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I love Dollymount and always have. When I first moved to Drumcondra, I was delighted to be close to this oasis in the middle of Dublin. Unfortunately I haven’t used it as much as I thought I would have, but on Sunday when I was there it was fantastic… so I took a picture of it with my new phone…

After Little Britain and the subsequent night out from which I got home a little drunk. Luckily I had no hangover so I was able to function and go in and meet Mark, Julie and Lisa for the trying on of the suits. I was late going in because I got confused about the time (selective hearing on my part as it turns out.)

I decided to get a taxi into town… it would be quicker, but there were no free taxis. Two very nice French people offered me a lift. I duly supplied them with ample amount of tourist / historic information about the streets and places we saw. It was actually strange because I got to experience Dublin through the eyes of tourists. Streets such as O’Connell street which I would have considered a dump, they were entralled with.

The suits looked good and both Lisa and Julie like it. Turns out I usually look like a kid according to Lisa so it was good to spend 10 mins in some grown up clothes. After we finished in Lois Copeland, we went for lunch in the church / restaurant place at the top of Mary’s Street. Excellent food and coffee.

Later that day I had Jack’s birthday party and I knew that they (Cathal) would like buffs. The party was good fun. I spent some time fixing the computer and in the jacuzi out back.

Sunday was a day for work. I got to work about 1130 and stayed there for a few hours and made some progress. Chris called over and we went to see Talladega Nights… top class… Chris managed to not ask my sister to be with her again which was decent of him….

Being a young country, Ireland still has a lot of throw backs to the time of British Rule. The Constitution was written by a man who had a economic vision of self subsitance in Ireland, a vision which was only reveresed when Lemass came to power and famously decided things can’t get any worse, and so we should look towards trade and regular economics to supply our country. That was in 1958, 48 years ago.

Part of our young history means we have a lot of legal structures in place that date well before the inception of the Republic of Ireland. The Attorney General is in the middle of a project to remove all out dated and unrelevant laws from our books. Unfortunately, this means it will be no longer illegal to bait lions and tigers in Ireland. Among some of the laws that are in our books, but that do now apply to Ireland are:

- Deer Stealing (England)

- Militia pay (England)

- Westminster fish market

- Duties on cinnamon, etc.

While Dad was home, he went to see Drogheda United play FK Start in the Uefa Cup with a couple of his mates. I had started going to see some Eircom League games over the last couple of years, but hasn’t made it to one in a while. The temptation of a European game in Dalymount Park was too much for me to resist.

The game on the whole was enjoyable with Drogheda Utd scoring to even the score up on aggregate. Some of the Drogheda Utd tactics didn’t make sense to me, but they scored a good goal and had a genuine shot at getting through to the next round. Nothing strange here…

The penalty shoot out ended up 4 - 4 after the first 5 penalties and it went into sudden death. And now for the bit that I will probably never see again, the penalties ended up going as far as 12 kicks each and FK Start won 11 - 10 on penalties. There were so many  kicks that even the goalies had to take penalties on each other, and then the first player for Drogheda had to take a second penalty which he unfortunately missed. Incredible stuff.

With out doubt, this is the strangest film I have ever seen, and the strangest experience I have ever had in a cinema… I went with Niamh last Sunday to see it in the Dubin Cineplex or whatever it is called today.
First off, the film is brilliant despite the name (although I think they gave it a crap name on pupose). It starts off like a holiday movie, then goes to a gangster movie, a cop movie, a triller, a horrer, a comedy and then a romantic comedy. It must have been the directors pupose to try and cover as many genres as he could, and it all works superbly.

If you go to see it, wait until the credits are over… I saw Armagedon in the States, and so I had been in a cinema when people clapped, but never in Ireland. Clapping during the movie, and then afterwards when the credits were going up… never thought I would see it.

This post is really to warn people shopping for computers in PC World to be careful. This is a blog, and I fully expect it to rank Well for the terms: PC World Ireland and PC World Blanchardstown…

I bought a computer from PC World Blanchardstown last year. I wanted the computer and it had the specs I needed; plus the thought of having a brand new computer really appealed to me. But I didn’t get a brand new computer, I got a display model. Thats right, I wanted a new computer, I was told they had it in stock, and I was expecting to get same, I had even paid for it, but I didn’t get it. I was told that they didn’t have any new machines left… a contradiction to what my sales guy had told me.

I went back to them a week later becasue one of the cd drives made a lot of noise and I wasn’t happy. They told me I could bring it back (which was fair enough) or they would offer me a e50 gift voucher. I took the voucher and decided to live with my display model and that is fine with me. They offered me something and I took it. Full Stop. I am not complaining about my result, just telling people to be very careful with what they think they are buying in PC World, and actually what they get…

Most people would associate the above title phrase with Father Ted, however, this phrase dates back to the 1930s and the Irish anti-jazz movement that griped the country for a period at this time. Dances such as the Rumba, Samba and quickstep were seen as close to close dancing and the importation of ‘negro’ culture. In opposition there was the Irish culture and it’s dancing which was a more open dance: “good wholesome Irish dancing… in place of terrible abusive jazz.”

On new years day in 1934 there was a march against Jazz in Mohill, County Leitrim. Banners such as ‘Down with this sort of thing’ or ‘no foreign culture in this country’ and ‘out with paganism… out with jazz’ were held high. Father Peter Conifrey was the man behind the campaign, a campaign which hit its peak when a radio station in Athlone started to play Jazz music. The government was called on to close dance halls at 2300 and ban all foreign dances from Ireland.

The campaign was discussed during the January 1934 meeting of Dublin Corporation. Among the highlights was Councillor Mahealy comment on the subject: “for centuries this country has stood out for national music and dancing and here we are in 1934 following the music and dancing of the ‘negro (people). It is a desperate state of affairs.” The Waterford Corporation justified the campaign by saying: “you couldn’t call the old time waltzes of course jazz because they are good music.” Why they couldn’t see that waltzes were not part of Irish culture (German) and that they were promoting a ‘foreign culture’ themselves is beyond me.

Meanwhile the Gaelic League was pulling their weight in the campaign against Jazz. Secretary O’Quinn said: “the Gaels of Meath have in a very practical way done more to oust jazz than any form of propaganda…. The failure of jazz is due to the resurgent spirit of young Gaels than the depraved excesses alleged to have been a special feature of recent years.”

Censorship in Ireland is a topic of personal interest to me. I was lucky to be born at the tail end of this censorship and today I can read books like The Catcher in the Rye or watch films like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ without breaking the law. I came across a Radio One documentary podcast about the Irish anti-jazz campaign and much of the info in this post is taken from this documentary.

Danny called over on Saturday with the idea of going for a drive. It was a fantastic day so why not. We stopped at the IFSC market which was a first for me but I got to say I really enjoyed it. Along with the regular selection of stalls were live music and a number of tall ships docked along the Liffey. Dan and I took a tour on ‘Tenacious’ which was a massive ship that was kitted out so that people with disabilities could learn to sail. The boats are run as a charity and for more information please click on the picture to visit the website.

We then headed up to Powerscourt House which was another first for me. The house itself was stunning. We had a quick walk around before heading into Bray where Boz was on duty in Bray Bowl. For the link to the Powerscourt House website, click on the image.

We called into a couple of ‘amusement arcades’ on the sea front to see what kind of things they offered as opposed to Bray Bowl. I had never known that one armed bandits were legal in Ireland, and to be honest what I saw was not pretty as people set there at their machines feeding coins from small plant tubs. In some cases people were sitting between machines so they could work two machines. There were a couple of common denominators… the people were generally around retirement age and largely female.

I copied this from emigrant.ie on the subject:

”While many Councils around the country are trying to ban gaming machines in their areas, Bray Urban District Council could not make up its mind on the issue. A vote to outlaw them was tied six all and the one-armed bandits can therefore continue to flourish in Bray. Legally they can only accept 2p bets and the maximum prize is set at 50p but it is widely accepted that the law is flouted in this area.”