A selection of audio and video lectures and talks from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is now available on Apple’s educational podcast service, iTunes U, making it the first Irish university to join.

Trinity College Dublin is the first university in Ireland and one of the first in Europe to launch its own iTunes U site that features free access to audio and video files on course material, public lectures and presentations and highlights of College life.

Trinity Press Release, TCD iTunes Store, TCD Podcasts, iTunes U

This came through with our institution mailing list today, and I really don’t like it that such an announcement came about. But I guess with this coming from the Garda, it shouldn’t be taken lightly and be brushed off as the exception rather than the rule. I’m saddened by this but will get this announcement out nonetheless…

Gardai have asked that everyone be on the alert for a well organised large group of foreign national pick pockets operating in the general vicinity of College Street – College Green – Dame Street – Grafton Street – Nassau Street. The group are aged from mid-teens to mid-thirties and consist of males and females. They are well dressed and act as if they were tourists with some carrying the usual tourist paraphernalia such as back-packs, maps, cameras etc. Besides pick-pocketing they also use the method of hassling and confusing an individual whereby a group of 2 or 3 will approach and surround a person under the guise of seeking directions. While that person’s attention is distracted by one gang member asking questions and directions the others commence there pick pocketing and bag rifling activities using maps, newspapers and magazines to conceal what they are doing. This method is also used on persons using ATM’s where an attempt is made to grab the cash being dispensed.

Unless it is absolutely necessary you are advised not to be carrying large amounts of cash on your person. Ladies should ensure that after using their handbags, the handbag is fully zipped or fastened. The bag should be carried tucked between your arm and side with the flap, if that type of bag, nearest your side. Gents should carry wallets in their side trouser pockets never in the back pockets or jacket pockets. Never carry cash or valuable items in a back pack. When using bars or restaurants never leave bags, purses or wallets on the table top. Handbags, fully zipped/fastened, can be placed on the floor well in under your table secured by the front innermost leg of your chair through the bag straps/handles.

If you become aware or suspicious of activities related to the above you are asked to contact the Garda without delay – PEARSE STREET GARDA STATION TEL: 01 666 9000.

To give our readers better content and experience visiting MB Dublin, we have got some new stuff for our readers this week and also in doing this we want to make MB Dublin as happening as some of other big cities in MB network like LA, NY, London etc..

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.

Last week, our team in LA, released a new feature for commenting on metblogs network and now you can send us your comments through Videos - “Video Commenting”. Personally I don’t have a webcam so I couldn’t test it, but if you like or dislike something about our site, please let us know. The service is powered by Seesmic.

On related note, some people did complain about the signing up part for commenting, but that feature is here to stay, we had loads of discussion on forums about it but its for good and it is rolled on for the entire metblogs cities network, one of main reasons being that it will help us in identifying some good commenters and promote them to authors (off-course only if they wish too :D). You can still be anonymous as it only requires a valid email address without name.

We hope to hear more from you.

It is confirmed, Ireland has a successor to Bertie Ahern, in the form of Brian Cowen. As the sole candidate for the leadership of his political party Fianna Fáil (are politicians here seriously lacking ambition, or too polite to announce their intention to be in the running for the position?) he has now been officially elected at the parliamentary party meeting this morning.

I guess that means this job recruitment advertisement is now defunct, seeing how the position is filled. However, with Brian Cowen now poised to be handed over the position as Taoiseach, a new question arises. Who is going to be the Tánaiste?

Something I haven’t quite expected at this point of time, and would have thought to be a hoax has this broke out yesterday but yes, Bertie Ahern is stepping down from his position as Taoiseach!

According to breaking news from the Irish Times:

Bertie Ahern is to step down as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fail on May 6th, he announced this morning.

Amid mounting pressure about his personal finances, Mr Ahern said he was proud of his political achievements but denied any wrongdoing in relation to his personal finances.

Flanked by cabinet colleagues including Brian Cowen, Martin Cullen, Mary Coughlan, Willie O’Dea, Noel Dempsey, Brian Lenihan and Green Party leader John Gormley, Mr Ahern said a “constant barrage of commentary” was distracting the work of Government.

Mr Ahern was set to come under pressure in Dáil this afternoon as the Opposition parties seek an explanation for evidence given to the Mahon tribunal by his former secretary.

The Opposition will press Mr Ahern on the sterling payments lodged to his Irish Permanent building society account by Gráinne Carruth. Fine Gael and the Labour Party earlier called on Mr Ahern make a statement about his financial affairs.

The tribunal is investigating claims that Mr Ahern received money from property developer Owen O’Callaghan. The claim by Tom Gilmartin has been repeatedly denied by Mr O’Callaghan and by Mr Ahern himself. However the tribunal invetigations have thrown up questions on lodgements to Mr Ahern’spersonal accounts in the early 1990s.

The total value of lodgements and other transactions that have to date been queried by the tribunal in its public inquiries into Mr Ahern’s finances, exceeds £452,800. The lodgements and transactions occurred between 1988 and 1997, although the vast bulk of the money was lodged in the period to 1995.

The total is the equivalent of €886,830 in today’s terms, applying the consumer price index for the period 1994 to 2008. The total excludes lodgements where the tribunal has been shown the money was transferred from one bank account to another, but includes such lodgements where neither Mr Ahern nor the tribunal have been able to find independent confirmation as to what occurred.

Last week, acting Progressive Democrats leader and Minister for Health Mary Harney and Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley also said Mr Ahern needed to clarify the situation. However, Government sources insisted last night the Taoiseach had no intention of giving a wide-ranging response to the Opposition during Leaders’ Questions today and would not be dealing with issues that were going to be the subject of hearings by the tribunal or the courts.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern revealed yesterday that he had spoken to the Taoiseach over the weekend and strongly advised against his making a statement on his personal finances in the Dáil today.

The Mahon tribunal made significant concessions to the Taoiseach on the first day of his High Court challenge to its inquiries yesterday, saying it accepted the Constitution prohibited it from questioning him about the veracity of statements made by him in the Dáil about his financial affairs. It indicated it would be questioning the Taoiseach primarily about statements made outside the Dáil. The case continues today.

Well, I guess the pressure for him to resign must have mounted majorly given the ongoing tribunal investigation, and for once, the thing that doesn’t stick on the “Teflon Taoiseach” this time round is his role as the leader of the country.

Hello there, Dublin Metblogs readers. I’m new here, so bear with me while I get up to speed with this crazy thing you call Metblogging. Your good friend Mo invited me to join the author rolls, and I see that he’s set the bar high for Dublin blogging. I’ll try to keep things interesting and informative. I have some archived stuff to get started, so apologies if it isn’t fresh and of-the-moment, but I think you’ll enjoy!

Welcome to our new Dublin Metblog Site. Thanks to Sean, Mack n others for all their hard work. Yesterday, the entire Metblog cities network went live on the new design n look. Check out the cool new homepage of Metblog.com.

Isn’t it cool, I’m loving the new design. Thou’ by soul, its the same old network of cities blogging away. There are loads of new features, tags, ranking, polls and an entirely new back-end by Wordpress, which is a huge improvement over the previous MT. First post and its already lot more easier n fun to write posts.

Take this opportunity to join our team and have fun.

Also feel free to join our new MB News Network mailing list for breaking news and exciting announcements.

And finally as the system is undergoing minor changes, if you come across any dead links or any other technical hitches, please let us know via comments or email.

As you must have noticed from last post from Sean Bonner, yes Sean Bonner, co-founder of Metroblogging, was in Ireland (Dublin and Cork) last few days. I met up with him yesterday for food and drinks. It was quite an interesting meet, also few more of Sean twitter contacts showed up, @paul, @eoghan, and some Swedish :D and had great time meeting all and also lot of interesting discussions .. off-course Dublin and Guinness related :D, lot of tech talk too thou’ and I came to know of the history of Metroblogging Dublin and how it was set-up and few interesting & controversial facts :).

Also, an inside scoop :), straight from Sean, Metroblogging Dublin and also the entire network, front-end and back-end is getting a complete overhaul. The previews I saw yesterday were awesome and am looking forward for the release of it sometime very very soon. So visit again, and I would love to hear the comments about it.

And finally, great seeing you Sean, enjoy London and Safe flight back to LA, until next time..

Rugby World Cup

Semi Final 1:
Saturday, 13 October 2007
England v France, 20:00

Semi Final 2:
Sunday, 14 October 2007
South Africa v Argentina, 20:00

And also today:
Ireland vs. Germany -
Euro 2008 Qualifier, even thou’ Ireland chances are almost slim, its a good game to watch still.