Ruth Johnson - Dublin City Archaeologist charged with protecting, managing and investigating our oldest heritage.

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Ruth Johnson – Dublin City Archaeologist

Dr. Ruth Johnson is Dublin’s City Archaeologist and she is charged with protecting, managing and investigating the city’s oldest heritage – much of which is underground. As well as conservation projects, Ruth has input into new developments across the city and a role in policy development advocacy. We spoke to her about how she works and what’s going on across the city – under the ground, in our oldest graveyards and in half-hidden houses. In conversation with Dr. Ruth Johnson Ruth began her career working on a community excavation project in Yorkshire, while doing her A-levels. This piqued her interest in archaeology and she went on to do

World class teachers: Professor Aoife McLysaght, geneticist - Principal Investigator in the Molecular Evolutionary Laboratory and Lecturer in Genetics, TCD.

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World class teacher: Aoife McLysaght, geneticist

Professor Aoife McLysaght is one of the world’s leading genetics researchers. She is also a Lecturer in Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, as well as a past student. She speaks to Karl Whitney at Dublin.ie about her experiences of studying and working at the prestigious university. Trinity life, according to Aoife McLysaght The thing that I find interesting and exciting: new ideas and trying to figure them out. And that works better when you’ve got somebody to talk about it with. You learn from the experience of working with people who are

ed giansante and his team at an event promoting ireland

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Ed Giansante & eDublin: A local guide for Brazilians

A pathfinder for Brazilians coming to Dublin Ed Giansante – aka Edu or Eduardo Giansante – left Sao Paulo for Dublin in 2008 with the hope of learning English and making a new start in Ireland. Initially, he lived with a host family in a Dublin suburb and went to an English language school near Mountjoy Square. Since then, his English, his career and his following have all come a long way. From boom, to bust, to blogging Ed’s timing was both good and bad. Upon his arrival in 2008, Ireland’s economy had hit a massive recession and the country was facing into a period of austerity. It would be hard for a native to survive in

Experimental Archaeology - At UCD archaeologists are building houses using thousand-year-old methods and casting bronze tools in fire pits using moulds.

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Experimental Archaeology

In a corner of University College Dublin’s suburban campus, archaeologists are building houses using thousand-year-old methods and casting bronze tools in fire pits using moulds they’ve made themselves. Brendan O’Neill, a PhD student in UCD’s School of Archaeology, has built a wooden roundhouse as part of his research. It took him about thirty days’ work over the course of ten months to complete. He wove hazel rods from a managed forest in the Irish midlands to create walls and a roof, which is topped with heather to help waterproof the structure. Inside the house, there’s a surprising amount of space. A central fireplace surrounded by s

students gather under a fresher's week sign

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Dublin’s quirkiest student clubs and socs

Anyone for capoeira? Fancy an evening of food and drink? Or how about spending time with some serious Harry Potter fans? Universities and colleges in Dublin have a strange and eclectic mix of student clubs and societies. Yes, there’s soccer and Gaelic games, but what about caving and potholing or sepak takraw – a type of kick volleyball? Yes, drama and debating are to be expected, but

Building the Dublin Dashboard - Professor Rob Kitchin & his team at Maynooth University created an instrument panel that reveals the current state of the city.

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Building the Dublin Dashboard

Imagine if Dublin had an instrument panel: a set of gauges and graphs that revealed to its residents the precise current state of their home town. Professor Rob Kitchin and his team at Maynooth did exactly that. And they built it, online. It’s called Dublin Dashboard. Dublin.ie: What’s on Dashboard right now that the ordinary person might be interested in? Robin Kitchen (RK): Probably the real time page where you can see how many spaces there are in the car parks or what the sound levels are or what the pollution levels are or how many bikes are in the bike stand, that kind of thing. The city is increas

Language Dublin: Goethe-Institut - the institute has broadened the professional and personal horizons of 50,000 people who have attended its German courses.

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Language Dublin: Goethe-Institut

‘Since it opened in 1961’, says the brochure, ‘the Goethe-Institut has broadened the professional and personal horizons of 50,000 people who have attended its German courses’. Currently housed in Fitzwilliam Square while it awaits the refurbishment and extension of its Merrion Square HQ round the corner, its director is Dr Thomas Lier. Thomas is from Bavaria. Don’t call him ‘Bavarian’, though. That, Dublin.ie learns, would be like calling a Cornishman ‘English’. Because Thomas is really a Franconian, from Wurzburg, and Franconia was an autonomous region until Napoleon kicked it into Bavaria. ‘Wurzburg has a

Dublin's Masters in Creative Writing - Ana Arellano.

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Dublin’s Masters in Creative Writing

Creative Writing postgraduate programmes have long been a staple of the academic world in the US. Prominent writers like Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace and Joyce Carol Oates have all worked as creative writing professors since as far back as the seventies. Yet, despite Dublin’s literary heritage and wealth of authors, it has only recently come to be recognised as a centre of excellence for such courses. Now, it attracts scores of hopeful young writers from around the world every year. UCD’s Masters in Creative Writing “You can’t teach people to be creative. You can only accelerate the pace at which people are developing creatively.̶

an old black and white photo of an irish family at christmas with a parish priest

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UCD’s Irish Folklore Centre

Irish folklore is all just leprechauns, legends and fireside stories, right? Well, not quite. If you go down to UCD today, you’ll actually find a very different story. The National Folklore Collection Back in the 1920s, Irish folklore collectors began to scramble around the country on a mission to record Ireland’s dying heritage and traditions. And that’s how the National Folklore Collection at UCD originated. Since then, it has grown into one of the biggest and most impressive collections of folklore and oral traditions anywhere in the world. It is the history that we don’t learn in school. The collection itsel

professor fiona regan wears a name tag and chats with audience member

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DCU’s Water Institute: Solving global problems

What’s going on at Dublin’s water research centre At Dublin City University, researchers are stepping up. Professor of chemistry, Fiona Regan, is the founder and director of the Water Institute which, in 2015, brought together researchers from across a range of disciplines to carry out research into national and global water problems. Why the world needs DCU’s Water Institute The devastating conflict in Syria was sparked by a water scarcity that pushed people into the cities and provoked unrest. The unrest in Yemen is rooted in a water crisis. Large parts of America and

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What’s different about Dublin?

Every year, tens of thousands of people from over 130 countries come to study in Ireland’s universities, institutes of technology and colleges. What’s bringing them here and why are they choosing Ireland? Sheila Power is director of the Irish Council for International Students. She points out that overall statistics for the number of international students are hard to pin down, but says that we need to broaden the conversation out. Ireland is an attractive destination for international students because it is perceived as friendly and safe “Ireland is an attractive des

Dublin architects on the world stage - Hugh Campbell, Professor of Architecture at UCD, talks about the impression Ireland is making internationally.

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Dublin architects on the world stage

Ireland is making a big impression on the international stage in terms of architecture; from the Grand Egyptian Museum to the University of Milan, we’ve left our mark on some of the world’s most renowned structures. Dublin.ie caught up with Hugh Campbell, Professor of Architecture at UCD, to find out how this small island is making such a big impression around the world. “It was an overnight success that took 30 years, in a way,” Campbell says. “We have a lot of great architecture practices here, and a very strong reputation internationally.” Architecture aside, the Irish are well connected globally. There’s more of us off the island than on, with huge cities like Sydney, London, New York and Boston all filled with first, second and third generation Irish.