THE Celtic Tiger, the economic engine that roared in the 1990s, may have softened to a purr today, but Dublin still basks in a newfound prosperity. The city’s compact center, at the mouth of the River Liffey, has become a magnet for young people throughout Europe, imbuing the Irish capital with a modern and international veneer.

Full Article Here.

Also featured is a slideshow of Discovering Old in the New Ireland.

1. Thou shalt not vomit and piss in the street no matter how much you’ve drunk
2. Thou shalt not patronize the intelligence of men by trying to make them believe that is your actual skin tone you orange faced tramp
3. Thou shalt not go to to same club or bar week in week out but complain there’s nothing to do in Dublin
4. Thou shalt not steal something just because it’s not bolted down
5. Thou shalt acknowledge Ross O’Carroll Kelly is satire and not to be emulated
6. Thou shalt bring an umbrella and/or a raincoat all year round. 365 days. No exception.
7. Thou shalt bring a blank cheque with you when house viewing in order to beat the others from putting a deposit in for the place
8. Thou shalt know the location of the nearest chipper or kebab shops or hotdog stands for your post-drinking evening supper
9. Thou shalt book “free” flights with Ryanair, and bitches about all the extra charges you have to pay. What free? Then proceed to moan about the distance of its airport terminal - who had the idea of putting it in Timbuktu?
10. Thou shalt always have some sort of festival to attend during week-ends
11. Thou shalt not drive a Land Rover unless you are a farmer. Or have land to eh, rove
12. Thou shalt not expect roadworks to be carried out at a convenient time ie; NOT rush hour on the Red Cow roundabout
13. Thou shall recognize that Dublin Airport is NOT at the forefront of cosmopolitan international travel and that the DAA fuck up, a lot. Allow adequate time for journey to airport and inevitable row with brainless check-in staff over:
    a) Baggage allowance
    b) Charges relating to same
    c) Check-in time
    d) all of the above
14. Thou shalt not name your children Meadow, Serendipity or Beau. Issabella is pushing it. You’re from Crumlin, sit down and behave yourself
15. Thou shalt not plan an outing with the kids to Dublin Zoo. It will rain (yes, despite the recent ‘heatwave’ we’ve been having), The tigers will be at the vet, the penguins will be hibernating or something and the elephants will be off doing a nixer at Circus Vegas. It will not be a ‘fun day out’. You’ll be lucky if you don’t run over a deer in the Phoenix Park on your way there
16. Though shalt only ride a bike when you are brave enough
17. Though shalt only drive a car when you know how to do it and have shown so in an independent test
18. Thou shalt be over-polite and if crossing a person even with a good 5 meters of distance thou should apologize for being in their way
19. Thou shalt hold your umbrella well over your head so as to avoid jabbing people in the face with it. And just don’t even bother on windy days
20. Thou shalt remember that service employees are human beings too

.. contributed by Lil, Tom, Chloe, Sheena, Frauke & Michael .. thanks everyone

If you think if we missed something, leave us a comment and we might even have an updated list with another 10!

The link (http://twitter.com/DUBMetblogs), follows us and we’ll follow you.

Happy Twittering!!

Update: And if you don’t know what twitter is, its a tough question to explain in one line, so check this out - Twitter in Plain English (LINK)

Also, if you know of any essential Dublin Twitter feeds we should follows, let us know.

or make your own choice (green bus but still not so green)

(Spotted near Stephen’s Green)

Spotted at St. Stephen’s Green

First of, we have a new author - Thomas Lau. Welcome to MB Dublin Tom.

Secondly, we have a new facebook group (LINK) [need to be a member on facebook]. Some people have complained about the signing-up for leaving comments but as that issue is not in my hands, we thought we might setup a fb group to start with and take it to next level from there :). Join us on facebook.

Thirdly, we also setup a “Restaurants in Dublin” Google Maps (LINK) for all the restaurants we blogged and reviewed. All in one place for our readers to easily find and read about it.

View Larger Map

Last but not least, we are brainstorming on various other topics to improve MB Dublin and the readership experience, and we would release them in coming weeks. If you wanna be a part of it, join the discussion on facebook.

In Ireland -

Oxfam Ireland (click here)

Red Cross Ireland (click here)

—–

On 5-12-2008, at Beijing local time 14:28pm, a historically rare earthquake of 7.8 magnitude devastated southwestern China, killing close to 14, 866 people by far and trapping thousands of others under schools, factories and houses, while the worst-hit area was still cut off from rescuers today. Now we are facing a crucial time period of rescuing those needy people and helping them with disaster relief. Children are wandering homeless on the street, young people are being buried by their tearing elder parents with unspeakable sadness.

The victims need your help urgently !!! Each dollar/euro from an individual may not have a big impact. But together, it can make a GREAT difference!!! Your generosity is highly appreciated! PLEASE make your contribution to help the earthquake victims!

Ireland has an healthy score of 5.03 and stands at No. 22 in the world. Ireland ranks 4th (5.41 out of 7) and 5th (5.91 out of 7) in Goods market efficiency and Financial market sophistication respectively in the world. And ranks lowest at 49th position for (no price for guessing this one) Infrastructure (4.03 out of 7). Highest points for Health and primary education at 6.28 out of 7.

The most problematic factors for doing business were as follows (here):

• Inadequate supply for infrastructure
• Inflation
• Inefficient government bureaucracy
• Restrictive labour regulations

Some of the notable advantages mentioned it the report were:

• Strength of auditing and reporting standards
• Telephone lines (hard data) [under infrastructure]
• Quality of the educational system
• Business impact of rules on FDI
• Brain drain
• Nature of competitive advantage
• Availability of scientists and engineers; Quality of scientific research institutions; University-industry research collaboration

Some of the notable disadvantages mentioned it the report were:

• Wastefulness of government spending
• Quality of port infrastructure
• National savings rate
• Flexibility of wage determination
• Hiring and firing practices
• Broadband Internet subscribers (hard data)

Also yesterday report by ESRI said, the Irish economy has good chances of rebounding after the global market slowdown ends (offcourse with right policies by the new PM).

Wikipedia article on Hill of Tara.

Another useful link - savethetara

Or sign the petition here.