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IF YOU’VE NEVER participated in Culture Night in your area, we’ve just one recommendation: do it this year.
Next Friday, 19 September, is Culture Night 2014 when thousands of venues around the country throw their doors open to the public for a celebratory evening of heritage, culture, arts, fun and events of all sorts, for all tastes, for all ages.
A full database of what’s on in towns and cities around the country is here on culturenight.ie but to give a taste of what is on in the capital, TheJournal.ie teamed up with Dublin Bus to get 50 readers on a bus and tote them on a whistlestop tour of just three of hundreds of brilliant locations open next Friday.
Dublin Bus is putting on free bus routes every 20 minutes on Culture Night to whisk people across the city to various cultural quarters*.
They will have a bespoke programme of performances on the buses including music, spoken word and – for people lucky enough to catch her – this year’s incredibly talented winner of the Texaco Children’s Art competition, Shania McDonagh, will be doing quick pencil sketches of passengers.
TheJournal.ie Dublin Bus #CultureNight Preview Bus took off from Bachelor’s Walk last Thursday night. The craic started early with fiddlers on the roof (okay, the back seat) of the bus creating the atmosphere on our way to Windmill Lane Recording Studios in Ringsend.
Windmill Lane is, of course, synonymous with U2 – although it has built up a global reputation with recording artists so that everyone from Lady Gaga (who was there just a month ago) to The Rolling Stones have set up shop in there to record.
Interesting fact: the recording studios are not, in fact, “where the graffiti is” on Windmill Lane – they have been in Ringsend in a fabulous old art deco building for decades. But let’s not tell the hordes of Spanish students who descend on the lane that Bono’s not knocking around there.
A little tip for Culture Night – Windmill Lane Recording is open for tours to see where the magic happens, but it’s also hosting two intimate gigs from Relish that night – they are free, but for 50 people each time, so it’s first come, first served (ie, get there when doors open at 5pm).
On then to the lavish State apartments of Dublin Castle – with a storytelling session from the energetic folks at Storymap along the way (lesson of the particular story we heard – don’t get too big for yer boots):
Dublin Castle is a place we normally only get to see the gilt-edged inside of when there is a State function, such as the banquet to welcome Queen Elizabeth I, or the inauguration of President Michael D Higgins…
But it was access (almost all) areas, led by surely the most knowledgeable tour guide in the Castle. Any question about who’s who in those portraits, what happened to the Irish Crown Jewels, and any other trivia you can think up – and TheJournal.ie readers are an inquisitive lot – he was up to the challenge.
Including this tidbit – the little footstool below this throne was made for Queen Victoria, so she would look more elegant clambering into the throne vacated by the overweight and oversized King George…
Back on the bus, the poetry slam was getting energetic…
And so on to a well-deserved slurp of coddle at the James Joyce House of the Dead on Usher’s Island:
The house is that which Joyce’s aunts lived in, and which inspired his short story masterpiece, The Dead. The Georgian building has itself been resurrected from a near grave by Brendan Kyne and his army of volunteers.
We were led through the history-laden and artistic surroundings by Kyne himself, a man whose passion and vigour for the project prompted a round of applause from the 60-odd of us watching him operate a hand press in the reclaimed basement. (And yes, Brendan, we do think you should put in a wine bar there, so we can all come back and visit).
This was just a taster of the vast array of events for Culture Night. In Dublin, there is also a nice central touch with RTÉ Radio’s Arena culture programme taking to the stage in Meeting House Square from 7pm with a line-up of interviews, music, drama and comedy, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Jack L, Oliver Callan, readings from John Banville and Pat McCabe and more.
Our friends at Culture Night recommend clicking through to see what is on in your part of the country. But they have a few special recommendations:
* The Dublin Bus routes for Culture Night see buses depart every 20 minutes from Bachelor’s Walk, Aston Quay, Trinity College and Parkgate Street. The Parkgate Street one will cater for this year’s new Culture Night locations in the Phoenix Park (Áras an Úachataráin and Farmleigh).
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Why are comments being disabled on the majority of articles?
@DK: Why? Why is it in any way important whether an asylum seeker is single???
@Aidy McBride: It’s a shame, as I, like most people I would imagine, only come here for the comments. The actual news delivery isn’t great so if there’s no comments I can’t see The Journal lasting long.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: single as in coming on their own here and not as part of a family unit but you new that didn’t you? Just trying to deflect for some reason. Are these men going to want sexual relationships with women here? How many women in Ireland are going to want sexual relationships with asylum seekers, let’s be honest? Do you not think this might lead to issues down the road if we get 50k male asylum seekers every year and about 5k of women? Need to have some adult conversations in this country but too many like to try their best avoid it with deflection like yours and throwing around the racist word.
@DK: Jeez! How sexist can a comment get! You don’t seem tobe worried at all about the 5k women wanting ‘sexual relations’ with good Irish men!
@sean o’dhubhghaill: What’s sexist in my comment. Well those women will have a load of male asylum seekers to choose from if they so wish, not so much choice for the males.
@The next small thing: You’re on to something.
@Aidy McBride: Because of your incessant incendiary remarks.
@The next small thing: Either government or some such like intervention to stifle free speech seen as dangerous, and/or the emerging left liberal stance as seen in the previous iteration of Twitter. If one has to stifle free speech and a possible alternative viewpoint, one doubts ones own point of view.
@Aidy McBride: I guess the Journal doesn’t like free speech, however constructive. ‘The shape of things to come’.
@DK: men are being demonised and portrayed like animals! And that seems to be ok… WOW!! In the era of pc and being easily offended, it seems to be open season when it comes to passing remark on men.
Well what we have learned is that the middle are still being squeezed lifeless.
Voting in chancers like Haughey+Bertie was always going to end in tears. Bertie bought 2007 GE and people voted him in despite knowing about his ‘dig outs’. We as voters own the crash too.
Same with Johnson, Trump, Bolsonara.
@James Gorman: FF and Jack Lynch ‘bought’ the 1977 election too, and we, as a nation, are STILL suffering from and struggling with the mad decision to abolish local rates.
I know loads of people in Brand new houses that don’t and never have worked..They seem to squeeze in a feed of pints every day though.
@Redseat92: That’s our politicians for you. Mind you, those are subsidised pints.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: Most underrated comment!
Still paying for it via austerity taxes, (property tax an usc)and those born during the time the banks needed us to give them a loan are about to join the workforce and will also be paying for that bailout.
Also it was only around 2016/17 when markets normalised, not 2013. And we still await taxes normalising. So we are essentially living in those times.
Great nuanced well researched article.
More of this please
@Niamh Hayes: Haha.
My heart bleeds for the squeezed middle and working poor I ALMOST can’t blame them when they turn septic and declare themselves a single parent and go on the housing list.
How can they ever afford a house when they have to compete with councils buying units to give away to welfare tourists.
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