The Irish Anthem, Amhran na Bhfiann, or the Soldiers Song is for sale. How, I hear you ask?? Well, the original handwritten version of the song is up for auction with Mealy’s Auctioneers for a price expected to fetch somewhere between EUR 800,000 and EUR 1.2 million. I know one or two people who’d be very interested in buying this, but, I think the government should step in and buy it for a public display!

Yup, the New York Blizzard, also known as the Blizzard 06 is on it’s way to lovely old Ireland. Except, we’re not going to be getting the 30 odd inches of snow that they did on the North East coast of the US, oh no, we’re getting it in the form of wind and rain!! One of the best snow-storms ever in the history of the US has arrived here as a regular old Irish winter storm!!

On saying that, it’s probably just as well it didn’t come here as snow. A sprinkling of snow on the ground in Ireland, and the whole country comes to a standstill, 2 foot of snow and there would be no work done for about a month I reckon!!

What’s this? No fireworks on Paddy’s day, or as we say here, Paddy’s week. How cheap. Right tight, okey, they have the Oiche, but that’s a ticketed event in Smithfield. Free alright but limited. Fire works on the Liffey are great and lots of people can see them even out in the burbs, from Dun Laoghaire pier, up Howth hill. All over the place, for a brief moment, the city’s centre is alight and a focus.

I remember the time they did the Custom House, it exploded in light, reflected on the water. Everything was wild, beautiful, exciting. Of course it nearly burnt the place down but hey, wouldn’t be the first time. And now they put them out on the river, the new glass cages catch the light and echo the sound. What a show. For those brief few moments, we’re all kids. I like it. And as a friend says who has young ones, it’s short, enough and makes everyone feel happy to walk back home.

The Paddy’s day thing-me-giggy has gotten too, way too arty-farty, too thematic, and forgets it’s job, yep, JOB (working class word (ordinary word) meaning purpose, reason, no Arts Council grant stuff) to connect to the people of Dublin. Free fireworks meant that lots of people got a laugh, something wonderful and enjoy the Liffey in all it’s reflective glory. Free, accessable and a Dublin city experience. You just can’t beat the old crash, bang, wallop of a big firework display. It brings out the kid in us all.

Shame, contact www.stpatricksdayfestival.ie to say, light up our lives. After all, auld Paddy was found of the illuminations, sure didn’t he steal the fire from the druids and light up the hill of Tara? Protest lads, protest. We need more protest in this country.

Help save the Paddy’s day from becoming a damp squid of a celebration, give the people, all the people, a grand bit of craic, FIREWORKS, we want FIREWORKS!!!!!?

Well it seem that world class celebs are flocking to our little city this week.
Ralph Fiennes is kicking back these nights in The Ely Wine Bar. Also keep an eye out for Jordan aka Katie Price. She’s jetting in to appear on The Late Late Show this weekend. Should she feel like a little R&R after her chat with Pat Kenny, expect to see her in Lillies 1am-ish. Myself and Dunphy will be there waiting.

I didn’t realise that we had a Dublin Fashion Week, but, apparently for the second year running, we do. It’s taking place in the wonderful Morrison Hotel, by far and away one of the coolest, hippest hang-outs in the city centre. Apparently the Morrison are turning many of their rooms into mini boutiques, the way that London Fashion week started out, so, who know’s, another few years, and we could be as famous as London, Paris and New York

I had a thought for here last week. Maybe it’s more of a question. Maybe it’s just me trying to use you rather than tax my own meagre brain.

Anyhew… I’ve been on the wagon since Christmas, not for any specific reason other than to detox a bit and just to see how it pans out (I did it for a year a while back when my wife was pregnant and thoroughly enjoyed most of the experience). Saturday evening rolled around and, babysitting in place we headed out to the cinema for a couple of hours.

Turns out the one movie we wanted to see was sold out so rather than sit through something we knew would turn out to be two hours of our life we’d never get back (I’m looking at you Fun With Dick & Jane…) we decided to do something else with our precious social time. But what?

Normally you could go out to the pub for a few drinks and the other staple, going to dinner, was out too as we’d already eaten. It brings me to the question I’ve been burning to ask:

What do you do in Dublin at night to socialise if you don’t drink?

Answers on a postcard…

I’m not one of those people who can’t be around drinkers if I’m sober but if you’ve ever done it you’ll know that there are few places less fun to be than town at 3am with a large, boisterous group of your 64-sheets-to-the-wind friends in amongs thousands of others in exactly the same headspace. It’s exactly like being Barney when he’s the designated driver the night Duffman comes to Moe’s. That’s why it was so funny.

We came up with our own unique solution. I was, I’m ashamed to say, one of those who was blinded by the arrival of Starbucks here in Dundrum. Normally I’m a “think local, shop local, try to avoid the big multinational” kind of person but I do love my coffee. Turns out though that they’re open til 10 in the College Green one so we decamped there, had a couple of cappucinnos and chatted the evening away like two carefree college students with designs on each other, which, give or take 15 years, we were.

How great would it be if there were coffee shops open til the wee small hours all over the city? Places of warm Java, large cookies and tea or decaf for the civillians…

R

There are ambitious plans afoot to build a tourist attraction along the River Liffey in Dublin, inspired in part by the fabalous London Eye. A private consortium headed by Dublin property developer Barry Boland, is proposing to develop a cable car service along the Liffey Quays in Dublin, running between Heuston Station and Docklands.

The cable cars would transport sightseers at heights approaching 80 metres (264ft) above the river from the Guinness Brewery near Heuston to a terminal located near the planned national conference centre at Spencer Dock. Each of the four cable cars would have capacity for 25 people and the duration of a trip in either direction would be around 20 minutes.

The proposal which already has the plans drawn up, will now have to go through the usual planning process before it moves into development. However, it would appear that the Dublin City Council are in favour of such a development. I really would hate to see anyone objecting to this (there will no doubt be plenty), as it is a very unique and brilliant idea, that is sure to raise the profile of the city yet further in the global tourist market.

Here’s an artists impression of what the cars and their support structures will look like

I’ve just come in from the banks of the Liffey, from a wonderful sight. Lots of fishermen and their various size boats. All were protesting against the proposal to crimalize certain critera of thier operations if they are found at fault. In other EU countries they face fine but here they will become criminals.

Nightime in the city with the new glass cages glowing on the banks, The Liffey deep and dark and flowing. Dublin, filled with fishing boats, an unusal sight. Along the quay side boats chugged and purred. Tiny French syle trawlers tied up alongside sleek steel monsters. Buddies in arms. The crewman on the Endevour told me his boat was Scottish style and he pointed on the old Irish style D147 trawler. I never knew there were so many types. All real working boats with hardy crew determined to have their voice heard. Polite and kind for they had made a point of not requesting the East Link bridge to be opened during main commutor or commerical transport time. And it cost then a lot of personal money to make this protest. For the first time ever, all the fishermen were united. And about time too.

They have a hard life for sure and their work has become more hampered then helped by EU regulations. Now our government wants to make them criminals. They need to make this protest and they did it in fine style. They looked majestical along the quayside. Proud workmen. And they were doing this in Cork, Waterford and Galway too. Right on.

We need more protest in Ireland. And it was a good sight as us landlubbers said on the docks. We voiced our support and admiration. Great to see the river alive again with working vessels. Good to hear the working class voice. I hope mandrins in government will pay heed to their honest voices. I wish the fishermen well and say they are totally right. You are not criminals just workers.

Slowly the small ships broke away and chugged down the river and waited for the bridge to open. Time passed, boats waltzed in the water. Were they not going to let the out?

No, just a simple mistake. The guy who opens the bridge had brought the wrong key and so they had to wait for him to correct his mistake. But at least he did face the threat of a criminal record for his errors.

Finally, the bridge rose in salute and the boatmen laughed and set off to sea and I wish them well. In the good old Dublin tradition - Up the workers! Good to see a united front. It was a great sight.

I’ve just wandered through Temple Bar on my way from the office to Starbucks, to get some much needed coffee, to keep me going for the remainder of the afternoon. Temple Bar is packed full of Italian Rugby fans, over here for the start of the Six Nations Rugby championship, which kicks off tomorrow with Ireland playing Italy.

Now, I’m a massive rugby fan, so, this is one of my favourite times of the year. It’s also a great time to be in Dublin, as, the city is relatively small, and when the away team supporters are in town, there’s always great craic and banter to be had. Admittedly, the Italians are not the biggest, or most boysterous travelling crowd, the real fun and games starts when the Scottish and Welsh are over, roll on the next 8 weeks!! :)

Against the furore that accompanied the launch of Peter Stringfellow’s new strip club, the 4th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival kicked off on Wednesday night. Golden Globe nominee Cillian Murphy provided the glamour and helped unveil a pretty exciting programme of film screenings.

This time last year I was knee deep in film theory literature for my finals. Going to the cinema was far too much like study. This year I intend to indulge as much as possible in all that the festival has to offer.

The screenings will all take place at the Irish Film Institute, the Screen Cinema, the Savoy and the cinema with seemingly more name changes than Sean ‘P.Diddy’ Combs, Cineworld on Parnell St.

Must-sees should include ‘Copote’, ‘The Ballad of Jack and Rose’ and ‘Paradise Now’ which won the Golden Globe for best foreign language film. The festival will commence with the premiere of ‘Studs’, a film by first time feature film director Paul Mercier and shot last year in West Dublin. Tickets for that appear to be sold out but if you can’t find something else that tickles your fancy from this list, then perhaps cinema just isn’t your thing!? For 8/9 euro I’d also suggest that the showcasing of work by Irish writers and filmmakers at the IFI Film Board Shorts screening is also another cool evening to be enjoyed. For those with an interest in Multimedia the panel discussion on Digital Cinema may represent a potential highlight.