Chocolate (Temple) Bar & Urban Kings

Today, I took the fam into Dublin city centre, primarily to sit back and watch my wife soak up Dublin's first Temple Bar Chocolate Festival. I'm not sure what we were expecting (life-size chocolate Molly Malone statues and chocolate fountains on every corner maybe?), but we were a bit disappointed by the lack of chocolateness around us as we wandered through Temple Bar. Turns out, the big chocolate "exhibition" isn't on until tomorrow in Meeting House Square. However, Kristy did manage to get into a lecture in the Film Base on the health benefits of chocolate. Did you know that raw cacoa beans are chalk full of anti-oxidants, neurotransmitters (sounds like Star Trek) and other things that are healthy for the brain? Unfortunately, with all of the processing and other ingredients that get thrown in to make chocolate, the health benefits are largely lost.

So while Kristy was in the seminar, Caitlyn and I headed over to an urban festival that Dublin City Council were putting on called Kings of Concrete. It was an interesting convergence of "establishment" (i.e., city government) and "anti-establishment" (urban youth culture). Lots of cool stuff going on: graffiti art, skateboard ramps, breakdance, parkour, hip-hop music, etc. One wonders: Are city officials giving urban youth an outlet to express themselves in a controlled environment? You know, let 'em get it out of their system a bit? Or are they trying to communicate that, despite the "no skateboarding" signs around the city and the relative lack of public space and tolerance for urban youth culture, the city really don't think there's anything inherently wrong with urban youth culture?

Whatever the case, the event seemed to be a big success and it continues tomorrow. I'm hoping to get to the parkour demo, but it's later in the day, at which point it's really up to how Caitlyn is doing. Here's a little video of what we saw today . . .



Dublin's "Kings of Concrete" Festival from Brandon Wellcome on Vimeo.

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

Here in Dublin, we're counting down the days to the big St. Patrick's Day Festival, when all the world celebrates Ireland. The festival runs for five days here in Ireland and you can see a partial schedule of the festivities at StPatricksDay.ie. I say "partial" because it is the "official" festival of the tourism industry here in Ireland, but there will be plenty more happening with various art galleries, charities, pubs, restaurants, etc.

Our family just obtained tickets to go see Pearl at Docklands on Saturday evening. We're also discussing taking our 5-month-old to the Baby Rave (where "the only drug is calpol") on Saturday and the Big Day Out in Merrion Square on Sunday. That is, IF the weather cooperates more than it has over the last few days.

Along with the festival website, be sure to check in with DublinBlog.ie for more. Also have a look at our pictures from last years St. Paddy's Day parade here in Dublin, as well as the Dublin Blog Flickr group's pics.

Here's a little preview of what will be happening in the Docklands.

Fun with Population Statistics

Came across some figures from the Central Statistics Office today. In the 2006 census, there were 12,475 American expatriates living in Ireland. Seems like a lotta Yankees, until you consider that it's only about .3% of the entire Irish population. Given that just under 10% of the population are non-Irish, that means that Americans make up about 3% of all non-Irish people.

UK citizens (of which there are 112,548) make up about 2.7% of the population in Ireland and 26.8% of the non-Irish population. The CSO website doesn't seem to indicate how many of those UK citizens are from Northern Ireland versus Great Britain, but it would be interesting to find that out. Personally, I think I've met about 3 or 4 Northern Irish folks and about the same number from other parts of Britain living here in Dublin (2 English, 1 Welshman, and a Scottish girl).

The next largest group of non-Irish are Polish with 63,276 (including fellow Dublin Blogger, Oskar, and a lovely family of 4 living across the street from us), making up about 1.5% of the population in Ireland and 15% of the non-Irish population.

I'd say Ireland is becoming a pretty international place, though probably not as much as England or other parts of Europe just yet. And this international flavour is much more pronounced in Dublin. (On a side note, my wife and I had an interesting conversation with a young man from Iraq serving tables in a classy little restaurant in Cashel last summer.)

Trad in Black & White

Saw this brilliant picture on Flickr the other day. Really captures the atmosphere of an Irish trad session. I'm usually impressed by the group of musicians in a given pub session, but it's when I really focus my attention in on one musician that I'm blown away. (Granted, it's not usually the bodhran person.) Really wish this pic was offered in higher resolution!

Off to hear some traditional story telling in Temple Bar after lunch. Hopefully the Little Miss will allow us to stick around long enough to catch some music as well.

Temple Bar Irish Trad Festival

One of my favourite bits of Irish culture is the Irish traditional music session where typically you'll have up to 10 extremely talented musicians sitting in the pub with their drink of choice, jamming together to a host of traditional Irish music. Instruments range from the bodhran, fiddle, banjo, guitar, and a small accordian-like instrument called a concertina, among others. My favourite spots in South Dublin for such craic are Johnnie Foxes pub (a well-known tourist stop), which features a whole range of Irish trad, including the folk singing and Irish dancing, and The Wishing Well in Blackrock (Monday nights).

This evening, the Temple Bar Irish Trad Festival kicks off with a host of concerts, workshops, children’s activities, and other events. For some of the shows, you must book tickets, but a good number of the pubs in Temple Bar (more than usual, anyway) will be hosting trad sessions at no charge. Festival goers will also have opportunity to meet the various musicians and performers each night at 11pm in the Project Arts Centre for conversation and craic.

My family and I are also looking forward to the action out on the street where there’ll be bagpipes and traditional storytelling. Hopefully the Dublin weather forecast will stay favourable!

Here's some rough footage of a trad session at a pub called The Celt here in Dublin:

A Walk Thru Dublin Culture Night

Kristy and I were out for Dublin Culture Night on Friday. First, we met up with a friend for a quick bite to eat at Zaytoon – THE BEST kebab place that I’ve found in Dublin. From Camden, it was over to play tourist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral where they were offering free entrance and guided tours. (Yes, I know they need to revamp their website!) The choir rehearsal that was happening during the tour was a nice touch. It’s a beautiful cathedral, but I’m glad we were able to bypass the €5 entrance fee that’s usually required.

From there, it was over to a brilliant new art gallery called Gallery Number One on Castle Street, directly across from Leo Burdock’s chippy. The folks at Gallery Number One have given the place a very cool vibe conducive to just chilling out in one of the sofas, surfing the internet or reading one of a handful of art books laying around. There’s a collection of live concert photography, as well as a few paintings hanging on the walls. Next door is a design agency called Ebow which seems to be run by the same artist(s).

Next, we strolled down Lord Edward Street to Parliament Street where we popped our heads in to the Oxfam bookshop. They had some live music going but it was bit crowded so we took off for Meeting House Square where they were supposed to be showing a film in the open air called “About Adam.” We're pretty sure it was some other slower-moving film that was actually showing.

After that, it was beginning to get difficult for my wife, who’s now 37 weeks pregnant, so we headed over to O’Neill’s for a seat and a few drinks. So, in the end, we only made 4 out of the 100 events, which we were okay with. I wouldn't think that the organizers would expect people to do much more than that. Everywhere we went in the city centre, we saw people pulling out their Dublin Culture Night brochures and maps, so it was obviously a big success. Looking forward to it again next year!

Dublin Culture Night

The second annual Dublin Culture Night is happening next Friday (14th September) involving 82 venues (museums, galleries, theatres, libraries, etc.) and 100 free events. Events will include such highlights as free tours of Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Croke Park, lectures on Dublin literary figures, art exhibitions, a film making workshop for kids, and loads more. Whether or not you decide to attend any of the free events, Dublin Culture Night will be difficult to avoid with guides and street entertainers spreading out across the city to answer questions and point people in the right direction.

As a preview to Culture Night, The Dubliner Magazine are holding a debate this Friday night exploring the notion that Ireland has lost its cultural identity. The lively banter will involve writers and musicians such as Mik Pyro from Republic of Loose and Sunday Independent journalist Victoria Mary Clarke.

Strange Day in the News & A Riverdance Experience

Thursday was a very busy day in the news here in Dublin. During a regatta event for teens in Dun Laoghaire harbour, the weather went bad rather suddenly and capsized more than a dozen boats. (CLICK HERE for video coverage from RTE.) Earlier in the day, at the "Dead Zoo," a stone staircase collapsed on a group of school teachers involved in a training programme. If you've ever walked through the Natural History Museum, you won't be surprised at this. It's a fascinating place, but it's obviously been around for a while and probably due for some structural upgrades.

News stories aside, the wife and I had a brilliant time at Riverdance later that night at the Gaiety Theatre. You don't have to be a big fan of dance to be truly awed by this classy performance. The live musicianship, the theatrics, the lighting and effects, and of course the phenomenal dance routines combined to create an absolutely stunning theatre experience. Starting out with a Celtic flavour, the show did an amazing job of capturing the earthy, mythological feel of ancient Ireland. Late in the first act, a Spanish/Flamenco-flavoured theme was introduced, followed by a Russian dance routine - both of which were visually pulsating and brimming with aesthetic brilliance. The second act took on more of an 18th/19th century theme and collided with a more modern jazz tap routine that was very entertaining.

The show will move on from Dublin at the end of August and will tour through Europe and North America. We considered it a little extra special to be able to catch the show here in Ireland.

American Independence Day in Ireland

For our first Independence Day in Ireland, the wife and I went up to Swords (just north of Dublin) to hang out with some American colleagues and grill up some burgers. After I stood with an umbrella over our friend as he manned the BBQ, someone else mentioned that it's been one of the wettest, coolest summers he can remember here in Ireland since the 80's. Fortunately, we got our holiday tour in around the Ring of Kerry in early June before all the wet nastiness set in.

After our little "4th of July" get together, I began to wonder when Ireland celebrate their independence from the Brits. Funny enough, the only thing I came across was that St. Patrick's Day is supposed to be the day when the Irish memorialize their independence. I'm going to try and remember to test that out with my Irish friends because my hunch is that not a lot of Irish folk realize that St. Patrick's Day is also Irish Independence Day.

I'm guessing Michael Collins would not be happy about that! But maybe that's just because I'm a Yankee and we get kinda weird about patriotism. =) Having said that, I did NOT wear any "red, white & blue," but rather a grey t-shirt that says "Mad for Trad" that I got from Hairy Baby. How's that for patriotism . . .

Old City, New Dreams Review

Just submitted the following post on DublinBlog.ie.

The Old City, New Dreams event last night at the Mill Theatre in Dundrum was very characteristic of its host publication, The Dubliner magazine: a little satire and humour, a little serious intensity (actually quite unusual for The Dubliner), and a little controversy – though decidedly far less controversy than the debacle with Tiger Woods’ wife last autumn. The general idea of the week’s Main Event was a) to hear from a variety of public figures in Dublin about how to make the city a better place to live and b) to elicit participation from the audience. In fact, The Dubliner’s editor, Trevor White, actually invited the audience to interrupt and throw things such as “popcorn or old socks” at the presenters if there was any disagreement. Unfortunately, to this blogger’s great disappointment, no such drama ensued. Had there been a contingent of England Premiership fans, I’m sure it would’ve been a different story.

DJ and concert promoter, Gerry Godley, started out with a rather vague answer to all of Dublin’s problems by quoting The Beatles – “all you need is love.” Though it later became clearer that he was suggesting a public agency to promote culture in the city centre (I think), Trevor summarized his answer numerous times throughout the evening by saying “Gerry Godley wants to promote more free sex – is that what you were getting at Gerry?”

Next up was comedian Arhondia and, as you might expect, she rose from the table to present her solution with a mini stand up comedy act. It didn’t go ever very well, though I’d be willing to giver her a second chance at Battle of the Axe on a Tuesday night. Her solution was free elocution lessons to give all Dubliners North Dublin accents.

Human rights expert and politician Valerie Bresnihan gave an emotionally intense plea to reduce crime and poverty by sending mental health workers from the state into the homes of patients. Though her tone didn’t exactly match the winsome atmosphere that Trevor tried to establish at the beginning, in the end her argument won the audience over.

Feargal Quinn submitted his recommendation to put a roof over the Grafton Street and Henry Street shopping districts. Irish Daily Mail’s Paul Drury put in his bid to preserve the traditional Irish pub in Dublin with a return to traditional Irish music and Guinness served at room temperature. In contrast, cheeky columnist Max McGuinness put forward his recommendation to leave nostalgia behind and ban the Irish language, Bloomsday, and Guinness altogether. Sarah Owens used the occasion to launch her own personal campaign to elect Mr. Tayto as Mayor of Dublin. (She is, afterall, in the advertising business.) And finally, Senate candidate, Stephen Douglas, suggested a plan to “evaporate traffic” in the city centre.

After the night got rolling, there was some response and interaction from various members of the audience. However, it probably could’ve used a handful of football fans or even WTO protesters to spice things up a bit. Overall, it was good craic and a great idea from The Dubliner magazine. The free cocktails at the end were a particularly nice touch. Old City, New Dreams continues for the next two nights at Dundrum’s Mill Theatre.