Hi all!

Since June of this year I am compiling this Dublin Event Guide on a weekly basis telling you about the best and most interesting free events in the Greater Dublin area. Many of you receive it since right from the beginning and I intend to continue writing it for quite some time. I get loads of great feedback every week (Apologies if I haven’t replied to your mail yet, I will do so as soon as possible!) and it seems that many of you make great use of this Event Guide and forward it to even more friends.

The time has come now where I need to ask YOU for a favour. :-) In order to raise the profile of this guide, so that we get more listings provided directly by organisers of free events, the number of subscriptions needs to increase further. Can you PLEASE help?

Could each of you please think of just THREE friends, family members or colleagues that might benefit from this guide and forward this weeks Event Guide to them, suggesting that they subscribe via dublineventguide@gmail.com if they want to receive it? – The Dublin Event Guide is and will always be free and will continue telling you about loads of FREE events in the Greater Dublin Area. I already have events gathered for spring and summer of 2008, so I will make sure that next year you will know about even more events! And just to remind you, I don’t make any money with it, it is just a hobby of mine.

THANKS for your help!!
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Now to the weekly programme! And, hey, Christmas is here! ;-)

This Saturday (1st), the Temple Bar Cultural Trust will launch their Christmas celebrations in the newly pedestrianised “Old City” area of Temple Bar with the switching on of the Christmas lights.
The “Old City” area will be home to the extended Cow’s Lane Fashion and Christmas Market this December with stalls trading every Saturday and Sunday (1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd) in December from 09:30 – 16:30.
The “Old City” area of Temple Bar is a new extension in the west end of Temple Bar between the Civic Offices and Parliament Street. I don’t think the name “Old City” is a clever choice, but you will probably have to get used to it.

The Instituto Cervantes is showing “Picasso: The Multiplicity of the Vertex” until the 18th Dec in Lincoln House, Lincoln Place at the back of Trinity College not too far from Merrion Square. This exhibition offers a look at the graphic works of Picasso and his illustrations for books such as “Le Cocu magnifique”, with texts from Camilo José Cela and “El entierro del Conde de Orgaz”. Admission is free and the opening hours are Monday to Thursday: 12:00-20:00, Friday: 12:00-17:00. Closed Saturdays and Sundays and 6th December.

Every Saturday and Sunday before Christmas the deer keepers in Phoenix park invite to a guided walk titled “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer”. You meet Santa on the way and the fallow deer in the majestic surroundings of Phoenix Park. Pre-booking is essential – contact the Office of Public works (OPW) on 01-8213021. The time has not been specified and I am not 100% sure if this event is free, but there are indications that it might be free.

For all parents among you, there is an interesting event in the Gresham Hotel in O’Connell Street on Saturday from 10:45 – 14:00. The topic is ‘Children’s Rights – Are they a Parent’s Nightmare?’. David Coleman, of the RTE One TV series ‘Families in Trouble’, is attending this special event for parents. Attendees will have the opportunity to quiz the presenter and clinical psychologist. The event is free and even lunch is provided, but you should register by calling (01) 6629400 or send an e-mail to mairead@childrensrights.ie

The Chubby Chef food company is organising an event on Saturday in The Corner Stone pub (1st floor) in 40 Wexford Street, D2 from 17:00 to 21:00. It is a Soups, Salads & Starters Tasting and there will be a buffet serving free samples. In addition food can be purchased to sit in or take away. Go to www.chubbychef.ie and select EVENTS, to find out more.

The Peppercanister Gallery invites to a Christmas Exhibition with these words: “Prepare for Christmas with The Peppercanister Gallery’s Annual Christmas Exhibition – a fantastic range of modern Irish paintings, drawings, sculpture, original prints and jewellery by some of Ireland’s finest artist.” www.peppercanister.com The Exhibition Runs from 29/11 until 22/12 and the Gallery is in 3 Herbert Park. Entrance is Free.

And since it is Christmas and therefore “present time”, more Galleries have special exhibitions that should help the visitors to find presents for their friends and family. For more hands-off or less affluent art lovers, you can just go and admire the art. ;-)
The Dame Street Gallery shows MagicLogic an exhibition of works from Jordie Fornies. (29/11 – 09/12 – www.damestreetgallery.com).
The Daffodil Art Gallery in Skerries has a Christmas Exhibition. More information and opening hours on www.daffodilgallery.com.
The SolomonGallery in Powerscourt Townhouse has a Christmas Exhibition  (www.solomongallery.com)
The StoneGallery (www.stonegallery.com) in Pearse Street will have a Christmas Exhibition as well from tomorrow, but hasn’t managed to update their website yet.
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This weeks Sunday at Noon Concert in the Hugh Lane Gallery (02/12 at 12:00) is featuring the ConTempo String Quartet and the premiere of three new string quartets by Irish composers, Ed Bennett, Rob Canning and David Flynn.

Do you want to take a step back in time with Glasnevin Cemetery’s Walking Tours? The originally only for October scheduled walking tours  have been resurrected for two more dates in December. This Sunday (2nd) and next Sunday (9th) between 11:00 and 14:00 a tour starts every 30 minutes and goes on for 1hr 30mins.
The tours will leave from the main entrance in Finglas Road and will offer an insight into the history Ireland’s largest cemetery – from its opening in 1832 right up to the present day. The tour will also take in the graves of some of Ireland’s most influential historical figures, including Charles Stewart Parnell, Maude Gonne, Daniel O’Connell, Eamonn DeValera, Michael Collins. (Phone: 8301133)
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Over the last weeks I reminded you of a free permanent event every week (Temple Bar Market, Government Buildings, National Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art) and I want to continue that this week:

For this week I have chosen another hidden secret of Dublin! Did you know that you can visit Mary McAleese’s gaff on Saturdays? Aras an Uachtarian, the President’s residence, can be visited on Saturday through a guided tour. The tours run in the winter from 10:15-15:30 and last approx. 1 hour. Free admission tickets are issued at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre on the day. Group and/or advance bookings are not possible. So if you always wanted to see the home and offices of the (formally) highest representative of all Irish people go to
www.president.ie/index.php?section=4&lang=eng the website explains how to get there and you can even watch a Virtual Tour to prepare yourself. I did the tour about 1.5 years ago and found it very interesting.

A selection of more free regular events is this:
The Globe in South Great George’s Street invites on Sundays from 17:30-19:30 to “Sunday Jazz”.
Thomas Reads in Smithfield invites on Sundays from 18:00-21:00 to “Sunday Groove – live music” with French Afro-groover Yann Dovi who is playing soul music of Marvin Gaye, Prince and Bob Marley.
The George in South Great George’s Street invites on Sundays from 16.00 – 18.30 to the music of the live Jazz group “Zrazy.
Bruxelles in Harry Street (off Grafton Street) invites to The Mary Stoke Band every Sunday from 18:00
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Oh, and a correction about a charged-for event: Two weeks ago I said that Dublin on Ice in Smithfield will not take place this year. This was correct for a while! Dublin City was looking for a cheaper operator, wasn’t successful and canceled the ice rink in Smithfield. However they found an agreement and the ice rink will open today. So this year, Booterstown, the RDS, Smithfield and Liffey Valley will be “on ice”. All charge quite handsomely for the pleasure to skate around for a bit. However, as the only location goskate.ie in Booterstown does not charge an entrance fee for spectators and therefore I mention them here favourably.
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Here is an advance notice for a free festival for which you need to get tickets soon:
The Printing House Festival of New Music 2007 will take place in the Printing House in Trinity College on 15/16 of Dec. And this is the official promo text “PHFNM 2007 collates the diverse fruits of Morton Feldman’s influence as a composer. The festival is enclosed by two of Feldman’s own works. The first, ‘The King of Denmark’, is an early piece for percussion, so quiet, that its performer, Richard O’Donnell, chooses to remove his shoes. Japanese pianist Aki Takahashi is joined by ex-Arditti Quartet cellist Rohan de Saram and Canadian violinist Marc Sabat to perform Feldman’s ‘Trio’, a much later, longer work which encapsulates the delicate beauty of his later period. With additional performances plus three new festival-commissioned works PHFNM 07 presents dozens of Irish and world premiéres on an open and accessible platform this December 15th and 16th. Admission is free to all events, but advance booking is advised.” Tickets can be booked at www.printinghousefestival.com.

And finally a reminder of some relevant days in the calender this week: On Saturday (01/12) is the World Aids Day and on Monday (03/12) is the International Day of Disabled Persons. Unfortunately the relevant organisations don’t advertise openly for events going hand in hand with these days. A missed chance!

From now on this Event Guide will even get fuller with Christmas Events and in addition I am in discussions about getting tickets for a post-Christmas event. I will tell you more about that next week.

Now, enjoy the Christmas atmosphere, but don’t get stressed out (yet), there is still another 25 days to go! :-)
And PLEASE do remember to tell your friends and families about this Event Guide, so that we can grow the Dublin Event Guide Community!!! ;-)

Have a nice weekend!

–Joerg

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Disclaimer: This Event Guide with a difference is sent to friends, colleagues and whoever else is interested to let you know about (mostly free) events in the Greater Dublin Area! Ticketed events usually make enough money to do their own advertisement, they don’t need extra help.
I started this because some friends asked me to share my weekend plans with them as I went to all types of festivals and searched for more. ;-) If you don’t want to receive this mail, just let me know. If you have feedback, good or bad, PLEASE tell me. If you want to be added to the mailing list or know somebody who would like to receive this guide, just send a mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com.
BTW: I have no affiliation with any of the organisers and don’t get any “reward” from them for advertising their events.
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