Friday Bench: Dublin Library

Friday Bench: Outside City Hall

I’d Rather Trust a…

Just in case you can’t make it out, the wording is:

“I’d rather trust a dealer on a badly lit street corner

Than a criminal in a three piece suit”

Seeing we’re in Temple Bar in Dublin and not that far from several banking institutions, I have a pretty good idea who ‘the criminal’ might be.

Breakfast at Bewley’s

A trip to Bewley’s was a traditional treat when I worked in Dublin and now it’s a treat when we visit too.

It was too busy for us to be seated downstairs, so we were whisked upstairs to the mezzanine area where we had a good view of everything.

I love the guy sprawling with the day’s paper in contrast to the one next to him with his iPad; the potted plants; and the people stopping by to buy the tempting cakes on display (we were tempted by the almond croissants). The blurred waiter symbolises how they quietly and smoothly rush around their service area making sure customers have everything they need.

And being Ireland, Dublin and a society which really appreciates literature, it’s natural that this wonderful cafe should have its own theatre. How I wished we could have stayed to see Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince!

Friday Bench: Granby Park

I was delighted to discover Granby Park whilst on holiday. I didn’t know it’s Ireland’s first ever pop-up park until I got home. Naturally I HAD to tell its story over at Veg Plotting today 🙂

I Heard That Pardon

Guess what they really sell here?

The Oliver St John Gogarty

Ii

Irish pubs are amazing. Go into one and it’s more than likely that the place is jumping and everyone’s singing Nowhere more so than the Oliver St John Gogarty in Temple Bar.

La Paloma

Sadly my favourite Dublin restaurant doesn’t do lunch. It gives us the perfect excuse to go back to Dublin again.

Happily Gallagher’s Boxty House (traditional Irish food) around the corner did do lunch for just €5. A nice new discovery with friendly staff.

In the Footsteps of Ulysses

Part of the Dublin walk documented in James Joyce’s book Ulysses which you can now follow by finding these plaques showing the relevant quotation from the book.

Guess where we were!

Friday Bench: Dublin

Since I last went to Dublin in 2005, all kinds of buildings have sprung up, mainly of the luxury flats variety and today most of them seem to be empty or sparsely populated owing to the demise of the Celtic Tiger economy. Some of the more unusual on offer were these flats by the entrance to the Museum of Contemporary Art which are reminiscent of a Mondrian painting or suchlike.

In contrast the forlorn nature of the men sitting on the bench alongside was most striking. I’m not sure how permanent this bench might be…