In the midst of our new normal lockdown status, we stumbled upon an instagram page called Creatives Against COVID-19. Their premise was fairly straightforward: Have people send in images, illustrations, photos, sketches, whatever you’re having yourself, under the the one brief: ‘Soon’. Create and sell prints of the submitted artwork Donate the money to Womens […]
A great number of writers are synonymous with a great number of things for different reasons. And a great number of writers are synonymous with the city of Dublin. But when it comes to levels of synonymy with this city of ours, there’s little arguing that Joyce is its foremost considered literary son. Joyce knew […]
Consider, if you will, the following couplet. “There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in” Taken from Canadian crooner, Leonard Cohen’s back catalogue – these much quoted and poignant lines have many different meanings to many different people. Some think redemption, and some reckon resurrection are the abiding themes to which […]
Though there’s no smoky haze or abundance of black faces, and still without the bourbon stink or distant cricket hiss you can still close your eyes and immerse into the hollering and the bawling of man and instrument. And in the rhythm of that juke joint rattle you can cast the Liffey as your Mississippi, […]
“This old pub standeth on sacred ground, surrounded by the high walls of the Royal Kilmainham Hospital, by the ancient cemetary of Bully’s Acre and the dungeons of Kilmainham Jail. The Patriot’s Inn has been closer to the pulse of Irish history than any other contemporary pub.” So says the signage sitting at the entrance […]
In the usual January reeling from all of December’s excesses, I have come to find comfort and solace in the near constant scrolling through the volumes of reviews that people have published on Google Maps relating to Dublin’s pubs. Common complaints tend to relate to food, service and toilet facilities, but amongst all these there […]
Dublin! It’s a city, if the annals of internet comment sections are to be believed, that divides opinion. And while pub-dwellers prone to over-romanticisation, such as ourselves, are ten a penny – there’s also a hefty cohort out there in the world who refuse to base their opinions of our native city on anything other […]
Recently we were philosophising about what it is that brings that certain sense of je ne sais quoi to pints when they’re taken in enjoyable numbers of a Sunday. Having given due regard to theories of Old Ireland and The Sabbath, we came to look on the whole situation more generally and found some consensus […]
It’s early afternoon on a bitter February morning and I’m huddled around the graveside of Fenian Leader – Jeremiah O Donovan Rossa with another dozen cold persons on a guided tour of Glasnevin Cemetery. An actor in full Irish Volunteer regalia is in the throes of his re-enacting of Padraig Pearse’s famous graveside oration. The […]