Sunday 16 April 2017

Delivering and hanging art!

My sister got a new art piece and you can click below to watch the delivery and installation by the artist!!

https://www.pscp.tv/Pigsyinspace/1djGXvVaVnzxZ?t=30

It's worth a watch - and you get to hear my Irish brogue ;-)

If you'd like to see more of Pigsy's work (after viewing the video), go to www.ciaranmccoy.com

Saturday 15 April 2017

Good Friday - Great Friday!

Friday night meant a trip to the theatre with my cousin and sister to see the The Train. 

What a show. 

It's a musical.........I love musicals!

Although being a musical, it's on a very serious topic that women in Ireland are still fighting for today: Bodily Autonomy.

You can click in to the video below to see story of the Contraceptive Train that the play is based on.




The Abbey Theatre is a great place to see any play. I had bought the cheapest tickets so we possibly had the worst seats in the house. We were right in the back row but I can honestly say there wasn't a thing wrong with the view. I don't think there is a bad seat in this theatre - just some are better than others.

When I got home I looked at the cast online as I knew that one of the actors was very familiar. When I saw who it was - Lisa Lambe - I instantly remembered her from when she was in Celtic Woman. She is one seriously talented lady.




All of the pubs are closed on Good Friday in Ireland due to licensing laws (again due to the non division between Church and State) but alcohol was allowed to be served in The Abbey. There are some strange places that do not fall under the ban - airports, train stations, hotels (in the residents bar) and also theatres. Pre-show drinks were nice along with interval wine too!!
All very civilised.

The Train chugs out of Dublin and on to The Mac in Belfast - do go see it!!


Litter Picking Friday - Team Dublin Clean Up

While browsing twitter on Friday morning I came across a Dublin wide clean up campaign called #TeamDublinCleanup.
I tweeted for further info and found out that there was one going on in both Ranelagh and Donnybrook along with other areas of the town including Stonybatter, Finglas and Phibsboro.

Amy said she would be interested in doing it also and so we went along to the Ranelagh Arts Centre at 11am.

There we got Hi-Viz vests, litter pickers, plastic bags and gloves and off we went litter picking!


There were a fair few volunteers out cleaning - one man did great work at the entrance to the park and another group did a job on the lane at the side of Supervalu (which is a bit of a litter blackspot, I think). Amy and I picked litter from the luas flyover to the triangle and then back down the street on the Arts centre side.

It was brilliant to see the community engagement and spirit and I like the optics of the community getting out to help. This was the 2nd annual #TeamDublinCleanUp and I think it will get bigger and better year on year!

There is a Dublin Canal Action Day next Saturday, click here for info. They are looking for volunteers so do go along if you are free and want to get involved.

Sunday 9 April 2017

Venice - what a marvellous city!

We spent a few days in Venice this week and had a marvellous city break (Venice is only 2.5 hrs from Ireland!).

I received a recommendation for the Al Codega Hotel and it didn't disappoint. It was very well located close to San Marco and rooms were clean and comfortable.

The food was great in Venice - I ate lots of pasta and even more tiramisu! 
The gondolas are fun to watch and feel authentically Venetian. 


We visited the Peggy Guggenheim museum - click here to read about it.

We went on an architectural tour on our first day which was really helpful in seeing lots and also getting our bearings. You can read about the tour and what we saw here.


All in all a super trip to Venice and then we had a lovely few days off in Dublin before we had to go back to work.




Monday 3 April 2017

Liffey Cycle - Sunday 2nd April 2017 #LiffeyCycle





Here's a video of the cycle that I blogged about yesterday that Amy and I took part in.

Sunday 2 April 2017

Dublin Liffey Cycleway

This morning Amy and I took part in the #Liffeycycle to demonstrate to the government the level of support for the Liffey Cycleway which is a planned segregated cycleway of 4.6km from the Phoenix Park to the Point Village.

It was a lovely sunny day in Dublin and it was a very enjoyable event.

I took loads of live video which I put up on twitter so unfortunately took no pics.

Here's a photo I found on the internet in which I've marked Amy and I in red.

I estimated there was about 300 cyclists involved but I saw people giving higher numbers on the internet.

Afterwards Amy and I treated ourselves to donuts and a chat in Off Beat Donuts - sure didn't we deserve it?!



EatYard Dublin

For brunch on Saturday we visited the EatYard on South Richmond Street. It's a little food market set up in a yard beside the George Bernard Shaw pub. 


When we went through the gates, we found lots of containers with different food offerings being sold from them.


Ciaran got a grilled cheese sandwich which he said was pretty good. I was undecided what to have and considered getting "fish and chips" at Veginity's stall until I discovered it was a vegetarian version of fish made with cassava and 4 different types of seaweed!!

I was also tempted by some bao buns from Pow Bao.


In the end I chose to have a buttermilk chicken burger (I didn't eat the bun!) from Pitt Bros and a portion of sweet potato fries from Burger Box.

The whole place is very laid back - the furniture looks like it is made from wooden pallets. We enjoyed it and will visit it again - but of course it would need to be on a sunny day as the whole place is outdoors, including the eating area.

After the Eatyard, Ciaran got given 2 tickets for the Leinster v. Wasps game in the Aviva. We set off walking to the stadium at about 2pm and got to see a very enjoyable game of rugby with Leinster winning!


Saturday seemed to go on forever because after the game I then called to Amy's for a cocktail and then we went on to the Gaiety Theatre so see The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

What a play!
A depressingly brilliant Irish tale.
In someways not quite the most enjoyable play to be watching on a Saturday night but sure it's always good to go to the theatre and to expose ones self to a bit of culture!