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Artist residencies run by Dublin City Council Dublin’s art scene is blossoming. A new wing has opened up in the National Gallery, IMMA continues to attract international work, the walls of the city are awash with commissioned street art. However, with an extremely competitive housing market and rising rents, how is the city looking after its artists? Each year, Dublin City Council puts out a call for artists to live in its four subsidised residential spaces. It offers them for periods of three to ten months. They include two cottages in the leafy, tranquil Albert College Park in Glasnevin, a Temple Bar apartment and St. Patrick’s Lodge beside the

I used to live a pretty isolated life. I’m not saying that my past was a straight line to Men’s Shed in Ireland but it definitely played a big part in my empathy for those who needed our services. I was an only child of a farming family and in my mid 20’s I ended up being a farmer too. I never wanted to be a farmer. It was just the obvious choice. The area was nice, really quiet, not much happening at all. So, I partied too much, I got into drink and drugs and it was very bad for my health. Farming was like that for me. I felt unhappy and isolated all the time. I badly needed something to change and I guess when I turned 27, I was in the right place then. I had devel

It’s still early in the morning when I walk up the steps to the National Library. Standing on the porch, through the fence I can see TDs totter up the path next door, folders underarm, heading into the Government buildings. This Kildare Street building has housed Dublin’s main public reference library since 1890. In Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he even describes students gathering here to smoke and chat. The very first time I ever came in here, I got as far as the hall. Inside, it is quieter than even a library should be. Although, there are a few eager types waiting in the lobby. A cleaner polishes around th

Most seasoned Dubliners probably feel like they’ve seen all the city has to offer: all the lush parks and historic Georgian rows, every cobbled street, arching bridge and Victorian pub. The familiar can be taken for granted though. So what if we told you about a new way of seeing the city? We’re not talking about a rickshaw or a longboard. Instead, we’re talking about kayaking – on the Liffey. Getting ready for some Liffey kayaking Dublin’s City Ka

Down by the Secret Garden On the south side, the secret garden was always the Iveagh Gardens. However,  music, comedy and food festivals have taken place there in recent years, meaning that the garden isn’t so secret anymore. These days, to find the city’s true secret garden, you have to head north. Up O’Connell Street, then North Frederick, across Dorset Street and on up Blessington Street until you come to black wrought iron gates. In you go. And you’re there. What to expect at Blessington Street Basin The Blessington Street Basin

Cricket is enjoying a surge in popularity across the county, so Dublin.ie visited a few of the burgeoning clubs to find out more. Kamil Mahajan moved from the Punjab region of India to Dublin in 2001. He had been a keen cricket player in his home country, but for his first few years in Ireland he was busy with work and didn’t have much time to spend on the sport that he loved. Then, in 2009, he moved to Adamstown, near Lucan in the west of the city. Adamstown is “a new development”, Mahajan says. “A lot of Asian people” – from south Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – “had moved there around 2007/2008”. A cricket club would

The popularity of spoken word is on the rise in Dublin and one of the stars of the scene is Elayne Harrington, AKA Temper-Mental MissElayneous. She’s a rapper and slam poet from Finglas and a standout female performer on a male-dominated scene. Dublin.ie first saw Elayne perform at a women’s storytelling night in Temple Bar’s Project Arts Centre. With her trademark hairdo of curlers in her fringe, the bold red lips and her warrior stance, she was defiant and gutsy. She set her words to the beat of h

There’s a bigger picture behind the recently re-opened National Gallery wings so we went along for a visit. In 2008, Ireland was in the grip of a financial crisis like none we had witnessed before. No wonder then that more than a couple of eyebrows were raised at the awarding of a €25m grant to the National Gallery of Ireland for the renovation of its Dargan (1864) and Milltown (1903) wings. But the truth was they were both painfully in need of attention. Apart from a few cursory repairs along the way, the buildings had seen little or nothing in the way of modernisation in their century-an

You stroll in the door and you walk back in time... Back into a world of Victorian exotica. With the polished wood, the old brass fittings and the glass cases, you feel enveloped in the comfort you find in a good old pub. But this isn’t a pub. This is a place of learning. Or to be more precise, this is a place of fun. This is the “Dead Zoo” or as it is more formally called, The Museum of Natural History. Situated between Leinster House and the Attorney General’s Office, this is a real gem of a museum. It’s been going now for some 160 years and not only is it one of the oldest public museums in the country, it’s also one of the most popular. Each year some 320,000 people visit the museum and enjoy all its Victorian charms for free. “Yes it’s free in,” Education Officer of Archaeology and Natural History, Siobhán Pierce exclaims proudly. Siobhán is joined by the Education Assistant, Geraldine Breen.

Most of Dublin’s rivers, streams and watercourses have disappeared over hundreds of years as the city expanded. At one point, there were over 60 of them flowing entirely above ground. The Liffey, the Dodder, the Santry River and the Tolka are among the few to remain uncovered but where are the hidden ones today? Chief among Dublin’s hidden rivers is the Poddle, which runs underground for the majority of its course. For centuries it provided drinking water, powered our mills and even kept Dublin Castle safe from invasion. The Poddle, known as the Tymon over its initial overground stretch, rises in Tallaght and forms a lake in

Standing on O’Connell Street looking north, you have to cock your head a little to spot The Gate Theatre’s modest white-lettered sign, which sits high and unassuming over Dublin’s main thoroughfare. Yet there is something of the Grand Dame about The Gate Theatre. Ascend the theatre’s stairs from a city thick with construction, and you enter a cocoon of chandeliered ceilings, and people ‘dressed for the theatre.’ And it might be that the elegant building itself has directed the theatre’s narrative. There is a rare hush of reverence here and it has long been the place to see the great, often camp, classics: Coward, Albee, Williams and Wilde. Seating 371 audience members, the roof seemed to lower and the room seemed to swelter for the humid hysteria of Streetcar Named Desire. And where else but in that compact room could the audience members themselves feel like tense guests at a bad party for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A 15 minute boat ride from Howth on Dublin’s northside lies Ireland’s Eye – a beautiful and mostly untouched island. The only signs of human activity are two structures: a Martello Tower and the ruins of a church. A sanctuary for wildlife However, the island is a hive of activity otherwise. The wildlife on offer is incredible – notably the many species of nesting birds. The most spectacular natural feature, however, is the huge freestanding rock called “the Stack”. Located at the northeastern corner of the island, it plays host to a large v