t apply to Brian Kennedy’s book “Just Follow the Floodlights,”  being launched in Dalymount Park’s Phoenix Bar after the Bohs vs UCD game on Saturday October 8th. Why? Quite simply because the front cover of the book is stunning.

The picture, taken by Peter O’Doherty sums up Bohs, and the league for me. A far cry from super stadiums in the wilderness of suburbia,  the picture depicts Connaught Street and the Dalymount Park floodlights. Its always something I love on the trip up to Dalyer when the evenings start getting darker toward season’s close; walking up the NCR, Peters Church in front of you and the floodlights blazing to your right; I don’t know how to explain it- theres a sense of personal smugness to be honest, a certain sense of pride. 

Experiences like the above are all too sadly rarely catalogued in this League, as there is an absolute dearth of material published on the League itself. In saying this though, there are some around covering individual teams, a notable nod to “There’s Only One Red Army” by Eamonn Sweeney,  a great read that goes some distance towards summing up the madness (or some might say empirical reasoning) that drives us to follow this League of ours.

It’s been a busy week here at HQ we admit. We’re all off now until Monday with the Dublin St. Pauli Supporters Club to see Hamburg’s best in action. The above pint is as close as you’ll get to any Arthurs Day coverage this year, maybe that’s for the better.

If you are in the capital this week never mind Arthur, make the most of Culture Night.

My tips for the night would be:

1) The brand new Little museum of Dublin
2) The old library of Trinity College Dublin (amazing how few Dubliners visit that one isn’t it?)
3) The Freemason’s Hall on Molesworth Street
and 4) The recently launched museum inside the General Post Office on O’Connell Street.

Spotted this on the Porterhouse Facebook page, can’t fault this:

So we have had many many people asking over the weekend if we are giving out pints of Plain Porter on Arthur’s Day. So ok, here’s the deal, first of all congrats to our good friends down the road at St James’ Gate Brewery for 252 years of brewing. So as a gesture to all good things that are stout, we will be giving away pints of Plain Porter between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. Just ask for Dan in Temple Bar and Robin in Central on Thursday 22nd Sept.

Some Dublin ads here from 1942, taken from the Lord Mayors Guide Book for that year. Notice the wartime ad promoting domestic tourism! From Trinity to the Zoo and more besides, these are just a sample of the great ads contained inside the book. More soon.

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Interesting news today, in that it appears Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, is on his way to Dublin.

The Jewish Chronicle online was among the first news websites to run the story, it’s report noting:

Nick Griffin has been invited to speak at a Trinity College Dublin event.

A university spokeswoman confirmed that the British National Party leader is set to appear at a Philosophical Society meeting on October 20.

According to a post on the personal blog of the party’s media officer Simon Darby, Griffin was invited along with a “BNP delegation” for a debate titled: “This House Believes Immigration Has Gone Too Far”.

The university did not confirm if there would be any other outside guests at the event.

Mr Darby said: “Let’s all hope the students in Dublin hold their nerve against the inevitable, liberal fascist onslaught against free speech.”

Yet, we needn’t be worried by Nick. As far as he’s concerned, we’re more than welcome to pop over and back to the ‘mainland’ when we feel like it.

‘We are certainly not going to shut the doors to the Irish, because the Irish, as far as we are concerned, are part of Britain and fully entitled to come here.’

This could get interesting.

Update 1: There is a Facebook page in opposition to Griffin’s appearance at Trinity College Dublin over here.

Update 2: This great article on student activism in Dublin in the late 1980s includes information on previous controversial appearances from the far-right at Trinity. It’s well worth a read.

The previous year a provocation by the organized right in TCD also badly backfired when their invitation to David Irving resulted in hundreds of people blockading and then trying to storm the building where the debate was to take place. Again there was co-operation from campus unions, importantly security refused to cover the event leaving it up to a couple of senior academics to try and enforce discipline on the night. At this point in time we had the confidence to simply ignore them.