Happy St Patrick's Day!

 It's St Patrick's Day and the sun came out here in Ireland!

It was cool and got up to about 12 degrees Celsius so I wore layers for what I got up to today. And what did I do?!  Well I cycled in the Dublin parade! 

The parade is back for the first time since 2019 after it was cancelled in 2020 - as we were just starting lockdown this time two years ago. Along with the parade being back, the Dublin Cycling Campaign are also back with a themed cycle which was the closing float (is a group of 100 cyclists, in costume, a float?) of the parade.

You can look back on past blogs here to see what I wore at previous parades.

The theme for our cycle float wass "Joyce Cycle" to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of James Joyce's Ulysses and we all wore Bloomsday / Joycean outfits. 

Ably led by Dublin City Councillor Donna Cooney, who coordinated the cyclists participations in the parade, we cycled, cheered and waved and had a lot of fun.

A clap from the President of Ireland

The stand out moment for me was when we passed the Grand Stand with all of the dignitaries, our President Michael D. Higgins stood and clapped for us as we passed. What an honour!

Here's a few pics of my costume and some of the parade.

Posing at my door way before I set off for the parade starting point. My house was built in the 1840's so my costume is fairly apt in this setting!

An essential copy of James Joyce's Ulysses strapped to the back of a bike

Some very smart Joycean outfits here!

Waiting for the start - posing beside my Brompton Bike. As you can see I sewed a ribbon to my hat which I was glad of as it was windy in parts and I think my hat would have blown off were it not tied firmly on.

In past years it has been bitterly cold waiting at the parade starting point so I came prepared this year with a flask of hot Baileys coffee!

Councillor Donna Cooney leading the way with Leopold Bloom reading in bed

Can you see me in the background of this photo as the cycling campaign group crossed O'Connell Bridge!

And now that the parade is over, I will unpick the ribbons off my hat and will donate it to a charity shop along with doing a big clear out of my attic tomorrow (I have lots of things up there that I haven't used since my return from Spain, so they probably can be donated).  

My dress was a casualty of the cycle having got caught in my chain a few times. It's now got a hole in it. It's a dress that I wore to a black tie wedding over 15 years ago, but all I've been using it for is for dressing up in costume for the last few years, so it is no loss (also having looked at the tear, I think I can probably stitch it up and repair it so it is fine for wearing again as a costume). I had worn it in previous parades (see when I dressed up as a suffragette) but the bike that I was cycling on that day had a chain guard which my Brompton doesn't. Seems like a chain guard is probably an essential piece of kit on your bike if you are going to be cycling in long skirts!

A note about Ukraine

As you can see we wore blue bands on our hats along with a yellow sunflower in support of Ukraine. This is something that I was very happy to do. As you can see I haven't written a blog in a few weeks and quite honestly it was because I couldn't bring myself to. I wanted to write about the atrocities that are being done on Ukraine but I am finding it hard to verbalise how devastated I feel for the Ukrainian people. I am so incredibly sad for them. 

As their country was attacked, Ireland immediately began to welcome in refugees and it has been inspiring to see Irish people open up their homes to those in need. There is a huge fundraising effort and as usual us Irish dig deep and donate as much as we can.

As a country that gets celebrated the world over on our special day it is tough to see Ukraine being foremost in the world's mind - but not for something positive but instead the world is looking on in horror. 

At this point in time I do not hold out much hope for Ukraine, but one thing I do have hope for, and that is, the strength in humankind. The Ukraine people will survive with the help of the world. We are one big globalised community and we must look out for each other.  

Good will prevail over evil.

And on that sombre note I end by wishing you a Happy St Patrick's Day where ever you are in the world.

We moved in!

Wow what a busy week!

We moved in to the house on Friday night.  We then spent all weekend unpacking boxes - still not done!

We then received our first house guests on Monday!  Dave and Megan came over from the States for the Bruce Springsteen concert and we were just about able to offer them a bed to sleep in!

I had taken Mon-Thurs off work and boy did I need it.  I had people calling to fix things and set up things all week - I had hoped that the Intenet, Phone & TV would be set up by the time I came back to work today but unfortunately it will be Monday before I am hooked up.

We had a great night on Wednesday for the Bruce concert.  We went to Tribeca in Ranelagh for big burgers (sustenance) before the show and then walked to the concert venue (stopping off for a drink in Kiely's of Donnybrook on the way.  We used to live all the way over the other side of the city so if we were going to a concert in this particular venue we would generally have got the bus or train over and then a taxi back home. It was brilliant to be able to walk - only about a half hour each way!  Bruce Springsteen was phenomenal, he played for nearly three and a half hours.  The weather had been really bad all day with bigh heavy rain downpours intermittenly but amazingly it stayed dry for the whole concert.  I enjoyed all of his songs but in particular "Because the night" which he performed with his wife Patti.

Today I came back to work, Megan and Dave headed off to Paris and later on Ciaran leaves for Birmingham for the World Squash Masters. I have the house to myself all weekend and then my sister is coming to stay with me for a few nights on Monday evening.  I have promised her a curry from "Diep at Home"!!!

Below is Bones in the basket of a Dublin Bike.  The Dublin Bike Scheme is so great - €10 for a years subscription and access to the Dublin Bike Network.