Dublin Event Guide 534: Airfield Food Festival, Emergency Service Display, Liffey Swim, Fusion Sunday Market, Honey Show, Nepal Day

A weekly car boot sale, one of less than a handful that is still reliably taking place, has up to 200 cars/sellers. The stadium is just a few minutes walk from the Red LUAS line stop and numerous bus stops. For traders the Car Boot Sale opens at 06:30 for buyers from 08:00. If you are interested in selling, check the details and register on their website.

Airfield Estate is an active/working farm in Dundrum that is open to the public. They are open for visitors every day, but since there is admission charge, you normally wouldn’t read about it here in the “Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events)”. This weekend, however, things are different. The Airfield Fesival of Food will take place on Saturday and Sunday and admission is free.

There will be more than 40 food producers selling their products and in addition family activities (e.g. Workshops for kids, farmyard tours, foraging walks, chicken feeding and a house tour) and a whole range of workshops and talks for grown ups about honey, ice cream, druit pruning, cheese, children’s nutrition, coffee, kefir and kombucha and archaeology of food will take place.

Admission is free. Parking is very limited so public transport use is strongly recommended. The Ballaly LUAS Stop (Green Line) is nearby.

The weekly Honest2goodness food market in Glasnevin has fresh meat, vegetables, fish, baked goods, and wines. It is open from 09:30-16:00. It is behind Lidl in the Industrial Estate just after the Glasnevin Cemetary coming from the City Centre.

Parkrun Ireland is organising free weekly runs in parks. It is a timed run over 5km and participation is completely free, but registration before your first parkrun is required.

A whole range of Parkruns take place every week (and if you know some more, please tell me):
+ Malahide Park, Dublin Road, Malahide, Co. Dublin
+ Cabinteely Park, Old Bray Road, Cabinteely, Dublin 18
+ Shanganagh Park, Shankill, Co. Dublin
+ Marlay Park, Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin, Co. Dublin
+ St. Anne’s Park, Raheny, Dublin 5
+ Father Collins Park, Donaghmeade/Clongriffin, Dublin 13
+ Tymon Park, Tallaght, Dublin 24
+ Bushy Park, Terenure, Dublin 6

The SuperNatural Food Market is taking place every Saturday from 09:30-15:30 in St. Andrews Resource Centre in Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

The Green Door Market is a new indoor food/Farmer’s Market that takes place just a few doors down from the Dublin Food Co-op at Newmarket in Dublin 8. Admission is free.

Opening hours are Thu-Fri 12:00-19:00 and Sat 09:30-16:00.

The Belgard Weekend Market is an indoor market with stalls with handcraft (incl. designer jewellery, aran jumpers and wool, christening robes and shawls, cards and cross stitch), household items, bric and brac, furniture, flowers, make-up, clothes, shoes, showers, upholstery, toys, kitchens, cafe, army memorabilia, collectors items, sweets, handbags books, blinds, party shop, tools and more.

It is open every Saturday and Sunday and is located in the Glen Abbey complex (opposite Jacobs) on Belgard Road.

This event really is only appealing to participants, but maybe you want to watch the races from Grand Canal Quay. No other entertainment/food stalls etc are provided though, so don’t expect any programme.

The Dublin Dragon Boat Regatta will take place in the Grand Canal Quay and you can watch it from Grand Canal Square.

Jamestown Flea Market + Car Boot Sale takes place every Sat+Sun from 10:00-17:00. You can reach it from Tyrconnell Road and from Kylemore Road and it is within 3 min from Black Horse stop on the red Luas line. There is free parking.

The County Council Market (CoCo) in Marlay Park is taking place every Saturday and Sunday. You will find a wide range of products. There will be food to eat there and food to cook at home but also crafts and arts and books and lots more.

Sculpture in Context is back!! It is Ireland’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition and it is a brilliant exhibition in the beautiful surroundings of the National Botanic Gardens. Some of Ireland’s best artists are showing new work and the sculptures are displayed throughout the gardens, ponds, Great Palm House and Curvilinear Range, with the smaller works exhibited in the in the gallery in the Visitors Centre.

The exhibition will be open form 07 Sept and will run until 20 October.

Admission is free and apart from seeing some very interesting sculptures, it is also fun to go on a “treasure hunt” for these sculptures which are sprinkled throughout the Botanic Gardens.

Selfbuild Live is a show for everybody who wants to build their own house or improve or extend or decorate their home. There will be more than 150 exhibitors, seminars, advice clinics and discussions and the whole event runs from Friday until Sunday (08-10 Sept).

Admission is free but booking is requried via the website below. Use the discount code WEB if you are asked anywhere (otherwise tickets could cost EUR 10).

The Temple Bar Markets (Food Market on Meeting House Square, Book Market on Temple Bar Square and the Designer Mart near Cow’s Lane) are taking place every Saturday from 10:00-16:30.

The Franchise Show will be back at the RDS on 08 and 09 September this year. If you are looking for an opportunity to invest in a Franchise, you find lots of well established business opportunities at this show. There will also be seminars and 1-to-1 advise.

Admission is free and you can book your tickets via the link below.

Dublin City Hall has a museum/exhibition in the basement, called “The Story of the Capital”, it is an exhibition that you should definitely check out at some stage.

To celebrate the Easter Rising Anniversary, admission to that exhibititon was free in 2016, but lucky for us, Dublin City decided to also waive the admission charge for 2017.

Opening hours are Monday-Saturday 10:00-17:15.

The Drumcondra Village Market is now the “Art, Bites, Crafts Drumcondra Market”. And as you guessed it, it is an arts and crafts fair in the centre of Drumcondra. :-) There will also be some food and music.

The market is open on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30-15:30.

Admission is free.

At the Blackrock Market in the centre of Blackrock, you’ll find 50 stalls selling collectibles, antiques, handmade goods, books, food & there’s free popcorn, ballons & facepainting for the kids.
Open on Saturdays and Bank Holidays: 11:00-17:30, and Sundays: 12:00-17:30.

The Bread & Roses Festival will started on Friday and will continue on Saturday. There will be discussion groups, workshops, art & performances focused on the fight for equality, particularly “Repeal the 8th” is what the organisation ROSA, who organises the festival, is fighting for.

Find out all details via the link below.

FESSEF is the Frontline Emergency & Security Services Eire Forum, which includes the Irish emergency and security services (e.g. Garda, Fire Brigade, Prison Service, Ambulance Service, Coast Guard, Civil Defence, Red Cross, Order of Malta, St John Ambulance, RNLI and a few more).

The FESSEF organisation is inviting to their yearly “Open Door” event and the two events that take place on Saturday are a Parade and a Services Display.

The parade assembles at 11:30 and starts at 12:00. It will go from Parnell Square to Trinity College via O’Connell Street and will consist of bands, vehicles and personnel of the emergency and security services.

And from 11:00-16:00 a Services Display will happen in the main courtyard of Trinity College. Participating services and personnel will showcase their equipment and capabilities.

Admission is free.

The Terenure Bushy Park Market is taking place every weekk. The market has more than 30 stalls, offering a whole variety of foods and crafts.

Admission is free.

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

The weekly Ha’penny Flea Market is an indoor market in the Grand Social Pub, which offers vintage Men and Women’s clothing, contemporary crafts, books, DVDs, vinyl records, vintage and handmade jewellery, vintage hair styles, art, photography and much more. Grand Social’s Bar and Gourmet Coffee options are available.

The exhibition “SOUND CHECK” (09 June – 24 September) in the Science Gallery is looking the influence sound has on our life. THe exhibition looks at lots of interesting ways to create sound.

It is highly interactive exhibition with lots of oppoertunities to create sound/make noise. Some of the main exhibits are a big sound pinball table, a synthesiser on a bike, musical swings, a room full of Moog Synthesiser equipment, a Uranium controlled Xylophone and there are fice “Sonic Bikes” that you cyn pre-book and loan out for a 1 hour guided tour in Dublin.

The exhibition is suitable for ALL ages, even younger children will be able to take part and nobody will be bored.

Use the help of the amazing mediators, who can explain everything you see, especially if you don’t want to read all the explanations that are next to every exhibit.

The Science Gallery has very visitor friendly opening hours of Tue-Fri 12:00-20:00 and Sat+Sun 12:00-18:00.

Admission is free.

As part of the current “Sound Check” exhibition in the Science Gallery you can rent out a bike to experience Dublin in a completely different way:

Ya slip ta bang is an interactive composition mapped over the streets of Dublin that will unfold for you as you ride ‘sonic bikes’ along specific routes of the city. Accompanied by electronic music, the composition tells the story of recovering he roin addict Lucy Dolan as she returns to the city, revisiting important places in her life.

The sonic bike is a bicycle with frame-mounted speakers that plays different sounds and music dependent on where the cyclist goes and how fast they ride, via a mounted location-sensitive system.

The bikes can be rented for free for up to 1 hour on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday between 12:30 and 16:00. The rules and conditions are on the website below and that is also where you book the bikes.

Archive at Lunchtime screenings take place Saturdays (Double Bill), Mondays and Wednesdays. The programme is changing weekly now (instead of monthly as in the past). To find out what film(s) will be screened go to www.ifi.ie/whatson/now-showing-coming-soon/ and look for “Archive at Lunchtime” on the right. Admission is free.

The guided tour “The National Library’s History & Heritage” will take place. Explore the Library’s rich architectural history and heritage. The tour begins in the main hall of the Library and includes a visit to the Library’s iconic reading room.

Admission is free and all are welcome.

The 98th yearly Dublin Liffey Swim will take place on Saturday. It first took place in 1920 to show Dubliners how clean the water in the Liffey is. :-O Not something I would want to try, but hundreds take part every year and swim the 2200 metres and you can follow them on the quays or positioning yourself on one of the many (12!!) bridges from start at Rory O’Moore Bridge at Watlin Street (direction of Heuston Station) to the finish at the Loop Line Bridge, which is the railway bridge at Custom House.

Last year 267 men and 147 women took part. The race will start at 13:30, but I am not sure if men and women will swim together or if there are two races.

Spectating is free.

Every Saturday a free guided tour will take place in the Chester Betty Library. The tour starts at 14:00.

In addition there is another free tour every Wednesday at 13:00 and one on Sundays at 15:00

Every Saturday a kid’s book will be read in 27 Eason’s stores all over Ireland. In O’Connell Street the reading takes place at 14:00. In the other Eason Stores, the times vary between 11:00 and 15:00 (see website below). Suitable for age 0-6 with their parents.

Admission is free.

A free guided tour will take place at the National War Memorial at Islandbridge every Saturday at 14:00 from March until the end of October.

The tour will focus on World War I, in which so many Irishmen died. You will also hear about the main features of the gardens at this tour.

Meeting point is the car park at 14:00 (next to the Trinity College Boat Club). For further information and to check that it is taking place, contact 01-8155914 (Farmleigh House).

The South Dublin Model Raliway will display a model of Lucan South Railway Station as it was in the 1950s and with the rail line to Baldonnel. The event will be part of the Lucan Festival.

It was not stated on the Facebook Page if admission is free, but it also didn’t state that there is an admission charge, so let’s hope that it is free.

The Natural History Museum is running a family event called “Teddy Bear Tour” at 14:15 and 15:30.

Learn more about animals that are usually made into cuddly toys, but who are not all friendly in real life. Don’t forget to bring your own favourite teddy bear.

Admission is free, but places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come first served basis 15 minutes before the tour starts.

The Stillorgan Orchard has live music every Friday and Saturday. Many of the performers are established and very good bands. The upcoming gigs are detailed on the website below. Admission is always free.

Psychedelic Funk Rock band Mescalito will play a gig in the Harbour Bar.

Admission is free.

Blues Quartet “Cat Burglars” will play a gig in Sin E.

Admission will be free.

Steven Mangan and his band “The Kings of Swing” will play a gig in the Mint Bar in the Westin Hotel.

Admission is free.

Post Grunge band Three Underneath and support act Long Tail will play a gig in Whelan’s.

Admission is free before 22:30 or if you sing up to the guest list.

The party and wedding band “The Goods” will play a gig in the Bowery.

Admission is free.

Live Hip Hop Band “Gin ‘n’ Juice” are playing a gig in the Grand Social.

Admission is free.

Party Band Revolver will be back in the Porterhouse in Temple Bar.

Admission is free.

In addition to the Saturday Car Boot Sale in Tallaght, Irish Car Boot Sales run a weekly Sunday Car Boot Sales in Ballymun.

Admission for buyers is free.

Airfield Estate is an active/working farm in Dundrum that is open to the public. They are open for visitors every day, but since there is admission charge, you normally wouldn’t read about it here in the “Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events)”. This weekend, however, things are different. The Airfield Fesival of Food will take place on Saturday and Sunday and admission is free.

There will be more than 40 food producers selling their products and in addition family activities (e.g. Workshops for kids, farmyard tours, foraging walks, chicken feeding and a house tour) and a whole range of workshops and talks for grown ups about honey, ice cream, druit pruning, cheese, children’s nutrition, coffee, kefir and kombucha and archaeology of food will take place.

Admission is free. Parking is very limited so public transport use is strongly recommended. The Ballaly LUAS Stop (Green Line) is nearby.

The Belgard Weekend Market is an indoor market with stalls with handcraft (incl. designer jewellery, aran jumpers and wool, christening robes and shawls, cards and cross stitch), household items, bric and brac, furniture, flowers, make-up, clothes, shoes, showers, upholstery, toys, kitchens, cafe, army memorabilia, collectors items, sweets, handbags books, blinds, party shop, tools and more.

It is open every Saturday and Sunday and is located in the Glen Abbey complex (opposite Jacobs) on Belgard Road.

This event really is only appealing to participants, but maybe you want to watch the races from Grand Canal Quay. No other entertainment/food stalls etc are provided though, so don’t expect any programme.

The Dublin Dragon Boat Regatta will take place in the Grand Canal Quay and you can watch it from Grand Canal Square.

A food and craft market will take place in Farmleigh House again. The Nepal Day also takes place this Sunday and you will find it listed separately in this Dublin Event Guide.

Admission to the market is free.

Jamestown Flea Market + Car Boot Sale takes place every Sat+Sun from 10:00-17:00. You can reach it from Tyrconnell Road and from Kylemore Road and it is within 3 min from Black Horse stop on the red Luas line. There is free parking.

The Magazine Fort in Phoenix Park is unusually neglected and at the same time unusually rich in history. Many have seen it as a barred off concrete fortress in a corner of Phoenix Park and even more don’t even know or have forgotten that it exists. The old Phoenix House, the home of the British Viceroy, was on the site where the fort was built from the early 17th century and then in 1734 the Fort was built and extended in 1801.

In 1916 the Fort was raided by the rebels who expected to find a lot of explosives there, but found the Fort nearly empty. In 1939 the IRA raided the Fort and stole more than a million rounds of ammunition, but most of it was recovered over the following weeks.

Since 1988, the Irish Army doesn’t use the Fort anymore and gave it back to the Office of Public Works (OPW), but not much good has happened to the Fort in the last 28 years (!!) and there were numerous speculations about the reasons for that.

Finally since last year, guided tours were provided and were meant to run for three months until end of October 2016. But the interest was so great that the OPW decided to continue the tours with a reduced schedule over the winter. And since 02 April there will be tours again every Friday and Sunday at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 + 15:00 and only 20 places are available on each tour.

Tickets are available at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre on a first come, first served basis and can not be pre-booked. A shuttle bus will bring the ticket holders to the Fort.

The County Council Market (CoCo) in Marlay Park is taking place every Saturday and Sunday. You will find a wide range of products. There will be food to eat there and food to cook at home but also crafts and arts and books and lots more.

Every Sunday, the Merrion Square Open Air Art Gallery takes place. Up to 200 artists exhibit their paintings on the railings on three sides (West, North and East) of Merrion Square and you can just enjoy the exhibition or even buy.

Sculpture in Context is back!! It is Ireland’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition and it is a brilliant exhibition in the beautiful surroundings of the National Botanic Gardens. Some of Ireland’s best artists are showing new work and the sculptures are displayed throughout the gardens, ponds, Great Palm House and Curvilinear Range, with the smaller works exhibited in the in the gallery in the Visitors Centre.

The exhibition will be open form 07 Sept and will run until 20 October.

Admission is free and apart from seeing some very interesting sculptures, it is also fun to go on a “treasure hunt” for these sculptures which are sprinkled throughout the Botanic Gardens.

Selfbuild Live is a show for everybody who wants to build their own house or improve or extend or decorate their home. There will be more than 150 exhibitors, seminars, advice clinics and discussions and the whole event runs from Friday until Sunday (08-10 Sept).

Admission is free but booking is requried via the website below. Use the discount code WEB if you are asked anywhere (otherwise tickets could cost EUR 10).

The Drumcondra Village Market is now the “Art, Bites, Crafts Drumcondra Market”. And as you guessed it, it is an arts and crafts fair in the centre of Drumcondra. :-) There will also be some food and music.

The market is open on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30-15:30.

Admission is free.

A weekly market with lots of food, but also many other products (art & crafts, books, etc) takes place every Sunday in the beautiful People’s Park in Dun Laoghaire. It is a very popular market and with around 50 vendors also one of the bigger markets.

In connection with the National Gallery’s Vermeer exhibition a day of events for the whole family with a theme of “The Dutch Golden Age” will take place on Sunday.

10:00-17:00 Inspiration and Rivalry: After Vermeer
A display of works created by contemporary artists Brian Fay, Dragana Jurisic, and Maser in response to the Vermeer exhibition.

11:00-16:00 Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age
A drop-in library and archive display, highlighting rare books and archival material from our collection associated with the Dutch Golden Age.

11:30-13:30 Exploring the Stars
A drop-in family workshop taking Vermeer and the artists of the Dutch Golden Age as inspiration.

11:30 Setting the Scene: Public Tour
A free public tour of the permanent collection, looking particularly at Dutch works on display.

12:00-16:00 Dutch Golden Details: Tropical Popical
Some of the team from the award-winning Dublin nail salon Tropical Popical will be in the Gallery creating tiny nail art masterpieces inspired by Vermeer and his contemporaries.

12.30-13:30 Sunday Screening: Vermeer’s The Art of Painting
A free art documentary screening in the Lecture Theatre

13:30-15:00 Performance Art: RIAM and RHA collaboration
A performance and spectacle where you can see and hear both musicians and artists as they work in unison. The RIAM will perform music of the Dutch Golden Age on instruments of the time, while members of the RHA will record the scene live.

14:00-15:30 Make your own Astrolabe
Staff from the Chester Beatty Library will facilitate this very special drop-in session where you can learn about Astrolabes – what they are, how they work – and you can even make your very own. (Suitable for children and families)

14:00-16:00 17th Century soundscape demo
Science Gallery Dublin present Noise Studio, the interactive makerspace from their summer exhibition Sound Check. Visitors can get to grips with sound looping, circuits, synths and soundscapes created in response to the Vermeer exhibition.

15:00 Stories from the Dutch Golden Age
Storytelling session with Shelby Todd for children and families

15:00 Once more, with feeling: Ter Borch and the painting of expression
A public lecture with art historian William Gallagher.

Admission is free to all events. Places could be limited.

The next Fusion Sundays Market will take place this Sunday in the Dublin Food Co-op.

It is a world culture market, an ethnic Bazaar, that focuses on the diverse ethnic culture present in Ireland today. The Market features a huge array of International stalls, ethnic food, live music and entertainment for kids. You can buy handmade goods, arts and crafts, recycled products, jewellery, clothes and food. The market is held every second Sunday of the month.

There is always a great atmosphere and I definitely recommend this monthly market.

Admission is free.

For Sunday the Dublin Cycling Campaign is organising another protest cycle along the Liffey to push for the Liffey Cycling Route.

Meeting point is at the Wellington Memorial on Chesterfield Avenue in Phoenix Park at 10:30 and the cycle will then start at 11:00. If you can’t make it to the starting point, you can join on the route.

The cycle will end in Phibsborough at Bang Bang cafe where music will be provided and you can buy refreshments.

[Thanks to Jef B, who helps the Cycling Campaign a lot more than they might know, for telling me about this event. ;-) ]

The well known Palestrina Choir sing every Sunday at the mass in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. They sing complete masterworks by Mozart, Haydn, Dvorak, Palestrina, de Victoria, usually accompanied by Prof. Gerard Gillen on the organ, who often also plays a solo piece.

The Phoenix Park Honey Show will take place this weekend and it comes with an exhibition, tours and a number of talks to learn lots more about Phoenix Park and Honey Bees.

There are tours of the Walled Gardens with particular focus on Horticulture and Biodiversity and of Ashtown Castle. The talks are about honey bees and honey bee friendly garden plants.

Admission is free.

The National Gallery is running a series of free themed family drop-in workshops from 11:30-13:30 every Sunday.

Inspired by the collection and the exhibitions in the National Gallery, these workshops are suitable for all ages from approx. 18 months to age 8. You can choose to stay for as long or as short a time as works for you.

The space will be divided by age and ability, and each child will be encouraged by Artist and NGI Education Assistant Caomhán Mac Con Iomaire and the week’s guest artist to create their own work on the week’s theme.

Admission is free and no booking required. Numbers are limited to 40 people at any one time but you can drop in and out whenever it suits you and as long as there is still space. Children have to be supervised at all times. The event takes place in the Atrium.

This week’s theme is: Exploring the stars

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

The 12th Lock Harvest Festival will feature a food village, vintage stalls, arts and crafts, face painting and more.

Admission is free.

At the Blackrock Market in the centre of Blackrock, you’ll find 50 stalls selling collectibles, antiques, handmade goods, books, food & there’s free popcorn, ballons & facepainting for the kids.
Open on Sundays: 12:00-17:30. Open on Saturdays and Bank Holidays: 11:00-17:30.

The non-profit humanity organisation “Human Appeal” is inviting to a Family Day at the Park Community Centre with face-painting, henna, quizzes, games, fun activities for kids, BBQ, food stalls, and stalls with clothes, perfume and organic food.

Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.

Every Sunday, the National Botanic Gardens invite to two guided walks. The first one is at 12:00 and the second one at 14:30.

Admission is free.

Nepal Day in Farmleigh House is a display and celebration of Nepalese culture and arts with a Nepal Photographic
Exhibition, Nepalese handcraft stalls, talks on mountaineering and climbing in Nepal, Nepalese cultural dances and
music.

Neither the Farmleigh House site nor the Nepal Ireland site at www.nepalireland.org provides any further details about the sequence and timing of events. So you will have to chance it.

Admission is free.

If you have a special interest in Nepal, also check out the Nepal Conference on Monday in Filmbase at www.nepalireland.org/nepal-conference—ireland-2017

The exhibition “SOUND CHECK” (09 June – 24 September) in the Science Gallery is looking the influence sound has on our life. THe exhibition looks at lots of interesting ways to create sound.

It is highly interactive exhibition with lots of oppoertunities to create sound/make noise. Some of the main exhibits are a big sound pinball table, a synthesiser on a bike, musical swings, a room full of Moog Synthesiser equipment, a Uranium controlled Xylophone and there are fice “Sonic Bikes” that you cyn pre-book and loan out for a 1 hour guided tour in Dublin.

The exhibition is suitable for ALL ages, even younger children will be able to take part and nobody will be bored.

Use the help of the amazing mediators, who can explain everything you see, especially if you don’t want to read all the explanations that are next to every exhibit.

The Science Gallery has very visitor friendly opening hours of Tue-Fri 12:00-20:00 and Sat+Sun 12:00-18:00.

Admission is free.

The Sundays at Noon Concert Series continues in the Sculpture Gallery at the Hugh Lane Gallery. This series of free (mainly classical) concerts continues to present the best of Irish and International music and musicians. Concerts run from September to June.

The next concert will feature the Paderewski Trio performing works by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

The Zero Waste Festival consits of a whole week of events around Dublin. Each day the focus will be on a different theme and there will be activities to help, inspire and inform. Further details (free tickets are required for some events) at www.zerowastefestival.ie/about_festival.html
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The final event is a on Sunday a Community Day at Bridgefoot Street Community Garden. Garden tour, followed by a wildflower identification walk with Wildflower Walks Ireland and Zero Waste Comedy in The Ha’Penny Bridge Inn (15:00-17:00). Details for this day are at www.zerowastefestival.ie/SundayStroll.html
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For more details check the link below or go to www.zerowastefestival.ie

As part of the current “Sound Check” exhibition in the Science Gallery you can rent out a bike to experience Dublin in a completely different way:

Ya slip ta bang is an interactive composition mapped over the streets of Dublin that will unfold for you as you ride ‘sonic bikes’ along specific routes of the city. Accompanied by electronic music, the composition tells the story of recovering he roin addict Lucy Dolan as she returns to the city, revisiting important places in her life.

The sonic bike is a bicycle with frame-mounted speakers that plays different sounds and music dependent on where the cyclist goes and how fast they ride, via a mounted location-sensitive system.

The bikes can be rented for free for up to 1 hour on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday between 12:30 and 16:00. The rules and conditions are on the website below and that is also where you book the bikes.

A carnival event for the whole family is back in Cabinteely Park on Sunday. Carnival Performers will amaze and astound in front of Cabinteely House from 13:00-17:00. Come with your family to watch the performances and there will even be a chance to participate and learn some circus skills.

This year’s line up is:

+ The Amazing Kwabana Lindsay (Rope Walking Act)
The Amazing Kwabana Lindsay will teeter on his tightrope and fiddle a jig. Brilliant balance and stunning skills are guaranteed to stagger the carnival crowds.

+ Lulu’s World (Clown Show)
Join Lulu in her own silent world of make believe. Who needs words when you have a blank canvas and a marker? Lulu’s exquisite clowning will warm your hearts and blow your mind.

There will also be a Bouncy Castle, an Antique Carousel, Circus Skills classes for the budding performers, Facepainters, Stiltwalkers, Juggler and Mime Artists.

Admission is free. Parking is very limited at the park so the use of public transport is strongly recommended.

At this Drop-in Drawing Session, learn drawing techniques, including line drawing, shading perspective and decoration. Suitable for ages 13+. Materials are provided but feel free to bring your own sketchbook; dry materials only. Admission is free.

The Lucan Festival Family Fun Day will bring you rafting down the weir, bouncy castle for the children, face painting, balloon modelling, international food stalls, two stages with live music, craft stalls, the big duck race.

The event takes place in the centre of Lucan and on the Village Green as far as I know. But I am sure you will find it in Lucan either way.

Admission is free.

The cemetery at Arbour Hill is the last resting place of 14 of the leaders of the 1916 Rising. Among those buried there are Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly and Thomas Clarke. This tour every Sunday will focus on the context of the Rising and explore in detail the wording of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

No booking necessary. The meeting point is inside the cemetery gates.

The “Dublin Sketchers” is an informal group of (hobby) artists who go somewhere different in Dublin every Sunday (e.g. National Museum, Maritime Museum, Dublin Flea Market, Farmleigh, Botanic Gardens, Dublin Castle, Science Gallery, …), sketch for one to two hours and then meet up for coffee afterwards and discuss their sketches.

There are some hugely talented people among them and it is a great idea to meet up with others who have the same hobby. Find out on their website below or on their Facebook Page where they will meet and join them if you do some sketching/drawing yourself. I know that the Dublin Sketchers often use the Dublin Event Guide to find interesting free events and I am delighted to be able to help!

Every Sunday a free tour takes place in the Hugh Lane Gallery.

Admission is free and booking is not required, but places are limited, so early arrival is recommended.

Afternoon Jazz in Café en Seine. The Stella Bass Jazz Trio play every Sunday from 14:00-16:00 in Café en Seine in Dawson Street. Admission is free. A video is here www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8aKqtOB5S8

Sunday Sketching for the whole family takes place every Sunday in the Hugh Lane Gallery and admission is free.

Families are invited to explore and respond together the gallery’s collection and temporary exhibitions through discussion and drawing. Bring your own sketchbook along or use the drawing materials provided. There will be a different topic every week and all topics until 28 Jan are listed on the website below.

Admission is free and no booking required, although numbers may be limited. Suited for ages 6+.

On 16 Sept is the International Zouk Day and on that day a dance Flashmob is planned to happen in Dublin and for the next seven weeks, starting this Sunday, a Dance Practice will take place at the Pavilion/Summerhouse in St. Stephen’s Green (next to the lake).

It is a 2 hour session and you will learn to dance this Brazilian partner dance that was born in Rio de Janeiro less than 30 years ago (early 1990s). You don’t need to have and dance experience and you also don’t need to have a partner to participate.

Admission is free.

Every Sunday a free guided tour will take place in the Chester Betty Library. The tour starts at 15:00.

In addition there is another free tour every Wednesday at 13:00 and one on Saturdays at 14:00

Unlike the three branches of the National Museum, the National Print Museum is normally not free, but every Sunday there is a free public tour for the next few weeks. Every visit begins with a short audio-visual presentation where the audience can observe active retired printers providing practical demonstrations of machines from the Museum’s collection.

In September 1961, a company of Irish troops was deployed to protect the inhabitants of the village of Jadotville as part of UN mission. Declan Power, the author of “Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle” will explain what happened at the siege and what its historical significance is.

Admission is free.

The Sunday Melt Sessions in the Mezz is a whole afternoon of bands, acoustic acts, spoken word, DJs and more. The line up is available via the FB Event Page below.

Admission is free.

The 52nd European Sandyacht Championships will take in Laytown and Bettystown Beach from 10-15 September.

It is a little outside of North Dublin, but with just 40km from the City Centre and because it is a unique event, some of you might be interested. Viewing is free.

Travel around European traditional dancing culture without a ticket at the weekly Bal Folk Dance Sessions.

And if you don’t know how to dance, don’t worry! Workshops are provided and admission is free.

The event takes place every Sunday in the Cobblestone Pub.

Blues Got Soul, a four-piece blues band from Dublin is performing the music of the founding fathers of blues and blues masters in the International Bar every Sunday. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

The New Breadwinners are a 3-piece Bluegrass band and they are playing every Sunday in the Leeson Longe.

Admission is free, donations are appreciated.

Every Sunday evening from 18:00-20:00, the Wiley Fox is hosting a trad session, where some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians will play for you.

Admission is free.

The Dixeland Jazzmen play a weekly gig in Sin E. Admission is free.

At the Jawbone Gig night in Arthur’s Pub, Acoustic Folk & Blues will be performed every Sunday. Admission is free.

www.facebook.com/pages/Jawbone-Dublin-Acoustic-Folk-Blues-Commune/724102984268967

The Gardiner Street Gospel Choir sings every Sunday from September to June at their “Gig in God’s Gaff”, a Mass in St. Francis Xavier Church at the top of Gardiner Street near the junction with Dorset Street.

The Gardiner Street Gospel Choir, one of the best known gospel choirs in Ireland will give you a chance to experience a mass with a difference. It is uplifting and inspiring and everybody is welcome independent from your level of religiousness or your relationship with the Catholic Church in other contexts.

Disclaimer: I am involved with the Gardiner Street Gospel Choir, so the description above MIGHT not be totally unbiased. But just take it from me, they are brilliant! ;-)

Every Sunday this singer-songwriter night takes place in the Bleeding Horse in Camden St. from 8.30pm. It is an Open mic night and performers can just turn up and put their name on the list for that night.

Bunoscionn will play Trad & Folk in the Bowery.

Admission is free.

The Comedy Crunch is a free Stand Up comedy downstairs in Stag’s Head, Dame Lane from 21:00 every week on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Every week different comedians entertain and on top of that there is some free ice cream. The line-up can be found via the Comedy Crunch Facebook Page (see link below).

The East Coast Jazz Band will be playing Dixieland Jazz in Bray.

Admission is free.

“Rhythm Rocker at The Globe” is a weekly event on Sunday night in The Globe with live music (Rockabilly) and DJs. Admission is free.

The Rock ‘n’ Rock and Swing Band “The Jive Cats” will perform in the Mercantile every Sunday from 22:00.

Admission is free.

The Dublin Blues Cartel will be in Whelan’s again and will perform mostly a version of New Orleans R’n’B with a classic rock twist, sandwiched with swing, Rock’n’Roll, Soul, Funk, Blues and rap of all eras. Admission is free.

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

Archive at Lunchtime screenings take place Saturdays (Double Bill), Mondays and Wednesdays. The programme is changing weekly now (instead of monthly as in the past). To find out what film(s) will be screened go to www.ifi.ie/whatson/now-showing-coming-soon/ and look for “Archive at Lunchtime” on the right. Admission is free.

If you regularly or occasionally buy books online, you can help the Dublin Event Guide hugely even without having to pay cent directly. In fact you even save money this way:

Buy your books from The Book Depository and get better prices and free (!!) delivery for all orders independent from the volume and when you click on the picture here before you buy, then 5% of what normally The Book Depository would get, they give back to the Dublin Event Guide. Everybody wins!

www.bookdepository.com?a_aid=dubevg

If you prefer Amazon to buy your books (for free postage you need to order a minimum of GBP 25), then use this Amazon link to help the Dublin Event Guide. Thanks!

The Research Workshop “Using the National Library” will take place on Monday. You will get advice and guidance on researching the rich and varied collections of the National Library.

“The workshop will draw on case studies of personalities from the NLI’s collections and is suitable for anyone looking to embark on a research project or to enhance research skills in navigating the catalogue, accessing the various collections and interpreting the sources. The workshop is suitable for those who are using the library for the first time.”

Admission is free, but booking is required via learning@nli.ie or 01 6030 259

This is a workshop for parents of children in primary school. You will learn tricks and methods to Be Dog Smart. This workshop is not just for families who have dogs of their own, as every child will come into contact with dogs at some stage, whether in another house or out and about in the community.

Admission is free, but booking is required via the link below.

The lecture “BDS and the modern university” is by Steven Salaita (American scholar, author and public speaker, formerly the Edward W. Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut. His books are Modern Arab American Fiction: A Reader’s Guide (2011), Israel’s Dead Soul (2011), Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom (2015), Inter/Nationalism: Decolonizing Native America and Palestine (2016)).

He will talk at the conference “Freedom of Speech and Higher Education: The Case of the Academic Boycott of Israel”.

Most people won’t have a clue what BDS means, I would guess. This is what I found: “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.”

Admission is free.

In the new Film Club at the Bowery, the series “Rick & Morty” will be screened, followed at 21:00 by the movie “Gangs of New York”.

Admission is free.

This a taster event of the Tallght Toastmasters (Your first visit is free.) If you are interested in improving your speaking skills, there are lots of Toastmaster organisations in different parts of Dublin. The Tallaght Toastmasters meet on the second and fourth Monday of the month and you are invited to come to a meeting to find out more. John Conroy is your contact there.

This is a weekly gig with authentic old-time fiddle tunes and Appalachian music.

Admission is free.

Song Cycle is a weekly Singer/Songriter showcase. The line-up is not always easily findable on the Whelan’s website, but admission is always free.

The Circle Sessions is an “Open Mic” that provides an opportunity for up and coming musicians, spoken word artists, poets and comedians to perform.

Come to this weekly show to perform or to simply watch a great mix of music, poetry, spoken word and comedy.

Admission is free.

Every Monday the Woolshed Bar hosts “The Comedy Shed”, usually with 3 headline acts.

Admission is free.

The Comedy Crunch is a free Stand Up comedy event every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Every week different comedians entertain and on top of good comedy you will get free ice cream. Admission is free. The line-up can be found via the Comedy Crunch Facebook Page (see link below).

Great news the great duo of Donal Kirk and Anto Drennan have found a new home. Originally they played a weekly gig in JJ Smyth’s until it closed and now they will perform in the Leeson Lounge and the same day as before.

They will play music from Lowell George Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, Free, Bad Company, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Beatles, Bobby Bland, Vince Gill, Ray Charles, Etta James, Elvis, Ry Cooder, Dobie Gray, Guy Clarke, early ZZ Top, Dave Edmunds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson.

Admission is free.

Every Monday a Jazz Jam Session will take place in the Grand Social and you are invited to listen or even to participate. Admission is free for musicians and audience.

Instruments are supplied (drums (no cymbals), double bass, guitar amp, bass amp, PA system) and ideas and themes will be proposed prior to the session to the musicians who join the event on Facebook (see Facebook Page below).

An Open Trad Music Session is taking place every Monday in Mother Reilly’s. Admission is free.

That’s It Recordings is an open mic every Monday at Sin E. Just turn up and play. Sign up before 22:00 to ensure you get a slot. Bring a USB stick along and you will get a recording of your music to take home.

Admission is free.

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

A free pop-up talk in front of Robert Ballagh’s “Portrait of Noel Browne” by Carmel Coyle will take place.

Admission is free. Meet in the Portrait Gallery.

EveryTuesday at 19:00, The Dublin Language Exchange takes place in the Czech Inn. It is the biggest free meeting of people from all around Dublin that are interested in learning languages and communicate with speakers of other languages.

Admission is free and the meetup is completely informal. No booking required.

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Academics for Palestine are inviting to the talk by Palestinian-American author and intellectual Steven Salaita “Why Palestine Is Everyone’s Moral Issue”. He will explore why Palestine is one of the world’s most pressing moral issues and argue that a liberated Palestine is everybody’s concern.

Admission is free and further details are on the website below.

Camden Comedy is a weekly comedy night on a Tuesday that I only found recently.

Every Tuesday they have a whole range of comedians and admission is free.

Rumours have it that the Bluegrass Collective will perform in Sin É on Tuesday and there might even be an open Bluegrass Jam! Admission is free.

Every Tuesday an informal sing along with Ukulele and Toy Musical Instruments takes place in the Stag’s Head. Just bring your instrument and come along. Beginners are welcome. Admission is free and further details (and a big book of songs) are available on the Facebook Page below.

“All Aboard! An open mic night on a Pirate Ship.” is the name of the Bowery’s Open Mic Tuesday.

Each week there will be an array of music, comedy, spoken word and all things in between.

Admission is free.

The Comedy Crunch is a free Stand Up comedy event every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Every week different comedians entertain and on top of good comedy you will get free ice cream. Admission is free. The line-up can be found via the Comedy Crunch Facebook Page (see link below).

The Lounge Quintet plays this gig every Tuesday: Jazz Standards, Latin and Bebop. Often guest musicians and singers join them. Admission is free, donations are welcome.

The Trad Stage is a weekly Open Mic event in the Tivoli Backstage venue. Musicians are invited to perform live in front of an interested audience. Performances are primarily of Irish Traditional Music and Folk Singing, however it is possible to also see performances of traditional music from all over the world as well as performances of original compositions from local and international musicians.

Admission is free.

Every Tuesday and Thursday the International Bar invites to a Jazz night in the Lounge.

Groups led by Cote Calmet, Sean Maynard Smith, Dominic Mullan, Paddy Groenland, Georgia Cusack & Alex Mathias are performing regularly with occasional guest players, but there are also other bands from all over.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of EUR 5. The website clearly says that there is no entry fee, but – and that makes a lot of sense – that your donations are very much appreciated (Musicians need to pay for rent and food too!) Be generous after the gig if you liked it, but if someone wants to charge an admission charge, please point out that the “rules” as described on their website are like I have explained.

Every Tuesday, a pub quiz is taking place in the Woolshed.

Admission is free. Max team size is 6 people.

Did you ever want to give drawing a go? Or maybe you are a budding artist looking for like-minded people to draw with? The Creative Den in Rua Red runs free weekly drawing sessions on Wednesdays at 11:00.

This week’s Phoenix Park Walk is entitled “Trees of the Phoenix Park” and the description says “A talk and a walk looking at the trees of the Phoenix Park both native and non-native around the Visitor Centre.”.

Admission is free.

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

Archive at Lunchtime screenings take place Saturdays (Double Bill), Mondays and Wednesdays. The programme is changing weekly now (instead of monthly as in the past). To find out what film(s) will be screened go to www.ifi.ie/whatson/now-showing-coming-soon/ and look for “Archive at Lunchtime” on the right. Admission is free.

The Temple Bar “Night” Market is more an afternoon and evening market (14:00-20:00) and it takes place every Wednesday until September.

You can buy Arts & Crafts at this market.

In previous years the missing food and drink stalls (probably to protect the pubs and restaurants in Temple Bar) was mentioned by visitors as a critique.

The “Havana International Language Exchange” is taking place every Wed from 16:30-19:30 in Havana Tapas Bar in George’s Street. There are many Spanish speakers and English-speakers are explicitly invited, but everyone else is certainly very welcome too, to meet for a chat to improve your Spanish or English.

The talk “Gunpowder and Perfume: The Poetry of John Donne” with Professor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (Ireland Professor of Poetry) will take place on Wednesday.

The Society for Renaissance Studies is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of lectures in Ireland and the UK on the theme of the five senses and this is the Dublin lecture.

Admission is free.

The Dublin Jam Session is an open Jam with full back line. It is open to all levels of musicians and singers and all genres of music and the only rule is that you must jam with others (not all your own band).

It takes place every Wednesday and admission is free.

The Dwarf Jar House Trio (Daniel Rorke (sax), Cormac O’Brien (bass) and Matthew Jacobson(drums)) will play a weekly Jazz gig every Wednesday in Dwarf Jar Cafe and they usually have one or more guest musicians or singers supporting them.

Admission is free.

Jesters is a weekly open mic comedy event where a lot of comedians do 5 minutes of material.

Admission is free. If you would like to perform then send a message to the Jesters Facebook Page via the link below.

The Roots Band “Brand New Switcharoo” will perform in the Harbour Bar. Admission is free.

The Anseo Comedy Club takes place every Wednesday in Anseo (upstairs).

Admission is free, donations are welcome.

“The Song Room” is another open mic event. It takes place in The Globe in George’s Street at 20:30 every Wednesday.

“The Zodiac Sessions” is a regular open mic event from 20:30 in Bruxelles (between Grafton Street and Westbury Hotel) for unsigned musicians. Admission is free and there is a different line-up every week.

Bad Boy Jake are every Wednesday in the Gypsy Rose Rock & Blues Bar playing their rock, blues and American.

Ben Prevo, singer, guitarist and composer will be in the Bowery for a gig. Expect covers and originals from Blues via Country to Jazz and Funk

Admission is free.

Los Paradiso are playing Rockabilly, Tex Mex, Western Swing, Surf in the Leeson Lounge. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

The Resident Open Mic is a new weekly open mic on Wednesdays with a bit of a difference: Each week a different established artist will go back to their roots by not just playing at the open mic but by hosting it. This gives the artists a chance to try out new songs, play some of their classics and most importantly it gives a chance for new songwriters to play their music in front of some of their favorite songwriters.

Admission is free.

Traditional Irish Music Session in Hedigan’s (The Brian Boru) in Phibsborough from 21:30 every Wednesday. If you play an instrument you are especially welcome (all levels are welcome).

Chocolate Flake will be in the Porterhouse for a gig.

Admission is free.

The Harleys are a popular coverband and they will be in the Mezz every Wednesday at midnight.

Admission is free.

Every Thursday a free tour of Grangegorman Military Cemetery on Blackhorse Avenue takes place. Meet inside the cemetery gates.

Admission is free and everybody is welcome. Ring 01-6770095 for more information.

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

The hugely popular Oktoberfest in Dublin takes place from 14 Sept – 01 Oct again. It is a German Beer Festival with Erdinger Weissbräu Beer (including alcohol-free wheat beer), lots of German Bavarian Food and authentic Bavarian music.

There are “Themed Nights” on Monday (“Industry”), on Tuesday (“Pink Tuesday” for the LGBT* community) and on Wednesday (“Whacky Wednesday”) and there is dodgy but authentic ;-) Bavarian Music every evening in the festival tent. The food is also authentic and delicious (at least for a German like me). The beer is not cheap but you expected that. 1 Litre costs EUR 12 and 0.5 Litre is EUR 6.50

Opening hours are Mon-Thu: 12:00-23:30, Fri+Sat: 12:00-16:30+17:30-23:30, Sun 12:00-22:30.

The best place to experience the festival is in the Festival Tent on the platform in George’s Dock. But because the yearly festival is soo popular, there are at times long queues due to severe admission restrictions (quantity of people) to the Festival Tent. Luckily around George’s Dock are more food and drink stalls so that you don’t HAVE to be in the Festival tent to enjoy the event. There are changes to the opening hours (much more restricted) and the admission system (admission charge on Friday and Saturday evening).

Admission is free apart from the evening slot on Friday and Saturday when admission costs EUR 10 and that includes a EUR 5 meal voucher. This is a big change from previous years when admission was always free, but a meal voucher had to be bought after 22:00. The (nonsensical!!) meal voucher system still applies from Sunday until Thursday after 22:00: If you want to buy beer after 22:00 you will have to have a wristband which you will only get if you have paid for a meal for EUR 6. This is allegedly due to licensing laws. Why nonsensical? Firstly because nobody checks if you actually ate the meal. Then nobody checks who you buy the beer for once you have a wristband and thirdly because no pub makes you buy a meal voucher.

The Green Door Market is a new indoor food/Farmer’s Market that takes place just a few doors down from the Dublin Food Co-op at Newmarket in Dublin 8. Admission is free.

Opening hours are Thu-Fri 12:00-19:00 and Sat 09:30-16:00.

As part of the current “Sound Check” exhibition in the Science Gallery you can rent out a bike to experience Dublin in a completely different way:

Ya slip ta bang is an interactive composition mapped over the streets of Dublin that will unfold for you as you ride ‘sonic bikes’ along specific routes of the city. Accompanied by electronic music, the composition tells the story of recovering he roin addict Lucy Dolan as she returns to the city, revisiting important places in her life.

The sonic bike is a bicycle with frame-mounted speakers that plays different sounds and music dependent on where the cyclist goes and how fast they ride, via a mounted location-sensitive system.

The bikes can be rented for free for up to 1 hour on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday between 12:30 and 16:00. The rules and conditions are on the website below and that is also where you book the bikes.

If you regularly or occasionally buy books online, you can help the Dublin Event Guide hugely even without having to pay cent directly. In fact you even save money this way:

Buy your books from The Book Depository and get better prices and free (!!) delivery for all orders independent from the volume and when you click on the picture here before you buy, then 5% of what normally The Book Depository would get, they give back to the Dublin Event Guide. Everybody wins!

www.bookdepository.com?a_aid=dubevg

If you prefer Amazon to buy your books (for free postage you need to order a minimum of GBP 25), then use this Amazon link to help the Dublin Event Guide. Thanks!

The talk “The Greatest Atlas Ever Published: Chester Beatty’s Atlas Maior- Amsterdam, 1662” with Joan Barnewell (Guide at the Chester Beatty Library) will take place. Joan Barnewell will introduce the Blaeu family’s printing works in Amsterdam together with maps from Chester Beatty’s magnificent Atlas Maior. She will also discuss the role of maps in Dutch art through works by artists of the Dutch Golden Age including Vermeer, Maes, Metsu and De Hooch who depicted Blaeu maps in their paintings.

Admission is free.

At the public tour of the exhibition “World War Ireland: Exploring the Irish Experience” you will find out about the Irish experience ‘over there’ and on the home front during WWI through a collection of letters, diaries, recruiting posters, newspaper reports, cartoons and leaflets.

WWIreland is at 2/3 Kildare Street dwon the road from the main NLI building.

Admission is free.

The British & Irish Trading Alliance is inviting to an informal and relaxed Business Networking Event in the Mint Bar of the Westin Hotel. Admission is free, but booking is required via the link below.

Every Thursday the Little Museum of Dublin waives their admission charges for two guided tours thanks to sponsorship from Guinness. The first tour is at 18:00 and the second tour is at 19:00. Make sure that you are there at least 10 minutes before the start of the tour to get one of the limited places.

The Little Museum of Dublin has a fascinating collection of artefacts from the last 100 years Dublin’s history.

On other days and other times, admission is EUR 7 for adults and admission is by guided tour only.

An expatriate or expat is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of their citizenship.

And this is a weekly meeting for all Expats in Dublin (new and old!). If you are new to the city, this is an excellent way to meet people.

Admission is free (no booking required!), but you are asked to give the same kind of welcoming to new members as is given to you.

The Thursday Night Board Gaming event is running for more than 10 years already and it is a weekly event for all Board Game enthusiasts. But even if you are a Board Game newbie, you are welcome. Just come along! More information can be found here: www.meetup.com/IrishGamesAssociation/

Admission is free.

Katie Laffan & Niall Connolly are playing a Double Headliner gig. Unfortuantely the Harbour Bar doesn’t tell us what type of music you should expect.

Admission is free.

Every Thursday a Singer Songwriter Night will take place in Mother Reilly’s in Rathmines. This is YOUR chance to show everyone what you can do, alternatively you can just listen to the talented Singer/Songwriters. Admission is free.

The Luna Boys are in the Mercantile for a gig every Thursday night.

Admission is free.

A Fun Pub Quiz takes place in Brady’s in Terenure on Thurs. The quiz will be on every Thursday night in the Lounge at Brady’s. Keith McLoughlin is the Quiz Master.

There will be six rounds of the quiz with picture questions, audio questions and general knowledge questions. Admission to the quiz is free and therr will be free drink vouchers for the winning and runner up teams. (No phones to get answers allowed.)

Every Tuesday and Thursday the International Bar invites to a Jazz night in the Lounge.

Groups led by Cote Calmet, Sean Maynard Smith, Dominic Mullan, Paddy Groenland, Georgia Cusack & Alex Mathias are performing regularly with occasional guest players, but there are also other bands from all over.

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of EUR 5. The website clearly says that there is no entry fee, but – and that makes a lot of sense – that your donations are very much appreciated (Musicians need to pay for rent and food too!) Be generous after the gig if you liked it, but if someone wants to charge an admission charge, please point out that the “rules” as described on their website are like I have explained.

Every Thursday “Left Right & Centre” play a mix of blues & soul with a bit of rock&roll.

Admission is free.

A weekly Trad Music Night is taking place in McLoughlin’s in Dun Laoghaire. It is an acoustic night and all musicians are welcome. Admission is free.

Every Thursday a free Trad Session takes place in McNeills and often there are high profile Trad musicians performing.

The Woolshed Karaoke is happening every Thursday from 21:30. Anyone can participate! Admission is free.

The Magazine Fort in Phoenix Park is unusually neglected and at the same time unusually rich in history. Many have seen it as a barred off concrete fortress in a corner of Phoenix Park and even more don’t even know or have forgotten that it exists. The old Phoenix House, the home of the British Viceroy, was on the site where the fort was built from the early 17th century and then in 1734 the Fort was built and extended in 1801.

In 1916 the Fort was raided by the rebels who expected to find a lot of explosives there, but found the Fort nearly empty. In 1939 the IRA raided the Fort and stole more than a million rounds of ammunition, but most of it was recovered over the following weeks.

Since 1988, the Irish Army doesn’t use the Fort anymore and gave it back to the Office of Public Works (OPW), but not much good has happened to the Fort in the last 28 years (!!) and there were numerous speculations about the reasons for that.

Finally since last year, guided tours were provided and were meant to run for three months until end of October 2016. But the interest was so great that the OPW decided to continue the tours with a reduced schedule over the winter. And since 02 April there will be tours again every Friday and Sunday at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 + 15:00 and only 20 places are available on each tour.

Tickets are available at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre on a first come, first served basis and can not be pre-booked. A shuttle bus will bring the ticket holders to the Fort.

Dublin City Hall has a museum/exhibition in the basement, called “The Story of the Capital”, it is an exhibition about Dublin’s History and you should definitely check it out at some stage.

To celebrate the Easter Rising Anniversary, admission to that exhibititon was free in 2016, but lucky for us, Dublin City decided to also waive the admission charge for 2017.

Opening hours are Monday-Saturday 10:00-17:15.

Dublin PARK(ing) Day is part of a global movement that transforms public parking spaces into people friendly parklets for a single day every year.

PARK(ing) Day’s mission is to draw attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated and to improve the quality of urban living.

This year there will be over 20 PARK(ing) Day parklets in Dublin and each it literally a car park space on the streets of Dublin that will be transformed into a themed “park” for the day. All will be sprinkled in all corners of the City Centre and a downloadable map will be available. All installations are family friendly and will be created by artists, designers, public awareness campaigners, businesses, creatives & normal people in Dublin.

Find the map on the website below and have a look at some of the temporary parks. Many of them are really cool installations.

The National Gallery has an extensive programme of free talks, public tours and Art Documentary screenings every day of the week. Currently there is at least one free tour every day. Check their website for details. Some special events will be listed separately.

Admission to the gallery and to most events is free.

The hugely popular Oktoberfest in Dublin takes place from 14 Sept – 01 Oct again. It is a German Beer Festival with Erdinger Weissbräu Beer (including alcohol-free wheat beer), lots of German Bavarian Food and authentic Bavarian music.

There are “Themed Nights” on Monday (“Industry”), on Tuesday (“Pink Tuesday” for the LGBT* community) and on Wednesday (“Whacky Wednesday”) and there is dodgy but authentic ;-) Bavarian Music every evening in the festival tent. The food is also authentic and delicious (at least for a German like me). The beer is not cheap but you expected that. 1 Litre costs EUR 12 and 0.5 Litre is EUR 6.50

Opening hours are Mon-Thu: 12:00-23:30, Fri+Sat: 12:00-16:30+17:30-23:30, Sun 12:00-22:30.

The best place to experience the festival is in the Festival Tent on the platform in George’s Dock. But because the yearly festival is soo popular, there are at times long queues due to severe admission restrictions (quantity of people) to the Festival Tent. Luckily around George’s Dock are more food and drink stalls so that you don’t HAVE to be in the Festival tent to enjoy the event. There are changes to the opening hours (much more restricted) and the admission system (admission charge on Friday and Saturday evening).

Admission is free apart from the evening slot on Friday and Saturday when admission costs EUR 10 and that includes a EUR 5 meal voucher. This is a big change from previous years when admission was always free, but a meal voucher had to be bought after 22:00. The (nonsensical!!) meal voucher system still applies from Sunday until Thursday after 22:00: If you want to buy beer after 22:00 you will have to have a wristband which you will only get if you have paid for a meal for EUR 6. This is allegedly due to licensing laws. Why nonsensical? Firstly because nobody checks if you actually ate the meal. Then nobody checks who you buy the beer for once you have a wristband and thirdly because no pub makes you buy a meal voucher.

The Green Door Market is a new indoor food/Farmer’s Market that takes place just a few doors down from the Dublin Food Co-op at Newmarket in Dublin 8. Admission is free.

Opening hours are Thu-Fri 12:00-19:00 and Sat 09:30-16:00.

As part of the current “Sound Check” exhibition in the Science Gallery you can rent out a bike to experience Dublin in a completely different way:

Ya slip ta bang is an interactive composition mapped over the streets of Dublin that will unfold for you as you ride ‘sonic bikes’ along specific routes of the city. Accompanied by electronic music, the composition tells the story of recovering he roin addict Lucy Dolan as she returns to the city, revisiting important places in her life.

The sonic bike is a bicycle with frame-mounted speakers that plays different sounds and music dependent on where the cyclist goes and how fast they ride, via a mounted location-sensitive system.

The bikes can be rented for free for up to 1 hour on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday between 12:30 and 16:00. The rules and conditions are on the website below and that is also where you book the bikes.

The Fingal Fleadh & Fair will take place from 15-17 Sept in Swords Castle and over that weekend there will also be free, live, traditional music gigs and sessions in the following venues in Swords:

Forty Four Main Street, The Pound, The Old School House Bar & Restaurant, The Cock Tavern Swords, The Lord Mayors Pub, Carnegie Court Hotel and Empire Swords

Cornucopia Café & Restaurant host live music three evenings a week (Thurs, Fri and Sat). The restaurant is a Wholefood & Vegetarian Restaurant and is open until 22:15.
+ Every second Thursday N.C Lawlor, a songwriter, session player and troubadour plays a mix of country, bluegrass & blues from 19:30-21:30.
+ Every Friday (19:30-21:30) Junshi Murakami plays Irish Harp.
+ Every Saturday (19:30-21:30) Nollaig Mann plays a collection of popular and jazz classics.

“Ledz Presence” will play a Led Zeppelin Tribute Gig in the Harbour Bar.

Admission is free.

The Stillorgan Orchard has live music every Friday and Saturday. Many of the performers are established and very good bands. The upcoming gigs are detailed on the website below. Admission is always free.

Every Friday and Saturday one or two live bands will play a gig in Whelan’s which is free before 22:30 or if you sign up for the guest list. For this Friday the line-up hasn’t been announced, but you will be able to find out on the website below closer to the day.