Wrapped from head to toe against the hostile elements, surrounded by a riot of colour which cuts a sharp contrast with the grey February day, meet the flower ladies of Grafton Street. They say the ladies are “the heart and soul of Grafton Street” and what helps save the road from becoming just another English high street. You’ll find the ladies bringing both wit and colour to the corners of Chatham, Harry and Duke Streets. Tina Kelly tells us she’s been selling flowers all her life, starting off aged 12 helping her mother when Grafton St still had two-way traffic. She has seen a lot come and go from her perch on Duke Street. Tina tells Dublin.ie that one time she even met The Duke himself. “Yeah I met John Wayne.” “Sure I met them all,” she adds. “Sean Connery… I was talking away to him, Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan, Lisa Stanfield. I met an awful lot of them. And sure Eric Clapton, well I was talking to him on the street for nearly two hours and I hadn’t a clue who he was.” A natural born story teller, you can tell Tina enjoys the banter that comes with the trade. Many of the customers are obviously regulars as there’s lots of first name usage. Sister-in-law Susanne, who mans the Harry Street corner, says “you have to enjoy talking to people.” And in case we hadn’t noticed, she adds: “Now I would be a talker!” The Kelly name is synonymous with flowers on Grafton Street going way back, Susanne says. “Now I married into the Kelly family,” she says adding that she comes from a family of boxers. My grandfather was Spike McCormick.”

As the city grows larger, the diversity of Dublin is growing too. As it stands, around a fifth of the city’s population hails from abroad. Large numbers of people from Poland, Romania, the UK, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France and Lithuania call the city home. Increasingly, migrants from across North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East are settling in the city too. A new initiative for a changing city To reflect the city’s increasing diversity, in 2021, Creative Ireland and Dublin City Council – supported by the Gallery of Photography Ireland and D

A different kind of museum experience No street in Dublin illuminates the history of the city quite like Henrietta Street. The vast houses on this cobblestone street have run the gamut from Georgian grandeur to tenement squalor within the 300 years of their existence. Now, Number 14 Henrietta Street has been restored as a museum. It tells the story of the house’s journey from being the grand residence of a family of four in the 1720s to becoming home to over 100 people by 1911. The research history and personal stories are also a huge part of the experience. All the big events of Irish history buffeted the residents here. The Ac