It’s a funny old world in general and in particular it’s a funny old social media world. I doubt that on a macro level the full impact of social media in its multitudinous forms on our lives is anywhere near fully understood: on a micro level I don’t fully comprehend the impact of social media as I engage with it on my own life. Case in point: Dublin’s Pigeon House (not) and my *Instagram feed.
Tag Archives: Dublin
Social Media and The Pigeon House (not)
Dublin: UNESCO City of Literature and a New Stamp

When I walk Dublin’s grey-flecked flagstone pavements I am only dimly aware of the ghostly echo of the literary giants who once trod those selfsame routes. The roll call of the great and good of Irish writers of yore who have connections with Dublin is lengthy: Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce …
Out and About Last Weekend
Last Saturday blithely ignoring that it was the sort of grim rain-sodden day that makes venturing outdoors foolhardy, I decided to go to the farmers’ market (Saturdays 10am to 4pm) at Kilruddery House, a historic house in County Wicklow that has been home to the Earls of Meath since the early 17th century.
Sunday in Dublin

Ye gods and little fishes, the weeks of January are cascading rapidly into each other and the month is whizzing by almost as fast as a waterfall flowing swiftly down a steep ravine. I realised that it is nearly January’s end and I had not yet spend a day at leisure in town (town as I mentioned before is what native Dubliners call the centre of their city). Time to rectify that so today I headed townward.
Filed under Culture, Dublin, Restaurants/Cafés
The Irish Architectural Archive
On the east side of Dublin’s two hundred and fifty year old Merrion Square there is a beautiful centuries old town house that is home to the Irish Architectural Archive. I have to confess, somewhat shamefacedly, that the first time I heard of the Irish Architectural Archive ( from now on refered to by its initials – IAA) was when I went to the pop-up shop they hosted a few weeks ago as part of The Christmas on The Square initiative. I knew the instant I walked through the IAA’s door into an imposing flooded-with-light, large, high-ceilinged hallway which houses a compelling exhibition of scale models of building designed by Eileen Grey, that it was somewhere I would want to revisit.
Christmas on The Square: Pop-Up Shop
As Christmas fast approaches my native land is not exactly a place high on hope as the dastardly pantomime villain Economic Woe and his evil side-kick Recession hold fast their icy grasp on this fiscally challenged isle. A troika of wise (?) men visit us regularly but instead of bearing gifts of gold (if only) frankincense and myrrh they bring instead directives for the implementation of austerity measures from their (and our!) masters at the IMF. Yet, despite all that, when I went, this Saturday, to visit the pop up shop that was part of Christmas on the Square I came away filled with hope.
Shopping in Dublin: Cleo
Cleo is an independent shop, located on the ground floor of a Georgian town house on Dublin’s Kildare Street, that sells clothes and a range of gift items. Cleo specializes in clothes and hand-knits made from natural Irish fibres such as: wool, linen and tweed.
Filed under Craft, Dublin, Shops/Shopping
Dublin: Vintage Photographs

One of the things I like about the photography class I recently enrolled in is that the subject is taught in the round. By that I mean the class is not just about the technical aspects of photography but instead takes an overview of the subject. For that I am truly grateful as in truth two and a half hours of tech detail every Tuesday evening would rapidly turn my brain to a mushy pea consistency.
Filed under Dublin, Ireland, Photography
Favourite Shops//Dolls
At the corner of two leafy streets, lined with period red brick townhouses, in a quite but interesting Dublin 8 residential neighbourhood, a mere stone’s throw from the city centre, is an alluring independent clothes shop – Dolls – owned by Petria Lenehan.
Filed under Designers, Dublin, Shops/Shopping, Style
Ursula Celano Notebook: Girls on Bikes

The weather on Monday was ark-appropriate: for ark-appropriate read insanely wet, wild and windy. So, I was in need of something cheering to take my mind off the incessant rain and the ubiquitous grey mist. And I found just the thing when I called into the Irish Design Shop’s branch in the RHA (Royal Hibernian Academy) and bought an Ursula Celano notebook which has an utterly charming cover a bit of which you see in the image above.
Filed under Craft, Designers, Ireland, Musings, Shops/Shopping