Passing by St Stephen’s Green this morning, I couldn’t resist stopping and taking a few photos, when it was all foggy, quiet and dreamy.

The recent shootings in Northern Ireland has evoked unity among the people in condemning the sad and mindless killings. At times of hardship in the wake of a recession, however, the idyllic peaceful pact of the last decade now seems more fragile than ever. While the majority has come to prefer the truce and learn to live together despite differences in ideologies, for some, the time is ripe to instill fear once again.

One of today’s dominating news headlines in Ireland has been the stepping up of security at the borders between the Republic and Northern Ireland, at the threats imposed by smuggling of explosives. The direction is currently from the south to the north but regardless, this doesn’t bode well for anyone that lives on this island.

News of explosives aren’t new. Even in Dublin, combing through the archives of the Irish Times, there are plenty of articles pertaining to discovering of hoax devices, of live devices, and of dismantling of viable devices. Like this, reported last weekend. What I find puzzling though, is the seemingly blanketing of successful explosions.

A few months ago, while I was out at the cinema with a friend, my housemate sent me a message to inform me that part of the road leading to our place had been cordoned off. She heard someone around whispering about an alleged explosion. By the time I went home though, the area had been clear and had this just been any other day, I wouldn’t have thought anything had taken place there at all. Next day, curious over the incident, we scoured through news sites and found nothing at all. We then supposed the alleged explosion was just a rumour and left it at that.

However, a couple of days ago, another friend, in a different part of the city, witnessed a car explosion before his very eyes. Concerned for his own safety, he legged it away from the site. Again, me being me, curious over the incident, was on the lookout for news articles again yesterday. Guess what – I couldn’t find anything!

Is it me or is this too weird? That devices found or dismantled made it to the news, but except for a few eyewitnesses nothing had been reported on cases of explosions in the city? Since when is there a shroud of secrecy around incidents like this? Is this an attempt “to protect” the people of Dublin from unnecessary worries or panic? Are these incidents something of utmost secrecy? (Will I get into trouble for even questioning this right now?)

Oh yes, it’s March, and with Mo’s previous blog entry, he has duly reminded everyone that Paddy’s Day is not too far away from now. Are you all set for the fun and festivity in town, of which there are tons of events organised that are free for all!

A couple of things to bring to your attention. There will be an exclusive Paddy’s Day “Simpsons Irish Adventure” that will be broadcasted on Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD (I would have thought they’d broadcast it on RTE or something, to be more inclusive – Sky is not Irish!) and if you’re one of the many people who will be in town for the parade, look out for special Simpsons’ float, because Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart) plus a couple other producers of the show will be there too.

For family or even groups of friends, you can kick off the weekend with a trip down to the Dublin Docklands, where The Spheres will be entertaining the crowd with 4 scheduled shows. The shows are ticketed but free, and you should book for the ticket now before they run out. Apply online, and you’ll be asked to confirm for tickets at some stage so you can print them out and bring with you to Grand Canal Dock. From what I gather, maximum tickets that one can apply per booking is for 6 adults, 4 children.

For more event information of St Patrick’s Festival, visit their website, and for all those who wonders where the fireworks will be this year, it’s going to be down south in Waterford.

OK, something a little light-hearted for a change. This video has been making its mark on the cyberspace for a while now, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Since it features Dublin in the course of this video, why not share it here?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY[/youtube]

Out of curiosity, I did a count and there were 68 cities visited throughout the course of the video, from 42 countries. To travel all these places within 14 months is very impressive. Of course it helps to have a sponsor that pays for the travel.

Considering my travels are all self-funded, I’m proud to say I’ve been to 13 of the 68 cities featured in this clip. Yay! Of course there are places that I’ve been which Matt hasn’t, and vice versa. I’m hoping to be able to hit the road in reasonably near future and who knows where my next travel adventure will bring me to… ;-)

Following up on other metblog cities, LA, OC; we decided to have 10 commandments for our fair city also. Thou as we started discussing about them at our facebook group, soon we realized we need more than just ten commandments and 10 are not enough for Dublin. After rounds and rounds of discussions :), behold and praise, Dublin Metblogs presents the 20 commandments of Dublin city (in no particular order):

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!

Following on Lil post on Maser Loves You. Yesterday, while walking on George’s Street, there were stickers of Maser Loves You on most Traffic Light post for “Maser Loves You”. Maser is a graffiti artist, but does these post have any meaning or just random promotion.

I don’t want Dublin Metblog to be my personal ranting, traveling, dining information center :D.. So lets do something different this time around as a test and if successful I’ll think of some more interesting ones to follow, but to start off I’m totally copying idea from Metblog network :), last week LA Metblogs posted about finding 64 things to hate about LA (started by LA Magazine to find 64 Greatest Things in LA), followed by Philadelphia n other cities. Its def. worth trying out and also a good starting point to get our readers involved.

How to proceed, its going to be a tournament style competition, we’ll start off with 64 things and narrow it down to until we have the winner. We’ll reveal the list thru’ a series of polls (using our new feature) until we the one n only one “Worst Thing About Dublin”.

So, let us know what YOU think is the worst thing about Dublin by leaving a comment on this post, it can be anything – worst resturant, worst street, celebrity, M50, etc. etc.

Lets get going.

I work near Donnybrook and from our office cafeteria, one can see all the way to Lighthouse on the Great South Wall. But I suppose its not one of the Dublin destinations which probably even Dubliner’s might be fond of.

So, a fews week back, we decided to go for a walk all the way to Great South Wall from our office. Now, only the Great South Wall itself is like 3 km or so, (ok, i justed calculated on Google maps, it was aprrox. 8 km walk in total) and cold windy weather.

Until Sandymount strand n nature reserve, it was going good,

but then all those Dublin backyard factories/sewage plant, kinda kills the whole setting. The whole industrial setting and the natural setting together might not be for everyone’s taste :)

I still enjoyed the walk itself on the South Wall into the sea, ships coming in, ocean waves, the lighthouse (it was my first time to a lighthouse).

From South Wall: Dublin n Poolbeg Station. The evening sunset made it much more appealing, was quite beautiful.

ah, and cracks appearing on south wall and the fillings:

If got sometime extra time in your hand, I can recommend the walk and is worth it. There is neat description of car/walk to South Wall here “Fat Steve Walks“. One can also take Dublin Bus No. 3 to the Poolbeg station and then walk to the south wall, if you don’t wanna walk all the way from Sandymount. Pick a nice day during late afternoon and enjoy the Dublin Bay views.