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Winter in Dublin

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Cult Irish band Bagatelle famously ‘remembered that summer in Dublin’, more recently Fáilte Ireland have been promoting Winter in Dublin.

For me in my 13 years an Irishman there were a couple of white Christmases.

And I remember one Snowmageddon and a slippy Leeson Street when I slipped and fell.

Dublin, and Ireland, in truth has never been as prepared as Northern countries for icy grips.

And the sight of Beamers (BMW( abandoned on the dualler (dual carriageway).

En route from plush rugby central Ballsbridge through to Chez Murty in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, was commonplace.

Ariel House of Fun

Wilde stuff: Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square

Of course, winter lockdowns were fortunately rare.

Welcome when it means you get put up in the work’s local hotel, the award-winning Ariel House, for the night.

Light frosting on Herbert Park, Stephen’s Green, Merrion Square and Phoenix Park make Dublin a picturesque winter city.

And I will be wallowing in The Fair City’s winter welcome on a whistlestop trip to my old stomping ground this week.

Night fever

Pat’s the way: At St Patrick’s Cathedral

Kicking off this month and new this year, Dublin by Night Fest is a two-day festival from November 2.

Celebrating the magic of music, arts and culture in Dublin with brass bands, buskers and circus performers to a live outdoor movie screening.

For lit lovers (guilty) The Dublin Book Festival runs from November 8-12.

While later next month The Jonathan Swift Festival will be held in the ornate St Patrick’s Cathedral.

With debates, performances and immersive tours.

Here indoors

Little belter: The Little Museum of Ireland

And because it can get chilly in the winter…

You’ll no doubt visit the must-sees, The Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Kilmainham Gaol and ‘the Dead Zoo’ (The National Museum of Ireland’.

But a fave with locals is The Little Museum of Ireland.

This winter it is offering late night tours with a festive tipple on Thursdays, Friday’s and Saturdays through November.

While the National Gallery of Ireland, our go-to when waiting for the Scary One doing her shopping in Grafron Street is warming up for winter.

The National Gallery has after dark events including ‘Meet the Maker’, evening concerts and Spanish themed experiences.

Light up, light up

The city and many venues around it will host light events including Wonder Lights at Malahide Castle from November 10.

Wild Lights” will also return to Dublin Zoo from November 16.

And many of the events, activities and markets take place from November.

And carry all the way through December into January.

Ice, ice maybe

Which all budding ice skaters (fave family memories) in Dun Laoghaire and Blanchardstown will run well into the New Year.

So I’ll be packing my scarf in my hand luggage and taking a deep breath to inhale again the Irish air and my winter in Dublin.

Countries, Ireland

Art of the Dublin DART

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When you’ve spent whole days on the train going in and out to Dublin then you learn to appreciate the art of the Dublin DART.

It’s there outside the window, of course, Greystones in County Wicklow with its new pier and brightly-coloured houses that acted as beacons for fishermen.

The tunnel under Bray Head, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which brings you out parallel to the promenade.

Dun Laoghaire, with its pier where locals and holidaymakers still perambulate and the Forty Foot sea swimming area which Leopold Bloom visits in James Joyce‘s Ulysses.

The millionaires playground that is Killiney and Dalkey which doubles for the Bay of Naples in movie sets and where the likes of Bono and Enya live.

And into Sandymount and Ballsbridge and Lansdowne Road in D4, the South Dublin postcode where movers and shakers going back to WB Yeats live.

Touch down at Lansdowne Road

Ireland’s call: Against Scotland at the Aviva

Now go and play and watch rugby at the stadium on the aforementioned street, now corporatised as the Aviva.

And there I would stop and make my way to Embassy House, on the verge of Embassy Park where you would often see Dublin’s high society walk their dogs.

On the occasions I would hop the DART to get into Dublin city centre (I preferred to walk) I would take in the Grand Canal Dock, home to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, among the modern office buildings.

Pearse de resistance

Picture gallery: But go to the National Gallery instead

And either stop off at Pearse Station, a spit away from Trinity College and the Irish government buildings and the National Gallery…

The home to Titians, Rembrandts, Brueghel (Younger and Elder), Vermeer, Picasso et Monet, among others.

And naturally the best of Irish – John Lavery, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy and William Orpen.

And a separate wing to Jack B Yeats, WB’s brother (see it all comes around).

Thrill of Tara

You’ll know you’re in the centre of the centre of the city when you alight at Tara Street where cousins’ pub The Workshop still has the Kennedys livery on it and now a wonderful squirrel mural.

Take in the bridges across the Liffey and amble along one of the finest statued streets anywhere, O’Connell Street, with the Great Liberator Daniel O’Connell at the head.

And ‘King’ Charles Stewart Parnell at the foot. With the likes of a fist-pumping ‘man of the people’ Jim Larkin and other Irish heroes along the way.

By which time you will be venturing into North Dublin territory… and any self-respecting South Dubliner or someone who works there doesn’t venture further than that.

Malahide of your life

And nor did I, except to see my relatives who live out in the North Dublin suburbs of Portmarnock or Malahide, while the Howth peninsula too has its charms

Now should you be a fan of Adrian Dunbar, and if not, Jesus, Mary and Joseph and his Little Donkey why not?…

Then you will have seen him in my old Greystones stomping ground on the DART platform.

And, of course ,this is one trigger (as if I need one) to go off track with my erstwhile DART journey.

Take a LEAP

That, and the fact that I will be fetching out my LEAP card to travel again on it in a whistlestop trip to Dublin in a week and a half.

And that Iarnrod Eireann, who still keep in touch (I must owe some money or have a violation pending) have sent some info on what you can see from the DART to out on the water.

With stickers to draw young and old celebrating Dublin Bay Biosphere.

And, yes, that’s the art of the Dublin DART… so get out and enjoy.

Asia, Caribbean, Countries, Europe

Going out by staying in in the heatwave

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How to stay safe in this 40C greenhouse, this is going out by staying in in the heatwave.

A day at the museum

And what better way to stay cool than a day at the museum

Where Dubliners (and all of us tbf) flock to public parks in the sunny weather we head for the museums.

And more specifically the National Gallery of Ireland.

Where among the national, international, Classical, Renaissance and Low Countries art the biggest group gathered around a Vermeer.

As you do.

If you’re familiar with Lady Writing A Letter With Her Maid then you might notice something different.

Visitor listening intently at the back to the tour guide.

Now a tip to tailgaters, make sure you’ve got space to stay out of sight.

Difficult, of course, when you’re in the Capuchin Crypt in Rome and your nosey 13-year-old is still trying to learn the rules.

Go for a dip

Sail away: The Cool Runnings catamaran on Barbados

If you can barge others on the beach out of the way to get to the sea.

We’re grateful again to friends in Ireland for sharing a picture of friends making a pool out of a skip.

Now, it might seem counter-intuitive but you’ll stay cooler in inside swimming baths.

While you’re also more likely not to put sunscreen on when going into the sea and get burnt.

As I found to my cost on a catamaran off Bridgetown, Barbados.

Now few do indoor public baths better than the UNESCO heritage-listed Great Spa Towns of Europe.

And we can thoroughly recommend Czechia and Marianske Lazne.

Though King Edward VII’s bath in Hotel Nove Lazne looks a bit small and tinny.

Instead head for the Roman bath but be sure to remember where you put your gown.

It wouldn’t do to have a wee Japanese woman chasing you around the ornate baths.

Massage your limbs

And lie back and think of… well, there’s been all stops from Barbados through Istanbul to the Maldives.

And all have left me soothed and becalmed though out of lotalty and reality none as magical than at Whitekirk in North Berwick, near Edinburgh.

Where Daddy’s Little Girl is the coolest of them all.

If you can’t stand the heat

Family dinner: In the Blue Crab in Tobago

Get into the kitchen.

Yes, cooking classes on-site at your hotel can remove you from the steaming heat of the outside.

You’ll be well aired and watered (or wined), learn a new skill.

And maybe even as with Uncle Kenneth and Auntie Ali in the Blue Crab in Tobago become one of the family.

Just stay in bed

Champagne on ice: In the Skiwelt, Austria

And enjoy the best thing you can get for free.

No, not that, you smutty divil, anyway you’ll just end up sweatier than before.

Well, if you can get away then head for the snow, obvs.

We visited the Alpeniglu in Austria’s Skiwelt and while out of season the snows have melted the memories have not.

Now while the polar cap is also taking a hit, hence the heatwaves, there’s still plenty of ice, ice baby.

And in Sweden they claim to have the world’s first ice hotel complete with a night’s stay among ice art.

So, that’s the answer. Going out by staying in the heatwave.