Totally Dublin 131

AUGUST 2015 / FREE / TOTALLYDUBLIN.IE

HOUNDS OF LOVE Say hello to Bitch Falcon

TOTALLY DUBLIN

#131

with THE BOLT HOSTEL SAN FRANCISCO FOOD STORYTELLING and BELLE & SEBASTIAN

t a u o y See 5 1 0 2 c i n c i P c i Electr

014

and 2 3 1 0 2 P E t a s na Guide

McKen y b d o o F t s e Voted B

A taste of Pakistan at the award winning

Kinara Kitchen Upstairs Bar & Roof Terrace Open 7 days a week from 5pm - 11pm Lunch Thursday, Friday 12 - 3pm & Sunday 12 - 5pm No. 17 Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6 T: 01 406 0066 twitter.com/kinarakitchen W: www.kinararestaurants.ie Sister Restaurant of Kinara, Clontarf and Kajjal, Malahide.

ALL OUR SUSHI IS PREPARED FRESH DAILY IRELAND’S ONLY PICK N MIX SUSHI BAR BEST VALUE SUSHI IN DUBLIN

“I could’ve had a casual work-around-the-corner type of relationship with Kokoro. You know, all cool and convenient. But instead I’ve become a stalker!”

AINGEALA FLANNERY - IRISH INDEPENDENT

“If you want to try Japanese food there is a new Sushi place on Lower Liffey Street called Kokoro Sushi Bento where you can make up your bento box – a Japanese style lunch or takeout box – with a good selection of well priced sushi.”

LUCINDA O’SULLIVAN

New Branch NOW OPEN at 18 Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2

19 Lower Liffey Street, Dublin 1 / 01 872 8787 51 South William Street, Dublin 2 / 01 547 0658 18 Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2 / 01 678 9876 Unit N, Liffey Trust Centre, Dublin 1 / 01 547 4390

kokorosushibento.com

Nov 7-8

Across 6 Rooms @ The RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin

Music Performance Installation Conversation

Mother City Chic feat Nile Rodgers The Roots Mark Ronson Jamie xx Giorgio Moroder Todd Terje Kaytranada Jeff Mills Tiga (Live)

Kerri Chandler KINK Dorian Concept (Live) Matthew Herbert (Live) Maribou State (Live) Nosaj Thing (Live) Kormac’s Big Band Cloud Castle Lake ...and many more

metropolisfestival.ie Tickets on sale now via ticketmaster.ie

POD & Hidden Agenda Presents

Metropolis

Totally Dublin

60 Merrion Square Dublin 2 (01) 687 0695

AUGUST 2015 / FREE / TOTALLYDUBLIN.IE

HOUNDS OF LOVE Say hello to Bitch Falcon

Publisher and Advertising Stefan Hallenius stefan@hkm.ie (01) 687 0695 087 327 1732

issue 131 root to tip

Editorial Director

Peter Steen-Christensen ps@hkm.se

8 Roadmap

It’s difficult to be as reactive as you’d like as a monthly magazine. A vessel of this size has certain requirements that leads to a lack of flexibility in ways that you’d sometimes wish you could manage. That said, the developments that have happened at the Bolt Hostel through the Irish Housing Network covered in this issue, feel like the apogee, thus far, of the city’s discomfort with the issue of homelessness, an issue which would have been pertinent and relevant for months, even if they have only come to a head in recent weeks.

During the month passed, I attended a consultation meeting for Dublin’s Capital of Culture bid for 2020, where, rather than a starchitect-led monument to selfcongratulation, the emphasis from the team behind the bid was on ground-up rather than top-down approaches to the city’s improvement.

Here’s hoping that the IHN’s actions will prove illustrative and catalytic rather than being viewed as provocative or disrespectful, and the grass-roots and the powers-that-be can align their views on the crucial and continuing issue of utilising vacant spaces in a productive manner.

Hard opera

12 What If…

Let’s go swimming

14 Nice Gaff Two by two

16 Design 1% Visible

18 Garb

Cracks in the sidewalk

22 Bitch Falcon

Better have my money

26 The Moth

This is my truth, tell me yours

30 San Francisco Food Zodiac filler

Ian Lamont editor@totallydublin.ie (01) 687 0695

Art Direction & Design

Lauren Kavanagh laurenekavanagh@gmail.com +44 75 989 73866

Arts Editor

Aidan Wall artsdesk@totallydublin.ie

Fashion Editor

Honor Fitzsimons honorfitzsimons@gmail. com

Film Editor

Oisín Murphy-Hall film@totallydublin.ie

Literary Editor

Housing action

Gill Moore print@totallydublin.ie

40 Anne and the Van

Advertising Manager

36 Bolt Hostel

Coolock memories

44 Barfly Street art

60 Gastro

Ooh mammy

70 Games

Nintendo 4eva

72 Artsdesk On display

Aidan Lonergan al@hkm.ie 085 851 9113

Sales Executives Karl Hofer kh@hkm.ie 085 869 7078

Deep Psychology

76 Theatre

Distribution

78 Film Kafka-ish

80 Sound

Linus & Lucy

84 Listings

Pre-season friendlies

#131

with THE BOLT HOSTEL SAN FRANCISCO FOOD STORYTELLING and BELLE & SEBASTIAN

Cover photo: Bitch Falcon, photographed by Aoife Herrity

Contributors

Roisin Agnew Killian Broderick Tom Cahill Conor Clinch James Cullen Leo Devlin Ollie Dowling Mark Duggan Aoife McElwain Emma Geoghegan Rachel Graham Aoife Herrity Roisin Kiberd Megan Killeen Luke Maxwell Mary McFadden Meadhbh McGrath Roisin McVeigh Eoin Moore Peter Morgan Martina Murray Steve O’Connor Aisling O’Gara Julia O’Mahony Bernard O’Rourke Anna-Grace Scullion Eoin Tierney Mònica Tomàs What If Dublin Team Danny Wilson

Al Keegan ak@hkm.ie 085 8519112 Cathy Burke cb@hkm.ie 0858888123

74 Print

Earnest on Vacation

- Ian Lamont

Editor & Web Editor

TOTALLY DUBLIN

Kamil Zok kamil@hkm.ie

All advertising enquiries contact 01 - 6870 695 Read more at totallydublin.ie Totally Dublin is a monthly HKM Media publication and is distributed from 500 selected distribution points. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the permission from the publishers. The views expressed in Totally Dublin are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. The magazine welcomes ideas and new contributors but can assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

Printed by Stibo Denmark Totally Dublin - ISSN 1649-511X

6

Outdoor terrace dining at ely bar & brasserie.

Even when it rains.

It shines.

The Sunday Business Post 2014 & 2015 Gold Star Awards Best Wine Bars in Ireland:

ely bar & brasserie

1st ely bar & brasserie, IFSC. 2nd ely wine bar, Ely Place.

ely wine bar

‘What distinguishes ely is an utter seriousness about the quality of ingredients they use. Pair this with their peerless wine list and you have an unbeatable combination.’

McKennas’ 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland 2015

IFSC, Dublin 1. T: 01 672 0010 22 Ely Place, Dublin 2. T: 01 676 8986

www.elywinebar.com wine tastings: 01 678 7867

ROADMAP words Rachel Graham Ian Lamont Mary McFadden Danny Wilson

Zine Scene Dublin Zine Fair is an annual get-together for people interested in independent publishing. The fair aims to provide a welcoming space in which to buy and sell zines and artbooks, but it also serves as an important social and educational platform for people interested in the medium. Workshops, screenings, readings and gigs will be held over the weekend, all in the atmospheric surrounds of the Chocolate Factory, a beautiful old sweet factory on Kings Inn Street. The people behind the Dublin Zine Fair are passionate about DIY culture, supporting each other’s work and building a sense of community around non-commercial creativity in Ireland. RG The fair takes place from 12–6pm on the 15th and 16th August.

Entry is free and everyone, from committed zinesters to passers-by, is welcome for a browse and a chat.

Reverberation The inaugural Reverberation Psych Weekender is beaming it’s way into Liffey Street’s Grand Social from Friday 14th August.

Boasting a remarkable line up of domestic wig-out merchants and head-feeders from further afield, this one’s poised to be an event not to be missed for those who’s musical tastes lean towards the far out, man. Picking must-sees is a tricky proposition when it comes to a line-up this stacked but as anyone who was at their recent show will attest, the airing of new material from Cian Nugent and the Cosmos is an opportunity not to be missed.

Another highlight comes in the shape of the Tangerine Dreamvia-John Carpenter soundscapes of Magic Pockets. Music aside, we’re promised a proper festival atmosphere with DJ sets, visuals, classic cult movies, record and memorabilia stalls, a vintage flea market, food and lots more. It’s like the Dead never retired. DW

Dogs of Dublin You’ve heard of the famous Humans of New York, well now we have our very own Irish canine equivalent.

Dogs of Dublin is a recently launched website by dog owner Lydia O’Byrne that features some of our city’s most adorable, stylish and fun-loving dogs. The website offers a glimpse into the lives of man’s best friend in a city of dog lovers. There are over 28,000 pet dogs in Dublin and O’Byrne wants them all to get the chance to show off. “I got my first dog Freddie nearly five years ago. I never would have anticipated the endless amount of personality a dog brings to your home,” O’Byrne said. “I could literally spend hours telling you funny stories and discussing the unique and bizarre things that Freddie does daily.” MMcF Join the pack and check out www.dogsofdublin.com today to submit pictures and stories of your own dog.

Kya, owned by Cristhiane Krym, photo: Blackhorse Photography 8

photo: Sebastien Vergne

Call Me Maeve-y

Maeve Records are having a special showcase celebration in District 8 and the grounds of the Tivoli this month. In association with Red Bull, the label are putting together a line-up of big names like Maeve founders Mano Le Tough, The Drifter and Baikal, as well as the always welcome John Talabot and New Jackson (live set) on Saturday 8th August. The Francis Street venue will be opening at 2pm to fit in a day’s worth of both live and DJ sets. IL Tickets are available from Resident Advisor or bit.ly/ MaeveShowcase starting at €20.

Giving What We Can: Dublin Giving What We Can is an organisation of people who pledge to give ten percent of their lifetime income to charitable causes. Sceptical of the good done by donating to universities, local soccer teams and chuggers, they do research to find out which charities do the most good in the world, and direct the money there. It’s part of a wider movement called ‘effective altruism’, which tries to move beyond the altruistic impulse and investigate how best to eradicate world poverty with the resources we have.

Dubliner Michael Nee was inspired by a course given by philosopher Peter Singer to join the cause, and earlier this year he set up Dublin’s own chapter of GWWC. The group aims to facilitate discussion of effective altruism in a social and inclusive way, with monthly meet-ups in The Duke. Those interested in making ‘The Pledge’ and hardened cynics alike are equally welcome; we hear they love a good argument! RG More information can be found on facebook.com/givingwhatwecandublin.

FROM DUBLIN WITH LOVE x [late night launch party and big grill after event]

I just know that something good is going to happen...

FEATURING 2 ROOMS OF MUSIC WITH AL KEEGAN. MORO. MARK ALLTON. GREEDY PIG DJS. GOOSE. THE CHIMP. KEV STRUTTON. TOM GREELY. LOW ROOF. BIG SOUNDS. HIGH FIVES. TOP BUZZ x Sat Aug 15th Pacinos Suffolk St. Doors midnight til late. ADM8//10//12

FROM DUBLIN WITH LOVE x 9

ROADMAP words Rachel Graham Eoin Moore

Opera In The Open Dublin City Council’s Opera in the Open season returns this month, bringing free performances of classic opera to the Civic Office’s Amphitheatre every Thursday afternoon. Co-hosted this year with the French Embassy, the programme consists exclusively of French greats, including the tragic, salacious Carmen, the glorious Pygmalion, and the raucous Orphée Aux Enfers. For fans of opera or French theatre this series is an absolute must-see. Even for non-French speakers there is plenty to enjoy in hearing this diverse range of time-tested musical theatre as it was meant to be experienced: vividly performed in the flesh by a wide cast of talented thespians and vocalists. If nothing else, it’s a chance to find out what the fuss is about all these French people warbling their hearts out. EM

MacGuffin MacGuffin is a new digital literature platform from Londonbased publisher Comma Press, allowing users to share their own short stories, poetry, and non-fiction.

Their goal is to ‘encourage more people to read and write short stories and poetry’ by making the process of finding and distributing new writing easier, through modern technology. Featuring a hashtag-based search system, as well as remarkably detailed and transparent analytics on reading patterns, MacGuffin utilises modern technology to allow readers to find writing that suits their tastes and allows writers to understand their readership on a more intimate level. In addition to this, the nonprofit platform hosts audio-recordings, allowing its users to share and experience stories in whichever medium they prefer. Already online and on Android, Macguffin will be coming to iOS soon.

EM Ease your commuter’s boredom at commapress.co.uk/ digital/macguffin

They’ve got issues Kiozq aims to convince you that print is not dead (but you already know that) by collecting the most interesting independent magazines from around the globe and delivering them right to your door.

The business came online in early July and already 40 titles in stock, ranging from local publications like We Are Dublin to collections of long-form essays such as Berlin Quarterly. The focus is on magazines that pay attention to design and artwork; these are objects to treasure, that won’t be forgetten after the first casual flick-through. Niche magazines are a fascinating area of contemporary print culture, but issues are often difficult to get your hands on. Kiozq simplifies things by carefully curating a collection of the best publications in various categories and putting them all in one place. Visit the website to have a browse and one of these gorgeous magazines is sure to catch your eye. RG To see the catalogue or place an order visit kiozq.com.

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The Doggie Do There’s probably never been a cuter pun on shit. The Doggie Do is a party for man and dog, but mainly dog. If you’ve ever wanted an excuse to dress Rolo or Sailor up like their namesakes, now’s your chance – the main event of the day will be a fancy-dress parade in which canine participants compete for the prestigious Dog of Dublin title.

The party is a collaboration between Le Cool, Happenings and Mr & Mrs Stephens: dog-lovers and party-starters. They’ve set up a FundIt campaign for the party which will be active until August 12th, and the canine invasion of Merrion Square will take place a month later on Saturday 12th September. Don’t be a shihtzu, show your top dog you woof him by supporting the FundIt and guaranteeing him a pawsitively awesome day out! RG Fetch some more info at fundit.ie/project/thedoggie-do or doggiedo.ie.

Meet a new kind of delicious.

NEW Caramel Coffee Jelly

blended beverage

Š 2015 Starbucks Coffee Company. All rights reserved.

NEW Lemon Vanilla

WHAT IF... words and images What if Dublin team

...Dublin had an urban lake?

With the sweet taste of summer in the air, it was all about the outdoors lately at What if Dublin.

How could Dublin be ‘climate-proofed’? What’s the Irish summer actually like, and how should public space adapt? What if Dublin had a public outdoor pool or urban lake where you could dip in your feet on a hot summer’s day? This months pick shows what it could be like if we re-naturated one of the many vacant sites of the city.

The plot between Hammond Lane and the Luas red line has been subject of a heated debate over the last years, with Councillor Ciaran Cuffe lobbying for a public park without success. The owner of the land, the Office of Public Works, also remains unimpressed by our proposal to flood the pit and pointed out to us on Twitter that the land is to be developed for new Courts Service facilities. What a pity! Not only would a lake be an oasis, a public amenity for the local community, but it could also foster biodiversity and function as a much needed rainwater attenuation pool for the city. The idea of an urban lake is not new. London, for instance, has just opened a 40 metre long natural bathing pond situated right in the middle of the King’s Cross development site, surrounded by industrial buildings and construction works.

Urban swimmers might not find their hearts desire at Hammond Lane next summer but there are plenty of vacant sites to choose from (see reusingdublin.ie) and the nearby Phoenix Park would also have some space to spare for all those who live far from the seaside.

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Next month’s pick is all about housing.

If you have a great idea on how to solve the housing crisis or make Dublin a better place to live, participate in the debate on @what_if_dublin or tweet with the hashtag #whatifdublin until the Monday 10th August and your idea could be published here in September.

www.juliana.photography

25 ROYAL HIBERNIAN WAY, D2 | SHOP ONLINE: TIGHTSDEPT.COM

fine art portraiture

•

www.facebook.com/jscodeler

music

•

nude

•

fashion •

INDEPENDENT VISION

newborn •

wedding

NICE GAFF words Emma Geoghegan

THE ARK TEMPLE BAR Architects: Shane O’Toole & Michael Kelly, 1995 Re-locating from London to Dublin in 2007 with a toddler in tow, my first impressions of the city were strongly informed by his own brand of city exploration. Negotiating a new city at a small child’s leisurely pace, with their stopstart momentum and fascination with minutiae encourages one to read the place differently. The novelist Michael Chabon has described childhood ‘as a branch of cartography’ and observing a child map their way through an urban environment surely confirms this. Alongside a new found interest in surface textures and an obsession with accessibility, I was soon an authority on buildings in the city which would engage both myself and my son. The Ark on Eustace Street became a favourite destination.

The first cultural centre for children in Europe, The Ark is a place where children can explore theatre, music, literature, art, film and other cultural activities in a space created specifically for them. The programming of the Ark encourages a balance between ‘looking’ and ‘making’ with an intimate theatre and a rooftop studio space brimming with accomplished artwork.

The building was a key part of the Group 91 proposal for Temple Bar regeneration which won this collective of architectural practices the commission to make a new street and two

14

new public squares – Curved Street, Temple Bar Square and Meeting House Square.

Incorporating the footprint and carefully restored facade of the Presbyterian Meeting House from 1728, The Ark is one of four buildings which create the backdrops to Meeting House Square. It was designed by architects Shane O’Toole and Michael Kelly and completed in 1995.

The building has a relatively shallow plan, I presume dictated by the footprint of the original Meeting House, but which gives the main space, the theatre, an intimate and childfriendly proportion. While it is difficult not to appreciate the ingenuity behind the Metallic Theatre Curtain, the patinated copper doors which can open the theatre up to Meeting House Square and which were adapted from a design by Santiago Calatrava. Having never had the opportunity to see them in use, I wonder whether their success is more in the conceit than in the reality.

This is a building which takes children seriously and acknowledges that they are imaginative and sophisticated in their tastes. The concrete structure is enclosed in red brick on the west façade and exposed throughout internally.

Specially commissioned artworks are an integral part of each space.

We no longer live in the city and I hadn’t been in The Ark in a number of years. However, a recent event in the building reminded me again of its quiet appeal. The workshop on the top floor is a marvelous, robust space with generous north lights creating the sawtooth profile on the west façade. From here one gets an interesting view of the latest addition to Meeting House Square, the four large folding ‘umbrellas’

by Sean Harrington Architects which attempt to mitigate the worst effects of Irish weather on the space below.

However it is the verdant roof terrace overlooking Eustace Street which is the most delightful space in the building. The undulating frameless glass wall of the workshop allows this otherwise narrow terrace to become a textured room in the city offering views across Temple Bar rooftops and into adjacent buildings. A reminder, if one was every needed to ‘look up’ every now and again, for the city has a life above street level too.

Emma Geoghegan is a partner in MEME Architecture and lecturer at Dublin School of Architecture, DIT. For more see meme. ie or follow her on Twitter @meme_arch

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DESIGN words Lauren Kavanagh

In the name of the costume

Ireland is known worldwide as a hub for great filmmaking, with stunning scenery and a wealth of acting talent. A new exhibition at The Little Museum celebrates another, hugely important side of this – costume. Curated by costume designer Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh and Costume Historian Veerle Dehaene, the exhibition showcases some of the most iconic costumes from Irish cinema. Pieces from modern classics such as My Left Foot will sit alongside those from more contemporary films like Breakfast on Pluto and Calvary.

At the moment, there is no official archive to house these costumes, which have been sourced from private collections of costume designers and actors, which makes this exhibition all the more exciting, and will hopefully pave the way for some kind of official collection in the future.

In The Name Of The Costume, opens in The Little Museum of Ireland, August 6.

Fresh The Good Food Market Any Gourmet Sandwich & Coffee/Tea for â‚Ź6 Fresh Camden Street

Airbags These beautiful lamps by Swedish design duo Kerstin Sylwan and Jenny Stefansdotter, are made with the planet in mind. Their motto is ‘more beauty from fewer resources’ and their use of naturally occurring and sustainable materials helps them to realise this. The Kuu lamp reminds me of Japanese lanterns, or parachutes, with their soft yet solid forms, and they are made from recycled sunscreen fabrics.

Kuu lamp, available on hem.com for €99-149, available in black and white.

Something to remember me by Smack in the middle of The Irish Year of Design, and we have another great exhibition to look forward to. The Souvenir Project has been commissioned by ID2015 as part of London Design Festival. Celebrating the idea of a ‘loved object laced with emotional associations’, the exhibition will feature work from Irish designers such as Tom de Poar, Stephen Pearce, Johnny Kelly, Superfolk, J Hill’s Standard, Nicholas Mosse and Conor & David, and is curated by Jonathan Legge of Makers and Brothers. We’ll have an interview with Jonathan in the next issue so watch this space.

The Souvenir Project opens on September 22nd in Shoreditch, as part of London Design Festival.

The Erriff River by Superfolk

Blackrock 01 2889161 www.mcmahondental.ie

GARB words Honor Fitzsimons photos Aaron Hurley

With an upbringing split between Galway and Hong Kong, Zoë Carol marries cultural and geographical influences with her sophisticated eye for design, creating distinctive yet considered clothing for the woman who takes no prisoners.

EAST MEETS WEST OF IRELAND

How did you start out in fashion?

I graduated from Trinity College, doing a science degree with a geography major, and as much as I did love geography and researching human geography and environments and how people live, it just didn’t love me back. My grades were alright but no matter how much I tried at it, it just wasn’t my thing, so I started looking into summer programmes at the London College of Fashion and I just decided that I was going to work in a bar or wherever and save up and do these courses, that I was going to make my own way. My dad just really wasn’t having it and thought I was messing about and I needed to take a direction in my life, so he insisted that if that’s what I really wanted to do I could pick a college and he would help me go to it.

Unfortunately for him I did get in to fashion college and I got in to the best, and probably the most expensive one! I remember the day I got the acceptance letter from Parsons School of Design in New York – I screamed, cried, and danced around in my kitchen!

I guess I really wanted to do fashion from a very young age, I used to help my Mum sew the curtains and napkins and tablecloths for our restaurant, and use the scraps of fabric to make scrunchies – as it was the ’90s! – and little elastic skirts and things. I learned how to use the sewing machine from a very young age and I was obsessed with those ‘Get-set’ t-shirt printing, knitting, and bead kits. But Parsons really kicked me up a gear, teaching me how to design and construct.

How long were you in New York?

Three years in total, the course was a year and a half long and I was also working and interning the whole time. When I finished the course, I was offered a job as creative director with Libra Leather, and unfortunately nearly as soon as I got the job it was gone due to the big financial crash.

I then started working as a menswear designer which I stuck out for the summer, but that was a

How would you define your label?

It’s certainly grown and gone in its own direction in the last three years, but I think that since it started the one thing that hasn’t changed it the sense of sophistication and its ability to communicate [the sense of] a really educated and independent woman. That’s what I really love about it, I find that it attracts really self-assured women, the kind that knows exactly what they want in life, and I love designing for them. Of course there’s always my twist, a little quirk in detail, and the fabrications and trims are thought out with that specific woman in mind, and I really enjoy that.

really inhospitable environment. Luckily I then was offered a job working as a shoe designer and that was a really incredible experience, not something that I had prepared myself for, but I just hit the ground running and learned a lot. I had only done one class of shoe design and this company was stocked in Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s so it was pretty daunting, but the team were so great and within a week I had learned to design shoes in a commercial setting. It was really cool.

They worked us hard, really hard, but that’s just the nature of the working environment in New York. So by the time I had left, I had experience in knitwear design, footwear design, men’s suiting and leather goods. It was a lot in those three years.

Model: Ellen at Distinct Model Management Stylist: Brian Conway Set Art Director: Shane Kenna at Oh Hi Friend Hair: Maricia Horan at Davey Davey Make-up: Blue Evans

Did you have any style icons growing up?

I loved Linda Gray from Dallas! [laughs] I loved her! I loved her sass, I loved her ‘take no shit’ attitude to life and men and business. From a very young age my Mum and I would sit together and watch Dallas and Fashion Television with Jeanne Beker. I would never miss it – every week for basically the entirety of the mid ’90s. I was really into fashion from a young age and I would tear apart my Mum’s wardrobe to play ‘dressing up’ blasting out Kylie Minogue and Madonna from the radio!

Could you tell us a bit about your collection for AW15?

A lot of my collections are based on people and environmental situations, so this season I was really looking into the Spanish Civil War, which is kind of a strange topic but Life magazine have a really amazing archive of black and white imagery, and the shots where just really down to earth and spoke of people who worked really hard and were fighting for something.

So I looked into Spanish culture, and in those images you could see women working in the fields and children going to school, and they had these beautiful colours and great bowties and the woman had these big workable gathered skirts. Expanding on that, I looked into the costumes of the matador and I learned a lot about bullfighting. It’s not a sport I support in any way but I was really attracted to how this particular matador dressed for his fights. He’s one of the most famous in Spain, and he had this ritual when getting dressed. The costumes are so complicated with all these buttons and bells and the fabric alone is so beautiful, so I wanted to use a really striking brocade that wasn’t too ornate but pushed the boundary from what I would normally do. I always like to bring in a feminine element and that was with the flamenco dancer, but not in an obvious way, so I brought in some subtle ruffles, and a dark but sexy red. I wear this red lipstick that people always comment on, there is a certain tone of red that evokes Spanish romance.

Zoë Carol is stocked at Style Ikon, 18a The Crescent, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, and also takes bespoke orders through info@zoecarol. com from her design studio in Dublin 8. For more see www.zoecarol.com

GARB words Honor Fitzsimons

FOILED AGAIN Future Makers award-winner and recent graduate of NCAD and Goldsmiths, Dubliner Lorna Boyle flips the traditions of jewellery construction with her inventive and eye-catching designs.

Tell me about your studies.

I started studying in NCAD in 2010 and I didn’t really like it at all at first, but when I got to try out metalwork that really seemed to work for me.

I really enjoyed it because in final year you were left to do your own thing, so with my final year project I wanted it to be interactive. They don’t really want you to make commercial jewellery, they want you to have a reason to make stuff, and I thought that this would probably be the last time that I would get to make anything more ‘out-there’ or interesting that no-one would buy!

So I took moulds of cracks around Dublin city and then made them into pieces, so that you could go and find where your ring or neckpiece would fit into. I wanted to do it for myself as I love Dublin and I was always interested in guerrilla art, and it was nice to get out of the studio as well. You do get people looking at you wondering what you’re doing, which was nice.

At first when I did the moulds they were ending up really heavy, so I started thinking about what material I could use that would be really light even for big pieces, and I stumbled on to tin foil. Tin foil is really great if you want to make really quick pieces, and I’ve kind of always used it like that, and I began to really like how it looked so I started looking into how you could actually make pieces out of tin foil. We had an electroform tank in college, which works the same way as with getting rings plated, but you leave it in for a lot longer so it builds up a thick plate. There was a lot of trial and error, but I managed to make these big tin foil pieces that were now solid. A lot of the making in jewellery is really painstaking, and I’m just not that patient, so now I could make loads and loads of models and you only had to choose one and that could take you 10 minutes to make. It’s a great, fast process where you don’t have to worry about making mistakes, you can always just throw it out because it’s only tin foil.

The only bit that is time consuming is the electroforming, as people don’t really want to wear copper, mostly just silver and gold, and I need to get that done elsewhere as the process involves cyanide. I make big batches now, I’ll have no pieces one day and then I go to pick them up and then I have hundreds!

Blueprint Talks A talk series prese nte d by Indig o & Cloth X Making Sp a c e surrounding the curious and cre a ti ve throughou t the ye ar of Irish design 2015

9 E s s e x S t r e e t , Te m p l e B a r, D u b l i n 2 | i n d i g o a n d c l o t h . c o m · m a k i n g s p a c e . i e

And now you’re over at Goldsmiths?

Yeah, I studied Craft Design with Jewellery and Metal at NCAD, and then after I left I wanted to look into a masters that was more product design led. I felt I wanted to re-learn how to design again. When you’re in college, it’s a small environment and your tutors are like gods, so I just wanted to step out of that and also to live outside of Ireland. I came over with the intention of not doing jewellery but that’s actually what I am doing, so it’s obviously what I really like.

What are you working on?

I’m just finishing my masters now and my final project is on wedding rings. I’ve been working in a jewellers here and I’ve just been surrounded by wedding ring. I’ve become slightly obsessed with marriage and relationships, and those really crappy television shows like Don’t Tell the Bride! [Laughs] I don’t know what it is exactly, it’s not as though I’ve been obsessed with getting married since I was a child, but I do find different people’s relationship dynamics really interesting and what bothers me is that everyone goes for bog-standard wedding rings.

I’d like to re-invent people’s way of choosing rings, for people to ask ‘why’ and put a bit more thought into why they choose a wedding ring.

So I’m making a pack that allows you to make your wedding ring with your partner with a book with a series of activities for you to think about what you would like to include in your ring – something that might spark a memory or a special place that you like to go to and take an imprint of a stone or something. So they make the mould in Sugru, send it back to me and I will cast it for them in whatever material that they want.

Lorna’s work is currently being exhibited at the Iki Galerie in Paris, and will be featured as part of DCCoI’s Portfolio critical selection exhibition this September. Her Molten collection (pictured) is available from Atelier 27, Drury Street, Dublin 2. For more see www.lornaboyle.carbonmade.com

DOG DAY AFTERNOON words Roisin McVeigh photos Aoife Herrity

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Though you may not have heard of them until now, it’s a name you are unlikely to forget: Bitch Falcon are the latest Dublin band to turn back the clock and crank the volume all the way up, channelling a sound that is reminiscent of classic ‘90s grunge and hard rock, with a dash of St. Vincent swag thrown in, culminating in a live show that is both as raw and honest as it is loud and vital.

Enter Lizzie Fitzpatrick, a nurse from Ballinteer by day and a fearless, guitar slinging frontwoman

by night. Bitch Falcon was born when Lizzie, along with her friend Fia Nyhan Kavanagh, and Radmila, a Slovakian drummer with a knack for deadly band names, first got together just last year. Fia and Radmila have since left the band, but Bitch Falcon have gained two new members in their wake, bassist Naomi McLeod and drummer Nigel Kenny, both veterans of Dublin’s DIY circuit.

We caught up with the band on a warm Sunday afternoon during

a rare free moment between work and practice, just before they headed off ‘to get as much playing in between now and 10.30pm as possible’ with performances at Knockanstockan and Electric Picnic looming. The trio chatted with us, quite fittingly, atop the Shaw’s Big Blue Bus to find out about how they use cat references to communicate their musical ideas to each other, what their mammies think of their music and why they’re not in any rush to make an album.

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Bitch Falcon is the deadliest name for a band, ever. Your old drummer came up with the name right?

Lizzie: Yeah, we were just in our rehearsal space saying loads of stupid names, and our old drummer Radmila just came out with ‘Bitch Falcon’ and we thought, ‘That’s actually brilliant!’.

Naomi: It’s also a great ice breaker when people meet us.

L: My mam loves it! [Switching to Irish mammy voice] ‘Oh, Bitch Falcon? Brrrrilliant!’

Nigel: …and mine always always asks me ‘How are the Bitches goin’?’

Given that the band sort of grew organically, was there an aim starting out to have a certain sound or did that evolve over time?

L: I definitely had it in my head that I really wanted something that I could dance to, jump to, mosh around to, but then also have a lot of melody as well.

How do the band dynamics work in terms of songwriting?

L: Usually it’s a case of everyone comes with bits and bobs, pieces of the songs.

NM: I have a reputation for writing the end of songs. It’s a bit of a weird one for me sometimes, writing for bass because when you’re writing for bass you are trying to hear a guitar lead going on top of that and a rhythm below it. So usually when I come up with something, the guys will say, ‘Brilliant outro!’ and I’ll be a bit despondent about it because I think, ‘Oh, that could have been an entire song’. But inevitably it will meld with other riffs and become a song. As Lizzie was saying, we’re never really in any rush. If something isn’t the right piece to make a tune, then we’re not going to make a tune just for the sake of it. We don’t really settle on things. We reach for better parts and then once we have what we feel to be the best parts then it becomes a song.

Lizzie, you’ve played guitar in a few bands over the years, but fronting Bitch Falcon is your first time singing. How did that come about?

L: It was kind of assumed that I would be singing. At the start Fia didn’t sing at all and so I said, ‘Grand, sure I’ll just sing it.’ It just grew from there. But I was really slow at writing lyrics, I still am to certain extent. I was too embarrassed about it, it’s very embarrassing.

NM: It’s not embarrassing, it’s very vulnerable.

You really put yourself out there singing, let alone writing lyrics. Riffs are not the English language. Lyrics are so open to harsh judgement and criticism, more so than music itself.

Are there any lyricists in particular that you look to?

L: Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Björk would be a big one for me in terms of lyrics. I love how she takes metaphors for different things and turns them into songs.

Riffs are not the English language.

Lyrics are so open to harsh judgement and criticism.

And what about performers that are influential? Lizzie, I think you have a bit of an Annie Clark vibe, although she can be quite rehearsed in her performances, while you’re a little more unhinged.

L: Annie Clark is a huge influence on me to be honest. I’ve followed her career since 2009 when I was in secondary school and it’s great to see her change so much. Her performance at Electric Picnic last year was a real eye-opener.

I’ve seen her loads before that – I remember seeing her in Oxegen and she was really timid and it was really beautiful, sweet music and there was one song, Your Lips Are Red, it was really quiet and it was meant to be kind of a tough song, but it was still really timid. Then she played Electric Picnic and she was just killing it.

Did you guys have instant band chemistry despite not knowing each other before?

NK: There’s always a blending in period.

Everyone has different expectations of what you’re going to bring to it. Quite often it can be difficult at the start because you might have an idea from your style and your background and then someone else has a completely different thing. And then over time you start to learn what the rest of the people you play with like and what they expect of you. Thats one reason why we’re not doing an album, we’re still figuring it out. I feel like with the last three songs that we’ve written, we’ve thought, ‘I think this is what we want our band to sound like’. It certainly feels like that, playing it – there’s more to it, there’s more detail and its produced better.

How do you communicate to each other that ephemeral sound you’re looking for when you’re writing, if everyone has a different idea of what they want to achieve in their head?

L: I’m really bad at it. I’ll have something burning up inside me and I get really frustrated and angry when I can just nearly grab it. You can bring in a riff and people are just not getting what you’re saying. You feel so annoyed and you’re being a diva because you’re not communicating it right. But it’s funny, we’ve learned how to do it, like for example, one day Nigel was saying, ‘Look, will you just tell me in cat facts what it is?’ and the answer was, ‘OK, it’s a panther running through a forest!’

NK: …and all of a sudden it makes total sense!

L: Nigel has a close affinity with cats.

NK: Yeah, I have three cats. They’re great craic.

Annie Clark aside, are there any other artists whose trajectories you admire?

NM: Girl Band are absolutely flying off the scale at the moment and I think it’s well deserved.

What they’re doing is really evocative of ’70s and ’80s punk vibes in a really well thought-out, really tasteful way. I think they’re coming out with really high class music and I admire how they’re going about it.

NK: Another band, for me anyway, would be a band we played with called Torch. They’ve been around for a long time. They have four or five albums and I like them because of their work ethic and they’ve always managed to stay true to themselves. They’ve only ever improved and they’ve never tried to change for anyone.

They played gigs to nearly empty rooms despite being an incredible band and then came back and brought more people the next time. It’s a bit like what we’re kind of trying to do: every gig you get bigger and bigger, and more people bring their friends. The word-of-mouth thing has worked great for us as well, and the lack of material online for a while was working to our advantage as well. I just like that slow build and the slog, it’s just honest.

With the lack of material available from you online, do you think that has pushed people more to go to the gigs?

L: I do, because there’s a buzz going around, rather than throwing everything up online. I think too much information kind of ruins the excitement.

NM: Yeah, it’s a further testament to the live show. For example, we do get a lot of people saying, ‘Aw, I’ve been meaning to see you for ages!’ That’s very confidence-inspiring because it means we’re creating a desire for people to come see us live. It’s encouraging.

Have you guys got any super fans yet?

L: Yeah actually! There’s this guy who follows us on Instagram. I don’t know where he’s from, India maybe, and he’s made these fan videos of himself dancing around in his bedroom to our music and he’s added image processing on them with stars and stuff.

You’re playing Electric Picnic for the second year in a row. How do festivals vary from normal gigs?

L: There’s a surprise element, and then people are just so much more excited. People are just dying to be excited at festivals, they want the buzz. Usually when we are in the room practicing, we try to change the song to make it a bit more festival ready – give them build-ups, give them loads of dynamics, to play with the crowd and get them involved.

Might there be an album on the cards anytime soon?

L: No, not yet. I kind of like seeing albums as a piece of work or a concept rather than a bunch of songs.

NM: Like an exhibition, where you have to curate it properly. Like I think if we were to launch all of our songs into an album it wouldn’t be anything that significant. Whereas later on when we’re a bit more developed, we can bring out a proper album. Our songs so far are reflecting getting to know each other musically. They are becoming more concise and we’re enjoying the different advantages that come with that musically.

Bitch Falcon play Electric Picnic on the weekend of September 4th to 6th. Their new single TMJ is out now.

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words Julia O’Mahony photos Killian Broderick

THIS IS It’s ten o’clock on a Monday evening, and I’m about to tell a story to a large room full of strangers. The only guidelines I’ve been given are that it must be true, be about something that happened to me – and not to a friend of mine – and take about five minutes in the telling. I’ve already watched nine stories unfold on stage this evening. Some have been light-hearted and upbeat, some more poignant or confessional, and many a merger of all of these. The room has embraced each one, laughter and gasps of shock or indignation filling the air as required. There’s very much a sense that this is not stand-up. The audience do not posses the more hostile air of a crowd looking to be entertained. More simply, they’re looking to be moved, in whichever way the story-teller dictates.

This is the wonderful world of The Moth, an organi-

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sation dedicated to the art of storytelling. It kicked off in the United States in 1997, when founder George Dawes Green, who had been telling stories on his porch in Georgia to his friends and neighbours, noticed the parallel between the effects of his storytelling and the attraction of the moths hitting the lights above him, that his audience were like moths to a flame. He took the name with him to New York, and later would pick up a Peabody Award, recognising The Moth’s contribution as a public service.

It wasn’t an altogether smooth transition from porch to stage however, and by all accounts, George’s first formalised event was a bit of a disaster. They quickly identified the need to structure the evening with a set of guidelines and this evolved into the two main kinds

of Moth events that take place today, the Mainstage and the StorySLAM. Certainly the Mainstage events are a great forum to witness the craft of storytelling.

The storyteller has worked with a director to tease out and enrich the tale so that, as Dublin organiser Julien Clancy puts it, ‘they get up and tell a beautiful story that has its own natural arc to it, but which at the same time offers a whole other elevation of art.’ He reckons the StorySLAM, by contrast, is that bit more rock n’ roll, as you never know what you might hear. ‘People will come up and follow all the rules and they’ll be brilliant, and then people will come up and break all the rules, and that’ll be the story everyone will remember. So it’s an awful lot edgier, we have no idea what stories are going to be told, and that’s the most terrifying and thrilling

MY

TALE part of the whole night, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Everyone presumes we have to approve the stories, but honestly, there’s none of that at all.’

The first Mainstage event in Dublin took place last September, when the artistic and producing directors of The Moth were in town. The pair quickly fell for Dublin and the reams of listeners that first event attracted, and quickly recognised the demand for a StorySLAM here, which Julien and the team have been coordinating since October. Does an event like the StorySLAM particularly lend itself to Irish storytellers and audiences, I ask?

Julien mentions that quite often during the evening, there might not be a full contingent of storytellers in the hat, but at the interval, when the audience have begun hearing the stories, another troupe will volunteer their

names. Similarly, in the pub afterwards, he says people begin to volunteer their stories more freely, spurred on by those they’ve just seen on stage.

‘I do think that’s because we are quite guarded. It’s often the kind of thing that, as the night goes on and the stories come out, people do look for a safe place to get a story off their chest,’ cites comedian Colm O’Regan, who has been hosting the Dublin StorySLAM since it began.

‘I think at the start of the night they might feel a little reticent, it’s always that feeling of “Sure, who’d be interested in my story?” but that tends to melt away when they hear other people’s stories, and see the position the storyteller is in afterwards. Often there are stories that people feel much better for having told. Though it is refreshing that often an Irish person will start by saying,

“Sure, this one’s a bit of a fuckin’ mess, can we give it a go?” and then the storyline might be really good and enjoyable. There’s that Irish way of telling a story that lets the story slip out and gather momentum maybe from events or a turn of phrase. Whereas an American might be more declamatory and start with more of a ‘This story I’m going to tell you’ opener. The storytelling tradition here in Ireland is bound up in the sheanachaí thing, but they’re very much a performer. They’ll light a fire and there’s a style, but ordinary people telling stories is actually more interesting and also more recognisable. But by the same token, when people from outside of Ireland tell a story, the style is different but you get transported into their timeline, or context, just like that.

So I think each style brings its own best facets to the

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storytelling itself.’

If telling a story to the room poses a daunting prospect, then Colm’s job as host also requires its own set of skills. The unknown nature of each story, means that the audience are in a perpetual state of suspense, and depending on the tale that’s gone before, it’s his job to bring them up or down so that they’re better able to come to the next story refreshed and ready for whatever it might bring.

‘You have to let each story breathe, you can’t just leap up and play a bit of music. I suppose as the host I have to let people know that I’ve been listening to all the stories, and that I’m hosting the night as a whole. So it’s thinking about the show, and the audience, and keeping the storytellers in mind. There’s a certain amount of excitement too for the audience, that even we don’t know which way this is going to go and in what order, and neither do they. Sometimes I forget to tell them not to worry, that the evening will shift in tone because it will be all over the place, and they can’t feel tense because a funny story jarred with a different tale from earlier – or even within the same story. The tragedy and the comedy co-exist very well together. The audience seem to be able to go with whatever emotion is there at the time and for me it’s about not trivialising the sad things. It’s a sort of management of the tone of the night. With stand-up, an audience doesn’t have that fear that it’s going to range in tone so much.’

Was there a certain ease in the transition from stand-up comic to storyteller when Colm took his own story to the Mainstage? ‘My stand-up would be quite story-ish anyway, so it gives you the skill of beginning, middle and end. Though I’ve noticed from listening to other people’s stories, that often they’ll start in an intriguing way – often part of the way through – and once they’ve established the scene, if it’s October 1997 walking home on Fifth Avenue or whatever, then they go back, with a “and how I got there was as follows”. You couldn’t do that in stand-up because people wouldn’t have the patience to wait for you to work up to it.’

‘There’s a certain ego in stand-up that is refreshingly absent in storytelling, particularly for people telling that story for the first time. In stand-up you obviously act up a bit, so I enjoy the truer nature of the stories, but actually also, in telling them in this form, it allows you maybe to find the parts of the story and truths within it that you hadn’t considered. When people leave a comedy show, I’m pretty certain they’re able to get the jokes out of their head, but I’m sure that the stories they hear at The Moth don’t leave them as quickly.”

I ask Julien about the various additional guidelines I’ve seen floating around the internet.

Launching into a rant (or equally unwelcome, stand-up skit) misses the mark, but I get the impression that it’s the sincerity of the story that’s most prized, even if, as Julien points out, that sincerity is attached to a story that you might have thought mundane. ‘You just get up and tell me a story about the time you forgot your keys and locked yourself out and had to wander the streets for six hours but then finally managed to get back in, because it’s all about telling stories that are very relatable. It doesn’t have to be huge dramatic stuff. It can be some-

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thing that’s incredibly everyday. Having said that, there are certainly some guidelines you can follow to make it a Moth story. One of those is to start in the action. So instead of the backstory – “I’m Julien, and I really like milk” – you don’t need to hear any of that, just “I was in a shop, buying milk”. Now you’re in the middle of the scene, you’ve brought the audience with you, and they want to find out what’ll happen next.’

He thinks a lot of the need people feel to set the story up comes down to nerves, and that the key to it is just to know what you’re first line is going to be. ‘Ideally you have to have some kind of arc. I mean, there’s no definitive way to tell a story, but you are looking for some kind of arc, some kind of journey taking place.’ The best tales are those in which you have some sort of stake in it, and the audience can identify and empathise with whatever you stand to gain or lose over the course of your narrative. By having stakes, the audience immediately cares what happens to you.’

‘And don’t hang around! Don’t say, “…and that’s how that ended up, and he went to college a few years later and now has two kids and a wife, and the other man I actually met up with him a couple of weeks ago, and he was doing fine”. You’ve already killed it. That can be a nerves thing too, the feeling that you need to explain. But The Moth is unique in that it’s a fast, powerful story that leaves an impact, so get out of there!’ Colm too, suggests I exit with similar haste: ‘Some people pre-ramble a bit too long, but you’ve only five minutes. Listen out for the two little bells. There’s a bell at five minutes and a bell at six. If at five minutes you haven’t got to the nub of the story, you should try and wrap it up quickly. Don’t say, “Fuck it, I’ll go for ten!” The audience get really tense then because they’re looking at us, and at our expressions, so you won’t get the benefit of them anyway. A cliffhanger will do – tell them they’ll hear the

Left: Julien Right: Colm

rest next month!’

All too suddenly, and with only Julien and Colm’s advice for armour, it’s my turn to speak. It’s much hotter under the lights than I’d imagined from my spot in the darkened audience (‘not cardigan weather down there at all’ observes Colm gleefully when he runs into me afterwards) and I can hear an audible shake in my voice, induced by nerves I’d hoped might lie dormant. It’s immediately apparent that storytelling is just so different a medium to any kind of public speaking that I’ve come across.

The effect that I, as narrator, am having on the audience make the telling of my story so unique an experience. It’s great to feel, and even at times, hear, so many people invest themselves so wholeheartedly into something that didn’t happen to them, but to me (even though during the telling of my tale, I can’t help but find their empathy unsettling, the still of the room, almost unnerving in its intimacy.) Next time, I suspect, it would come more easily to me, from selecting a story in keeping with the theme, to drawing out its natural arc and relaying the stakes.

But herein lies the merits of a forum like The Moth, where the emphasis lies in the crafting the stories, as well as the act of telling them to an audience: it creates a rare kind of connection found in the fact that they have not paid for a performance, and are instead celebrating the vulnerability of truth.

The Moth StorySLAM takes place every month in The Sugar Club, with the next event on Monday 17th August. There will be a special SLAM event in the Spiegeltent on Monday 14th September as part of this year’s Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival. The first Irish Moth GrandSLAM takes place on Friday 6th November at the Abbey Theatre. For more information, see themoth.org.

Almonds, apricots, artichokes, aubergine, avocados, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, daikon, dates, figs, garlic, grapes, kale, kiwis, limes, melons, nectarines, olives, peaches, pears, peppers, plums, pomegranates, raspberries, rice, spinach, tomatoes, and walnuts.

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words Aoife McElwain photos Aoife McElwain James Cullen

fruit produced in the United States is grown in California, and they’re not far behind in their production of vegetables.

There are few richer places to take a culinary trip than in the San Francisco Bay Area. Californians care about their food. They care about organic, local and seasonal food, and it could be argued that the renaissance of the farm to fork food movement had its beginnings here thanks to local champions like Alice Waters. Indeed, the oldest Slow Food chapter in USA is in San Francisco.

I visit in late May, and I’m repeatedly told it’s the worst weather they’ve had in ages. It’s overcast and it even rains.

Truth be told, I’m as happy as the locals to see the rain here; the state has been suffering the worst drought for a century.

The implications of this to farmers and growers around the state had started to make news around the world.

And so, even though I packed my sunglasses, I’m happy to arrive in a muggy, overcast San Francisco with rain on the horizon. As I wait by the baggage reclaim carousel at SFO Airport, I wonder how many genuine tech geniuses I am sharing the air with at that moment.

Probably at least two.

EMBARCADERO AND NORTH BEACH My first sight of San Francisco are the hills to the south of the city, with houses squeezed together, taking up every inch of this precious real estate, rolling over the horizon. Soon after The Golden Gate Bridge itself rolls into view.

I’m driven into the city, past the AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants (that’s baseball, you guys), under The Oakland Bay Bridge and straight to The Ferry Building.

The Ferry Building is a landmark of the Embarcadero area of the city that can be seen from the other end of Market Street, the main street that cuts through the city’s downtown area. From 10am to 2pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 8am on Saturdays, its famous farmers’ market takes advantage of the California weather and sets up stalls outside in the front and back of the plaza. The market has been run by the Centre for Urban Education and Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) since 1993, and the sellers I visit proudly pin a ‘We grow what we sell’ sign on their stalls. It’s a joyful thing to see a market stocked entirely with such a variety of local produce; organic cherries, golden beetroots, fresh fava beans (broad beans to you and me), fuzzy peaches, bright blueberries, and local almonds.

The interior of The Ferry Building was renovated in 2003 and reopened fully stocked with a gourmet marketplace. Its skylight roof lets the Californian sun spill into this high-ceilinged space, which is not unlike Victorian-era markets in our own city. It’s one long hallway dotted with permanent food and craft stalls on either side. I spend two hours in here; sure, it’s a bit touristy and stuffed with people, but it allows me to get an introductory tour of some of the legends of The Bay Area food scene that I’ve been reading

about. I become pally with one of the cheesemongers at The Cowgirl Creamery counter after I help him pronounce ‘Coolea’ cheese, one of a handful of Irish cheeses stocked in the store which is heaving with wheels of cheese from around the US and the rest of the world.

The Cowgirl Creamery was set up in the ’90s by Sue Conley and Peggy Smith in Port Reyes, just north of San Francisco. Both are well-decorated veterans of The Bay Area’s food scene; Peggy worked at Chez Panisse for 17 years and Sue co-owned Bette’s Oceanview Diner in Berkeley.

They started making their own cheese and became famed for their buttery brie-style Mt. Tam cheese, which is what I drop my dollars on at The Ferry Building.

I get in the long line at Blue Bottle Coffee’s counter. This coffee roaster started with a stall at the Old Oakland Farmers Market in 2002, manned by founder and CEO of the company James Freeman. Today, Freeman’s coffee empire includes over 20 cafés in The Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. There are beans to buy and cartons of iced coffee to take home with you. After 15 minutes in line, I get a perfect milky coffee from their counter at The Ferry Building. I wish I could phonetically spell the barista’s gas pronunciation of the name ‘Efa’ which was written on my coffee cup – I was trying to make it easy for them.

Also at The Ferry Building, you can pick up goodies from Dandelion Chocolate and Heath Ceramics. If you’re only in the city for a short visit, spending some time here on a market day would leave you with a taster of California produce and a glimpse into the spirit of The Bay Area food scene.

Below: The Embarcadero Below left: A tram in front of The Ferry Building

photo: James Cullen

This isn’t even a definitive list of what grows in the state of California. At least half of the

Nearby and worth a visit: Alcatraz: Hop on a ferry at Pier 33 to see where Al ‘Scarface’ Capone spent his final days. Tickets are $30 and must be booked in advance. Give yourself two and a half hours for the visit. alcatrazcruises.com The Beat Museum: a charmingly ramshackle tribute to Jack Kerouac and his beat buddies. 540 Broadway, $8 entry, kerouac.com City Lights Bookstore: across the busy junction at Broadway and Columbus from The Beat Museum, this landmark independent bookstore was founded in 1953 by poet Laurence Ferlinghetti and Peter D Martin. 261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway citylights.com Tosca Restaurant: across the street from City Lights, this legendary North Beach restaurant was taken over and transformed in 2013 by April Bloomfield, the British chef behind Michelin starred New York restaurants The Spotted Pig and The Breslin. 242 Columbus Avenue toscacafesf.com Chinatown: Make your way down Grant Avenue, close to City Lights, to take in San Francisco’s Chinatown. I got a $2 fortune cookie at the Eastern Bakery that told me I ‘could prosper in the field of medicine’.

720 Grant Avenue easternbakery.com

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THE MISSION, THE CASTRO AND HAIGHT-ASHBURY

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chocolate maker are also at The Ferry Building, but here in their natural habitat you get the idea of the scale of what they’re doing; it’s an exciting space for chocolate lovers. Later that night, I have a midnight meal at Flour + Water, where they take reservations until 11.30pm at night.

They specialise in pasta and their seven course tasting menu ($70 per person) celebrates their best pasta dishes.

Around the corner from Mission Dolores is Bi-Rite Market, a family-run grocery that’s been feeding the community since 1940. It celebrates local gems as well as the best smallscale producers from around the country, such as North Carolina’s Big Spoon Roasters’ Spiced Chai Nut Butter. I leave Bi-Rite with a tote bag stuffed full of treats, including a $10 bag of corn tortilla chips that are made by Nopalito; the chips are exquisitely crunchy, and carry none of that unidentifiable yellow dust that envelopes most commercially produced tortilla chips. I wonder if buying a $10 bag of artisanal tortilla chips makes me a hipster foodie? I contemplate this while riding a traditional cable-car down Market Street, away from The Mission.

From the tram, I see a young woman in her 20s sitting on the curb holding a sign that reads ‘Fuck You, Tech Companies’ written in a large, capital-letter scrawl. In smaller letters, her sign further explains her anger with the note ‘Students used to be able to live here.’ Last month, The San Francisco Chronicle published an extensive report on the impact of AirBnB in the city, highlighting concerns over real estate being used exclusively for the app’s users. The housing shortage in a city, where average rents circle around the $3,000 per month, combined with the homelessness crisis in the city has seen various tech companies come under fire for being the root cause of sky-rocketing rents in the city. It’s not just AirBnB getting the flak; angry protestors have been known to throw cabbages at the Google shuttle buses. What it seems to come down to is this; San Francisco is one of the greatest cities to live in the US, but very much only if you can afford to do so.

Nearby and worth a visit: The de Young Museum: The building that houses the de Young fine art collection is an work of art in itself. Give yourself at least two hours to browse through the contemporary art collection in this stunning museum.

Golden Gate Park deyoung.famsf.org Community Thrift Store: A warehouse full of other people’s junk. While perusing the discarded pottery section, I spotted Instagram semi-celebrity Elizabeth Olson (@white_lightning). I introduced myself and then stared at her for quite a long number of seconds, going red in the face while desperately trying to think of something to say. It was my San Francisco “I carried a watermelon” moment.

623 Valencia Street communitythriftsf.org GLBT History Museum: Find out about Harvey Milk and other heroes of the gay rights movement in San Francisco and beyond at this small museum in The Castro.

4127 18th Street glbthistory.org

photo: Asta Karalis

Hitchcock fans will recognise the exterior of Mission Dolores, San Francisco’s oldest surviving structure founded in 1776. In fact, if you’ve seen Vertigo, you’ll recognise a lot of the hilly streets of San Francisco. The skyline still resembles what you can see in the 1958 film. Walking from the fine arts de Young Museum in the Golden Gate Park back over to The Castro, I stop at a high point in the undulating 17th Street, partly because I’m wheezing after walking up a particularly steep slope of this street but mostly because of the view out over the Eureka Valley area of the city. I can see past The Ferry Building out onto The Bay, the financial area’s skyscrapers and just ahead of me, the giant rainbow flag at the intersection of Market and Castro flies proudly over Harvey Milk’s old stomping ground.

I sit at the counter in Nopalito on 9th Street near Golden Gate Park, leaning over to get a view of the eight chefs at work making fresh tortillas, searing fish and chopping cilantro (coriander to you and me). My Tacos de Pescado al Pastor is an $11 plate of fish marinated in an ancho chile adobo sauce, served seared with segments of orange with a tomatillo and morita chilli salsa, all on top of the loveliest tortillas I’ve ever tasted. Nopalito was born when the Head Chef at their parent restaurant Nopa, Laurence Jossel, tasted some of the staff meals that chefs Jose Ramos and Gonzalo Guzman were cooking up.

Right at the top of my list of food places to visit is Tartine Bakery, founded by pastry chef Elisabeth Prueitt and her husband Chad Robertson in 2002. Robertson is a baker whose loaves are so respected that the brilliant food writer Michael Pollan took an apprenticeship with him while researching 2013’s Cooked. Katie Sanderson (chef at The Fumbally and Dillisk) worked at Bar Tartine, the sister café to Tartine Bakery, for two months in 2014, after Dillisk’s summer stint finished up. ‘Even as guests to the restaurant you get the sense that there is a lot going on in the kitchen; a lot of work with oils, ferments, powders, homemade drinks, vinegars and cheese. To work in Bar Tartine means that there are constantly big vats of fermenters filled to the brim with prepped vegetables, which the chefs taste daily until soured and then interns or stages fill them into smaller jars and they wait in basements or kitchen shelves until the time is right. They make all their own drinks in house too, which inspired me to come back and, together with Aisling [Rogerson] and Luca [D’Alfonso], start doing the same in The Fumbally. We’re now making all our own juices, some nut milks, ginger bugs, kombucha and kefirs,’ she explains.

I join the queue for Tartine Bakery that reaches the corner of 18th and Guerrero, and when my time comes I enjoy a perfectly biscuit-bottomed lemon curd tart, topped with a beautiful purple borage flower. To get to the public loo, you have to walk through a part of the kitchen, where you can feel the heat from the huge open oven as loaves are being shoveled in and out. Interestingly, in April of this year, Tartine Bakery merged with Blue Bottle Coffee. The two CEOs, Freeman and Robertson, have known each other for a decade and now plans are afoot to open Tartine Bakeries in Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo.

On nearby Valencia Street the divine smell of cacao and caffeine draws me into the Dandelion Chocolate. This bean-to-bar

Top: flowers outside Bi-Rite Left: Flour + Water

Advertisement

Fresh The Good Food Market The beginning of a food revolution for Dublin’s Urban Supermarket On the corner of bustling Camden Street sits Fresh; A retailer who, for the last 6 years, has bucked the recessionary trends in favour of staying true to its innovative take on the everyday shopping experience.

The most recent revamp boasting a fashionable wooden floor, mood lighting and an exposed glazed wall kitchen, this feels closer to a trendy bar than a typical pale wall trolley shop.

A realm where blazer wearing professionals can peruse continental cheese, chic students can argue over the history of American confectionary, the wine connoisseur mulls over her next choice of French red whilst a man with a groomed beard adds another craft beer to his basket. This is more than just a supermarket.

Now comes the latest staple of Fresh thinking; a fresh food revolution. Not content with continuing with the norm of deli mundanity, a plan was formed. It was simple, create a natural & wholesome food offering.

This lead to extensive research in food to go trends & the understanding of what the customer expects. The outcome; a superb offering that’s fresh, tasty and ready to go.

Susan Ebrill, Fresh food developer explains more, “We wanted to design a range of sandwiches, baguettes and wraps that would take our food innovation to a new level in our group. If we put flavour and nutrition at the heart of what we do, we believe it will stand to our customers and to our stores. What we mean by nutrition is using the best breads that are baked fresh every morning and using the freshest vegetables from local suppliers.

Everything is made in store, we marinade the meat, dice and chop all the vegetables for our slaws and so on. We will not compromise on our ethos to cut corners. This has meant a complete redesign of the preparation areas and all of our fresh foods team have been retrained. We are expanding our food knowledge; most recently we have added a great young chef to our team. It’s a complete new way of doing things but it’s exciting and different.

That I guess, is what Fresh is about”

Now comes the latest staple of Fresh thinking; a fresh food revolution. Not content with continuing with the norm of deli mundanity, a plan was formed.

It was simple, create a natural & wholesome food offering.

So why not drop into Fresh on Camden Street and taste the difference. Why not try the Chicken Waldorf on Wholemeal Granary, Proper Ham with celeriac salad, Sesame Beef with Asian slaw or Chilli Maple Chicken with creamy avocado to name a few.

For more info see www.freshthegoodfoodmarket.ie or find Fresh on facebook

OAKLAND AND BERKELEY Across The San Francisco Bay lie Oakland and Berkeley. The grounds of University of California, Berkeley, usually referred to locally simply as Berkeley University, are serene and tree-filled, and grander than I’d imagined. It was while studying at Berkeley University that Alice Waters became interested in food activism.

Alice Waters is basically the Darina Allen of the US. Waters spoke at this year’s Ballymaloe Lit Fest, and herself and Darina seem to go back a long way. I once heard Darina say that it was the farmers’ markets in California, championed by Waters, that inspired her to set up the Mitchelstown Market in Cork, which was one of the first of its kind in Ireland.

Somehow, I’ve managed to get a dinner reservation at Chez Panisse. My Instagram feed freaks out when I mention, in a casual humble brag (or maybe it’s just a straight up brag?), that I’m eating there. ‘Green with envy’, ‘So jealous’, ‘Best meal I ever had!’ come the replies.

Chez Panisse opened in 1971, having been encouraged by friends who loved Waters’ home cooking. Early on, she started championing local produce, and built up relationships with a network of local farmers and suppliers to help feed her guests at the restaurant. She was 40 years ahead of the now fashionable farmto-fork idea, and so many great chefs have been inspired by and have worked with her – Dan Barber of Blue Hill Farm did a stint in the kitchen; David Lebovitz worked in pastry here; April Bloomfield spent a summer working under Waters; Peggy Smith from Cowgirl Creamery worked here for 17 years; Acme Bread Company’s founder Steve Sullivan was the first in-house baker at Chez Panisse; and the list goes on.

A friend who has met Waters tells me she is an enormously generous person, opening up her home to travelling chefs with nowhere else to stay. This description matches up to her projects outside of Chez Panisse, such her charitable project The Edible School Yard. Waters set up a school garden in the disadvantaged Martin Luther King Junior Middle School 20 years ago, just a few minutes’ drive from her restaurant.

The project pioneered the idea of getting school kids familiar with the process of growing food, and has inspired countless other programmes around the world. It was Waters’ campaigning that moved Michelle Obama to set up a kitchen garden at The White House. So, Waters and Chez Panisse are kind of a big deal.

I’m surprised at how formal the dining room at Chez Panisse is. The décor is a sort of bizarre combination of art deco with a Japanese influence, and the waiters are in white shirts and black jackets. What I love the most about Chez Panisse is its open kitchen. All night, it’s calm and quiet, with about ten chefs working together to plate up our simple supper. And, like Tartine Bakery, you have to walk through the kitchen to go to the loo. Is this a Californian thing? It’s lovely to have an excuse to have a nosy look at where all the action is happening. The kitchen is teeming with morels and asparagus; the asparagus appears shaved and lightly dressed in a salad of radish and greens that accompany crispy, salted cod fritters. The morels lace a risotto that accompanies slices of pink pork shoulder, served with a side of borage leaves. This dish really reminds me of Ballymaloe House; it’s simple, homely, and free of fuss. As soon as our mains are out, I can see the pastry chef start 34

Nearby and worth a look I get the BART (San Francisco’s DART – their Muni is like our Luas) from The City to Berkeley. These spots aren’t really within walking distance of each other so plan ahead for taxis.

to work on our creamy panna cottas, scooping plump early summer berries and their juice onto our plates. This is all part of the Monday Night Dinner menu, and the three courses cost $75.

The meal sums up Californian food to me. The best of it is a celebration of simple ingredients, sourced locally and handled with care.

What an inspiring city for food lovers, and how encouraging that some of our leading Dublin food folks are applying what they’ve learned there here at home. The beginning of The Blue Bottle story reminds me of 3fe’s story; one coffee nut who started small and ended up inspiring many. And how fantastic is it that The Fumbally has incorporated Tartine’s kombucha mother and ginger bug enthusiasm to their offering? Ireland doesn’t have the same access to that breadth of local ingredients, but the farmto-fork idea, and the celebration of great local ingredients, suits us well.

Top: the kitchen at Chez Panisse Right: Blue Bottle Coffee, Oakland

Monterey Market: A grocery and market run by the Fujimoto family, it has been hugely influential in the farm to fork movement by giving local chefs access to farm produce. 1550 Hopkins Street, Berkeley montereymarket.com Ramen Shop: Opened in December 2012 by Chez Panisse alumni Sam White, Rayneil de Guzman and Jerry Jaksich, this ramen bar’s fans include Kinfolk and Lucky Peach magazine. 5812 College Avenue, Oakland ramenshop.com Blue Bottle Coffee: This coffee empire had its start in Oakland, and its café at WC Morse, which was until recently a disused car showroom, is an inspiring space thanks to its floor to ceiling windows letting in heaps of natural light. The company’s ‘tech department’ operates out of this shop; one side of the café is given over to their coffee machine repair centre, that looks after the upkeep of their machines.

4270 Broadway, Oakland bluebottlecoffee.com

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words Roisin Agnew photos Steve O’Connor

A New

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Rosi Leonard and Seamus Farrell

We look at the Irish Housing Network’s attempts to address the city’s housing crisis with direct action.

Home

This year a social housing scheme is being considered for the world’s most prestigious architecture award, The Stirling Prize. Niall McLaughlin’s Darbishire Place in London’s Whitechapel was built on a vacant site as part of a social housing scheme that sees the building currently host 13 families. It’s in the running for the Royal Institute of British Architects’ award alongside London penthouses worth millions of pounds and costly extensions to historical monuments. Placing a social housing scheme in this pool of architectural giants marked a recognition of the fact that community space and housing is in a state of crisis that deserves the attention of the brightest minds and the application of the bravest ideas on a global level.

It’s hard to write an unbiased piece about a subject that summons up such confused and diffuse anger in Dublin, where the closure of creative spaces, a punitively topsy-turvy rent market, and empty spaces mired by artificial blockades continue to be our experiences of an unimaginative and an unjust urban and social planning.

‘The two things you hear repeatedly in the North Inner City, are firstly, a need for community space, and secondly, anger towards Dublin City Council. These two things come up over and over again,’ says Seamus Farrell, the spiritual leader of Irish Housing Network, the network of housing groups that has taken over the disused hostel at 38 Bolton Street.

The take-over of the building on Bolton Street marks the first time since the late 1970s that a group of activists has taken over a building illegally for the purposes of housing homeless families. ‘The building is an example. It’s about showing up Dublin City Council. We take a building ourselves, put it in good condition, fix it up, show that it can be done, even with very limited resources like ours,’ Farrell explains.

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BOLT HOUSE The DCC-owned building was a hostel for the homeless until three years ago when it was closed down by DCC who claimed it was ‘unsafe and unsuitable to continue to occupy,’ and the existing residents were re-accommodated within other homeless services. While it was in operation, Bolton House’s six bedrooms accommodated up to 17 individual adults.

After discovering it while searching for spaces that might alleviate the crisis, the Irish Housing Network contacted DCC to see if it might be possible for them to take over the building.

Their proposal was refused, and within a couple of weeks, on Monday 6th July, activists occupied the building.

DCC made contact with the IHN demanding they leave the building immediately, explaining to them that there would be an injunction should they fail to do so, and offering up ‘a potential unwritten partnership to work on other buildings,’ says Seamus Farrell, a negotiation tactic the IHN didn’t think much of. The July 10th ultimatum came and went without an injunction, perhaps because this is ‘a bad battle for them,’ as Farrell suggests, ‘they haven’t come down hard on us yet because of the public support we’ve been getting.’

Both Farrell and Rosi Leonard, another member of the IHN working at Bolt House, believe that Bolt will prove a sore point to DCC because it’s in the north inner city – ‘a development wasteland to the council’ – and because ‘the community taking control over space is a challenge to their authority’ and one they dread the most.

HOMELESSNESS AND THE ACCOMMODATION CRISIS The emergency with accommodation for homeless families and individuals had been coming to a boil for most of 2014, with the Simon Community and other voluntary groups issuing reports and warnings. But it was only with the death of homeless man Jonathan Corrie on Leinster House’s doorstep last December, that the problem gained a human face and story – and the public outcry was great. It prompted Minister for Environment Alan Kelly to issue a press release stating that ‘ministerial directions should provide at least 500 homes for homeless households in the Dublin region,’ over the ensuing six months (this was January 31st), with directives that 50% of emergency accommodation should be given over to the most ‘vulnerable’.

Public talks were scheduled, meetings were had, and plans were drawn up – some including the suggestion to rehouse 200 homeless families in the once notorious and now much neglected O’Devaney Gardens. Another proposal saw the rehabilitation of a DCC owned building in the Pembroke Street area into emergency accommodation. The first proposal was strongly contested by the then Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke, whilst the second proposal was opposed by local residents of the Dublin 2 Georgian heartland.

On the night of April 14th, the Dublin Region Housing Executive issued a ‘Spring Count on Rough Sleeping’ which recorded 105 people sleeping rough, a 38% decrease since the previous November when 168 people were counted.

According to the report, a total of 1,872 adults were in emergency accommodation, up from 1,526 in November.

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VACANT SPACES, THE BUILDER’S TRUMP CARD, AND FIRE AND SAFETY The unwillingness of the council and the Ministry for the Environment to look at the potential use of vacant space, in favour of new building works, is perceived by Farrell and Leonard as one of the greatest problems when talking about homeless accommodation. ‘The housing policies currently drawn up serve to benefit landlords and get developers and builders back building. To me this is all not going to work,’ Farrell explains.

Fire and safety regulations are the reason given to cut short any suggestions around the rehabilitation of vacant spaces in Dublin, a phrase that’s become a battle cry for DCC and NAMA over the past few years.

Leonard points to the vast amount of insurance claims the council has had to pay out over the past ten years as a reason for this. But she also gives the example of the exception to the rule that was Granby Park, a rehabilitated empty site on Dominick Street run by Upstart, which was converted into a highly successful temporary community park and art space. In that case, DCC insured the space themselves, which in Leonard’s opinion proves that the ‘fire and safety excuse is far from water-tight.’

There are individuals within DCC who are actively reaching out and discussing the issues around communal space and homelessness with the communities that feel most abandoned – this much is undeniable. IHN points to the successful regeneration project of St. Michael’s Estate, saying that many good social housing initiatives have been implemented, but are quick to point out how long some of these projects ended up taking.

Rosi Leonard maintains that often times conversation around community space and vacant buildings can feel like ‘all talk’. ‘There are a huge amount of conversations, public talks, and meetings run by DCC about doing different things with vacant spaces, especially when it comes to creative spaces – but nothing ever gets implemented.’

The Irish Housing Network along with many other activist groups that have sprung up to fight the demise of creative spaces around

The housing policies currently drawn up serve to benefit landlords and get developers and builders back building.

This is not going to work.

Dublin, feel that DCC needs to be ‘shaken up’ out of their ‘conservatism.’ As Leonard insists, ‘there needs to be a focus on implementing action on these vacant spaces rather than a focus on building,’ particularly when the provision of emergency accommodation has come to a standstill because, as DCC told Totally Dublin via email, ‘the challenge remains that the level of families presenting to homeless services is not keeping a pace with the number of families that are moving out of homeless services and back into independent living.’

It is hard to see how decision-makers can be forced to act upon their good intentions when their chief purpose seems to be to neutralise the community’s anger. The terms and conditions of their brainstorms and talks should contain a clause about ‘No follow-ups intended’.

Emergency action, such as has been taken by the Grangegorman squatters, and more recently by members of the IHN, seem to be the only way. What is harder still, is to comprehend the motivations behind DCC’s reluctance to enter into partnerships with groups willing to contribute resources and ideas for the sake of the cause – the inaction is what is most heartbreaking.

In Down And Out In Paris And London, George Orwell in one of his dramatic pronouncements says, ‘We know that poverty is unpleasant; in fact, since it is so remote, we rather enjoy harrowing ourselves with the thought of its unpleasantness. But don’t expect us to do anything about it.’ Perhaps it’s that distance and all the unpleasantness that needs to be resolved that stops DCC in its tracks and keeps it far from action.

At the time of going to print, the Irish Housing Network had begun to house a number of homeless individuals and families in the Bolt Hostel.

AUGUST 2015 / FREE

ALSO KNOWN AS AWESOME FKA twigs comes to the Picnic

Inside Llewyn Davis TOTALLY KILKENNY #1

with Kilkenny Arts Festival Belle and Sebastian Cartoon Saloon Treats of Inistioge and Billy Byrnes

HKM Media Group are happy to announce the birth of TOTALLY KILKENNY. Born 5th August 2015.

40

words and photos Conor Clinch

Anne and The Van If you grew up in Coolock, Anne Byrne was a local celebrity – she is the owner of ‘The Van’.

The crackled yellow paint of the van matched the colour of her house. It sat prominently in her garden, five doors down the road from my family home on Greencastle Crescent for my whole life.

The van stocked everything from a litre of milk to a sliced pan to 20 Blue. I remember growing up I could get a Freddo bar and a bottle of Cadet for 50 cent. The two cent jellies were always a best seller.

Anne and her mother, Mary Bird, started it up 43 years ago in 1972. She was only 29 at the time. My ma told me that they would tow the caravan, which was cut and crafted by her husband, Christy, to the church around the corner, where the congregation queued after mass to get their bits and bobs on a Sunday afternoon.

Anne had five kids throughout her time in the van; they’d take turns at doing shifts, giving Anne a break. The odd time I’d see Christy over there too.

Skipping forward a few years, and the van had come to a halt in Anne’s garden, which is where I always remember it being. The roads became too busy and it was blocking up outside the church, she told me. She never lost her business though; the same crowd would still pop round the corner after Sunday mass.

My house was always bustling with activity when I was growing up, the centre for my extended family with cousins and aunts and uncles coming and going. I’ve a big family and Anne was always well-known to the Clinch clan. My auntie Margaret would always buy

The Evening Herald from her after work and get lost for hours in chat. They’d yap for ages, not feeling the time go by. Anne told me that that was always her favourite thing about the van, she loved chatting to the neighbours for hours, despite her also having a telly in there to watch the soaps.

Coolock was thriving when I was growing up, there were tonnes of kids around the area. It had quietened down a lot before I left last year.

But even in its heyday, Anne would never let the young fellas congregate outside the van. ‘Mr Doran wasn’t well next door, you couldn’t have gangs of young fellas hanging around. I’d just say to them – you got what you wanted, now move off!’. She recalled one afternoon to me when two lads came to the van and held her up with a shotgun. That was scary moment.

I never set foot inside inside the van, not even when I photographed Anne. I was almost afraid to ask, having always stood at the hatch growing up. Now I wonder what it felt like to look out from it. Perhaps I should’ve gone inside?

Earlier this year, 43 years after she began, Anne closed the hatch for the last time, as she is unwell. ‘I’m not sad to see it go. It’s time now after all these years,’ she said. It’ll always be an abiding memory for anyone who grew up on Greencastle Crescent. Walking back from the van to my family’s house for the last time, I noticed Francis, my neighbour, was watching out from her window, upset to see it go.

“Where’s my ma going to get her bread and milk now?’ I asked Anne. ‘Where am I going to get my bread and milk now?!’

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The Dublin Pub Guide PREMIUM & CRAFT BEERS

FRITEHAUS

Frite haus

THE PORTERHOUSE central

L. Mulligan Grocer the twelfth lock

Frite Haus offers a growing range of craft beers with wonderful authentic Belgian fries and sausages with an Irish twist in the heart of Dublin 2. They have put a great deal of thought in to their menu, from triple cooked house made potato chips, craft sauces and house made condiments, to their locally sourced artisan butcher sausages. Great ingredients, expertly prepared and served in a relaxed Belgian style ‘Chip Shop’ restaurant.

The Porterhouse in Temple Bar opened in 1996 as Dublin’s first microbrewery.

Brewing three stouts, three lagers and three ales in the tiny brewery created much demand for the brews and lead to the growth of the craft beer market. Seasonal beers are available alongside their regular ten drauaght beers they brew, namely Plain Porter which won a gold medal twice for the best stout in the world!

The most revered pub and eatery in Dublin 7 – L. Mulligans Grocers focusses heavily on the quality of its produce - beers, food and whiskeys are the staple. The extensive range of beers are all from Irish craft breweries, their food is locally sourced and has some surprises on the ever changing menu.

The whiskey selection was 200 at last count, and is continually growing. L. Mulligan also run events including beer and whiskey tastings and a weekly quiz.

Frites Haus, 87 Camden Street Lower, Dublin 2 T: 087 050 5964 www.frite-haus.com

45-47 Nassau Street, Dublin 2 tel: 01 677 4180 www.porterhousebrewco.com Fb: Porterhouse-Brewing-Company

18 Stonybatter Dublin 7

@Porterhousebars

(01) 6709889 lmulligangrocer.com

McDaids

O’Donoghue’s

Grogan’s

McDaids is, if we’re honest, the kind of place where you’d call yourself lucky if you’ve nabbed a seat early in the night. Its much cosier, shoulder-to-shoulder affair where an unbeatable Guinness is only a quick shuffle away and commenting on overheard banter is de rigeur. The perfect place for whiling a night away righting the world’s wrongs with a few close friends or quiet pint in Brendan Behan’s memory.

O’Donoghue’s is one of Dublin’s most historic drinking establishments located just off St. Stephen’s Green in the heart of Dublin. Probably best known for its traditional Irish music, session still take place daily, midweek from 9pm, Saturdays from 5pm and all day on Sunday from 1pm. O’Donoghue’s has a rich history in providing a welcome for locals and visitors alike to play a tune or enjoy a pint. A menu of soup, stew and sandwiches is served daily from noon.

Grogan’s Pub has been a mainstay in Dublin since time began. When you walk through the doors you get a sense of being catapulted back to a bygone era when pubs where a place that everybody knew your name. The decor has not changed in almost 40 years, and that’s the way it should be.

Do try their legendary toasted sandwiches with a pint of plain and admire all the artwork hanging from the walls which are, by the way, available to buy.

@fritehaus1

REGULARS

15 Sth William St, Dublin 2

3 Harry Street, Dublin 2 01 679 4395

15 Merrion Row, Dublin (01) 660 7194 Hours: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.

IRISH CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL 2015

cocktails and spirits

IRELAND’S LARGEST CRAFT BEER FESTIVAL RETURNS TO

THE RDS, DUBLIN FROM 27-29TH AUGUST 2015

IrishCraftBeerFestival.ie

The Meeting House

Mint Bar at The Westin Dublin

The Blind Pig

In spite of its playful ethos, this venue takes its cocktails seriously, shaking up popular classics as well as quirky new creations to keep us guessing.

Signature snifters include a startlingly exotic Lychee and Lemongrass Sour, and an Emerald Collins that switches gin with whiskey to delicious effect.

Located in the bosom of Temple Bar, the Meeting House terrace is the perfect spot for sharing pitchers with friends as the sun goes down. Inside, it’s at once cool and welcoming, lively yet laid-back, and the scene hots up at the weekends when DJs mix soul, funk and disco into the early hours. You might even see the sun come up again.

The Westin Hotel has recently reopened its refurbished Mint Bar. With completely revamped interiors and a redesigned cocktail and food menu, the new Mint Bar evokes the glamour and style of the historic building’s 1920s heyday. Classic leather seating and stylish wooden furnishings complement the original stone walls and unique vaulted ceilings of the former bank, whilst warm lighting helps create a cosy and welcoming atmosphere, while the Onyx bar provides a stunning centrepiece. To do justice to these striking interiors, The Mint Bar’s renowned team of expert mixologists have developed an innovative and exciting drinks and cocktail menu combining familiar and updated classics with signature creations, while keeping the new food menu simple and seasonal.

Named after the police, who turned a blind eye to the liquor rooms of the 1920s prohibition era, The Blind Pig launched as a monthly pop-up Speakeasy bar, in secret, at a well-known Dublin venue. Since then, The Blind Pig has developed an affectionate fanbase in Ireland and abroad. The Blind Pig is the brains of the internationally award-winning mixologist Paul Lambert. With his expertly-crafted cocktail menu, The Blind Pig is now in permanent residence and is a full underground cocktail bar and restaurant.

The location, which is less than a 5-minute walk from Trinity College, is revealed upon booking.

Meeting House Square, Dublin 2 All cocktails just €6.66 on Sundays & Mondays themeetinghousedublin.com 01 670 3330

The Westin Dublin, College Green, Westmoreland St, D2

reservations@theblindpig.ie 085 874 7901

Neary’s

Mulligans

Generator Hostel

There’s a reason that Nearys has remained so consistent over the decades the formula works. Housed in an elegant slice of Edwardian Dublin with its old-world interior still in pride of place, the early evening buzz in Nearys is a rare sight to behold. With a crowd ranging from theatre-goers and thespians from the nearby Gaiety to local suits and Grafton shoppers, Dave and his team of old-school barmen will take care of all your needs.

One of the city’s most adored watering holes, Mulligans of Poolbeg Street was originally a shebeen before it went legit all the way back in 1782, making it amongst the oldest licensed premises in Dublin city and just a few years younger than Arthur Guinness’ famous brewery. Inside, the walls creak with the weight history and a thousand forgotten conversations long lost to the passage of time. But aside from that, it has a reputation for two things great Guinness and great barmen. No music, no television, none of yer fancy stuff, only the essentials are present in this landmark establishment.

Generator hails a return to the proud tradition of innkeeping; providing lodging, food and of course, drinks. A relaxed venue where you can enjoy a selection of craft beers, the trusted classics or something more suited to a backpacker’s budget. Expect to meet guests from all over the world as they stop over in the fair city. It provides a perfect opportunity to practice your rusty Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or German. Situated in the ever-present yet up and coming Smithfield Square, right on the Luas tracks, Generator is a refreshingly different interface beween Dublin and her visitors.

8 Poolbeg Street, Dublin 2

Smithfield Square, Dublin 7

01 6775582

01 901 0222

1 Chatham Street, Dublin 2 01-6778596

www.generatorhostels.com/Dublin-Hostel

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

BARFLY words Ian Lamont photos Killian Broderick

Lock 6 is a very of the moment idea – a repurposed space (‘Construction Industry Federation’ reads the foreboding plaque outside), a cafe and bruncherie, a pop-up that’s gone and stayed-up.

What Lock 6 transforms into on Friday and Saturday nights, the Canal Club extends some of these ideas by utilising a space otherwise put to sleep for the day. Similar to how, for example, Salt Lick repurposed Hobart’s, a perennially popular greasy spoon on the main street in Ranelagh, into a fancily themed restaurant on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings last year, the Canal Club redresses this unusual but cosy space on the southern side of the Grand Canal (which looks directly over at the institution of canalside lolling, The Barge) into something far more lively that it is during the week.

The Canal Club is also an extension of the hugely popular Irish pastime, particularly in belttightening times, of prinking. The set-up here is that, without a full-bar licence on the premises, you can bring your own beer and spirits to the party – within certain limits – and pay a reasonable corkage fee (a euro per beer, a tenner for a bottle of wine but discounted if you buy one of the footlong hot dogs they’re also hawking) to drink them in the comfort of this home away from home. They also sell wine inside here, though we’ve arrived armed with a six-pack.

And maintaining the ambience of the gaff party is very much what happens here. It’s small and handily located, but at the same time, given the divisions of the Canal Road, the canal itself and the lack of any other businesses fronting onto this side of the road, has a distinct feeling of suburban remoteness. The decor of the lowceilinged, boxy room from which Lock 6 operates feels like a mutual friend’s living room that you’ve stumbled upon, while the yards to either side, penned in by stone walls or picket fences, full of rudimentary wooden pallet furniture and sheltered by a large awning feel you’re in a gazebo in the back garden of said pseudo-suburban Southside sesh.

That the affair is run by the boys behind BD festival – which rebranded away from its previous incarnation as Barn Dance into something of a mini-Life festival this year – means that the party atmosphere is maintained by lads dropping house bangers on decks in the garden. It’s an unusual if inviting atmosphere that does manage to maintain a welcoming feel, while sitting blurrily between the definitive act of ‘going out’ and the creature comforts of six Pražský with a Boiler Room set streaming off your mate’s phone.

44

ALL BACK TO THEIR’S The Canal Club at Lock 6 Café

The Canal Club at Lock 6 Café 8 Dunville Avenue, Canal Road, Ranelagh, D6 facebook.com/ canalclublock6 01 497 9337

BARFLY words Danny Wilson photo Killian Broderick

CUNNING LIKE A… The Wiley Fox The Wiley Fox is a new incarnation of long standing city centre pub and venue, The Pint.

With management changing hands, the intentions of the powers that be to furnish this bar with greater air of sophistication are apparent from first glance at the tastefully understated exterior.

Like most recently opened establishments of its ilk, the revamped interior embraces the more international notion of a bar as opposed to an Irish pub in the more traditional sense.

In other words, there’s no heavy-handed deployment of old Harp and Paddy mirrors or other Emerald Isle ephemera. Exposed bricks and mix-and-match light fixtures stretch as far as the eye can see, a bicycle is attached to the wall at head height, taking pride of place as a would-be beacon of modern bohemian

living. High wooden tables and sturdy stools in lieu of booths provide plenty of desirable perches for one’s posterior. While obviously the notion of a ‘vibe’, pleasant or otherwise, is as subjective as it is unquantifiable, on this sunny Wednesday evening, the Wiley Fox and the affable Roky Erikson lookalike manning the taps were managing to cultivate a mostly pleasant one.

The Wiley Fox does however sadly suffer from the same fascination with guileless, phoned-in street art that plagues seemingly every bar striving to appeal to the 18-35 demographic. The walls are plastered with images of anthropomorphic foxes in three-piece suits, like extras from a rough build of Hotline Harcourt Street. A lion’s face stares blankly from one piece, somehow aware of the fedora and glasses

The Wiley Fox 28 Eden Quay, D1 thewileyfox.ie 01 878 3075

Persian Cuisine

14-15 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 - 01 677 3595 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 - 01 400 5006 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 Delivery Number 01 4005700

Persian Cuisine

Welcome to Zaytoon, the home of

14-15 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 - 01 677 3595amazing Persian Cuisine. Our food Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 might be fast, but we provide you, our 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 - 01 400 5006 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 customers, with truly nutritious and Delivery Number 01 4005700 quality meals.

Persian Cuisine

he’s been placed in, demeaning us both. An otherwise pleasing print of a fox’s head is irrevocably sullied with the phrase ‘for fox sake’ daubed underneath it.

Cynicism aside, different strokes for different folks and these interior-decorating missteps fail to scupper the Wiley Fox’s appeal. My companion and I opt for a couple of pints of Brooklyn Lager, its €6.50 price tag now seeming to be an entirely necessary evil. We finish what we have and line up another two, and so on. I guess that’s the highest praise you can really afford any bar; that you find it hard to say how long you’ve been there and don’t really want to leave. Time marches on, we remain oblivious to the clock and put in another order. Vintage Belle and Sebastian comes on the stereo. I think I kind of like this place.

Request online for a Zaytoon discount card and you could enjoy instant 10% discounts on all our Welcome to Zaytoon, the home of meals.

amazing Persian Cuisine. Our food Great delivered your door Persian Food datestoback many might be fast, but we provide you, ourFood within our delivery from 18:00centuries and is zone, culturally customers, with truly nutritious and 24:00.

For further information please based on the freshest 14-15 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 - 01 677 3595 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin quality 1 meals. check: www.zaytoon.ie ingredients in season.

44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 - 01 400 5006 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 Delivery Number 01 4005700 Request online for a Zaytoon Our food is rich and varied. We use spices such as saffron and discount card and you could enjoy Enjoy our special offers: instant 10% discounts on all ourfresh corriander.

For Taxi Drivers free chips and meals.

Visit us and try our delicious softdrink with every dish ALL DAYfreshly prepared Kebabs.

Welcome to Zaytoon, the home of EVERY DAY! Great Food delivered your door Persian Food datestoback many amazing Persian Cuisine. Our food within our delivery from 18:00centuries and is zone, culturally Lunch special from Mon-Fri 12pmmight be fast, but we provide you, our breast of chicken, fresh salmon 24:00. information please basedFor on further the freshest 15pm Free chips and softdrink with customers, with truly nutritious and or vegetarian, all served with check: www.zaytoon.ie ingredients in season. ervey dish! quality meals. freshly baked bread.

Our food is rich and varied.

We Request online for a Zaytoon use spices such as saffron and discount card and you could enjoy Enjoy our special offers: opening hours: fresh corriander. hours: Mon-Thurs, Sun 12pm–4.30am • Fri-Sat instant 10% discounts on all Opening our opening hours: Sun -and Thurs: 12pm - 4am For Taxi Drivers free chips meals.

12pm open end Visit us and try ourFri delicious - Sat:DAY12pm - 4.30am softdrink with every dish ALL prepared Kebabs.

Great Food delivered your door Persian Food datestoback many freshly EVERY DAY!

Established in January 2000 Zaytoon restaurants have two branches in 14/15 Parliament street and 44/45 lower Camden street.

They are casual diners offering delicious kebabs served with freshly made naan bread which is cooked in a traditional Persian clay oven. Often referred to as having the best kebabs in Ireland.

Here at Zaytoon we pride ourselves on sourcing and providing the highest quality products. All our meat and poultry are Irish and fully traceable.

By day Zaytoon is full of tourists and business people, by night it’s packed to the gills with midnight revellers jostling to get one of our famous kebabs!

Persian Cuisine

14-15 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 - 01 677 3595 Parliament Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 1 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 - 01 400 5006 44/45 Lr. Camden St., Dublin 2 Delivery Number 01 4005700

12pm–5am

Welcome to Zaytoon, the home of amazing Persian Cuisine. Our food might be fast, but we provide you, our customers, with truly nutritious and

DRINK words The Corkscrew Team

Spanish and Portugese wines Spanish Wine Spain used to be a very easy country to understand in terms of its wines. You had a Reserva Rioja for roast lamb and a Gran Reserva for special occasions at the end of the meal with some old cheeses. In Spain on holidays, some white or a light-ish red at lunch time would be followed by a bottle of earthy red in the evenings and for many people this is possibly still the case. However, in the Corkscrew’s shops at least, a change has begun to occur with an increase in different regional wines and the emergence of others previously unknown.

In Ireland it was the rediscovery of wines from the Ribera del Duero region that initially sparked non-Rioja buying at similar but often slightly higher prices. Today, however, and especially in ‘these economic times…’, a much wider range of very fine Spanish wine is available and at very affordable prices, which is a reflection of two things: the real value that Spanish wines offer (ready to drink on release and matured in expensive oak barrels) and the relative lack of understanding in the international market of many of the hidden treasures that make up Spain’s massive vinous patchwork.

Spain’s attitude to wine has been very similar to that of the other Mediterranean countries and as such, wine is part of daily life, rather than a treat for Sunday lunch. Following WWII, when most countries were increasing exports of wine, Spanish wines stayed in Spain. Unlike the Italians, whose diaspora spread across the globe following the war, the Spanish didn’t have a ready-made international market for its wines. The French, whose wines were already regarded as the finest in the world, were happy to reach their important markets with Claret and Burgundy as they had done for the previous hundred years.

So it was that until recently, a handful of Rioja producers accounted for the vast majority of all Spanish wine exports; which is odd, because Spain has more vineyard area than any other country in the world. Much of the wine produced is consumed locally and that which is exported has to carry some form of recognisable point of difference, usually stating some kind of age – Crianza, Reserva and so on. In recent times, the emergence of some fine wines under brand labels has seen the popularity of new regions and new styles increase as if they were New World

46

Sauvignon Blancs. The example of Torres is fascinating because the wines come from all over the country, with some exceptionally well-made and fairly costly wines in the range, yet most of us think of a plastic bull around the neck of a bottle of Sangre de Toro!

Recent legal changes in Spain have created selfregulating bodies and have resulted in an overall increase in terms of cellar hygiene, vineyard practices and in the final products on our shelves.

Wine makers have to adhere to legislation from the regional Denominación de Origen (translation: designation of origin) regulator called the Consejo Regulador, and after that, the laws of national government and the EU apply, and the wine is labelled into appropriate categories.

The interesting aspect of Spanish wine, especially for reds, comes in the manner in which they are aged and the corresponding category or name for which they qualify. This system of ageing changes from region to region and in relation to colour. It’s no wonder then, with the complexity of this system, why for many of us it is ‘Reserva or bust’ when we go shopping!

Portuguese Wine The wines of Portugal have been unfairly overshadowed for many years. It is a country six times smaller than its neighbour, Spain, yet it has had a system akin to the French Appellation Controlee for over 250 years. Including the wines from the island of Madeira, Portugal has over 50e wine regions and the secret to its quality is its extraordinary variety of climatic and geographic vineyard influences. Rather like Italy, wine production is very much dependent on the back one of mountainous areas that run the length of the country.

This allows an amazing variety of wine styles to be produced, from sweet and fortified to low alcohol lightly fizzy whites and full-bodied reds and roses. Nothing to do with Mateus.

So it has been that recently, with the help of some keen importers and retailers, that Portugal has somewhat come to the limelight. Modern fruit-focussed and forward wines are becoming the norm from regions and grape varieties that have never been heard of before and consumers are seeing the real value available to them. Of the numerous regions, it is those that utilise their natural resources and look to get the best from these in their wines that have caught the attention

of the international community. Modern winemaking is being coupled with respectful, common sense viticultural practices and the benefits are quite remarkable.

Many of the country’s regions are now producing wines that compete with the quality of other international wines. French winemakers may be upset by the inroads that the Australians have made to their market share, but their fight would be better fought if they were to see what was being done in the most Westerly points of their own continent. The wines and their marketing, packaging and legal requirements are clear, easy to understand and drinker-friendly.

What a change from a European country!

As with Spain, there are indications of age for Portuguese wines but there is not so much emphasis at commercial level. Reserva and Garafeira are the equivalent terms for Reserva and Grand Reserva, though this doesn’t change from region to region.

The Corkscrew is at 4 Chatham Street, Dublin 2. thecorkscrew.ie

We Animate Public Space With Meaning Instant Cultural Events in Dublin, Limerick & Cork

We take advantage of good weather and instant communication to gather hundreds of happy people at a moment’s notice. Sign up to get notifications at www.happenings.ie

Upcoming Events Open-Air Cinema in parks across Dublin

Whippersnappenings Kids cinema in parks

All summer

Sundays throughout the summer

Open-Air Music Fitzwilliam Sq & Merrion Sq

Another Love Story Killyon Manor

All summer

21st - 23rd August

Open-Air Yoga Dartmouth Sq

Now launched in Cork & Limerick

Weekly

Events all summer

www.happenings.ie

riviera

Bray Camille O’Sullivan

riviera

D U B L IN Prepare for an intensely emotional theatrical experience as Camille O’Sullivan performs hidden gems and old favourites drawn from a decade of her most mesmerising performances. Expect joy and passion in equal measure and see for yourself how O’Sullivan has forged an internationally renowned reputation as she interprets the songs of Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, David Bowie and others in an intensely dramatic way. Catch Camille O’Sullivan at the Mermaid Arts Centre Bray at 8pm on Friday 10th & Saturday 11th July.

For more see www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Dún Laoghaire Junior Song School

Junior Song School is a great programme for students at primary school level interested in making music and writing songs with others.

The week-long workshop covers subjects such as learning how to write and record songs, make music videos and putting on gigs for family and friends. Aimed at those learning how to play an instrument or those playing already, this workshop offers opportunities to find friends who share a love of making music while having fun jamming with them.

Junior Song School runs from July 27th – 31st. See www.mermaidartscentre.ie for further details.

Bray Summer Fest

With an eclectic mix of musical, culinary and visual treats, there’s plenty to see and do at this year’s Bray Summer Fest. Attractions include Proms on the Pier food and craft markets, a seaside funfair, The last weekend Groove Festival and the ever-popular Bray in August sees Dún Laoghaire playathost to a two-day music Air Display (see below). Entertainments festival12th withJuly a difference.

Proms on the Pier the Summerfest Funfair (Sunday to dispenses with the tried and trusted conMonday 3rd August) include a vintage style vention of tramping through muddy fields, sideshow, inflatable cities, jungle gyms and a providing instead a fully reserved seating range of water activities. All are individually event setalso against the spectacular backdrop of priced with regular weekday offers availDún Laoghaire Harbour.

With a champagne able on site. Bray Summer Fest culminates in a tenton forBank added sparkle, the inaugural festival spectacular fireworks display Holiday features4th music Monday, and runs from Saturday Julyfrom to guests including Phil Coulter and the Proms Party Orchestra, Air Monday 3rd August. Keep up to date on TwitSupply, Midge Ure, ter with the hashtag #bsf15 and check out Johnny Logan, 10CC and Bjorn Again. Proms on the Pier takes place www.braysummerfest.ie for more. on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th August.

For more see: www.promsonthepier.ie

The Ukulele Hooley By The Sea

The Ukulele Hooley By The Sea celebrates the diminutive Hawaiian instrument popularised all over again by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole in the 1990s. Saturday’s programme features workshops and master classes for players of all levels, an open-top ‘Uke-Bus’ busking its way around the coast, and an open-mic session at Buskers Corner on the Pavilion quarter.

The eagerly anticipated Big Ukulele Hooley Concert takes place on Sunday in The People’s Park, with a strong lineup featuring Irish and international acts such as Del Ray, Dead Man’s Uke and Belgium’s Winin’ Boys. The Ukulele Hooley By The Sea takes place in Dún Laoghaire on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd August. See www.ukulelehooley.com

riviera

Bray Camille O’Sullivan

riviera

D UB LI N Prepare for an intensely emotional theatrical experience as Camille O’Sullivan performs hidden gems and old favourites drawn from a decade of her most mesmerising performances. Expect joy and passion in equal measure and see for yourself how O’Sullivan has forged an internationally renowned reputation as she interprets the songs of Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, David Bowie and others in an intensely dramatic way. Catch Camille O’Sullivan at the Mermaid Arts Centre Bray at 8pm on Friday 10th & Saturday 11th July.

For more see www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Junior Song School

Summer of Fun at The People’s Markets

Junior Song School is a great programme for students at primary school level interested in making music and writing songs with others.

The week-long workshop covers subjects such as learning how to write and record songs, make music videos and putting on gigs for family and friends. Aimed at those learning how to play an instrument or those playing already, this workshop offers opportunities to find friends who share a love of making music while having fun jamming with them.

Junior Song School runs from July 27th – 31st. See www.mermaidartscentre.ie for further details.

Bray Summer Fest

With an eclectic mix of musical, culinary and visual treats, there’s plenty to see and do at this year’s Bray Summer Fest. Attractions include food and craft markets, a seaside funfair, Groove Festival and the ever-popular Bray Air Display (see below). Entertainments at the Summerfest Funfair (Sunday 12th July to Monday 3rd August) include a vintage style sideshow, inflatable cities, jungle gyms and a range of water activities. All are individually priced with regular weekday offers also available on site. Bray Summer Fest culminates in a spectacular fireworks display on Bank Holiday Monday, and runs from Saturday 4th July to Monday 3rd August. Keep up to date on Twitter with the hashtag #bsf15 and check out www.braysummerfest.ie for more.

The recently renovated bandstand at the People’s Park has seen some great musical performances on Sunday afternoons throughout the summer. August features free live performances from Jhil Quinn’s Café Vaudeville Band and Irish trad musicians Tumbleweed. On Sunday 2nd August the Café Vaudeville Band will perform a range of jazz, blues and ragtime numbers from the 1900s to 1940s along with their own original and quirky repertoire. You can also enjoy a great selection of traditional Irish melodies when Tumbleweed take to the stage on Sunday 16th August. Both gigs run from 2pm to 4pm. For more see www.dlrcoco.ie/ markets

Swing at the Pavilion

The Pavilion’s autumn theatre schedule kicks off this September with Swing, a comedy from the Fishamble New Play Company about dancing, music and love. Featuring plenty of fancy footwork, Swing also explores some familiar modern themes such as feeling like an eejit, deciding not to settle and giving life a proper lash. Produced by Marketa Dowling and written by the talented combination of Steve Blount, Peter Daly, Gavin Kostick and Janet Moran the play was a big hit with audiences in Edinburgh, Paris and New York. Catch Swing at the Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire from Tuesday 1st to Friday 5th September. For tickets and further information see www. paviliontheatre.ie

Dalkey

The 2015 Dalkey Lobster Fest

If you fancy crab, lobster and all that jazz, head to the coast at the end of August for the Dalkey Lobster Fest.

Crustacean lovers will find themselves spoiled for choice as the menus of Dalkey’s restaurants and pubs place lobster and crab centre stage. In addition to the prospect of some great seafood there are activities to suit all tastes, with free music sessions courtesy of Dalkey’s jazz musicians.

This year’s chosen charity is the RNLI Dún Laoghaire and you can keep up to date with all the happenings on the Dalkey Lobster Fest Facebook page.

The Dalkey Lobster Festival takes place from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th August.

Ferry Trips to Dalkey Island

Dalkey Island is just five minutes from the mainland by boat, but those who make the short trip find themselves richly rewarded for their efforts.

The island’s history stretches back over 6,500 years and it has been described as an exciting treasure trove of archaeology, ecology and architecture. Featuring an iconic Martello Tower, 11th century church and a nineteenth century Gun Battery, there are also some great opportunities to see rare wildlife and amazing displays of flora and fauna. Dalkey native Ken Cunningham runs excursions to the island throughout the summer months. For further details visit www.kentheferryman.com

Heritage Week in Dún Laoghaire & Dalkey

Heritage Week provides an annual impetus to check out places of local historical interest you pass every day without seeing properly. This year’s programme includes a vintage photographic exhibition at the New Library curated by the Dún Laoghaire Borough Historical Society and coin-minting exhibitions at Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre. The centre also hosts a talk on the history of Dalkey Quarries by Roy Goodbody on Wednesday 26th August and a discussion with author Peter Pearson on design and decoration on Thursday 27th August. Heritage week runs from Saturday 22nd to Sunday 30th August. For updates see www.heritageweek.ie.

riviera

Bray Camille O’Sullivan

riviera

D UB LI N Prepare for an intensely emotional theatrical experience as Camille O’Sullivan performs hidden gems and old favourites drawn from a decade of her most mesmerising performances. Expect joy and passion in equal measure and see for yourself how O’Sullivan has forged an internationally renowned reputation as she interprets the songs of Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, David Bowie and others in an intensely dramatic way. Catch Camille O’Sullivan at the Mermaid Arts Centre Bray at 8pm on Friday 10th & Saturday 11th July.

For more see www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Glasthule

Junior Song School

Junior Song School is a great programme for students at primary school level interested in making music and writing songs with others.

The week-long workshop covers subjects such as learning how to write and record songs, make music videos and putting on gigs for family and friends. Aimed at those learning how to play an instrument or those playing already, this workshop offers opportunities to find friends who share a love of making music while having fun jamming with them.

Junior Song School runs from July 27th – 31st. See www.mermaidartscentre.ie for further details.

Bray

Bray Summer Fest

With an eclectic mix of musical, culinary and visual treats, there’s plenty to see and do at this year’s Bray Summer Fest. Attractions include food and craft markets, a seaside funfair, Groove Festival and the ever-popular Bray Air Display (see below). Entertainments at the Summerfest Funfair (Sunday 12th July to Monday 3rd August) include a vintage style sideshow, inflatable cities, jungle gyms and a range of water activities. All are individually priced with regular weekday offers also available on site. Bray Summer Fest culminates in a spectacular fireworks display on Bank Holiday Monday, and runs from Saturday 4th July to Monday 3rd August. Keep up to date on Twitter with the hashtag #bsf15 and check out www.braysummerfest.ie for more.

The Cook Book Café

The Cookbook Café is a new concept restaurant from chef Audrey McDonald that aims to be both evolving and fun. Each month recipes selected from a featured cookbook serve as the basis of the café’s blackboard specials, and the hope is that if customers like a particular dish, they might be inclined to buy the book and try it out themselves at home. In addition to the ever-changing menu, there’s a regular Vinyl Brunch with musical picks from Audrey’s husband Tom Dunne. John Healy of TV3’s The Restaurant helps out front of house and the vibe in the Café is welcoming and fun. The Cookbook Café 57A Glasthule Road Sandycove Co. Dublin www.cookbookcafe.ie

The Musketeers at Killruddery House

Seventeen actors lend an air of swashbuckling panache to the gardens of Killruddery House this month as Off The Ground Theatre Company bring their production of The Musketeers to Bray. The outdoor Sylvan Theatre is the setting for this tale of derring-do, and the audience is encouraged to savour the cut and thrust of the action whilst enjoying a picnic on the tiered grass seats. Pack a blanket or cushion for extra comfort, and remember to dress for the Irish summer! Booking is essential and the performance begins at 7.30pm sharp on Thursday 20th August. For tickets and further details see www.killruddery.com

Luka Bloom at the Mermaid Arts Centre

The Mermaid hosts one of Ireland’s bestrespected contemporary folk artists this month as Luka Bloom performs for one night only. No stranger to the stage of the Mermaid, the man once known as Barry Moore has performed in virtually every venue imaginable over the years, including turf bogs and protest sites. This promises to be an exhilarating and energetic performance as he continues to push musical boundaries. Tickets are priced at €18/16 and the gig gets underway at 8pm on Friday 14th August.

For more see www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Live Music at the Harbour Bar

Voted best bar in the world by Lonely Planet in 2010, music has always been an important part of the ambience at the Harbour Bar, and traditional Irish music sessions and live bands can now be enjoyed there five days a week. August’s highlights include music from Grammy award winner Pete Cummins (The Fleadh Cowboys), hints of ska and funk from Red Kid and indie folk from Galwegian instrumentalists Amazing Apples. The Harbour Bar sees out the month with a passionate fusion of latin salsa and traditional Irish music from Baile an Salsa. See www.theharbourbar.ie for more.

Antiques Gifts & Crafts Unique Jewelry Furniture Vintage Clothing Collectables Bean bags Fortune Teller Coins & Stamps Fish & Chips Italian Cafe Indian Rice Bistro Cakes & delicatessen Free Face Painting & Popcorn and much more...

how to find us: Bus: 4,7,17 and 114, Dart Train Car: 100 yards corporation car park on Carysfort ave.

Sharon Shannon

Toe tapping and dancing in the aisles have become de-rigueur at traditional accordion and fiddle player Sharon Shannon’s live musical performances. Best known for her skillful interpretation of Irish folk traditions, her music is also heavily influenced by reggae, Cajun and hip hop. The Clare woman has an incredible ability to connect with her audience and there’ll be a chance to see her in action and witness the magic she weaves when she performs at the Mermaid in August. With tickets priced at €25, Sharon Shannon performs at 8pm on Saturday 8th August. For more see www.mermaidartscentre.ie

Suesey Street

Bellucci’s

KAFKA

Michie Sushi

26 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.

Sweepstakes Centre, 22-30 Merrion Road, Dublin 4

236 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6

t: (01) 669 4600 | info@sueseystreet.ie

01 668 9422

01 4977057

www.sueseystreet.ie

www.bellucci.ie

11 Chelmsford Lane, Ranelagh, D6 01-4976438 www.michiesushi.com

@SueseyStreet The Suesey Street name harks back to Georgian times and was the original name for Leeson Street in the 1700s. The venue was formerly Brasserie Le Pont and now offers a more informal approach to drinking and dining. The large outdoor terrace is one of the best in the city, fully heated and topped with a retractable canopy making it the perfect space for al fresco dining year round. With the focus on quality food and great hospitality Suesey Street is the go-to place to socialise and enjoy the finer things in life.

Located in Dublin’s exclusive Ballsbridge area, Bellucci’s is situated close to many of Dublins top hotels, across from the famous RDS venue and a short walk from the Aviva Stadium. The restaurant is also close to both the American and British Embassies and is ideal for business lunches, pre and post-event suppers. The casual atmosphere coupled with great Italian food and service set the scene for a cosy romantic meal. The large outdoor area is ideal for al fresco dining or enjoying one of the something from the extensive cocktail menu.

Kafka offers affordable, wholesome, and well-made brasserie fare at a reassuringly reasonable cost.

The sparse, minimal décor goes hand in hand with the delicious diner-style food; free of pretence and fuss. A varied but not overstretched menu touches enough bases to cover most tastes offering up anything from bangers and mash to porcini mushroom risotto. While their prices are easy on the pocket, Kafka cuts no corners with quality of their food.

The word Michie in Japanese means ‘filled with smiles and laughter’ which is just how the folks at Michie Sushi want their customers to feel when they have eaten their sushi. Since expanding from a take away, catering and delivery service with a restaurant in 2011, they have been winners of McKenna’s Best Sushi in Ireland award each year. Though they specialise in hand-roll sushi, they also offer popular Japanese dishes such as ramen and okonomiyaki. With top quality sushi from chefs only trained by Michel, consistency is guaranteed. Visit them in Ranelagh, Dun Laoghaire, Sandyford, Avoca Rathcoole and Avoca Kilmacanogue or call for delivery.

The 101 Talbot

The Meeting House

100-102 Talbot St, Dublin 1 t: 01-8745011 www.talbot101.ie

Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, D2 www.themeetinghousedublin.com 01-6703330 @meetinghousedub

The 101 Talbot is one of Dublin’s best-loved restaurants, thanks to excellent modern cooking and vivacious service. It boasts great food, friendly staff, buzzing atmosphere and a full bar licence. The 101 is highly acclaimed and recommended in many guides. Their food is creative and contemporary, with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences, while using fresh local ingredients. Popular with Dublin’s artistic and literary set, and conveniently close to the Abbey and Gate theatres, the restaurant is a very central venue to start or end an evening in the city centre.

The Meeting House serves up superbly balanced, pretty-as-a-picture plates (all priced at €9.99 or €6.66 on Sunday and Monday) that burst with the flavours of South-East Asia. Favourites include a rare and delicate blackened cod, a seared sirloin steak that zings with Sichuan pepper and Asian Salsa Verde, and a signature tomato dish that takes notions of salad to a whole new level. The wine list is both thoughtful and exciting, though with award-winning mixologists behind the bar, cocktails here are a must. Enjoy all this and more in their cool, moody interiors or kick back on the terrace and watch the world go by in the summer sun.

Stanley’s Restaurant and Wine Bar

KC Peaches Wine Cave

7, St. Andrews Street , Dublin 2 // t: 01-4853273 //

www.kcpeaches.com

@stanleysd2

01 6336872

FB: Stanley’s Restaurant & Wine // www.stanley-

@kcpeaches

srestaurant.ie

28-29 Nassau St, Dublin 2

TGI Friday’s

KC Peaches Wine Cave is a true hidden gem located under Dublin’s busiest café on Nassau St. Outstanding chef Ralph Utto continues the philosophy of KC Peaches by designing tasty sharing plates offering seasonal, all natural, additive free and locally sourced wholefood. The wine selection follows the ‘nourishment by nature’ message, allowing you to choose from only the best but affordable natural, biodynamic and organic wines. The Wine Cave is Dublin’s best kept secret on the verge of being discovered as the ‘place to be’ in the capital.

TueSat 5.30pmlate with live music every Saturday.

Stanley’s Restaurant and Wine Bar is located in the heart of Dublin, a short walk from College Green on St Andrews Street. They pride themselves on pairing modern Irish cuisine with an inspiring and unconventional wine list. Chef/proprietor Stephen McArdle has created a unique space across three floors, a modern ground floor wine bar, an intimately classic dining room, and private dining room to cater for all occasions.

Fleet Street, 19/20 Fleet Street, D2, t: 01-6728975.

Stephen’s Green, D2, t: 01-4781233.

Blanchardstown S.C., D15, t: 01-8225990.

Dundrum Shopping Centre, D14, t: 01-2987299.

Airside Retail Park, Swords, Co. Dublin, t: 01-8408525 w: www.fridays.ie

Vikings Steakhouse

Punjabi By Nature

COPPINGER ROW

Table Six

2nd Floor (Bram Stoker Hotel), 225 Clontarf Road, Dublin 3 01 853 2000 info@vikingssteakhouse.com www.vikingssteakhouse.com www.facebook.com/vikingssteakhouseclontarf

15 Ranelagh Avenue,

Coppinger Row, South William Street, Dublin 2

Templeogue Road, Templeogue, Dublin 6W

Dublin 6

01 6729884

01 4905628

www.punjabibynature.ie

www.coppingerrow.com

reservations@tablesix.ie

t: 01-4960808 Nestled away in the middle of Ranelagh Village, food connoisseurs can find a comfortable Indian restaurant unlike any other in Dublin. Punjabi By Nature offers a unique experience that reflects traditional Indian home cooking. Head chef Kaur’s family has long been rooted in a tradition of home cooking and quality food, with Kaur learning her techniques by watching her mother, father, and other members of her family cook. Taste the difference for yourself.

Coppinger Row, named for the lane off South William Street where the restaurant is located is in the heart of the city centre’s shopping district and is known for it’s Mediterranean cuisine, it’s relaxed, funky chic and also it’s cocktails. The menu relies on simple values of quality taste and seasonal change to keep the dishes fresh and appropriate. Between the food and ambience, Coppinger Row is an ideal spot in which to start a night out in the city centre.

Vikings Steakhouse, on the seafront in Clontarf, offers a wide range of juicy steaks (côte de bœuf and steak on the stone are specialities) along with seafood, chicken and vegetarian options. Super starters, healthy salads and a wide range of expertly made cocktails available, along with craft beers and an excellent wine list. Great value, friendly and professional service awaits you. Vikings Steakhouse... because steak does matter!

TGI Friday’s is your number one authentic American style restaurant that makes every day feel like Friday. It’s the home of the famous Jack Daniel’s sauce, grill and glaze making their burgers, chicken wings and steaks some of the best tasting dishes in Dublin. TGI have a fantastic selection of drinks to relax and enjoy with friends including an exciting new cocktail menu, great value lunch deals and a hard to beat two-course menu. #InHereItsAlwaysFriday

tablesix.ie / fb.com/TableSixDublin @TableSixDublin Table Six is a modern European bistro situated in the heart of Templeogue Village. They take their inspiration for dishes from around the Mediterranean coast, and put a new twist on some excellent classic dishes uses the best local ingredients and changing the menu seasonally. Table Six always has a quaint buzzing atmosphere in their dining room, which is brightly decorated with pieces of artwork created from cutlery.

outdoor seating

vegetarian

kid-friendly

full bar

wi-fi

booking recommended

red luas line

green luas line

ely bar & brasserie

CAFFE ITALIANO

The Kitchen Restaurant

The Brasserie at The Marker

Chq, IFSC, Dublin 1

7 Crow Street - Bazzar Galley, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

3 Anne Street South

Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2

www.elywinebar.com

www.caffeitaliano.ie

eat@thekitchen.ie

01-6875104

elybrasserie@elywinebar.com

01 5511206

01 677 4205

bookyourtable@themarker.ie

thekitchen.ie

@themarkerhotel A refreshing addition to the Grand Canal restaurant scene, The Brasserie starts with its stunning interior.

Comfortable modern, minimal furniture, including the legendary Panton chair, the spectacular grey marble table, and private booths and banquette seating, creating the right amount of privacy for intimate dining. In Ireland, the traditional way of cooking is simple dishes, built around one great ingredient. The Brasserie is no different. From succulent rare breed pork or prime dry-aged beef, The Brasserie stays true to Irish roots. For a unique night out visit The Marker Brasserie for one of Dublin’s best dining experiences.

@elywinebars 01 672 0010 ely bar & brasserie, awarded ‘Wine Bar of the Year’ 2014 & 2015 by The Sunday Business Post and ‘Best Wine Experience’ 2014 by Food & Wine magazine, is in a beautifully restored 200 year old tobacco and wine warehouse. Great wines, beers, cocktails and ‘food terroir’ all delivered with passion, make this one of the most unique and atmospheric dining experiences in the country. Check out their sun-trap water-side terrace this summer.

Right in the centre of Temple Bar you’ll find one of Dublin’s best kept secrets, the haven that is Caffe Italiano. The philosophy here is fresh food seven days a week using the best ingredients at affordable prices. All the food and wine comes directly from Italy, from cheese and cured meat boards to lamb cutlets with Black Forest sauce, they believe in doing things the traditional way to capture truly authentic flavours. There’s live music at weekends making this one of the capital’s hotspots, whether it’s for a coffee, a refreshing beer, a chilled glass of wine or a memorable dinner.

www.facebook.com/thekitchendub The goal at The Kitchen, is to deliver an innovative menu, a great selection of wines and Irish craft beers, in fun and stylish surroundings, at an affordable cost. Their Head Chef, Vincent Blake, takes pride in preparing dishes which are made from a selection of nutritious, healthy, and well balanced ingredients.

The Kitchen’s style of food is influenced by many world cuisines. The secret to their food having such great flavour is their use of fresh herbs, and a delicate balance of spices

SALAMANCA

Zaragoza

St.Andrew’s Street,Dublin 2 // 01 6774799 // info@

South William St

salamanca.ie // www.Salamanca.ie //

01 6794020

facebook.com/salamancatapas // @SalamancaTapas Salamanca brings the taste of Spain to downtown Dublin, providing a wide range of quality Spanish tapas and wines. Their aim is to whisk you from the mundane to the Mediterranean with every mouthful. Located on St Andrews Street, right beside the relocated Molly Malone, just off Grafton Street.

Taste the sunshine and sea in the tapas on offer on the menu, such as Jamon Iberico, fried calamares and Prawns in Olive oil, also found in the signature dish, Paella de Pollo There are great lunch and early Bird offers, seven days a week. Also try their Cava & Tapas Platter nights which run from Sunday through to Wednesday. Check it out and transport yourself to Spain, without the check in!

info@zaragoza.com // @zaragozadublin

Asador

Johnnie Fox’s Pub

1 Victoria House, Haddington Road, Dublin 4 // t: 01

Glencullen, Co Dublin 01 29555647 info@jfp.ie www.jfp.ie

fb.com/zaragozadublin Zaragoza restaurant is slap bang on buzzy South William St, Dublin’s hotspot for nightlife. The restaurant takes its name and culinary inspiration from the Spanish City and is a true food lover’s paradise. Treat yourself to a unique dining experience, as local delicacies are married together with authentic Spanish flavours. There is an enticingly extensive menu with Tapas and larger dishes. Choose from tantalizing charcoal tuna, tempura cod and a myriad of other dishes. You can also go for a cold platter and pair it with one of the delicious wines available. Explore, eat and enjoy!

2545353 // www.asador.ie / fb.com/Asador reception@asador.ie // @AsadorDublin Situated on the corner of Haddington Road and Percy Place, just a stone’s throw from Baggot Street Bridge in the heart of D4, Asador is known as a true barbecue restaurant where the best of Irish fish, shellfish, and of course steaks are cooked over fires of oak, apple woods and charcoal. It’s an authentic barbecue experience where the open kitchen allows guests to watch the chefs work the bespoke 7 foot ‘asado’. Go for the great flavours you get from cooking this way, stay for the craft beers and cocktails.

The Revolution specialises in artisan stone baked pizza and craft beers. Located just south of the city in Rathgar, they offer creative styles of food including pizzas, steak and tacos, a vast selection of both local and international craft beers, and an array of quality wines by the glass. Their friendly staff will go the extra mile to make your time at The Revolution unforgettable. All their bread and pizza dough are made in-house daily, and their ingredients are sourced locally when available. At The Revolution, it’s all about good food, good beer, and good people.

One of Ireland’s oldest traditional pubs is just half an hour’s drive outside of Dublin. Located astride a mountain in Glencullen, it’s also the highest pub in Ireland. A great destination for locals and tourists alike, transporting visitors to bygone times with trad music performed every night and during the daytime on weekends. All the produce this green isle is famous for features on the menu: oysters, mussels, crab claws, seafood platters, steak and lamb, as well as vegetarian dishes. The Hooley Show features live music, Irish dancers and a memorable four course meal. Johnnie Fox’s should be on everyone’s bucket list.

le bon crubeen

Umi Falafel

Hard Rock Café Dublin

ELY WINE BAR

82 Talbot Street, Dublin 1 // www.leboncrubeen.ie //

13 Dame Street, Dublin 2

22 Ely Place, Dublin 2 // 01 676 8986 // elyplace@

@LeBonCrubeen // 01 7040126

01 670 68 66

12 Fleet Street Temple Bar, Dublin 2 t: 01-6717777

This award-winning brasserie in the north of Dublin city centre is well known for delivering some of the best value for money in the city. The menu delivers a grassroots experience, sourcing ingredients from the very finest Irish producers delivering consistent quality. The pre-theatre menu is hugely popular with diners visiting the nearby Abbey or Gate theatres while a diversity of offerings mean vegetarians, coeliacs and those looking for low calorie options are also catered for. Shortlisted as finalist in 2012 of the Irish Restaurant Awards’ Best Casual Dining Restaurant.

The Revolution 10 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6 t: (01) 492.6890 w: www.therevolution.ie @rathgarcraft

umifalafel.ie @UmiFalafel Umi Falafel want to share with you their passion for the freshest and most authentic falafel in Dublin.

Their falafel are prepared fresh daily at their location on Dame Street with an old family recipe – ‘Umi’ is the Arabic word for mother after all. Umi Falafel is a fantastic eatery for vegetarians and vegans, as they serve mouth-watering salads, delicious Lebanese favourites such as hummus and baba ghanoush, as well as their favourites, the Palestinian or Lebanese falafel sandwiches served with a choice of salad and dips for a wholesome meal. Open 12pm-10pm daily.

If you’re looking for fantastic food and live entertainment in a unique, laid back environment, Hard Rock Café Dublin is the place for you. Located just a few blocks from the Liffey in famous and vibrant Temple Bar, a pedestrian friendly area of Dublin featuring cobblestone streets, wide sidewalks, and plenty of attractions. Hard Rock is a great central stop off point which serves fantastic food with a smile.

Try their legendary burgers with a delicious cocktail or beer to wash it down. Have a rocking day!

elywinebar.com // www.elywinebar.com // @elywinebars Since 1999 ely wine bar has been at the forefront, being the first to truly deliver great wines by the glass. Today ely continues to be the leader in sourcing great wines, 500 in total. Awarded Best Wine Experience 2014 by Food & Wine, Best Wine Bars 2014 & 2015 by Sunday Business Post and 100 Best Restaurants 2015 by the McKenna’s Guide this is a place were you can enjoy prime organic beef and pork from their own farm and match it to wines from all over the world. Brilliant for bar bites too!

Kinara Kitchen

Upstairs@57

The Port House Pintxo

17 Ranelagh Village, Dublin 6 // @kinarakitchen //

56/57 Lower Clanbrassil St, Dublin 8

12 Eustace Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

01 4060066 // kinarakitchen.ie

01-5320279

01 6728950

57theheadline.ie

www.porthouse.ie/pintxos

Located above 57 The Headline Bar on Clanbrassil Street Dublin 8. Upstairs@57 offers a food menu which is varied and influenced by the seasons. The eclectic wine list has been chosen carefully to offer great choice, and to compliment the food offering.

Upstairs@57 also has a full bar which boasts 24 Irish Craft Beer taps and a premium Irish Whiskey List. If you look for comfort and quality when dining, look no further.

The Port House Pintxo in Temple Bar serves an array of authentic Spanish Tapas and Pintxos plus a wide and varied selection of wines from Spain, Portugal and the Basque Region. With an impressive garden terrace overlooking Meeting House Square the soft candle light creates a romantic and relaxed atmosphere. Does not take bookings

Kinara Kitchen, featured in the Michelin Guide 2015, is the award winning Pakistani restaurant serving tantalising traditional food, paired with delicious cocktails and wines. Offering a great value lunch with ethnic naan wraps and thali style meals, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and open 7-nights for dinner, with early bird available Monday - Thursday for €21.95 per person for 3 courses. Above Kinara Kitchen is Upstairs Bar & Roof Terrace. The award winning vintage-themed ‘secret’ cocktail bar is perfect for brunch or aperitifs in the sun. Call to find out about their cocktails classes and booking highly recommended.

Kokoro Sushi Bento

Mao

19 Lower Liffey Street, D1, 01-8728787

2 Chatham Row, Dublin 2 t: 01-6704899 w: mymao.ie

51 South William Street, D2, 01-5470658 Unit N, Liffey Trust Centre, D1, 01-5474390 FB: @Kokoro Sushi Bento

Kokoro Sushi Bento takes pride in preparing not only the freshest, but most affordable sushi Dublin has to offer, freshly-made every day. Home to Ireland’s only pick ‘n’ mix sushi bar, at Kokoro you can enjoy delicious Japanese hot food favourites such as Katsu Curry or Yaki Soba. In using premium ingredients, together with highly trained staff, Kokoro has forged a reputation as Dublin’s finest independent sushi restaurant.

You can visit Mao in Chatham Row (or their locations in Dun Laoghaire, Dundrum, Balinteer or Stillorgan) to enjoy the extensive Asian menu full of tempting, traditionally prepared dishes. Savour the flavour with delicious curries or try a shared platter to get the full Thai experience, not forgetting their famous Mao Classic dishes. If you fancy making a night of it, why not sip up a low calorie, classic or dessert cocktail or two. Mao are an official Leinster Rugby food partner, so why not try one of their healthy dishes as chosen by Leinster Rugby’s nutritionist. #MadAboutMao. Prepare to tuk-in! Lunch menu: 12-4pm Mon to Fri; Early Bird menu: 4-7pm daily; à la carte menu: from 12pm daily

mexico to rome

The Green Hen

23, East Essex St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

33 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2

01 6772727

01 6707238

www.mexicotorome.com

thegreenhen.ie

w: kokorosushibento.com

facebook.com/mexico2rome // @MexicotoRome Across from the Temple Bar Pub, is Mexico to Rome, the Bandito’s Grill House. They serve up wonderful mouth-watering Mexican dishes with a twist with tasty European and Italian dishes available. On the menu are sizzling fajitas, burritos, tacos, chilli con carne, steak, fish, pasta dishes and their famous Tex-Mex baby back ribs with Southern Comfort BBQ sauce. The extensive menu suits big and small groups. All cocktails are €5 and there is a great Early Bird (starter and main for €13.50) and a Lunch Special (starter, main and a glass of wine for €9.95).

Well worth a visit!

Yamamori Izakaya 13 South Great George’s Street, Dublin 016458001 www.yamamori.ie Yamamori Izakaya is located in what was originally Ireland’s very first café on South George’s Street. The mix of old Irish architecture, oriental decor and soulful tunes set the scene. Downstairs is the Japanesestyle drinking house, serving small Japanese tapas dishes (‘Japas’), the famous Izakaya cocktails, and plenty of Japanese whiskys, beers and sake. Walls adorned with 1940s beer ads, movie posters and black and white movies provide a visceral back drop to compliment the eclectic mix of tunes from Dublin’s favourite DJs.

Located in the heart of the city on Exchequer St., The Green Hen specialises in classic French cuisine with an Irish twist. It is known for its gallic décor, an extensive drinks list of wines, bottled beers, draughts and of course its legendary cocktails. Open 7 days a week, you can try the three-course early bird for €22 from 5.30-7pm from Thursday to Sunday. Delicious food, a lively atmosphere, personable staff and a unique quaintness set this restaurant apart from the rest.

coda eatery

Marcel’s Restaurant

Il Posto

Viva

The Gibson Hotel, Point Village, Dublin 1

1 Saint Mary’s Road

10 Saint Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2

27 South Richmond Street, Dublin 2

01 681 5000

Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

t: 01 679 4769

t: 01 424 4043

thegibsonhotel.ie

01 660 2367

w: www.ilpostorestaurant.com

w: www.vivaespanatapas.com

It’s the final studio album by rock giants, Led Zeppelin and it serves pretty legendary food too! At Coda Eatery the ingredients speak for themselves.

Their menu offers a wide range of meats for example; dry aged rump, sirloin, rib eye and flat iron which are cooked over burning lava rock at a high temperature to create a charred and smoked finish.

They’ve kept things simple serving these prime cuts with well prepared sauces and seasonal sides.

Marcel’s is the new restaurant on St Mary’s road in the location of the former Expresso Bar. It is the sister restaurant of the Green Hen. There is much change in the decor, which is very attractive with inviting sit-all-day orange dining chairs. The menu is quite simple, yet appealing. However the food delivers with great, clean flavours. Open all week for both lunch and dinner, it is well worth a visit.

Situated on Dublin’s landmark St. Stephen’s Green, Il Posto has been cooking delicious contemporary and traditional Italian Mediterranean dishes using the best local and international produce since 2003.

A firm favourite for business lunches, romantic dinners, pre-theatre meals and great nights out.

Il Posto offers an intimate and elegant setting, an informal relaxed atmosphere and sumptuous food, all served with a generous helping of warm hospitality.

Situated near the canal in Portobello, Viva brings a slice of Spain to Dublin. This Family run restaurant is filled with Latin colour and a vibrant bohemian atmosphere. Serving authentic Spanish tapas from our extensive menu and a delicious selection of Spanish wines, Cava and Cava cocktails, Spanish coffees, a good range of teas and real Spanish hot chocolate. Viva places an emphasis on flavour and wholesome homemade dishes, delicious seafood and paella made to order in a warm, relaxed casual dining space making it the perfect place to share a great meal for any occasion with friends.

AMANDA JACKSON AT IL POSTO Tell me about the background of Il Posto.

It has been here about 18 years at this point. I started working in it 18 years ago for an American family who owned it. It was brand new and I built it up to be a really successful restaurant, but the son decided to go back to America so they were selling it. So I called my sister and I said ‘Oh god, it’s for sale, I can’t let it go, it’s my baby! I love it and I built it up from nothing!’ I didn’t really want to do it on my own, as it’s a lot of hard work. My sister and I are very in sync; she would be great at one area and I’d be good at another. She came over, we had lots of meetings and we decided to go for it. So that was 12 years ago now.

There are a few Italian restaurants in Dublin. What makes Il Posto stand out?

There aren’t really that many, to be honest. There are a lot of pasta and pizza restaurants, but not really Italian. We’re kind of Italian Mediterranean so we cater to all kind of tastes. We’re just a lit-

tle bit more up-market; we don’t do pizzas, we don’t do lasagnas, we don’t do quick Italian food. We use all locally sourced ingredients. I’m not sure if there’s any other major Italian restaurant in this area. Some dabble in a little bit of pasta and that kind of thing, but not to the extent that we do, I’d say.

What exactly is Italian Mediterranean?

We’re mostly an Italian restaurant with a Mediterranean twist, so we take influences from other Mediterranean countries and add it into our feel of Italian. We want to appeal to other people as well. We want to look after everybody and not just people who want Italian.

What is your signature house dish?

We have a few. Obviously a lot of our pasta dishes, our carbonara, our Bolognese, we do a great liver dish and our meat balls would be a signature dish. We have a very full menu, and seasonally we would change items, like we might change a risotto dish or the way we do a fish dish or something like that, just to coincide with the seasons. But our signature dish are things that would have like a real staple that people come back for all the time.

And with the wine list, is everything Italian?

Everything is Italian on the wine list!

Do you do any wine sessions or taste of the month clubs?

We haven’t done one yet but we’re looking into it. We’re busy six

nights a week so it’s difficult, you know? I don’t like telling people we’re closed for this, that and the other; I like to be open.

What kind of desserts do you do?

We do panna cotta, which is this delicious Italian dessert and we do a beautiful mascarpone and chocolate cream cake, which is absolutely to die for. We make all our own ice creams and sorbets on the premises, so everything is homemade.

What’s the future for Il Posto?

I’d love to have a bigger space. We’re growing and moving with the times and keeping up with trends. We have a huge community spirit here. We got a new bar in a couple of months ago and it totally lifts the place. You’re constantly researching, and seeing what people want and moving with the times, whereas at the same time you’re holding on to your own brand.

What is your ethos?

We want people to enjoy themselves. We have so many regular customers and we know their names, what table they want to sit at, we know what they’re drinking before they ask for it, and people love that, they love to be recognised. We’re very lucky with our staff. We’ve kept them on for a long time, and they’re really good. Our food is quite simple. It’s good, hearty food. We just want people to have a great time!

Il Posto, 10 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, 01-6794769

The Dublin Dining Guide Best Delivery •

Delivers Wine

•

Delivers Beer

Saba To Go

KANUM THAI

13 Rathgar Road, Rathmines, D6, t: 01-4060200

Rathgar 01 4062080 Ballsbridge 01

Based on the award winning Saba restaurant on Clarendon Street, Saba To Go do Thai and Vietnamese food at high quality for fast paced life.

All their meals are freshly cooked on a daily basis with highest quality ingredients with a mixture of locally sourced produce and key ingredients imported from Fair Trade producers in Thailand and Vietnam to give the real authentic east Asian taste.

Delivery as far as: Donnybrook, Churchtown, Rathfarnham & Sundrive

•

Email booking

•

Phone booking

•

Just Eat

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Vegetarian

•

Coeliac

•

Gluten Free

6608616.

Twitter -- @kanumthai Kanum Thai is an Irish owned authentic Thai food and noodle bar, which also provides take away or delivery to your home. Kanum uses only Irish meats and there is no MSG used in their food preparation. All of the food is cooked to order and is low in fat. Kanum pride themselves on giving their customers restaurant quality food at takeaway prices. Eat in, Takeaway or Home/Office deliveries from Noon until late 7 days a week.

Areas: Dublin 2,4,6,6w,8,12,14,16 and parts of 24.

Deliver wine. Beer for eat in only.

Available Vegetarian, Low Carb and Ceoliac Friendly options.

Orders by phone, online at www.kanum.ie or through their APP( “kanum thai dublin”, avail-

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able on APP store and Google play)

Michie Sushi Delivery

Mao At Home

www.michiesushi.com Ranelagh Dun Laoghaire Sandyford Avoca Rathcoole Avoca Kilmac

Ballinteer: 01 296 8702 Donnybrook: 01 207 1660 Stillorgan: 01 278 4370 Tallaght: 01 458 50 20 Dundrum: 01 296 2802

01-4976438 01-5389990 01-5550174 087-9933385 087-9933385

Michie Sushi delivers top quality Sushi and Japanese hot foods all over Dublin. We deliver to your home, office, wedding, party and events. Big or small your sushi order is hand made with love and dedication. All of our sushi and hot foods are made to order, our fish is handpicked and cut daily in our restaurants. We are proud to have been awarded the Best Sushi in Ireland for the past 5 years.

Mao restaurants have been the top Asian restaurant chain in Dublin for over 20 years and now are delighted to deliver their extensive range of Asian and Thai cuisine direct to you. Just order online, over the phone or walk in and take away to experience top quality dishes, from mild or spicy curries, fragrant wok specials to the popular Mao Classics! The Mao At Home chefs are passionate about using only the finest fresh ingredients to create our authentic, healthy and virtually low fat dishes. As an official Leinster Rugby food partner why not try one of their healthy dishes as chosen by Leinster Rugby’s nutritionist. #MadAboutMao Prepare to tuk-in! www.mymao.ie

••••••• Pizza Republic Quality food, delivered! Pizza Republic have taken their favourite features of Italian and American style pizzas and perfected the Pizza Republic style, crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, the way pizza should be. They guarantee fresh, delicious food, collected or delivered! Everything on their menu is of the highest quality and freshly prepared daily. They’ve created a mouthwatering menu full of choice including vegetarian options. Order online for collection or delivery from www.pizzarepublic.ie Leeson Street delivers to South City Centre, Trinity College, Grand Canal Dock, Temple Bar, Portobello, Ranelagh, Rathmines, Rathgar, Harold’s Cross, Milltown, Clonskeagh, Belfield UCD, Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Sandymount, Ringsend, Irishtown t: 01 660 3367 Sun-Thurs: 12:00-23:00 Fri-Sat: 12:00-01:00 Dublin 18 delivers to Cornelscourt, Cabinteely, Carrickmines, Foxrock, Deansgrange, Leopardstown, Ballyogan, Stepaside, Kilternan, Sandyford, Sandyford Industrial Estate, Stillorgan, Goatstown, Blackrock, Mount Merrion t: 01 207 0000 Mon-Thurs: 16:00-23:00 Fri-Sat: 12:00-0:00 Sun: 12:00-23:00

Killiney delivers to Killiney, Dalkey, Glenageary, Glasthule, Sandycove, Dun Laoghaire, Sallynoggin, Deansgrange, Kill of the Grange, Monkstown, Monkstown Farm, Ballybrack, Cherrywood, Loughlinstown, Shankill t: 01 235 0099 Mon-Thurs: 16:00-23:00 Fri-Sat: 12:00-01:00 Sun: 12:00-23:00 Twitter- @PizzaRep Facebook- PizzaRepublicIreland Instagram- pizzarepublic w- www.pizzarepublic.ie e- hello@pizzarepublic.ie

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Base Wood Fired Pizza Terenure t: 01 440 4800 M –F: 16:00-23:00 - S– Sun: 13:00-23:00 Ballsbridge t: 01 440 5100 M-F: 08:00-23:00, S-Sun: 12:00-23:00 Twitter- @basewfp w- www.basewfp.com e: info@basewfp.com Base stands for honest, handmade, contemporary pizza. Base founder Shane Crilly wanted to improve the standard of pizza he could find in Dublin, and to create a pizza that he would be happy eating himself. They only use fresh ingredients, handcrafted every day. They never use anything that is frozen or pre-packaged. Base strives to honour the heritage of traditional pizza, follow them on their journey of creating pizza with real integrity.

Ballsbridge to Ballsbridge, UCD Bellfield, Clonskeagh, Booterstown, Ringsend, Irishtown, Donnybrook, Iveagh Gardens, South Dublin City Centre.

Terenure to Terenure, Rathfarnham, Darty, Ranelagh, Knocklyon, Templeogue Rathgar, Kimmage, Ballyboden, Churchtown, Portabello, Walkinstown.

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The Mango Tree - 51 Main Street, Rathfarnham, D14, t: 01-4442222 - Sarsfield House, Chapel Hill, Lucan, Co. Dublin, t: 01-6280000 - Meridian Point, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, t: 01-2874488 The Mango Tree is all about authentic Thai flavours, spearheaded by Head Chef Nipaporn, trained by her mother, herself a successful Thai food chef in Thailand and Sweden, Chef Nipaporn has brought he skills acquired around the world to The Mango Tree. With branches in Rathfarnham, Lucan and Greystones, the Mango Tree covers huge areas of both sides of the city. Favourites include traditional Thai dishes such as Pad Thai and Green Curry.

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IRELAND’S MOST POPULAR ALE SINCE 1710

Discover over 300 years of character inside AS LISTED IN

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26 OF THE WORLD’S HOTTEST NEW EXPERIENCES FOR 2015 BY

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Located less than a five minute walk from Kilkenny Castle and in the heart of Ireland’s medieval mile, is the home of Ireland’s most popular ale. Drop in and find out why The Lonely Planet listed us as one of the top 26 hottest new attractions in the world to visit in 2015. Discover stories of our rich heritage on a unique guided tour and meet some interesting characters along the way. Best of all, it’s all topped off with a perfectly poured pint of the red stuff. book online at www.smithwicksexperience.com and receive a10% discount off adult admission tickets

The SMITHWICK’S and SMITHWICK’S EXPERIENCE KILKENNY words and associated logos are trademarks © Diageo Ireland 2015

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

GASTRO words Aoife McElwain photos Mark Duggan

It’s mid-summer and the rain is throwing itself against Glasnevin Hill. We’re tucked away inside the cosy, homely interior of the space that restaurateur Elaine Murphy and her team found in early 2014 and reopened as The Washerwoman in April of this year. Once again, she has brought her trademarks of celebrating Irish produce in a relaxed and accessible setting, the cornerstones of her other businesses, The Woollen Mills and The Winding Stair.

On the wall at The Washerwoman is a floor to ceiling map of Ireland, with tags pinned into where their suppliers are based. ‘It’s actually quite amazing when you put all the little tags all over the map of Ireland,’ Murphy tells me, after my visit. ‘It really makes you gasp with pride at the extent of our indigenous food industry.

When it’s right up there on a wall in front of your eyes, you see how multifarious and diverse those producers are.’

There are two specials on the board, one for starters and one for mains. I go for the starter special (€9), which is a sort of black pudding schnitzel; it’s been flattened, battered and fried.

It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing look but, combined with a kohlrabi slaw that has a spicy kick, and a delicately dressed green salad with shredded beets, it works. It’s over-shadowed, however, by the spicy Clougherhead crab-cakes (€12). They’re bursting with sweet crabmeat, and are lightly coated and gently fried. The accompanying crayfish salad is generously dotted with the sweet and juicy crustacean. A saffron tartare works as the bridge between the crab and the crayfish, and the whole dish is a delight.

We marvel at nature’s architecture while pulling the soft, sweet flesh from the bones of a baked Howth ray wing (€21). The dish is topped with two tubular pieces of roasted salsify, a root vegetable that I find overrated. To me, their woody texture and earthy flavour just don’t bring much to the party. More of that delicious crab makes its way into this dish through the smashed spuds that sit under the ray wing. The plate is given a splash of colour thanks to a vividly yellow and fragrantly sweet curry butter.

When I see Dexter beef on the menu, I’m morally obliged to order the steak. The Dexter breed is special; it’s a short little cow from the south west of Ireland, that made its first appearance in the 1800s. It nearly disappeared from farms all together in the 1940s due to the import of larger breeds. It reemerged in the 1970s and, in the last decade, the breed has had something of a renaissance. Largely thanks to chefs putting Dexter beef on their menus, its population has increased. It’s a sort of strange paradox where meat-eaters are actually preventing a breed of animal from disappearing forever by wanting to eat them.

The 28-day dry-aged heritage Dexter ten ounce rib-eye, bred by Eavaun Carmond at Killenure Castle, is €30 with a choice of two sides and a sauce, and is pretty close to steak transcendence at the hands of the Washerwoman’s kitchen team. The meat has been heftily caramelized on the outside while the interior remains pink, soft and juicy. It’s damn near perfect. Hell, it is perfect. The accompanying béarnaise sauce has a glorious pop of tarragon and the skinny chips are flawless. I adore onion rings (such a guilty pleasure) and The

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CLEANING HOUSE

The Washerwoman

The Washerwoman of Glasnevin 60 Glasnevin Hill, Dublin 9 t: 01-8379441 thewasherwoman.ie Open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch and Sunday roasts

Washerwoman’s delicately battered, crisply fried rings make me very happy.

Dessert is the only part of the meal that I’m a bit let down by; it’s a good, moist brownie cake (€7) flecked with chunks of white chocolate and tart pieces of raspberry, but the promised peanut butter ice-cream seems to have forgotten its nuts. It appears a sneaky scoop of vanilla icecream made its way onto this plate by mistake.

The Washerwoman’s menu is large. A classic section offers chicken wings done three ways, alongside nachos and burgers. There are around six starters and six mains that wouldn’t be out of place at The Winding Stair, and then there’s a steakhouse section. Usually large, all-encompassing menus set off alarm bells for me, but Murphy knows what she’s doing. She’s catering for the masses here but what I think makes her different is that she respects the palates of the masses. The Washerwoman is family-friendly; there’s even a dedicated kids menu as well that includes a Nutella sandwich on a house-baked ciabatta (€4 – um, can I order that next time?) and a ‘baby bowl’ of mashed spuds and gravy (€3). Murphy always employs expert staff, and the service is perfectly pitched; friendly, fast and enthusiastic.

The building that houses The Washerwoman has been a dairy, a blacksmith’s forge and a family home and when we walked in on that rainy Thursday evening, I felt at home immediately.

Our bill, which also included a Luscombe elderflower lemonade (€4.50), a glass of red (€9) and a bottle of sparkling water (€4.50) comes to €97.

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GASTRO words Aoife McElwain photos Mark Duggan

Taste is Dylan McGrath’s new dining room, at the top floor of The Rustic Stone. The kitchen is designed around an open bar, much like the set-up of the tapas bar at Fade Street Social, McGrath’s other spot around the corner. There are around ten chefs working at their stations and getting a seat at the bar underneath the reflective roof means I can watch closely as they fine-tune their contributions to our meal.

The concept of Taste is to explore the five key tastes; salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami.

Much of what has appeared on the menu has been refined in the development kitchen McGrath had purpose-built. The physical menu is designed like a fan that folds out into a matrix of flavours reflecting the five tastes. It’s enormous and unwieldy. I’m a bit overwhelmed by the grid and so I plump for the €40 omakase menu, a set menu where the kitchen makes decisions for me. Phew.

Our broths and sushi arrive simultaneously.

I dive into the salty dashi, which has a tantalisngly caramel colour, and is full of cockles and mushrooms, alive-alive-oh. I adore it. The broth has the depth that’s missing from most bowls of miso in the city. My slender and delicate trio of nigiri, and the crispy, crunchy prawn tempura roll is the best sushi I’ve had outside of New York City.

For our mains of wagyu beef and chicken rubbed in Peruvian spices cooked over coals, the waiter carefully places a stone bowl full of piping hot coals in front of us without even breaking a sweat. The beef is perfect, and I love the salty bonito flakes served as a seasoning on top.

The chicken feels a bit out of place; Peru gets a shout out on the menu thanks to the cooking over coals method, but the flavour doesn’t fit with the finesse of the Japanese offering. The meat continues to cook quite enthusiastically over the hot coals in front of us. The chicken dries out a bit, and we have to wave away the smoke when it pipes up.

For dessert, I can’t resist the smoked Japanese cheesecake. It’s as weird as I was hoping it would be. It’s not sweet really, but is instead a smoky

HOT ROCKS

Taste at The Rustic Stone

wheel of savoury cheese, served with caramel popcorn. It’s a dessert for people who prefer when umami outweighs sweet. A creamy flan with ginger ice cream is a delightful combination of sweet, creamy and fiery.

McGrath makes an appearance close to midnight, to have a word with his sous-chef. He has a reputation as a creative perfectionist; he surveys the room, as the events of the evening are relayed to him. His intensity is quite intimidating, and I wonder what it must be like to work with him. He seems intent on raising the bar with every morsel of food served out of his George’s Street triangle, and we, the diners, can only benefit from that.

I give the restaurant a call after my visit to chat through the teething issues, and they’re already on the case. As of this month, the fan menu with its grid system is out, replaced by a more traditionally characterised menu. The omakase tasting menu remains. It must be frustrating when your customers don’t get your concept but McGrath and his team are gracious in defeat.

Our bill, which includes a large sparkling water (€3.50), a large still water (€3.50), and three mocktails (€4 each) comes to €107.

Taste at The Rustic Stone 17 South Great Georges’s Street, Dublin 2 01-7079596 tasteatrustic.com

Over 50 craft beers: for every season, occasion, event or excuse. ely bar & brasserie, IFSC, Dublin 1. www.elywinebar.com

ely totally dublin 2015 strip ad ART.indd 1

22/01/2015 13:43

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BITESIZE words Martina Murray

1. To Eat Industry and Co. Café

2. To Fire The Big Grill BBQ & Craft Beer Festival

3. To Study Dublin Cookery School: Professional Cookery Course

4. To View Dog Hungry Bears: Made in Dublin Series

5. To Drink Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival

Looking for someplace new to sate yourself in Dublin’s Creative Quarter? Industry and Co. have just added a new ground floor café, featuring a fresh and exciting menu. We love the sound of their luscious Bircher Muesli, made fresh daily with oats soaked overnight in apple juice and spices, topped with Greek yogurt, strawberries, blueberries, mint, roasted hazelnuts and a dash of maple syrup.

Beverages include Roasted Brown coffee and tea from Wall and Keogh, while lunch is also available to eat in or takeaway.

For more visit Industry & Co. 41a/b Drury Street, Dublin 2. www.industryandco.com

Some of the world’s greatest pit-masters will be cooking up a storm at the Big Grill BBQ & Craft Beer Festival in Herbert Park this month. This year’s lineup includes Tyson Ho and Reggae Reggae sauce creator Levi Roots, while away from the meat, 3fe’s Colin Harmon hosts a demonstration on traditional coffee brewing methods using live fire. With a games area, live music from acts including DJ Yoda, a small batch liquor cocktail bar and Jim Carroll’s Banter, the Big Grill BBQ & Craft Beer Festival kicks off on the afternoon of Thursday August 13th and runs to the following Sunday evening.

For day tickets and full passes, visit biggrillfestival.com

From its humble beginnings in a disused Blackrock warehouse eight years ago, Dublin Cookery School is now a state of the art facility. The school offers a suite of culinary training courses, and Head Chef Lynda Booth is currently inviting applications for their professional three-month certificate cookery course. Starting in September, the course offers a practical route to acquiring the skills needed to pursue a career in the food industry. With expert tuition and plenty of hands-on cooking opportunities, students also gain a HACCP food safety qualification as part of the programme. Further details via dublincookeryschool.ie

Motivated by a love of Dublin and its food culture, bloggers Dog Hungry Bears have embarked on a journey to track down the best the city has to offer. Their foraging efforts have been captured for posterity in ‘Made In Dublin’, a series of video interviews with some of the city’s most innovative producers and providers. Produced and directed by Stewart G Lambert, a preview of the Bears on the hunt for the essence of Dublin’s food culture can be viewed at doghungrybears.com

The enthusiastic efforts of local brewers have seen the range of Irish craft beers and ciders grow steadily in the past few years, and their efforts are celebrated at this month’s Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival. Featuring over two hundred innovative microbreweries, the festival is a great opportunity to sample the fantastic diversity of brews now emerging. The four-day homage to Irish craft brewing includes opportunities to meet the makers as well as food pairings with artisan cheeses, breads and home cooked pies.

The Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival takes place at the RDS from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th August. For more see: www.irishcraftbeerfestival.com

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GEORGE’S STREET ARCADE

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Ireland and Europe’s oldest running purpose-built shopping centre

Nutri is an Irish owner managed health food store which stocks a wide range of food & drinks, supplements, homeopathic remedies and skincare. www.dublinnutricentre.com

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Te H fo ar o r S us a off e f *E t e W re thi x p D e s ir e in in s g c e A n la o u e g ss rn u r w st i 3 M th o er 1 e st n an f 2 0 u 1 y 5 *

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11 Upr. Baggot Street

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www.bloombrasserie.ie 01 6687170 Sign up to our VIP Club and receive:

Ugly Duckling American Diner Style Food.

The home of the Po Boy, Pittsburgh and Brisket. @uglyducklingdub FB Ugly Duckling Dublin #tastyas

- Free Wine - 2 for 1 Lunch - Free Starters + Much More georgesstreetarcade.com Open 7-days a week

26 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.

T: 01 669 4600 E: info@sueseystreet.ie www.sueseystreet.ie @SueseyStreet

11 Baggot St. Upper

01 6687170

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SOUNDBITE words Martina Murray photos Brigid Tiernan

HAPPY TRAILS

Eveleen Coyle Fab Food Trails Accomplished cookbook author and former editor and publicist, Eveleen Coyle founded Fab Food Trails to impart insider knowledge of the best things happening food-wise in Ireland.

Essentially journeys of culinary discovery, the walking trails involve a series of great food tastings and can now be found in Dublin, Cork and Kilkenny. We talked to Eveleen about the Fab Food Trail experience and how the idea was first mooted following a dinner in Australia eleven years ago.

What did you do before setting up Fab Food Trails?

I worked in book publishing, initially with Gill and Macmillan, and later on a freelance basis doing marketing for literary fiction. Then I began developing lifestyle lists, commissioning pieces about food and gardening. There was a lot of food involvement and I really enjoyed doing things that were a bit ahead of their time.

I got Maureen Tatlow to do a book looking at the way we produced food here and what we were doing to it and when Darina Allen started doing Simply Delicious, I worked with her on publicity and promotion.

How did Fab Food Trails come about?

The seed of the idea began at the Adelaide Book Fair. I was at a long table dinner organized by Penguin, sitting beside the doyennes of Australian food, Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer. They were talking about what was happening in Australia, so I started talking about Ireland and cheese-making and what we had that other countries didn’t have. The next day somebody said to me, ‘I’ve been to Ireland about six times and I’ve never experienced the kind of food that you’re talking about. If it’s as good as you say it is you should be doing something about introducing people coming into the country to these places’.

I thought I wouldn’t know where to start, but eventually I decided, why not! So I finished commissioning books and started the business with my niece. Initially we brought people around the country introducing them to producers but it was hard to make that work financially. Then we got involved with cooking schools and organised Thai cooking days with Tao in Saba on a Sunday, and Japanese

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Do you get many Dubliners on your tours?

The people we meet are amazing! We get a lot of locals and sometimes you think they’ll know everything, but often you’ll find that they pass these places every day and have never been in.

We got a great call from a woman one day, who told us she wanted to go on a walk with her husband. She’d bought a voucher for her daughter’s 70th birthday and been given one back.

This woman was about 94, sharp on every front and interested in everything. There were two lads in their late 20s on the walk that day, very into cooking and taking everything in. As we were making our way down Camden Street she turned around; ‘You two are dawdling the whole way, hurry up!’ And I thought, well I’m not in charge here! She’d grown up in the area, gone to school there and she knew everything. She was extraordinary; I’ll never forget her.

and Indian days as well. Eventually I decided to concentrate on the walks so they’re our main focus now.

What’s a typical Food Trail experience like?

We have a meeting point where we do a short introduction and ‘grass-hopper’ through the history of Irish food. It’s short and informative and each guide brings their unique persona to it. We tell people about each place and why we’re going there, somebody meets us when we arrive and there’s plenty of time to interact and ask questions. We do a bit about the history and the architecture, but it’s absolutely food-led. We don’t go down a street to look at a building or because something happened, we go because there’s some nice food there.

What influences the choice of places you include?

We like them! They’re lovely and the people are great. They’re doing what they do very well and they feel they can’t tell enough people about it.

They’re fun too and that’s essential. We often go to places that have always been there, but may have been forgotten somehow, and the guides also suggest places they’ve discovered that might be nice to include. There’s a bit of walking, but there aren’t big distances between places and we make sure there are regular stops for tastings along the way.

What have been the main challenges and successes so far?

When we started, there was nobody doing what we were doing and it was all a little bit trial and error. Once we got a pattern it was grand.

Sometimes though, things can be going really well, and then you might get a day that’s not good enough for some reason and that’s the thing that can knock you sideways. Days when people are laughing because it was a bit of gas and everybody’s enthusiastic and you might have some story at the end of it, that’s a great day and that’s what you want it to be every time.

We’ve loads of those!

For further details check out fabfoodtrails.ie

You’re in Kilkenny, Cork and Dublin now.

Have you plans to bring Fab Food Trails to other Irish cities or towns?

We’ve been asked to look at other places, but it takes a little bit more time in a new place to bed things down. Getting somebody local living there is very important and you think you’d get a route quickly, but it always takes a bit longer than it should. None of the tours are exactly the same. In Kilkenny we involve a little bit of craft because that’s such an integral part, in Dublin we also have a food and fashion trail, and Cork is different again. So we’re learning all the time and we’re always on the look out for new places and new people. It’s a lot of fun. I love it!

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MAKE IT YOURSELF Simple Potato Cakes

Recipe & Image: Gill & Macmillan

These potato cakes are the simplest way of dealing with all those leftover potatoes - buttery and delicious.

Ingredients 225g / 8 oz mashed potatoes 115g / 4oz flour 115g / 4oz butter plus a little extra for cooking and serving Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method Mash the potatoes with the flour, butter and seasoning.

Knead together until it has a rough dough-like consistency.

Roll out and slice or cut into 10cm/5 inch rounds.

Heat some butter in a frying pan, add the potato cakes and fry until they are golden brown, turning once. You may need to add a little more butter when you turn them.

Scatter with some chopped parsley or/and chives and serve immediately.

This recipe is taken from The Irish Pocket Potato Recipe Book, by Eveleen Coyle, published by Gill & Macmillan price €4.99.

Welcome to Zaragoza, where you’ll find deliciously fresh Mediterranean tapas served with the warmest Irish welcome.

A contemporary fusion of modern, authentic cuisine presented in a convivial atmosphere, Zaragoza is not just a place, it’s a destination.

South William Street, Dublin 2 Ph: 01 6794020 Opening hours: Monday - Sunday - 12noon - Midnight (last orders 11pm)

TOTALLYCAFÉ

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Gourmet Coffee

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Filter Coffee

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Wifi

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CAFÉ OF THE MONTH The Bird Cage Bakery Dublin Barista School

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Roasted Brown

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Sasha House Petite

If you’re looking for more from coffee, The Dublin Barista School is the place. A dedicated training centre, offering two-hour lessons in espresso basics or an intensive threeday course to earn their Qualified Barista Award. Dublin Barista School is also the place to pick up any coffee accoutrements, whether you want to weigh it, grind it or pour it. As well as offering the knowledge and the gear, they serve up incredible value take-out coffee which they roast themselves (everything is €2), or even a filter coffee which they source their beans from The Barn, a Berlinbased roastery. Open Mon-Sun 9am-4pm

Roasted Brown has long established itself as one of Dublin’s top coffee spots and one of the city’s nicest hangouts.

Baristas Ferg Brown and Rob Lewis serve beautiful coffee using a variety of beans and brew methods, while Roasted Brown’s own roastery now supplies beans to a selection of the city’s most discerning cafés. But it doesn’t stop at coffee: all of Roasted Brown’s food is prepared on site, with gourmet sandwiches, organic soups and delicious sweet treats, and brunch at the weekends. Roasted Brown is moving to a new location this month, so keep an eye on their Twitter account @RoastedBrown for the hot scoop.

Talk about not even knowing what you were missing until it is right in front of you! The latest addition to the Dublin cafe scene is the wonderful and quirky Sasha House Petite – a micro-roastery, French/Slavic pastry bar that will entice even the most diligent of dieters with the mouthwatering “signature desserts” and breakfast menus. Sasha House Petite’s specialties – from the Sacher Torte to the Pork Belly Bread – are delightfully refined and fresh; and if you’d rather go for some specialty coffee, you’ll be able to choose from a selection of several aromas and tastes, carefully picked and micro-roasted in house.

19a South Anne Street, Dublin 2. t: 01-6778756 w: dublinbaristaschool.ie @dubbaristasch

Proprietor/Head Barista: Ferg Brown Curved Street, Temple Bar, D2 @RoastedBrown

Drury Street Car Park, Drury Street, Dublin 2 www.shpetite.ie t: (01) 672 9570 @SashaHouseDub

Clement & Pekoe

Il Fornaio

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147 Deli

Clement & Pekoe is your local coffee house in the heart of the city. Pop by for a morning fix or an evening winddown and watch the world go by on South William St. Choose from an array of loose leaf teas and seasonal coffee from select roasters. The owners, Simon and Dairine, are on hand to advise on how to enjoy tea or coffee at home too. Clement & Pekoe are now also open in Temple Bar, housed in the contemporary surroundings of Indigo & Cloth on East Essex St.

Nearly one year ago this cosy café opened in College Green to offer Dubliners an authentic Italian experience of really good artisan coffee and Italian premium quality food and products. The cakes and biscotti display in the window captures the eyes of every gourmet passing by, and the scent of panini and pizza (freshly baked everyday) invite you for a tasty lunch. The perfect place to buy the finest cured and cooked meats and cheese.

Open Mon-Fri 7.30am-7pm. Sat: 10am-7pm. Sun 11am-7pm.

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Simon’s Place

147 Deli is a small independent delicatessen that is passionate about local, seasonal ingredients and great coffee, located in the heart of Chinatown on Parnell Streett beside North Great Georges Street. Everything is cooked and prepared on-site which includes smoking their own meats and fish for their mouthwatering sandwiches and salads. The menu includes sandwiches, soups, salads and freshly made juices with weekly specials. Great decor, friendly staff, good music and big in the game when it comes to sandwiches.

An arty Bohemian café long established on George’s St, Simon’s place attracts an eclectic mix of students, musicians and working stiffs.

Heart-warming lunches of old-school doorstep sandwiches and home-made soups will always keep winter at bay. Try the cinnamon buns !

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50 South William St, D2 and Indigo & Cloth, 9 Essex St East, D2 www.clementandpekoe.com @ClementandPekoe

15 College Green, Dublin 2 t: (01) 6718960 facebook.com/ilfornaiocaffe

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147 Parnell Street, Dublin 1 t: 01 872 8481 w: facebook.com/147deliparnell @147cafe

Warm, cosy and friendly, The Birdcage Bakery stands out at its Harcourt location as one of the area’s finest cafes. With inviting, comfortable décor, the friendly staff offer a selection of homemade pastries, desserts, cakes and bite-sized treats all made from scratch daily. The savoury lunch menu is enjoyed all week long and offers an original take on classics such as meatballs and smokey bacon & cabbage among others. With top quality coffee, freshly roasted from the kiosk, enjoy one house blend and one single origin on offer daily, alongside a selection of teas from Clement & Pekoe. Open Mon-Fri 7.30am-3.30pm 21 Harcourt Rd, Dublin 2 t: 01 405 4890 w: facebook.com/BirdcageBakery

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22 S Great George’s St, Dublin 2 Tel ; 016797821 www.facebook.com/simonsplacecafe

TOTALLYCAFÉ Mexico K Chido

Base Coffee

With their funky vintage Citroen HY and friendly staff Mexico K Chido serve up delicious, authentic Mexican street food in an unconventional location! Parked in the entrance of Fegans Foodservice warehouse, K Chido creates a comfy (heated!) space with cushioned upcycled pallet furniture. Gustavo’s home-made marinades and salsas make it truly Mexican, firing out traditional classics such as pulled pork tacos, nachos and tortas weekdays, and transforming into a Mexican Bruncheria on weekends, offering a chilled atmosphere with your huevos rancheros. Freshly ground Ariosa coffee rounds off a perfect café experience. Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-6pm

Base has won over the coffee lovers of Ballsbridge.

With their House Blend and rotational Single Origin, there’s always something new to try here. They use the very best coffee sourced internationally from Dublin roasters 3fe. You can also grab a Base signature wood fired sandwich or salad or cake from Dublin micro bakery, Wildflour to make it the perfect working lunch hour.

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Head barista - Kieran O’Driscoll 18 Merrion Road, Ballsbridge t: 01 440 5100 @basewfp

18 Chancery St, Dublin 7 Email: kchidomexico@gmail.com @kchidomexico Facebook: Mexico K Chido

Hansel & Gretel Bakery & Patisserie From Trinity College to Baggot Street you’ll notice breadcrumb trails leading to Hansel and Gretel Bakery on Clare Street. Located just beside the National Gallery, this little bakery is the perfect spot to grab something to enjoy in Merrion Square. The freshly baked pastries (especially the almond croissants) and coffee from Ariosa make a great combo to start the morning, especially with the local office crowd. Everything is handmade from scratch with the ingredients sourced from small local producers, from their breads to their pastries to their delicious cakes.

20 Clare Street, Dublin 2 w: facebook.com/HanselandGretelBakeryPatisserie t: 01-5547292

Doughboys

A well-made sandwich is a wonderful thing and not easy to find, unless you’re talking about Doughboys.

This bustling counter-service sandwich and coffee shop serves up delicious breakfast, lunch and coffee.

All sandwiches are made fresh in-house with popular favourites such as meatball marinara and porchetta on the menu. There's Cloud Picker Coffee to fill your cup in the morning and freshly made lemonades at lunchtime. And not to forget their brekkie sandwiches – with smoked streaky bacon or breakfast sausage, poached egg and American cheese on a Arun brioche bun – a fine way to start the day!

SPILL THE BEANS SEAN FROM CAFE AT INDIGO AND CLOTH Cafe is the result of a collaboration between Indigo and Cloth and Clement and Pekoe.

Located on Indigo and Cloth’s ground floor, the micro-café serves a selection of artisanal coffees and an expansive range of delectable cakes to weary shoppers in need of refreshment.

How did this collaboration between Clement and Pekoe and Indigo and Cloth come about?

We were neighbours on South William Street initially and became good friends. Indigo and Cloth moved to the larger building on Essex Street to allow for the store and agency so when the idea of having a coffee bar within it was discussed, we jumped at the chance. A filter bar grew into the cafe/workshop it is today.

How does the smaller space of Indigo and Cloth compare to your South William Street address?

Actually, the South William St premises, in 2011, started as a very small space too, until we opened the full area, as we went through the planning permission process. We had a large space and a vision, no chairs, bar space only, like a tapas bar experience. We are so proud of what it has become. There are aspects of small spaces and pushing boundaries of how people

use space that I relished.

Cafe at Indigo and Cloth was designed with different influences in mind; Japan, Scandanavia and the US. We are gaining new regulars and offering another Clement and Pekoe stop in the city to our existing one. Cafe, as a workshop, offers a learning place for budding baristas and we will be holding events like meet the roaster and tea classes over the coming months.

What kind of coffees do you do? What’s so special about Climpson & sons beans?

At Clement and Pekoe, we showcase beautiful coffees from a few great roasters. The pace of Cafe is an intentionally slower more intimate one. Because of that, the barista can use all of the brew methods at our disposal to make your coffee… you name it, we’ll make it.

Climpsons and Sons, our roastery, are based in London. When we first met Danny and their extended crew, we bonded over a passion for coffee but also their easy going, fun manner in business. Expect no coffee lectures. They are building a really impressive business and are bringing in some exceptional coffees. We distribute Climpson and Sons in Ireland, supplying, for example, The Dean Hotel, Ballyfin Demense, in Co. Laois, and Books Upstairs.

We’re excited to be showcasing them at the

Charlotte Way, Dublin 2 t: 01-4022000 w: fb.com/DoughboysDublin Twitter: @DoughboysDublin

The Punnet Food Emporium

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The Punnet is a health food shop that offers customers a comprehensive range of healthy lunches, snacks and products difficult to find anywhere else nationwide – and if they don't have what you’re looking for, simply ask and they will find it for you! The Punnet's range of detox programs are also second to none, with 3/5 day fruit and veg or veg only juice cleanses and 5 day salad plans that take care of your food concerns for the week while all the nutrients and goodness take care of you.

The Punnet is the only place in Ireland to offer such a service dedicating itself to fresh, quality food and juices and rich flavourful coffee including the 'Bulletproof'.

94/95 Lower Mount Street pfedublin@gmail.com www.thepunnet.ie @punnethealth

Berlin D2

•••••••• Located at the back of the Powerscourt Town House, Berlin D2 is a new cafe that is saying a big “Hallo” to Dublin’s city centre since it opened earlier this year. Serving Ariosa coffee, Berlin D2 has a relaxed vibe in the style of the city from which it takes its name. Also on the menu are a selection of sweet treats, and a some accoutrements straight out of the German capital: a DJ booth playing crisp electronica, Sunday markets, morning yoga classes, ping-pong competitions and an fledgling bookshop with art and photography books and magazines. Recently they’ve added a beer license (serving predominantly German beers) with Fischers Helles and Guinness on draft as well as an evening menu with schnitzel, bratwurst and marinated chicken.

Coppinger Row, Dublin 2 fb.com/homeofthebear t: 01 6779352

Cafe @indigoandcloth upcoming Tea and Coffee Festival in September.

Tell me more about these delicious cakes.

We don’t bake ourselves but we are supplied by very passionate small bakers that do! Also, we have just launched the Paleo Man Foods range there and we’ll soon be unveiling a new cake, exclusive to Cafe. Temple Bar folk, be prepared!

Are you looking to set up more collaborations around the city in the future?

We will always be open-minded to exciting possibilities, so there’s no doubt that the future will hold lots of exciting Dublin projects for us. That’s all we’re saying, for now!

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The newly opened Cafe is a collaboration with our good friends Clement & Pekoe. It sits on our ground floor and has seating for 6 to 8 people. You can grab a perch in the window or at the larger community table, enjoy the surrounds or grab something to read.

Serving Climpson & Sons beans as our House Blend, choose from an ever changing filter menu, loose tea and some delicious cakes too. We hope you like it as much as we do. Open Mon–Sat 10am–6pm & Sun 12 – 5pm 9 Essex St East, Dublin 2 www.indigoandcloth.com/cafe www.clementandpekoe.com @indigoandcloth t: 01 670 6403

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Gourmet Coffee

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Filter Coffee

• • Tea

Wifi

• • Treats

Lunch

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Dinner

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Outdoor Area

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Wheelchair access

Café Gray

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The Bretzel Bakery

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Busy Bean Cafe

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Minetta

Café Gray opened its second outlet on Dawson Street and is attracting a lot of interest. Owned by Robert Gray, it serves legendary 3fe coffee, loose leaf teas from Clement & Pekoe as well as cold pressed juice from Sprout Food for non-coffee drinkers. Their food offering is based on the best Irish artisan producers and the sandwiches, soup and salad are some of the best in town and the prices are very keen compared to the chains. Go before the crowds do!

A Dublin institution according to some, The Bretzel Bakery first began baking in Lennox Street in Portobello in 1870. It has recently expanded to include a café, offering not only freshly baked, hand-made bread, buns, cakes and confectionary, but a range of freshly made sandwiches and bagels on its signature loaves, not to mention they’ve a good strong cup of coffee or freshly brewed tea. With warm and inviting decor and friendly staff, the café is well worth a visit to beautiful Portobello – even if it has been a long time coming! Mon-Fri 8am6pm, Sat/Sun 9am-4pm

Located on Molesworth Street, Busy Bean Café is a very welcoming home from home. Amongst the favourites on offer is an array of fresh baked scones and breads, homemade soups, daily carvery sandwiches, pasta dishes, salads and a plethora of gourmet signature sandwiches. Simply put, their philosophy is to serve real food and real coffee at a real price where you will always be made welcome. Busy Bean Cafe also offers catering for offices and events. Open Mon-Fri 7am-5pm and Sat 9am-5pm.

This is no ordinary deli. Despite it’s size, it serves up the best handmade Italian style pizza, pressed sourdough sandwiches, wholefood salads, take home meals and deli pots for miles. The two Hughes sisters make everything in-house daily, with a few well-considered exceptions from suppliers such as Tartine organic bakery, Nick’s locally roasted sweet espresso and Sprout cold-pressed juices. Their signature ‘pressed sandwich’ is Devilled Crab with Gruyere - it must be sampled to be believed! They’ve started opening 3 nights for BYOB and 7 days to satiate the growing numbers of Minetta junkies out there.

63 Dawson St. FB @cafegraydublin @cafegraydublin

1A Lennox Street, Portobello, D8 t: 01-4759445 w: fb.com/the-bretzel-bakery

37 Molesworth St, Dublin 2 t: 01-6789793 w: facebook.com/BusyBeanCafe

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1 Sutton Cross, Sutton, D13 t: 01-8396344 w: www.minetta.ie Twitter: @minettadeli

Wall & Keogh Tea Lounge

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KC Peaches

Grove Road Café

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Science Gallery Café

Wall and Keogh is the original. It’s the tea company that made loose leaf tea important again, with a location to enjoy your cuppa in that compares to no other. They have a full café attached and all the baked goods are homemade. Just go see for yourself, it’s wholesale & retail tea of the highest grade.

A New York-style loft newly established on Dame Street, KC Peaches is the ultimate hangout for tourists, students and working professionals. Serving natural, wholesomely enhanced all-day dining options, you leave the cafe feeling truly nourished by nature. Unlike anywhere else in Dublin, their hot and cold buffet options are delicious, convenient and affordable. With everything priced per plate size you can pile high on that wholesome goodness but make sure to leave room for their famous cheesecake brownie. The philosophy is simple: ‘Eat well, live well.’ Mon 8am-8pm, Tue-Fri 8am-10pm, Sat 9am-10pm, Sun 11am-6pm

Grove Road is the latest addition to the flourishing Dublin speciality café scene and is apparently the new place to be seen in Dublin 6! It boasts a bright and inviting space with a rugged yet contemporary interior, and sweeping panoramic views of the canal. At Grove Road they are very proud of many things: their consistently great coffee which is supplied by Roasted Brown in Temple Bar and their fresh delicious food and treats to name but a couple. It has also been said that they have the friendliest staff the city has to offer!

Mon-Fri 7.30am-6pm. Brunch Sat 9am-4pm.

Set in the super-cool surroundings of Science Gallery, Science Gallery Café is one of the city’s most interesting meeting places. This bright, contemporary space is home to an enthusiastic team serving up fresh food and great coffee. In fact, café owner Peter is so passionate about coffee that he decided to roast his own, and Science Gallery became the first place in Dublin to serve the amazing Cloud Picker Coffee, handroasted here in Dublin City Centre. You can also choose from a great menu that includes everything from Peter’s Mum’s Beef Goulash Stew to the student takeaway soup-sambo-fruit combo deals (for only €5!)

45 Richmond Street South, Portobello, Dublin 6 t: 01-4759052 @wallandkeoghtea

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54 Dame St., D2 t: 01-6455307 @kcpeaches

• Open 7 days a week, all year round • Guided tours • Tutored tasting • Gift Shop • Restaurant GLASSES UP TO DRINKING RESPONSIBLY

1 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6 www.groveroadcafe.ie t: (01) 5446639 @GroveRoadCafe

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Pearse Street, Trinity College, Dublin 2. t: 01 8964138 www.sciencegallery.com

Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland Tel: +353 (0) 57 93 25015 Email: info@tullamoredew.com www.tullamoredewvisitorcentre.com Visit

GAMES words Leo Devlin Aidan Wall

LIKE A Satoru Iwata

BOSS

Detective Comics Batman: Arkham Knight [Rocksteady, PS4/Xbox One/ OSX/Windows] Her Story [Sam Barlow, PC/OSX/iOS]

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Considering that much of video games’ significance in the popular consciousness comes from their being a ‘multi-billion dollar industry’, it was always a comfort that Iwata, who passed away last month, never held such a cynical opinion of his own profession. As president of Nintendo during its most billion-dollar-generating period, he forsook convention and common sense in the name of producing weird and delightful games and devices. His work may have generated a lot of money, but his legacy will be a lot more precious – the primacy of joy. LD

Swooping down from a nearby building, I land boot first on one of the thug’s heads, crushing his body into Gotham’s cold pavement. As if by magic, my fist magnetises to the next enemy’s face, emitting a sudden joyous crack as the two connect. Gotham has been cleared out due to a bomb scare; only criminals and thugs remain on its three islands, which is handy, as it allows me to beat up and imprison absolutely every single person I see.

The third guy tries to bolt, but he can’t escape the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader. He can’t escape me: I am Batman, and I am absolutely gaining on this lad. As I draw closer the prompt arrives at the bottom of the screen: Press ∆ to interrogate.

The control is stripped from me as the game cuts to a pre-determined scene of Batman shouting at the man for information before slamming him into the ground. It is at this point, that I realise I am in fact not The Batman, but a person (myself) playing as The Batman in the videogame Batman: Arkham Knight.

Arkham Knight is an incredibly pristine game of outstanding graphical fidelity with a surprising plot-line that’s sprinkled with meta-narrative subversions. Unfortunately these self-reflexive flashes are thinly dispersed, leaving the majority of the game to play out as a slogging brawl of hyper-violent encounters and repetitive side-quests. For a story which ultimately attempts to be highly personal, the stiff delivery of Batman’s lines only highlights how much of a non-character he is in developer Rocksteady’s universe.

While detective work in Arkham Knight consists of linear plots guided by beat-downs, Sam Barlow’s Her Story approaches the idea of investigation with an open-ended attitude that puts onus on the player to decide when they have solved the mystery.

The game operates as a search engine which allows the player to search through video clips for phrases or words spoken by interviewee Hannah regarding her husband Simon’s murder.

The catch is, only the first five results of a search will ever show, making the player delve deeper into the plot by searching new, inventive combinations of words. The non-linear story unfolds so seamlessly that it’s easy to overlook the robust writing and narrative design which is equal parts exciting and haunting. AW

Automatic for the Meeple Roll for the Galaxy [Rio Grande], Splendor [Space Cowboy]

From the banal dice-rolling of Snakes and Ladders to the hypnotic number-watching of Cookie Clicker, games that have a tendency to ‘play themselves’ can inspire as much derision as they do idle amusement. But some games with strong elements of automation can be genuinely satisfying, as long as the player can have some part in the building of the engine.

Roll for the Galaxy, by Thomas Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang, is, as the name implies, a dice game set in space, where players are competing to create the most efficiently productive galactic empire. Dice are rolled and the results allocated in order to colonise new planets or ship goods for points. While the early game consists of a lot of umm-ing and ahh-ing and deep consideration, by the time you’ve a few developments built, an optimal path reveals itself. There’s a smooth transition from participant

to onlooker, but the conclusion can still have the thrill of watching a tight race.

Likewise, Marc André’s Splendor, which just had a slick digital adaptation released on Android and iOS, sees excitement rise as the decision space shrinks over the course of the game. At first, players take turns gathering chips that can be used to purchase cards, which in turn act as discounts on the chip price of future purchases. This lets you get even more cards which then further depresses prices, and on and on until you’re drowning in a deflationary sea of cards, your pointcollecting machines accelerating mercilessly towards victory.

Both games create an odd sense of enjoyment, becoming more compelling when you have less control over them. Be careful, though – fun is fun, but nobody wants to be smushed by some sentient DiceVoltron. LD

Composed by BILL WHELAN

Produced by MOYA DOHERTY

DUBLIN

23 JUN E - 3 0 AU G TICKETMASTER: 0818 719 300 W W W.T I C K E T M A S T E R . I E GAIETY BOX OFFICE: 0818 719 388

Directed by JOHN McCOLGAN

ARTSDESK words Aidan Wall photos Kasia Kaminska

Shown Up Display Show at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios

Above: Gavin Wade, Z-Type Display Unit (After Kiesler & Krischanitz) 2015 In support of: Flore Nové-Josserand, Thoughts on the conceptualisation of space and mechanisms of display, relative to subjectivity and emotion, in schematic form, with reference to (Herbert Bayer)(Frederick Kiesler)(Lina Bo Bardi)(Eileen Gray) (Adolf Krischanitz)(El Lissitzky)(Carlo Scarpa)(Franco Albini) among Others. Temple Bar Version. 2015 Right: Yelena Popova, The Collectors Case 2015; Andrew Lacon, Marble(d), 2015, 110x28x28cm, Carrara Marble, Marbling Inks Background: Andrew Lacon, A Display for Sculpture 06, 2015, Casein Marble Paint, Yellow Pigment

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Curated by Gavin Wade, with Céline Condorelli and James Langdon, Display Show is the first iteration of an exhibition project which seeks to examine the politics of exhibition and display. Taking Temple Bar Gallery and Studios as its first site of installation, the curators intend to realise and adapt the exhibition over two subsequent iterations at Eastside Projects, Birmingham and Stroom Den Haag, Netherlands later in 2015 and in 2016. Featuring work from Condorelli, Andrew Lacon, Eilis McDonald, Flore Nové-Josserand, Yelena Popova, Wade, and Christopher Williams, this superb show draws influence from the radical display methodologies of 20th century architects and artists such as Frederick Kiesler and Adolf Krischanitz. In dissecting methods and strategies of display, Display Show interrogates the overlaps between art-making, saleability, and preservation.

As both curator and contributing artist, Wade has a strong presence in the show. His towering sculptural piece Z-Type Display Unit (After Kiesler & Krischantiz) encompasses the centre of the room. Adapted from Kiesler’s ‘L and T’ type display units of 1924, and Krischanitz’s mobile wall system at the Vienna Secession in 1986, Wade’s work balances form and function, acting as both a standalone, structurally and aesthetically impressive sculpture, as well as a ‘support’ on which other works are hung, and visitors are welcome to sit upon. The coated aluminium pillars of glossy pink, yellow, blue, and black accompanied by the hardwood and ply panelling recall the Donald Judd school of formalist sculpture and garden-centre shedding simultaneously, as complimented by the television’s yellow hose-like power cable that winds tangling into the display unit along the gallery floor.

Painted on the floor, with grossly slick beige floor-paint, is a pattern connecting the gallery’s furthest corners. This piece, Organised Direction (After Herbert Bayer), is based on a detail of Bayer’s exhibition floor plan design for MoMA’s Bauhaus 1919-1928 exhibition from 1938. While the source of that piece’s inspiration is tucked away in the exhibition’s accompanying literature, more direct references to source materials appear in the work of Flore Nové-Josserand.

Utilising Wade’s Display Unit panelling, NovéJosserand presents a series of inkjet and laserjet printed images entitled Thoughts on the conceptualisation of space and mechanisms of display, relative to subjectivity and emotion, in schematic form (…).

Interspersed with photographic source material of the work of artists – such as Eileen Gray, Lina Bo Bardi, and El Lissitzky among

others – are a number of printed fliers advertising either Eastside Projects (a gallery) or CYC Logistics and Distribution (a UK courier service). A variety of slightly differing images, all containing bold shapes rendered in a dated graphical style, are printed on the fliers. This imagery is primarily used on the fliers advertising Eastside Projects, though on some pages, these oval-enclosed drawings are adorned with the CYC corporate logo instead. The addition of a corporate logo to these images draws attention to the history of corporations adopting formalist imagery, while highlighting the concurrent existence of the gallery as a site of exhibition and the gallery as a site of business.

Eilis McDonald’s Numinous Objects hangs on the opposite side of Wade’s Display Unit.

This short looping video consists of a series of objects and 3D-rendered shapes placed against a long rectangular white background; like an online store’s webpage, the tidy arrangements are perused and scrolled through, until the bottom of the page is reached triggering a swift upward scrolling accentuated by the scroll-bar at the side of the video. The objects displayed – the majority of which are domestic – vary from commercially friendly stock-photo products like a rubber glove, a pile of sponges, and a MacBook, to items which become more sinister in this context: a hooded torso faces away from the camera, looking not quite like a product image of a hoodie, nor like a photo of a person wearing a hoodie.

McDonald’s selection of abstracted images

is imbued with an undercurrent of criminality.

A sleeping bag, a pile of rope-bound curtains, and a full black bin-bag placed next to cleaning products hint at something ominously morbid.

McDonald alludes to the domesticated and normalised crimes of financial capitalism, arguably the reason for which stock photography of these objects/products exists. In showcasing these stock photos out of the context of advertisement, McDonald is playfully transforming them back into grim props to place next to the .gifified oddities of the computer-rendered lines and shapes strewn throughout the video.

McDonald’s pristine three dimensional forms are mirrored by Andrew Lacon’s Marble(d) in the nearest corner. Based on the plinths used at the Vatican and British Museums, this grey marble plinth is complete with bevelled edges. The absence of an object or artefact is highlighted in the negative space of the Lacon’s bright yellow wall installation A Display for Sculpture 06; this corner installation is a reference to the classic method of photographing sculptures against reflective coloured corners.

On the far side of the gallery, Yelena Popova’s The Collector’s Case similarly references the somewhat hidden methods which go into the presentation and preservation of art objects. The Collector’s Case consists of a flight case propped up in a concertina fashion, allowing the audience to view Popova’s paintings as attached safely to the aluminium panels of the case. The paintings themselves transform into something purely functional in this context. Almost as dis-

play models, they are like impressions of what one might imagine modernist painting is when stripped to its most primitive signifiers: curvilinear shapes painted in primary colours with loose precision.

Once an artwork leaves the safe surroundings of the artist’s studio, it is surrendered to extraneous circumstances; the act of thoughtfully exhibiting an artwork often relies on a curator’s ability to contextualise and translate something intrinsically private (studio production) into something public (gallery display). Display Show looks with careful consideration at some of the less public aspects of art and exhibition making: conservation, marketability, and commodification. It seems fitting that the hum of commodified and privatised Temple Bar, just outside the gallery’s windows, blends so seamlessly with Condorelli’s sound piece, Sound of the Swindelier, which documents 20 minutes of studio work.

Display Show is exhibited at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios until Saturday 29th August.

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PRINT words Roisin Kiberd Gill Moore Anna-Grace Scullion

Green Glowing Skull Gavin Corbett Fourth Estate

Green Glowing Skull is a bewildering read.

Essentially, the novel follows a trio of Irish ex-pats living in New York who decide to form a tenor group. Having left Ireland under various unusual circumstances and living at the ramshackle old ‘Cha Bum Kun’ club, Rickard, Denny and Clive are each drawn into a multi-layered web of illusion, mythology and misinterpretation, developing warped relationships with both Ireland and New York. This is a novel in which the laws of physics do not apply, and nothing is as it seems.

The theme of the Irish emigrant undergoing a profound and difficult redefinition of his identity is nothing new. Indeed, critics have noted Corbett’s apprenticeship to Irish writers Joyce, Beckett and O’Brien.

However, Corbett’s take on modernity is so loose and sprawling that the reader can only grasp moments of coherence. The novel feels too close to unravelling to allow the reader to truly enter its labyrinthine world.

Similarly, the characters are at such a crisis of instability that it is difficult to identify with them. Corbett’s great talent, however, is his prose. By turns prosaic and lyrical, the language is at times dazzling. If the structure of Green Glowing Skull were as carefully crafted as its syntax, it would be a masterpiece. AGS

The Good Story JM Coetzee, Arabella Kurtz Harvill Secker

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The Good Story is a series of exchanges between author JM Coetzee and clinical therapist Arabella Kurtz that explores how psychoanalysis understands our need to make stories, write memories and act in groups. Sigmund Freud once said that ‘psychoanalysis brings out the worst in everyone’, and the act of analysing psychoanalysis could easily sink even further into the mire. If psychotherapy doggedly examines the dark ‘repressed’ energies of the individual’s story and psyche, then thinking about what it means to think about what these mean (and so on) can be an exhausting, endlessly speculative and fairly charmless enterprise. It’s heavy stuff, and much of the book ends up in this territory.

Coetzee dominates the conversation. He sets the agenda for each chapter by framing (overly) detailed reflections as questions for Kurtz to respond to, and returns to a persistent set of concerns: the relative relationship between truth and fiction, the return of the repressed, and the role of disavowal in group and national narratives. Coetzee is an exceptionally clear thinker, and his gift for expressing complex concepts is impressive. There is important intellectual inquiry here, but the dialogue also rambles, takes for granted as many basic assumptions of psychoanalytic theory as it questions.

And yet while it is peppered with literary, political, clinical and biographical case studies, in its finest moments this conversation moves far beyond interminable speculation. Coetzee and Kurtz are capable of challenging both classical psychoanalytic theory and its postmodern, existential variants. They seek sense-making strategies that can allow us to live both happily and skeptically; to own our stories while disowning their claim to truth. While the book is a testament to just how strongly depth psychology has infiltrated our cultural consciousness, in the end it shows psychoanalysis to be just one narrative in understanding the self ’s fictions – one that is potentially useful, or at least aesthetically interesting when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. In the words of Kurtz, ‘It is a comic narrative, in fact, of the best sort.’ If inconclusive, then, at least this book’s psychoanalytic speculation makes for a good story by somebody’s standards. GM

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch Lewis Dartnell The Bodley Head

Reader, have you considered the apocalypse? You know, the end of days, probably by epidemic or solar flare. The cataclysm.

The decimation. The opening of the seven seals. Lewis Dartnell has. His book, The Knowledge, acts as both thought experiment and post-apocalyptic guidebook, condensing into 352 pages all the science, technology and homesteading skills you’ll need for Civilisation 2.0. The book investigates the fabric of the new society – we learn to extract salt from seawater, to leaven bread, to raid golf carts for their rechargeable batteries and to avoid rickets at all costs (ain’t nobody got time for that).

Dartnell’s narrative is charmingly erratic. He swings between dry science and fantasies of devastation, at times giving way to talk of a landscape roamed by packs of domestic house-pets gone rogue, or fantasies of opportunist neighbours ‘dining out on the leftovers of our civilisation’.

There is a calm that tempers the horror of this book, a mutual flattery between reader and author. We will survive, because we are prepared.

Dartnell encourages the reader to make peace with the fact that civilisation is impermanent, and flammable, and frail. In practical terms, the book might have benefited from more diagrams, or more thorough instructions on how to create homespun penicillin with bacteria harvested from the inside of your nose, but The Knowledge makes for an eye-opening dose of fantastical reality. RK

PRINT words Mònica Tomàs Aisling O’Gara Peter Morgan

Young Irelanders Ed. Dave Lordan New Island Books

That Irish literature is experiencing a vibrant new era is quickly becoming old news. Fresh evidence of this new era is always welcome, however, and Young Irelanders is a worthy Exhibit A. The collection comprises twelve pieces, all new contributions to the short story form. Editor Dave Lordan conceptualises the book as ‘a mix-tape’ of a ‘continually evolving scene’, and the thematic and stylistic ranges on display here justify that label. Kevin Curran’s incredibly moving ‘Saving Tanya’ begins proceedings.

Curran uses the internet as an overarching theme in which to explore race, disability, gender and class in Irish youth culture. Gender and trans identities are also driving forces in Mia Gallagher’s touching effort, an excerpt from her forthcoming novel.

Other highlights include Roisín O’Donnell’s portrait of a Brazilian teacher’s paradoxical struggle to learn the Irish language for work despite its absence from everyday life, and Alan McMonagle’s poteen-soaked tragicomedy ‘The Remarks’ – an original addition to the recent spate of narratives dealing with young men in limbo in contemporary Ireland. Elsewhere, Oisín Fagan, Rob Doyle and Sheila Armstrong experiment with varying degrees of success with elliptical form, and Cathy Sweeney presents a trippy, thought-provoking allegorical piece. Sydney Weinberg’s ‘Omen in the Bone’ is a shockingly brilliant treatment of – in the author’s own words – ‘the consequences of emotional illiteracy’. With Young Irelanders, it’s clear that this generation of writers is well equipped to tackle such consequences. PM

The Meursault Investigation Kamel Daoud Other Press

In Camus’ classic novel The Stranger, disaffected protagonist Meursault shoots an ‘Arab’ on a beach. Now, in The Meursault Investigation, Kamel Daoud rewrites the tale from the perspective of the nameless Algerians whose lives were transformed, showing how this archetypal example of disaffected outsider literature might appear to the true outsiders in the story. Daoud cleverly draws from post-colonial theory and other emancipatory disciplines in an engaging narrative, in which the victim’s brother, Harun, seeks both symbolic and physical restitution for his loss.

As well as finally naming his brother, Musa, Harun uses French, the language of the oppressors, to ‘speak in the place of a dead man’: he will ‘take the stones from the old houses the colonists left behind, remove them one by one, and build [his] own house, [his] own language.’ Likewise, in this book Daoud takes remnants of his country’s colonised past and builds something that initially gives the impression of both righting a great wrong and creating something completely new.

Unfortunately, The Meursault Investigation’s liberal literary and cultural politics don’t extend to women, who renders his few female characters through the misogynistic eyes of his protagonist, leaving them stunted and unformed. For a character so opposed to dehumanisation found in The Stranger, Harun paradoxically enacts it himself, echoing its violence against women and startling lack of empathy. The ensuing psychic dissonance makes the narrator’s moral high ground increasingly questionable. MT

Girl at War Sara Nović Little Brown

Sara Nović’s first novel, Girl at War, is an MFA novel that reads exactly like an MFA novel. It opens – flatly, drily and clumsily – with ten year old Ana’s experience of the Balkan War’s outbreak in Zagreb. Ana’s perspective as a child is unconvincing and the character herself is uninteresting, a kind of Scout-lite template tomboy. Ten years later, safe in America, the adult Ana is a similarly weak persona. She hates everyone, including the UN peacekeeper who smuggled her into the US; the family who adopted her; and pretty much any American who can’t immediately empathise with a refugee and former child soldier. Given the factual mistakes in the novel itself, this condescension is inexcusable.

The novel wants to be a brutal examination of the war, but succeeds only in a single instance in which the deaths of Ana’s parents’ are powerfully described. Elsewhere, the book fails to induce any true sense of horror. Just as the character of Ana relies on tired tomboy tropes, so the narrative is sustained by an abstract concept of war that is not evoked or examined in any real detail. Ultimately, this is a crude workhorse of a novel, lazily reliant on a proleptic emotional reaction it fails to create. AOG

THEATRE words Eoin Moore photos Tom Maher

Earnest Rides Again Smock Alley are soon to host a new production of Oscar Wilde’s extravagant and incorrigible magnum opus The Importance of Being Earnest. Part of Smock Alley’s Dinner and a Show series, the silly play about serious issues will receive a sensual overhaul by Kate Canning, fresh from the Spots op West International Theatre Festival where she starred in an adaptation of Frank O’Connor’s Guest of the Nation. We spoke with Canning about feasting, fashion, frivolity, and other f-words as she prepared to enter rehearsals.

Tell me about Earnest.

We’re just about to start rehearsals, so I’ve been busy getting ready. I’d seen a production of this a long time ago, and I wasn’t mad about the production but I loved the aesthetic they had gone for, a sort of Alice in Wonderland style. So it’s not cartoony at all, but I love that aesthetic of being almost a little bit strange. The designer, and the costume designer, and the lighting designer have taken this on board, so everything is almost too perfect. We’re turning the thrust [Smock Alley’s main stage] into a garden, basically. It’s like a perfect garden because everything is manicured very exactly. And then for our costumes, the designer’s really using the period shape but then there will be certain aspects of the costumes that are going to be completely out there, materials you would never have used, like plastic or something, or the shoulders are going to be twice the size they should be. It’s all just a little bit on drugs if you know what I mean. [Laughs] There are three acts, and I don’t want setchanging, that drives me nuts. Especially in Smock Alley where you can’t just close a curtain and then go ‘ta-da’. The garden is going to be there all the time, but we’re trying to develop this maze garden. I have this vision in my head of the beginning of the play with this big, classical, anticipatory music and all the actors going in and out of the maze trying to catch each other and falling over each other. Then in between each act the maze changes shape, so for each act the maze is configured differently, which puts us in a new place. So that’s very simple but I hope it works.

What are you aiming to achieve with this production?

I was thinking, who is this for, who will come to see this and why do they want to see it? I suppose we all ask ourselves that question: why do we go and see plays even though it’s ten euro, or twelve euro, or maybe 18 if you’re going to the Gaiety?

Because I work in The Gaiety School of Acting, I’m constantly associating with people who are really into theatre. Then eight weeks ago I broke my leg – I was on-stage actually and fell – so I had to get loads of taxis, and ended up talking to every taximan in Dublin. I spent years living in Singapore and London, and when they’d ask me what play I was working on they’d say they’d never heard of it. But here, they ask me what play I’m working on, and I tell them The Importance of Being Earnest, and they’d go, ‘Oh my god, I

Left: Katie McCann as Miss Prism Right: Clodagh Mooney Duggan as Gwendolen Fairfax

love that play,’ because everybody knows it. And that kind of hit home with me, that’s who I hope sees the play. I hope every taxi driver in Dublin goes to see it. The important thing is that, if they do come and see it, to make sure they come again and see something else.

What have you found challenging about the process so far?

When you sit down and read the play, you realise that it’s just so brilliant. It will never grow old.

It’s so silly, yet it’s so smart. It’s laugh out loud all the time, and that’s the big challenge with it from my point of view, because comedy wouldn’t be something I’m used to directing. I think the first week with my cast is going to be working that out.

Because comedy’s like a train, it has to build and build and build and if it stalls you’re dead, people will give you no mercy on that. So it’s about trying to pick from so many amazingly funny lines the ones that you’re driving towards and peaking on, and you shouldn’t include too many, because then everyone gets sick of the rollercoaster.

What’s the overall feel of this production?

F-words are in my head all the time. So ‘Feast’…

I want to make it really feast-y, because food is so important in the play. Wilde uses food to reflect the idea of sex in the play because he couldn’t write about it. It’s all about champagne and crumpets and butter and sugar and that itself is a flirtatious act and a sensual act. I want the sound all the time of people eating and people ooh-ing and ah-ing at the taste of the food and the smell of the food, at the sound of the food, popping champagne corks and the sound of clinking glasses, and on top of that the beautiful poppy-green garden and really colourful costumes, all sensory. I really want to do that in the first week of rehearsals, I don’t even want them saying words, I just want them making sounds, because I see them all with their own sounds. If you were to write a little composition for them they’d all have their own little sound, like Cecily’s lovely, light legato and the big, big bass for Lady Bracknell. And lots of laughter, lots of crying, lots of shouting and gasping. Basically, lots of sounds. That’s what I see.

I’m listening to a lot of music at the moment.

I’m really into sound-plots. Of course the piano is very important in the play. We’re building the piano into the garden, so you don’t know it’s a piano first. It looks like a hedge and then suddenly it plays. I had this idea of singing, as if we were in London’s clubland in 1890. The sound of it and the excitement of it, compared to the restraint of the country or Lady Bracknell’s house. And then using really strong Haydn or Mozart, hidingbehind-the-trees sort of stuff. And Miss Prism, of course, she is the epitome of sexual repression, yet it’s just so alive in her. We have a younger actress playing her, so we’re going to age her, yet she’s going to have that lovely physicality. We have her in a big grey skirt but then a red slip underneath.

I have this idea that Reverend Chasuble gets so on top of her that she’s overwhelmed and just falls back over one of the hedges, and she gets up and all you see is the red. I want to get back to the visual, I want all that colour coming through.

Is it difficult to work between the comedy of the play and the more serious messages it has?

Obviously I’m on board with the fact that this is an incredibly smart play – if it wasn’t smart it

wouldn’t still be here – but I don’t want this play to be restating anything. At the end of the day, what Wilde does is use the humour to get across the more serious message. So, like that, I want to keep my play very light, very energetic, very frivolous, very melodramatic really.

It’s interesting that you mention so many Irish people know and love the play when it’s set in aristocratic England over a hundred years ago. It’s amazing that it still resonates so well with Irish people today.

That’s true. And it’s not just with the Irish, it does that with every society. That’s why it’s so smart: it doesn’t talk to one people, or even one age bracket, it talks to everyone. I hope children will come to see this, they’ll find it hilarious. Because everyone can relate to those themes of expectation and the irrelevance of the identities that we force upon each other, and the need to fit into the constraints that you do. Only Wilde can take credit for the fact that it talks to everyone not only in Ireland but all over the world.

You’re just entering rehearsals, how do you see the whole show panning out?

It’s hard to know yet. I mean, obviously we’re very sure of the aesthetic. Now it’s just process [and] I don’t know what I’m expecting yet. I know what my thoughts are, but I’m open to those thoughts changing. There’s so much talk about what a director is, and all the different ways of directing, but at the end of the day your job is to tell the story and build this vehicle for everyone else to go off and make it happen. You just keep some shape on it, and keep it moving. Especially a play like this that has such personality. I’m going to let the play do what it does. With new writing, you’ve a tendency to put your own take on it, because it’s younger, it’s like a child. This is a granny, what are you going to do with this one?

[Laughs] You don’t want to be insulting her!

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest runs until Saturday 22nd August at 7.30pm each night, with matinees each Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm at Smock Alley Theatre, Exchange Street Lower, Temple Bar, Dublin 8. Tickets are €15/12 (concessions) as well as dinner and a show on Thursday and Friday nights (€30) or brunch and a show on Sunday matinees (€25).

FILM REVIEWS words Bernard O’Rourke Luke Maxwell Meadhbh McGrath Oisín Murphy-Hall

The Great Wall Director: Tadhg O’Sullivan Talent: n/a Release Date: 21st August There is a scene in Theo Angelopoulos’ Eternity and a Day in which the camera slowly and ominously rises up a snow-covered slope to reveal a vast wire fence, separating Greece from Albania to its north-west, with the indistinct, motionless shapes of men’s bodies scattered along its frame, frozen in the haunted moment of its climbing. It is a distressing, uncanny image, exemplary of the late master’s career-long concern with borders, his extraordinary gift for composition, and his deep, unflinching humanity. In Tadhg O’Sullivan’s The Great Wall, part lyrical documentary, part film essay, one can detect echoes of Angelopoulos’ compassion and restraint, not least in an extended shot towards the film’s end of a solitary man poised atop one of the border fences of the continent’s southern reaches, hands held out and talking frantically: whether to himself or in prayer we are left to guess.

The subject of O’Sullivan’s examination is the securitisation of borders and the architecture of exclusion in contemporary Europe. Filmed in several countries and locations, including Melilla, one of two Spanish enclaves on the coast of North Africa, the film nevertheless forsakes making explicit distinctions between time and place. This, along with a narrator who reads in voiceover from Kafka’s short story The Great Wall of China, allows for its footage to speak to a perspective that is at once literary and historical, and cognisant of the role played by power in the construction and division of space. Kafka’s words take on eerie and often powerful significance coupled with O’Sullivan’s disparate images of internment camps, waterways border checks, and the vast, hideous, hygienic corporate architecture of European capitals. Intelligent and heartfelt work from a young filmmaker of rare skill and sensibility. OMH

The Gallows

True Story

Directors: Travis Cluff, Chris Lofing Talent: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos, Cassidy Gifford Release Date: 10th July

Director: Rupert Goold Talent: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Felicity Jones, Maria Dizzia Release Date: 17th July

Director: Peyton Reed Talent: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll, Evangeline Lilly Release Date: 17th July

True Story tells the (wait for it...) true story of Michael Finkel (Hill), a disgraced journalist who develops a personal and professional interest in Christian Longo (Franco), a man facing trial for the murder of his wife and three children.

The film plays out like a star-studded episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent as Hill and Franco engage in one-on-one interviews with much lippursing and hand-wringing. Franco’s performance is the best aspect of the film: he is affable and sympathetic as Longo, with just the right amount of menace lurking under the surface. All other performances pale in comparison to his, unfortunately. Not that it matters all that much however, as True Story signposts its twists and turns early and clumsily. Hill in particular struggles with the material: his character’s emotional high-point sees him punching the wall of a bathroom stall. Those interested in the premise of True Story are better served by Michael Finkel’s memoir, which is a shame. LM

There’s something uniquely ridiculous about the premise of Ant-Man. Yet thankfully, nobody takes themselves too seriously here, resulting in one of the best Marvel films yet. Paul Rudd is as charismatic as ever as Scott Lang, the Robin Hood of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, accompanied by a team of zany thieves (including a scene-stealing Michael Peña). Michael Douglas is millionaire scientist Hank Pym, a gloriously camp ant whisperer who recruits Scott to take on his steampunk shrinking suit, ‘signal the crazy ants!’ and take down his villainous former protégé. Evangeline Lilly appears as Pym’s daughter, a ‘mean, pretty lady’ whose arc is reduced to the same severe-bob-to-wavy-bob hair journey Bryce Dallas Howard underwent in Jurassic World. Director Peyton Reed plays with the house style by adding some fast-paced heist sequences, but proves to be too timid to go full Edgar Wright, the picture’s deposed original director. His ghost haunts the film — in particular, a brilliantly conceived fight scene on a toy train set — reminding us of the truly inspired comedy we could have had. MMcG

Tragedy struck a high school play in 1993 when a prop malfunction killed a student. 20 years later, Beatrice High School’s drama department puts on the same play and forces beyond mortal understanding aren’t too happy about it. Evil spirits haunt and hang a group of students attempting to sabotage the new production of the eponymous play. Chief among them is Scott, the bro-iest bro that ever held a camera; you’ll revel in his undoing if nothing else.

Kudos to the directing team behind The Gallows, who have created the worst found-footage film in recent memory. So poor are the effects and ideas in this picture that the only enjoyment you’ll get out of it is the knowledge that its cast of thoroughly dull and unlikeable actors probably had as bad a time making the film as you did viewing it. LM

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Ant-Man

The Wonders

Inside Out

Director: Alice Rohrwacher Talent: Monica Bellucci, Alba Rohrwacher, Alexandra Lungu, Sabine Timoteo Release Date: 17th July

Directors: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen Talent: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Kyle MacLachlan Release Date: 24th July

Alice Rohrwacher’s Grand Prix-winning sophomore feature is, on a large scale, a story about the shifting Italian rural landscape, and the ways in which old traditions adapt to survive in the modern world. On a smaller scale, it’s a coming-of-age story about Gelsomina (a magnetic Maria Alexandra Lungu), the oldest daughter of a family of beekeepers. Gorgeously shot by Hélène Louvart (director of photography on Wim Wenders’ Pina) on Super-16 stock – an appropriately rare choice of film to capture an increasingly rare way of life – The Wonders is a film in which lots of things seem about to happen. Gelsomina’s relationship with her domineering father comes under strain when he takes in a troubled teenage boy, and Monica Bellucci floats in as the glamorous host of Countryside Wonders, a garish talent show searching for the area’s ‘most traditional family’. However, the story never settles down long enough to really engage. An appealing, yet rather insubstantial, piece of work. MMcG

“I imagine the leadership has existed since time immemorial, along with the decision to construct the wall as well.”

– The words of Kafka’s narrator in Tadhg O’Sullivan’s The Great Wall, evoking present conditions’ ideological claim on transcending history itself.

Best of Enemies

The President

Directors: Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville Talent: Kelsey Grammer, John Lithgow, Dick Cavett, Gore Vidal Release Date: 31st July

Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf Talent: Mikheil Gomiashvili, Dachi Orvelashvili, la Sukhitashvili, Guja Burduli Release Date: 10th July

If the majority of contemporary American political broadcasting is some variation of liberals and conservatives shouting at each other, then Best of Enemies traces the origins of this format of debate to the presidential election of 1968, and the historic match-up of William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal.

This documentary revisits the debates between the conservative commentator and the liberal author, skilfully sketching out the political and social climate of the time through archive footage, while simultaneously drawing numerous parallels with the present. But what’s perhaps most interesting is how the film also draws out numerous similarities between Buckley and Vidal, rather than painting them as the polar opposites they believed they were. Both men are similarly steadfast in their beliefs and keep falling back on ad hominem shouting matches. Also, both are also so vigorously articulate that these clashes also make as compelling viewing now as they did nearly 50 years ago. BO’R

In ‘an unknown country’, a totalitarian dictator is ousted from power by popular revolution. Fleeing in disguise with his young grandson in tow, the titular president gets a first-hand (and at time almost apocalyptic) view of the violence of the uprising, and the degrading misery his regime inflicted upon its people.

The film is a harrowing watch, and works far more as a human story than political parable. The grandson becomes the emotional heart of the film, with a palpable tension building up as a tragic conclusion seems more and more inevitable.

But as political commentary on an Arab Springstyle uprising, the film ultimately has little of interest to say. The politics of both the president and the revolutionaries are painted in the broadest of strokes, and a late attempt at philosophical dialogue feels like a clunky addition to an otherwise compelling narrative. BO’R

At once radically simple and astonishingly highconcept, Inside Out follows the basic emotions – Anger, Disgust, Fear, Joy, and Sadness – that preside over the mind of an eleven year old girl named Riley. As Riley enjoys an idyllic childhood in Minnesota, Joy is firmly in control. However, Riley’s world is turned upside down when her dad gets a new job in San Francisco. Her troubles are fairly mundane (and middle-class): a tough first day at school, a frustrating hockey try-out, an argument with her irritable, overworked father. But along with these external stresses, things start to fall apart on the inside. An accident flings Joy and Sadness to the deepest ends of Riley’s mindscape, throwing them together on a visually dazzling quest to get back to headquarters before Riley’s personality completely disintegrates. The real journey, of course, is toward a greater understanding of our emotional lives, as Joy and the audience learn that there can be no growth without loss.

This is must-see, must-talk-about, must-see-again stuff. MMcG

Eden Director: Mia Hansen-Løve Talent: Félix de Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne, Hugo Conzelmann Release Date: 24th July Paul (de Givry) is a DJ who was instrumental in the rise of French house music. Eden chronicles the lives and times of Paul and his crew through the early-to-mid-1990s as, mostly, they have a great time with minimal conflict or strife. This is a music picture with sex and drugs but little heartache. Indeed, save for some girl trouble, the film is content in showing us young people having a good time.

Eden makes the most of its setting, showcasing some weird and wonderful party locations and house music hideaways. There’s a loose biopic element at play as well, as Paul’s good buddies happen to be Daft Punk (seen in human form). The filmmakers have clearly gone to great lengths to secure the rights to many nu-disco hits of yesteryear and there’s an admirable rigour to the film’s sense of time and place. Eden is a charming film made with love: check it. LM

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SOUND words Eoin Tierney photo Søren Solkær

It Could Have Bean a Brilliant Career For a band entering their 20th year, Belle and Sebastian are enjoying rude health, releasing a ninth studio album, and with a written account of their early years just published. Ahead of their headline set at Electric Picnic, Totally Dublin speaks with keyboardist Chris Geddes aka ‘Beans’ about their songs appearing in films, the influence of Peanuts, plus the fact B&S have played the festival either once or twice before, he isn’t sure.

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You’re the youngest member of Belle and Sebastian, what was that like?

Isobel Campbell was a few months younger than me, but I’m the youngest person still in the band. I do feel there is a bit of a gap, especially when the band first started, when I was like 20 or 21, and the older folk in the band were 27 or 28. When the band first got together I probably was quite immature, I suppose I caught up to a certain extent. Being in a band, it stops you growing up a bit anyway, so I don’t think the people who are older than me are necessarily any more grown up than when the band first got together.

Stuart David’s book In the All-Night Café about Belle and Sebastian’s early years was released recently. What was the feeling in the band about the book?

I think quite a few of the people in the band have read it but I haven’t. Everybody who has read it has really enjoyed it. Certainly everybody in the band is on good terms with Stuart David, there was no bad blood when he left; it was perfectly amicable. Everyone in the band always wants both members and past members to do well in what they do. I think everybody is really pleased for Stuart to see how well received the book was when it came out. I’m certainly going to get around to reading it at some point.

There’s a great quote in the book attributed to you, from when the band started recording If You’re Feeling Sinister: ‘This has been the best week of my life. But I’m not sure if it’s just because I’ve had a shite life up until now or not.’

I think I did say that. At the end of recording Tigermilk I did cry because it felt like the first important thing I’d ever done. That’s partly why I haven’t read the book, I have a feeling I might find myself an embarrassing character in it. I’m a bit reluctant to read any book where my younger self will appear at some point. But it did feel like that, like ‘Wow, this is something really special.

I’ve never been in a situation like this or done anything like this before.’

How do you feel, looking back, about those first two or three records, and how they’re held today as these masterpieces?

In a way the records are far from perfect.I think even at the time of recording If You’re Feeling Sinister we were quite aware of its shortcomings, yet at the same time there was a kind of magic about it. It was a contradictory thing I suppose, because certainly there’s hundreds of records I love, especially stuff from the ’60s and ’70s. I can put our records alongside them, and my own feeling would be that ours don’t come close at all.

Yet at the same time when you’re involved in the band getting together and making it, it felt very good, and we really believed in what we were doing. That’s kind of why we kept doing it.

You featured on the cover of Boy with the Arab Strap. What was that like, with everything it basically implied?

I don’t think it’s made me more recognisable, I still feel I can walk around at the band’s gigs and not get recognised. A lot of the cover images over the years Stuart Murdoch has planned quite meticulously. But the one for The Boy with the Arab Strap was done really by accident. We were making a video for Isobel’s song Is It Wicked Not to Care? and she wanted [trumpet player] Mick Cooke and me sword-fighting in the video.

We were doing sword-fighting with these prop swords and one of them got broken. We were kind of larking around just having the sword stabbed into me when Stuart shot it. It was a complete accident. I never really thought about it too much. I don’t feel like it really means anything.

B&S’s latest album, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, has received attention for having a very dance or electronic sound, but there have always been dancey songs on your records.

I agree with you, it’s been one element of our music that we’ve done all the way through.

We’ve always played about with synthesisers and drum machines. I think we maybe took it a little further on this record than we have before.

Maybe in the past when we’ve done a dancey song, there’s always been the inclination to take it on a left turn at some point. Stay Loose on Dear Catastrophe Waitress would be an example of that, where it’s got this new-wavey thing, and then goes off on a tangent.

But I think with this record, it was maybe a more straight-forward synthy sound. Again, it’s only one aspect of what’s on the new record.

Those are maybe the kind of songs that have got the most attention, the ones that have found their way into the live set. Then songs like Ever Have a Little Faith and Today are much more the traditional band sound, more of a ’60s influence than ’70s or ’80s.

Only three members of the band have left in almost 20 years together, most of them amicably – that must be a good sign?

I think the crucial reason that we have stayed together so long is that we do enjoy each other’s company and we are friends. When we’re together we do try and have a laugh as much as possible. The other thing I suppose is that with a lot of bands, if you lost three members over the course of the years, you’d be struggling for numbers. But I guess we’ve always had quite a lot of people in the band as well, and have been able to shed a couple. Four of us have been in the band since the start, plus Sarah Martin who’s been in it since If You’re Feeling Sinister. Creatively, everyone’s got respect for everyone else in the band. On a personal level we all get on, we’ve never really seriously fallen out.

Do you enjoy performing in Ireland?

Well, Bobby Kildea, the guitarist in the band since 2001, he’s from Northern Ireland, from Bangor. We always enjoy playing in Ireland, whether it’s doing our own headline show in Dublin, or playing a festival like Electric Picnic. I think we’ve done Electric Picnic at least once and maybe twice before. It’s really nice, we’re definitely looking forward to doing it again.

One of my favourite Belle and Sebastian songs is a version of the Peanuts theme, Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi. I think it captures a lot of the basic elements of Belle and Sebastian, like children’s cartoons, this nostalgic ’70s sound, and a kind of wistfulness.

I would agree, I think both musically and in a more general aesthetic way. I was really quite obsessed with Peanuts growing up. I used to watch the TV specials, especially the Christmas ones. You used to get the little cheap paperback version of the books with the cartoons in charity shops all the time, I used to have loads and loads of them.

The kind of melancholy of it, and Charlie Brown’s travails in life are definitely something that is strongly reflected in the songs, especially the earlier ones. Musically for me it’s a huge thing as well, I love the Linus and Lucy tune that we covered, the Vincent Guaraldi-approach to piano playing. You get on a lot of songs, what I’m trying to do is play slightly jazzy piano in a sort of pop context, so Peanuts is definitely a good reference.

How I first encountered your music was in films like Juno and High Fidelity, but did you also score the Todd Solondz film Storytelling?

We did kind of score the movie but the music ended up being less central to the movie than we originally hoped. I suppose we went away with ideas in our heads that it was going to be like The Graduate or Super Fly, a movie where the music was really integral to the plot of the movie, and drove it along. All Todd was looking for was to use one of our songs over a scene. It was a lack of communication really. Still it was a good experience.

In terms of songs being used in other films or TV things, I think the use of I Don’t Love Anyone on Girls was my favourite one. I’d started watching that, it was a bit of a guilty pleasure, I was just watching it by myself. When our song came on during the end credits, after that really excruciating sex scene, I was like, ‘No way, that’s us! That’s amazing!’ I was really quite pleased. I suppose thinking of Lena Dunham as a younger generation, this really hip New Yorker, the fact that our music seems relevant enough for her to use it in the series is really great.

Belle and Sebastian headline the Heineken Green Energy Stage at Electric Picnic Friday 4th September

Summer On The Canal For event listings & venue rental visit www.bellobardublin.com

Live Music at Portobello Harbour

BelloBar

Town

Rathmines

AUDIO REVIEWS words Tom Cahill Rachel Graham Ian Lamont Eoin Moore Danny Wilson

Mac DeMarco Another One [Captured Tracks] Mac DeMarco’s emergence, fully formed, a couple of years ago, brought with it a kind of collective giddiness the likes of which had not been seen in quite some time.

We had, once again, a proper ‘star’ in the indie world. A marketable (shudder) persona with an abundant supply of earworms that came complete with a palpable timelessness in their very marrow. As the thrill of discovery surrounding Mr. DeMarco begins to wane, and new records continue to appear with a startling regularity, it feels like we’re reaching a point where it’s safe to say we’re dealing with more than a flash in the pan. Just because the dumbfounding excitement has dissipated needn’t mean the thrill has gone entirely.

Another One is DeMarco’s most mature record to date, with a greater focus on the car boot sale synthesizer sounds that made for some of Salad Days’ finest moments.

The music’s sunny disposition fails to entirely conceal the more troubled and uncertain lyrical content. The most pervasive themes being growing concerns about his value as a partner in a longterm relationship, a far remove from paeans to Canadian cigarette companies. Think a baseball-capped Harry Nilsson, tinkling on a toy keyboard, staring blankly at the waves, looking for answers at the bottom of one too many coconuts. That’s supposed to sound like a good thing by the way. DW Like this? Try these: Harry Nilsson – Nilsson Schmilsson Homeshake – In The Shower Jerry Paper – Carousel

Ratatat

Katie Dey

Magnifique [XL]

asdfasdf [Orchid Tapes]

Ratatat have re-emerged from their five-year hiatus with a sound that gets back to their guitar-focused roots and then some. Every track consists of drum machines and guitars with an instantly recognisable Brian May-inspired tone. In spite of being a bit of a retread, sonically, the album is far from lacking in vitality. Fresh melodies, energetic riffs, and heavy dynamic shifts make certain tracks on Magnifique some of the most entertaining and engaging music these guys have released since their 2004 debut. EM

asdfasdf is a short and incredibly sweet addition to the Orchid Tapes catalogue from Melbourne oddball Katie Dey, consisting of seven mutated songscapes so expertly mushed together that it’s hard to tell what’s actually happening. If there’s a ‘band’ playing, it’s reflected off a funhouse mirror.

Are there actual words, or just mouth-sounds?

Whatever it is, it feels as intimate and idiosyncratic as something Phil Elverum might produce, if operating in a totally different part of the spectrum. IL

Four Tet

HEALTH

Morning / Evening [Text Records]

Death Magic [Loma Vista]

As a prolific artist whose music is always nice but often difficult to assess the significance of, the one-track-per-side approach of Morning / Evening astutely brings into focus what works best in Kieran Hebden’s music. Morning Side’s vocal melody from Lata Mangeshkar is particularly indicative of his creativity with a sample, even if what he does is mostly repetition. Rather than ‘day’ and ‘night’, this record scores more transformative segments of the circadian cycle with delicate excellence. IL

Part dance music, part atmospheric soundtrack, part ‘noise rock’ (whatever that means anymore), Death Magic is a conceptual mouthful. Cutting abruptly from airy, synth-laden, positively poppy tunes to cacophonic blends of intense drumbeats and ear-splitting guitar distortion, Death Magic is like a lumpy sofa, poking and prodding you every time you try to ease yourself into it. While the result is far from cohesive, the variety and unpredictability of this album alone makes it worth a listen. EM

Yamamori Sushi 38-39 Lower Ormonde Quay, D1 01-8720003

Yamamori Noodles 71-72 Sth Great George’s St. D2 01-4755001

yamamori.ie

Yamamori Izakaya 12/13 Sth Great George’s St., D2 01-6458001

Larry Carlton and David T. Walker @Billboard Live Tokyo [335 Records]

Ducktails St. Catherine [Domino]

At long last, jazz guitar greats Larry Carlton and David T. Walker (67 and 74 years of age, respectively) have finally appeared on stage together, and was it ever worth the wait! It’s the kind of live in-concert recording that makes you feel like you are sitting right there in front of the maestros.

Standouts are March of the Jazz Angels, My Baby

By My Side and particularly Feel Like Makin’ Love.

And, after listening to this CD... yes, I do! You will too. TC

Real Estate guitarist Matt Mondanile’s solo project has come a long way from its original incarnation as a medium for his (excellent) extended bedroom keyboard and guitar collages. His latest is certainly a fine example of midtempo, sun-kissed indie pop but fails to showcase as satisfyingly individual a sound as his more experimental early work. What we have here is a pleasant, if somewhat toothless, summer chiller in the mold of Toro Y Moi et al. Far from wheel-reinventing stuff, but a fine barbeque soundtrack nonetheless. DW

Neil Young and Promise of the Real

Wilco

The Monsanto Years [Reprise] Perhaps it’s a generational thing, maybe we never quite recovered from Conor Oberst’s nudiesuited diatribe re: the commander in chief, but there is something inherently cringeworthy about the modern protest song. So, while it may well be millennial apathy that’s to blame, it’s hard to overstate just how distracting it is having the word ‘Monsanto’ forcedly wedged into what feels like every second line on this otherwise fairly inoffensive exercise in dad rock. Noble as the intentions are, nobody enjoys being lectured. DW

I

Star Wars [dBpm]

The surprise album tactic utilised by many bigdraw names in music industry was, in fact, partially pioneered by Wilco during their YHF-era record company travails. But with Star Wars, it really seems they’re doing it for the sheer fun of it.

Along with the title, the music gives off a mischievous vibe: a load of auld rockers wailing away in their instrument-stuffed loft-cum-studio, making jerky, soulful, Beefheart-inspired jams because they’ve bloody well earned the right to do so. IL

Tame Impala Currents [Interscope] Following up on two guitar-driven psych-rock albums with an eight-minute track full of urgently shuffling percussion, disco synths, a section that sounds like the record’s broken and a Daft Punk-inspired robotic vocal is a brave move, and a brilliant one. Opener Let It Happen is a belter worthy of its extended length and a banging start to an album that doesn’t quite keep up the pace.

After the excitement we’re brought back down to earth

by Nangs, and earth is not where we want to be. The best songs are the ones on which Parker sounds like he’s having fun – his rambling detours into personal territory are less enjoyable, as his vocals are a little too disengaged, and his lyrics too lazy, to provide the emotional impact needed to sustain four minutes of moaning about his ex-girlfriend.

Fans of earlier Tame Impala albums will enjoy the spacedout psychedelic vibe that sticks around on this album, although it’s brought into less familiar territory with a focus on intricately textured, bassy soundscapes rather than fuzzy guitar hooks. This new direction is definitely a good one; despite the lack of focus in places, there are always enough surprises to keep drawing you back in. A sonic playground shrouded in dark clouds. RG Like this? Try these: Spiritualized – Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space Daft Punk – Discovery Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms.

PICNICS

F I N D U S AT Y O U R F A V O U R I T E F E S T I V A L S T H I S S U M M E R !

listings Deerhoof Wednesday 19 August | Whelan’s | 8pm, €15.50 Veteran San Francisco indie-rockers Deerhoof are many things, but they’re never boring. If their 2014 release, La Isla Bonita, is anything to go by they’ll be in top form for their visit to Whelan’s this August. Fuelled by powerhouse drummer Greg Saunier, Deerhoof are spry, spazzy and screwy, full of jerky turns and whimsical vocal hooks and are generally a big barrel of fun in concert.

LIVE GIGS Wednesday 5 August Luke Keating Whelans 8pm, €10 Painter, decorator, singer/songwriter Hannah Rickard and the Relatives The Mezz 8pm, €TBC LA Lovers Thursday 6 August Sun Kil Moon NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €30 Elegies for dead boxers and relatives Friday 7 August Ollie Cole Whelans 8pm, €10 Meridian Sway Upstairs in Whelans 8pm, €7 Saturday 8 August Cauldron Button Factory 8pm, €11.75 “I thought they closed that place down” Monday 10 August Sepultura The Academy 8pm, €25 The David Luiz of metal Thursday 13 August Alvin Youngblood Hart & Crow

Black Chicken Whelans 8pm, €20 Musical wing of the Hart wrestling dynasty Black Uhuru The Sugar Club 8pm, €22.90 Chill out New York!

The Rumjacks The Mezz 8pm, €TBC Friday 14 August Marc O’Reilly (Solo) & Ciaran Lavery (Solo) Whelans 8pm, €10 Double-bill of beardistry RM Hubbert The Workman’s Club 8pm, €8pm Scottish post-rocker goes solo Saturday 15 August This Must Be the Place: Keaton Henson NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €35 Rare gig from English folk artist Tuesday 18 August Ryley Walker Whelans 8pm, €12.50 Channelling John Martyn and Van the Man

Wednesday 19 August Soja The Academy 8pm, €29 Soldiers of Jah Army Deerhoof Whelans 8pm, €15.50 SF banana stabbers Thursday 20 August Bailey McConnell Academy 2 7pm, €20 Talent that Britain possesses Friday 21 August Hometown Vicar Street 7.30pm, €27.90 Louis Walsh’s newest henchmen Saturday 22 August Bash and the Bash for Philo The Academy 7.30pm, €31 Gonna be a jailbreak Sunday 23 August Helena Byrne & Angela Watson Modeste Whelans 8pm, €12/€10 Emerald Isle meets Deep South Marcelo D2 The Academy 7.30pm, €22 Brazilian rapper loves south inner city

Monday 24 August Mini Mansions The Workmans Club 8pm, €15 T-Bone Burnett’s newest henchmen Wednesday 26 August Tyler the Creator The Academy 7.30pm, €25.50 Odd future, golf wang Thursday 27 August Wand Whelans 8pm, €16 Making magic happen Friday 28 August Sufjan Stevens The Helix 7.30pm, from €40.05 Plays hits from Oklahoma!

Gojira The Academy 7pm, €22.50 Genre: technical death metal Ryan Sheridan Whelans 8pm, €20 Monaghan’s finest John Prine Vicar Street 8pm, €45 Veteran rock veteran Sat 29 August Sufjan Stevens

The Helix 7.30pm, from €40.05 The Janoskians The Academy 8pm, from €31.50 Musical comedy from Melbourne John Prine Vicar Street 8pm, €45 Storyman Whelans 8pm, €10 FKA The Guggenheim Grotto Sunday 30 August Air Supply, Phil Coulter and Johnny Logan Dun Laoghaire Harbour 6pm, €49.50–69.50 That’s a smooth evening The Janoskians The Academy 8pm, from €31.50 Monday 31 August Polyphonic Spree + No Monster Club The Academy 7pm, €23 Cult act/cult Tuesday 1 September Richard Thompson Vicar Street 8pm, €39.05 English folk-rock legend Wednesday 2 September

FrnkIero and the Cellabration The Academy 6.30pm, €18.50 Ex-My Chemical Romance guitarist Thursday 3 September CC Smugglers Whelans 8pm, €13 Mumford’s cousins Alan Kelly Gang with Eddi Reader and John Douglas Whelans 8pm, €20 Hardcore trad sounds Friday 4 September Electric Picnic Stradbally House, Co. Laois Sold out!

Saturday 5 September The Delines Whelans 8pm, €16.50 Retro country-soul from Willy Vlautin Lee Fields and the Expressions The Sugar Club 7.30pm, €22.50 He’s a sooooooul man Electric Picnic Stradbally House, Co. Laois Sold out!

Sun Kil Moon National Concert Hall | Thursday 6 August | €30, 8pm Unflinchingly sincere, heartbreakingly sad, and somewhat unhinged, the music of Ohio-native Mike Kozelek, stage name Sun Kil Moon, is an intense experience. He takes a bit of getting into, with his long, rambling, prosaic lyrics and his jarringly honest biographical subjects, but his entire discography – from Ghosts of the Great Highway through to his aptly titled latest release Universal Themes – is littered with powerful, gripping ballads, that only grow more absorbing on repeat listens. Kozelek will be playing material from throughout his lengthy career, including last year’s critically lauded Benji, in his National Concert Hall gig as part of the This Must Be The Place series. Whether profound or tragic (or, more probably a fair dose of both) it’s sure to be a deeply moving performance. Just don’t piss him off...

JAZZ SUNDAY Jazz Brunch Kilkenny Rest. Kilkenny Shop, Nassau St. D2 11am, Free Jazz Brunch Hugo’s, Merrion Row, D2 1.15pm, Free Stella Bass Qrt. Cafe en Seine, Dawson St. D2 2pm, Free Jazz Session JJ Smyths, Aungier St. D2 4.30pm, €10 Jazz & Tapas Zaragoza, South William St. D2 6pm, Free Stella Bass Quintet Searsons, Upper Baggot St. 6pm, Free MONDAY Hot House Big Band Mercantile, Dame St. 8.45pm, €5 Essential Big Band Grainger’s, Malahide Rd. 9.30pm, €5 TUESDAY Jazz/Swing Night Twisted Pepper, Mid Abbey St. 7pm, €10 Phoenix Big Band Tara Towers Hotel, D4 9pm, Free

CLASSICAL Tom Harte Quintet Leeson Lounge, Upr Leeson St. 9pm, Free Jazz Session International Bar, Wicklow St. 9.30pm, €5 WEDNESDAY Jazz Session (1st Wed) The House, 4 Main St. Howth, Co.Dublin 7.30pm, Free THURSDAY Jazz Session JJ Smyths, Aungier St. D2 August 6 Brian Dunning Qrt. August 13 3G August 20 Nigel Mooney Septet August 27 Rhythm Method 8.30pm, €10 Jazz Session International Bar, Wicklow St. 9.30pm, €5 FRIDAY Jazz Session Flanagans (Basement), 61 Upr. O’Connell St. D1 9pm, Free (01) 8731388 SATURDAY Jazz Brunch Chez Max 133 Baggot St. D2 2pm, Free Info. 087 2878755

Jazz Session The Fitzwilliam Hotel, St. Stephen’s Green, D2 9pm, Free (01) 4787000 Jazz Session Flanagans (Basement), 61 Upr. O’Connell St. D1 9pm, Free (01) 8731388 ONE OFF Sunday 2 August Louis Stewart Qrt. JJ Smyths, Aungier St. D2 4.30pm, €10 Monday 10 August National Youth Jazz Ensemble Sugar Club, Lwr. Leeson St. 7.30pm, €8.50 Wednesday 12 August Jason Moran’s Fats Waller Dance Party Main Auditorium, NCH 8pm, €20 - €32.50 8.30pm, €10

Wednesday 5 August Kaleidoscope Night Odessa Club 9pm, €12 Thursday 6 August Ensemble Avalon Presents Gerald Peregrine and Antony Ingham NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €10-15 Friday 7 August Champions of Vocal Harmony NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €12-15 RTÉ Concert Orchestra: The Magical West End NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €12-39.50 Tuesday 11 August RTÉ CO Summer Lunchtime Concert NCH, Main Auditorium 1:05pm, €12 Paganini to Piazzolla NCH, John Field Room 8pm, €12-15 Wednesday 12 August SinfoNua – Featuring Celine Byrne NCH, Main Auditorium 1:05pm, €10 Perspectives 2015: Jason Moran’s Fats Waller Dance Party NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €20-32.50 Thursday 13 August

Ensemble Avalon Presents Alex Petcu and Kelley Lonergan NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €10-15 Friday 14 August SinfoNua – Featuring Celine Byrne NCH, Main Auditorium 1:05pm, €10 Marti Pellow with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €26-49.50 Tuesday 18 August RTÉ CO Summer Lunchtime Concert NCH, Main Auditorium 1:05pm, €12 Thursday 20 August Ensemble Avalon Presents Michael McHale NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €10-15 Friday 21 August Mabel Swainson Pianoforte Award Winner’s Recital – Teodor Radu NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €10-12 RTÉ Concert Orchestra: The John Williams Collection NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €10.50-39.50 Saturday 22 August RTÉ Concert Orchestra: The John Williams Collection

NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €10.50-39.50 Tuesday 25 August RTÉ Concert Orchestra Summer Lunchtime Concert NCH, Main Auditorium 1:05pm, €12 Eoin Flood: Classical Guitar NCH, John Field Room 8pm, €10-15 Thursday 27 August Ensemble Avalon Presents Iona Petcu-Colan, Gerald Peregrine, and Michael McHale NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €10-15 Friday 28 August A Flanders & Swann Tribute NCH, John Field Room 1:05pm, €12-15 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €27.50-65 Saturday 29 August RTE CO Screening with Live Score: Brief Encounter NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €13.50-39.50 Friday 4 September RTE NSO Tchaikovsky Favourites NCH, Main Auditorium 8pm, €13.50-35

The Big Grill Festival Thursday 13 – Sunday 16 August | Herbert Park | 4.30pm (Thu), 1.30pm (Fri), 12pm (Wkd), €10-45 After last year’s inaugural sell-out, The Big Grill Festival is back in Herbert Park in Ballsbridge for another episode. There’s big international names from the barbecue game (really) including Levi Roots, Andre Lima de Luca and John Relihan, as well as delicious sticky-finger treats from the likes of Smokin’ Bones, Kinara Kitchen, Uncle Sam’s, Asador and others. The other half of the barbecue is what you wash it down with and many of the country’s finest artisinal brewers and distillers will be on hand to help you quench your thirst. And beyond that, there’s a Banter event, DJ Yoda, a live brass band… really the only other thing you’ll need to hope for is sunshine.

Jazzers on the Green Get ready for some serious sax in the city as Inn on the Green in the five-star Fitzwilliam Hotel has launched a programme of jazz for the cool cats around town. Running from 9 till 11pm most Saturday nights, the Inn on the Green Bar will transform into a jazz spot with a touch of blues and soul, complete with moody low lighting, candlelit tables, five-star service from the team behind the bar, gourmet cocktails, craft beers and a selection of reserve spirits. For details of acts or to reserve a spot, call 01-4787000 or check out www.fitzwilliamhoteldublin.com

The Hideout Dublin’s best pool hall. With Cues, Cans, Craic and Tunes. B.Y.O.B welcome with fridges to keep em cool!

The Hideout just got good!

Enjoy a 10% discount on all bookings, simply mail totally@thehideout.ie or visit thehideout.ie/totally

www.thehideout.ie 49 South William Street, Dublin 2, 01 537 5767

Electric Picnic Friday 4 – Sunday 6 September | Stradbally Hall, Co. Laois | Easily Ireland’s biggest festival, literally and figuratively, Electric Picnic returns this month with a colossal lineup. Major acts include Florence + The Machine, Blur, and Sam Smith, but the small print is also dotted with seriously good acts: Interpol, Tame Impala, Hot Chip, Belle and Sebastian, The War on Drugs, Jon Hopkins, Chvrches, and many, many, (many) more. On the offchance that you don’t like music but plan on attending anyway, there’s also a spoken word tent, a stand up comedy stage, a veritable menagerie of food options, and the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow, whatever on earth that is. All in all, there’ll be plenty to keep you entertained as the ground gets muddier and you get filthier.

COMEDY

Wicked Wolf Comedy Night Wicked Wolf, Blackrock 8pm, €5 Every second Tuesday The Comedy Improv The International 9pm, €5 Every Monday Talk Talk Panel Show The International 9pm, €5 Every Tuesday The Comedy Cellar The International 9pm, €8 Every Wednesday International Comedy Club The International 8.30pm, €10 Thursdays, Fridays & Sundays 7.30pm & 10.15pm, €10 each Each Saturday Battle of the Axe The Ha’penny Bridge Inn 8pm, €5 with flyer Capital Comedy Club Chaplins Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays Doors 8.15pm €10 (students €5 Thursdays), €3 Tuesdays The Comedy Crunch The Stag’s Head 7pm, free event Each Sunday & Monday Alan Carr Anseo Comedy Club Anseo

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9pm, Pay what you want Every Wednesday Wicked Wolf Comedy Night Wicked Wolf, Blackrock 8pm, €5 Every second Tuesday The Comedy Improv The International 9pm, €5 Every Monday Talk Talk Panel Show The International 9pm, €5 Every Wednesday The Comedy Cellar The International 9pm, €8 Every Wednesday International Comedy Club The International 8.30pm, €10 Tuesdays, Fridays & Sundays 7.30pm & 10.15pm, €10 each Each Saturday Battle of the Axe The Ha’penny Bridge 8pm, €5 with flyer Tuesdays or Thursdays Capital Comedy Club Chaplins Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays Doors 8.15 pm €10 (students €5 Thursdays), €3 Tuesdays The Comedy Crunch The Stag’s Head 7pm, free event Each Sunday & Monday ONE OFFS

Colum McDonnell plus Guests The Laughter Lounge 7pm, €26 Thursday 9 – Saturday 11 July John Colleary, Edwin Sammon, Colum McDonnell, MC Simon O’Keefe Chaplins Bar 9pm, €10 Friday 10 – Saturday 11 July Paul Tylak, Marcus O’Laoire, Aidan Greene, MC Simon O’Keefe Chaplins Bar 9pm, €10 Friday 17 – Saturday 18 July Showstoppers 2015 The Laughter Lounge 7pm, €26 Thursday 16 – Saturday 18 July Tom Allen plus Guests The Laughter Lounge 7pm, €26 Thursday 23 – Saturday 25 July Gearoid Farrelly, Chris Kent, MC Simon O’Keefe, Plus Guests Chaplins Bar 9pm, €10 Friday 3 – Saturday 4 July

FESTIVALS

Ukulele Hooley by the Sea The People’s Park in Dun Laoghaire will play host to a weekend of performances from ukulele players from Ireland and around the world for ireland’s sixth international ukulele festival. Belgian ragtime band Winin’ Boys will be playing along with the popular father and son duo Dead Man’s Uke. Those who want to get

more hands-on can take part in one of the workshops for ukulele players and enthusiasts. For details check out www.ukulelehooley.com.

22 - 23 August International Tango Festival in Ireland Alongside the programme of Argentine culture, music, and dance, this year the festival is expanding to include a bollywood focus, with workshops, performances and Indian food.This not-for-profit festival aims to bring some of the best international dancers to Dublin, while also encouraging participation from newcomers with beginners classes.

Find out more here www.tangofever. net/festival.html.

15 - 23 August The Big Grill Festival This festival is serious about two things: BBQ and beer. After a sell-out inaugural last year, lots has been added to the basic line-up of good meat and craft beer. There’ll be music from DJ Yoda, cooking demos from the likes of Levi Roots and even a grilling competition where rising stars of the BBQ can compete for a place in the Jack Daniels Invitational in Tennessee. To buy tickets or enter the competition visit www.biggrillfestival. com.

13 - 16 August Irish Craft Beer and Cider Festival Whether you love craft beer or prefer to stick to the Guinness, you’ll be amazed at what Irish producers have to offer at this year’s Craft Beer and

Cider Festival. Ireland is well known as a producer of artisanal food and alcohol, and the festival celebrates this brilliant piece of Irish culture with 50 stands of food and drink, accompanied by live music in the RDS. Come to sample one of the 200 beers and ciders on offer, including festival-exclusive brews.

27-29 August Electric Picnic Easily Ireland’s biggest festival, literally and figuratively, Electric Picnic returns this month with a colossal lineup. Major acts include Florence + The Machine, Blur, and Sam Smith, but the small print is also dotted with seriously good acts: Interpol, Tame Impala, Hot Chip, Belle and Sebastian, The War on Drugs, Jon Hopkins, Chvrches, and many, many, (many) more. Plenty to keep you entertained as the ground gets muddier and you get filthier.

4-6 September

POKER

Fitzwilliam Casino & Card Club Monday 8:30pm: €75 + €5 No Limit Freezeout.

Tuesday 8:30pm: €50 + €5 No Limit Double Chance Freezeout.

Wednesday 8:30pm: €20 + €5 Hold’em Multirebuy.

7:30pm: Satellite Tournament.

Thursday 8pm: €45 + €5 + €10 Scalp No Limit Freezeout.

9:30pm: €30 + €5 Pot Limit Omaha Triple Chance.

Thursday End of Month €250 + €20 Freezeout.

Friday 8:30pm: €70 + €5 No Limit, Double Chance.

Saturday 8pm: €100 + €10 Deepstack No Limit Freezeout.

9pm: €20 + €5 No Limit Freezeout.

Sunday 8:30pm: €50 + €5 No Limit Freezeout. www.fitzwilliamcardclub.com

KIDS Colour!

The Ark, Temple Bar Until Thurs 23 August 10.30am, 12pm, 2pm, 3.30pm, €9-12 Family Workshop: Deadly Dyes Draiocht, The Blanchardstown Centre, Blanchardstown Fri 7 August 11am (7-10 year olds) and 1pm (11-13 year olds), €10 per child Early Years Workshop: The Colours of Music The Ark, Temple Bar Tuesday 11 August & Tuesday 18 August 10.15am & 11.45am, €8-11 Family Workshop: Paper Animation Draiocht, The Blanchardstown Centre, Blanchardstown Fri 14 August 11am (7-10 year olds) and 1pm (11-13 year olds), €10 per child

24/07/2015 10:44

CLUBBING Mondays Soul, Funk and Disco with Upbeat Generation Industry Club and Venue, 11.30pm Sound Mondays Turk’s Head, Parliament St Indie rock, garage and post-punk 11pm, free Dice Sessions Dice Bar, Smithfield DJ Alley King Kong Club The Village, Wexford St, 9pm, free The Industry Night Break For The Border, Stephens Street Pool competition, karaoke and DJ DJ Ken Halfod Buskers, Temple Bar Chart pop, indie rock, rock, 10pm Lounge Lizards Solas Bar, Wexford St Soul music, 8pm, free Thank God It’s Monday Ri Ra, Georges St Electro, indie and big beat 11pm, free Simon S Fitzsimons, Temple Bar 11pm, €5 Floor fillers Language Exchange Ireland DTwo, 6.30pm Like speed-dating, but for learning languages Tuesday We Love Tuesday Ri Ra, Georges St Martin McCann’s eclecticism 11pm, free C U Next Tuesday Indie, pop, hip hop hipsterdom Lost Society, Sth William St, 11pm, €6 Ronan M Fitzsimons, Temple Bar 11pm, €5 Lost Tuesdays Deep House The Pint, Free Admission, 8pm Wednesday FUSED! Ri Ra, Georges St 80s and electro, 11pm, free Fubar!

The Globe, Georges St 11pm, free Dirty Disco Dtwo, Harcourt St Chart pop Wednesdays at Dandelion Dandelion, Stephen’s Green Student night Moonstompin’ Grand Social, Liffey St Ska and reggae 8pm, free Bruce Willis Lost Society, Sth William St 10.30pm, €10 Dance music for students Somewhere?

Workman’s, Wellington Quay Free before 11 Indie and dance Simon S Fitzsimons, 11pm, €5 Kling Klang Wiley Fox Every second Wednesday, 8pm Krautrock, shoegaze, industrial,

cosmic disco...

Thursday Decades Club M, Bloom’s Hotel, Temple Bar FM 104’s Adrian Kennedy plays classics Free before midnight Boo! Wiley Fox Every third Thursday, 8pm Cold Wave, post punk, synth pop, deathrock LITTLE big Party Ri Ra, Georges St Soul, indie and rock ‘n’ roll 11pm, free Mischief Break For The Border, Stephen St 11pm, €8 After Work Baggot Inn, Baggot St Quiz night with band and DJ from 11pm, 8pm, free Take Back Thursdays Industry Bar and Venue, Temple Bar 10pm Blasphemy The Village, Wexford St, 11pm Get Loose, Get Loose Mercantile, Dame St Indie, Britpop and alternative 10.30pm Push Workman’s, Wellington Quay Soul, funk, disco and house Phantom Anthems Workman’s, Wellington Quay Rock, indie rock, other rock Weed and Seven Deadly Skins Turks Head, Parliament St 11pm, free, Live reggae Loaded Grand Social, Liffey St 8pm, free Indie and alternative Zebra Whelan’s, 11pm, Free Bands and DJs show their stripes Poison: Rock, Metal, Mosh & Beer Pong The Hub, €4/7, 10.30pm Flashed Techno / House / Hiphop / Reggae / RnB €5, 10pm Friday My House Buck’s Townhouse, Leeson St With special guests Ladies Night Baggot Inn, Baggot St Cocktail masterclasses from 7 7pm, free Club M Friday Club M, Bloom’s Hotel, Temple Bar DJ Dexy on the decks We Love Fridays Dandelion, Stephen’s Green DJ Robbie Dunbar Friday Night At Vanilla Vanilla Nightclub, D4 Chart-topping hits, 11pm Car Wash Sin, Temple Bar Retro disco 9pm, free before 11 Friday @ Alchemy Alchemy Nightclub, Temple Bar Chart floor-fillers, 11pm Living Room Lost Society, Sth William St

Moves from 7, music from 10 7pm, free WV Fridays Wright Venue, Swords €10, 11pm Irish DJs Resident DJ Café en Seine, Dawson St, 11pm, free War Andrew’s Lane, 10pm, €8 Pop for students and hipsters Darren C Fitzsimons, 11pm, €10 Chart hits Babalonia Little Green Café Samba, reggae and mestizo, 9pm, free Saturday Simple Sublime Saturdays Club M, Bloom’s Hotel, Temple Bar Chart pop, dance and r’n’b Free before 11.30 Saturday @ Alchemy Alchemy Nightclub, Temple Bar Chart floor-fillers 11pm Dandelion Saturdays Dandelion, Stephen’s Green Two floors of summer sound Space: The Vinyl Frontier Ri Ra, George’s St Intergalactic funk, electro and indie 11pm, free Saturday Night SKKY Buck’s Townhouse, Leeson St Signature night Indietronic Grand Social, Liffey St Electro and indie, 8pm, free Propaganda The Academy, 11pm, €10 New and classic indie Saturday Night at Vanilla Vanilla Nightclub, D4, 11pm Andy Preston’s latest pop and rock Sports Saturday Baggot Inn, Baggot St Sports from 3pm, DJ til late, 3pm, free Sugar Club Saturdays Sugar Club, Leeson St, 11pm Hidden Agenda Button Factory, Temple Bar, 11pm International techno and house Djs The Best Suite 4 Dame Lane Suck My Deck The Village, Georges St, 11pm High Voltage Foggy Dew, Temple Bar, 10pm Bounce Sin, Temple Bar R’n’b and chart, 9pm, €10 Gossip Andrew’s Lane Indie, electro and pop, 11pm Workman’s Indie Residents Workman’s, Wellington Quay New and classic indie, 11pm, free BW Rocks Wright Venue Over 21s, neat dress, €10, 11pm A Jam Named Saturday Anseo, Camden St Lex Woo and friends, 7pm, free Reggae Hits the Pint Reggae, ska, Rocksteady The Pint, Free, 9pm The 33 Club Thomas House Last Saturday of each month, authen-

tic ‘Harlem’ funk and soul night 9pm, free Sunday The Burning Effigies Turks Head, Parliament St Real funk and soul Sundays at Sin Sin, Temple Bar Tribal and electro house 9pm, €10 Well Enough Alone Dice Bar, Smithfield Bluegrass The Beat Suite 4 Dame Lane Indie, electro and pop 10pm, free Mass with Sister Lisa Marie Workman’s, Wellington Quay 80s classics and hip hop, 10pm, free Saucy Sundays Grand Social, Liffey St Live music, 4.30pm, free Reggae, Ska, Rocksteady Foggy Dew, Temple Bar, 7.30pm, free Darren C Fitzsimons, 11pm, €5 Saturday @ Alchemy Alchemy Nightclub, Temple Bar Chart floor-fillers, 11pm

Pygmalion 9pm, €5 Thursday 27 August 18+ and Bambooman Twisted Pepper 8pm, €10 Friday 28 August Subject x Bodytonic - Marcel Dettmann District 8 11pm, €18 Dubfire Live Button Factory 11pm, €15 Saturday 29 August

Sense with A Guy Called Gerald Button Factory 11pm, €12/15 Peanut Butter Wolf & Breakbeat Lou Sugar Club 8pm, €10/12.50/15 Friday 11 September Paradox presents Marco Bailey Button Factory 10pm, €10/12/15 Saturday 12 September Sense with Alex.Do + Jack Dunne Button Factory 11pm, €10

ONE-OFFS Friday 7 August Kolsch Button Factory 11pm, €15 Nightmares On Wax [DJ Set] + Arveene Pygmalion 10pm, €10 LTJ Bukem Twisted Pepper 10.30pm, €15/17.65 Saturday 8 August Sense with Mak & Pasteman Button Factory 11pm, €5/10 Maeve Label Showcase District 8 & Tivoli Theatre 2pm, €20-35 Ft. New Jackson, Mano Le Tough and John Talabot Friday 14 August Zeshwan presents // Avrosse Button Factory 11pm, €10/15 Pyg presents Johnny D Pygmalion 9pm, €5/10 Saturday 15 August Sense with Eli & Fur Button Factory 11pm, €5/10 Pyg presents Jacques Renault & Decent Perks Pygmalion 9pm, €5/10 Majestic Creatures Day & Night Gathering Tivoli Theatre & Grounds 3pm, €15 Ft. Ed Davenport Saturday 22 August Joker Twisted Pepper 10.30pm, €12 Sunday 23 August Pyg Sundays presents Eric Dunan AKA Dr. Dunks

Nightmares on Wax Friday 7 August | Pygmalions | 10pm, €10 Having starred on the main stage at Body&Soul this year, Warp Records legend Nightmares on Wax – aka DJ EASE – is back in town, taking to the decks at Pygmalion and bringing with him a quarter of a century of experience in making the people dance. Able to drift effortlessly from dubbed out versions of classic pop songs to scuttling drum and bass, NOW should have the Friday crowd in Pyg on a string.

DUBLIN AUGUST 8TH A L L D AY

Mano Le Tough Baikal The Drifter + SPECIAL GUESTS

John Talabot New JacksonLIVE

All Day Party / 2pm - Late / Tickets on Resident Advisor Tivoli Grounds & District 8, Francis Street, Dublin 8.

THEATRE Abbey Theatre By the Bog of Cats Marina Carr’s Irish reimagining of the Greek tragedy Medea returns to the Abbey, directed by Selina Cartmell. A tale of loneliness, abandonment, and human endurance.

Friday 14 August – Saturday 12 September, 7.30pm (matinees 2pm Saturday), €13-45 Gate Theatre A Month in the Country Set in a Russian country estate, this Brian Friel adaptation of the Ivan Turgenev play follows a tangle of romantic dalliances with a mixture of tragedy and comedy.

Until Saturday 22 August, 7.30pm (matinees 2.30pm), €25 A View from the Bridge Joe Dowling directs this production of Arthur Miller’s classic tale of sexual obsession and illicit desire set in Brooklyn, 1956.

Previews Thursday 3 September, opens Tuesday 8 September, 7.30pm, €25 Gaiety Theatre Riverdance 20 Returns Two decades after it premiered in Dublin, Riverdance returns. The full length stage show developed from the original Eurovision interval act by Moya Doherty, Bill Whelan, and John McColgan.

Until Sunday 30 August, 7.30pm (matinees 3.30pm Saturday and 5pm Sunday), €20-50 Fly Me to the Moon Two community care givers are faced with a mouth-watering dilemma in this irreverent and introspective comedy from Marie Jones.

Wednesday 2 – Saturday 19 September, 7.30pm (matinees 2.30pm Saturday), €19.65-24.65 Bord Gáis Energy Theatre And Then There Were None 10 dinner guests on a remote island find themselves being picked off one by one in this stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic.

Saturday 11 – Wednesday 15 August, 7.30pm (matinees 2.30pm Saturday), €17.50-40 The Sound of Music One of the most acclaimed musicals of all time, following the adventures of the all-singing family Von Trapp in Nazi-occupied Austria.

Monday 17 – Saturday 29 August, 7.30pm (matinees 2.30pm Saturday), €20-60 Pavilion Theatre Dun Laoghaire Swing A comedy about dancing, love, and not settling.

Tuesday 1 – Saturday 5 September, 8pm (matinee 2.30pm Saturday), €14-18 Civic Theatre Tallaght No More Secrets, No More Lies In Dublin 1915, a family is faced with an unexpected pregnancy. This play looks back across the secret history of single mothers in Ireland.

Monday 17 – Saturday 22 August, 8pm, €15-18 Mermaid Arts Centre Industrial Yarns – Tea & Tales Storyteller Philip Byrne shares the

stories he has collected from people who used to work in Bray’s long lost factories.

Saturday 29 August, 4pm, €7 The New Theatre The School for Wives Molière’s Farce is adapted to the modern day. Gender roles are picked apart in this outrageous comedy that remains relevant after 350 years.

Monday 3 – Saturday 15 August, 7.30pm, €12-15 Apartment Block A couple’s lives are disrupted after a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbour in this dark drama about abuse, identity, and mind games.

Saturday 8 August, 2.30pm, Free (suggested donation of €2) Tiger Deli A new drama about progress and tradition, success and failure, old Ireland and new Ireland.

Monday 17 – Saturday 22 August, 7.30pm, €12-15 Language of the Mute Inspired by real life events, this new play shines a light on sinister exploitation and the search for justice.

Monday 24 – Saturday 5 September, 7.30pm, €12-15 Project Arts Centre Salt Mountain On a mountainside in the Middle East, a band of exiles flee war and genocide in a play about loss and love, hunger and hope, censorship and truth.

Monday 24 August – Saturday 29 August, 8pm (matinee on Saturday), €18-22 Iveagh Gardens The Taming of the Shrew An at times literal battle of the sexes unfolds in this non-traditional performance of Shakespeare’s comedy about traditional marriage.

Thursday 6 – Sunday 16 August, 7pm (5pm matinee on weekends), Free

By the Bog of Cats Opens Friday 14 August | Abbey Theatre | 7.30pm (matinees 2pm Saturday), €13-45 We always return to the Ancient Greeks, and with good reason. As time passes by, and their values become more and more dissonant with our own, that which we can relate to in their stories, plays, and philosophy seems to bellow all the louder across space and time. Marina Carr’s By the Bog of Cats, originally staged in 1998, recognises this dual proximity. Adapted from Euripides’ Medea, Carr transplanted the Greek myth of love and vengeance to an Irish bog, reapproaching the tale of a woman scorned in a modern context. Directed by Selina Cartmell, who previously directed the Abbey’s King Lear, this play blends the mystical and the supernatural with the realistic and gritty, capturing that haunting brutality at the heart of Greek tragedy, and reminding us why we can’t get enough of it.

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www.WolfofWallstreetDublin.com or call +353 1513 4080

a Medieval view of a modern city St Michael’s Hill, Christ Church, Dublin 8 Tel: 01 679 4611 | Email: info@dublinia.ie

www.dublinia.ie

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ART axis:Ballymun Main Street, D9 Nature – Up Close and Personal Eileen Keelan is an artist from Rush, Co. Dublin, having lived there for most of her life. She has always loved art from childhood and has a deep love for nature.Being a good observer of what nature has to offer all around her in the beauty of the landscape and seascape of north county Dublin, she likes to take a closer look at what she sees.

Until August 14 Cross Gallery 59 Francis Street, D8 Cross Collection Until August 29 Draiocht Gallery The Blanchardstown Centre, Blanchardstown D15 Marc Guinan Guinan’s physical exploitation of paint forces the viewer to reconsider the difference between paint and illustration.

His work directly questions the space in which his paintings are shown, whilst unlocking the possibilities concerning the materiality of paint Until October 3 Douglas Hyde Gallery Nassau Street, D2 Luigi Ghirri Ghirri’s photographs contain places such as seaside resorts, amusement parks, farmhouses, tourist attractions, and nondescript city streets; He did not make fun of his subjects or invest them with emotion or authenticity instead Ghirri’s was an enigmatic vision of the everyday; he chose to make strange the ordinary, revealing life as a little empty and alienated but never especially unhappy or disturbing.

Until September 30 Aleana Egan, Shapes from Life

Aleana Egan’s new exhibition provides an intimate encounter with a single new sculpture. The form of a canopy suspended above the low constructions on the floor gives some sense of the leisurely resistance often found in the artist’s elusive work; traces of fleeting memories and interactions between people are revealed intuitively through the palette, texture and weight of the materials used.

Until September 30 Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane Parnell Square, D1 Declan Clarke, Wreckage in May Artist and filmmaker Declan Clarke presents an installation of a trilogy of films produced between 2013 and 2015. Together, Clarke’s three films reflect on industrialisation and modernism in Europe in a spy-thriller inspired format.

Until October 4 Hugh Lane (1875-1915): Dublin’s Legacy and Loss This exhibition presents Hugh Lane’s vision for the visual arts in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century with works by Impressionist artists Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas and Auguste Renoir hanging together with their Irish contemporaries including Walter Osborne, Frank O’Meara, John Lavery and Roderic O’Conor.

Until October 4 Gormley’s Fine Art South Frederick Street, D2 Summer Group Exhibition Gormleys presents it’s annual summer group exhibition featuring new paintings and sculpture by over 20 of Ireland’s leading and emerging artists.

Featured will be works by Eileen Meagher, Eugene Conway, James Brohan, Brian Ballard, Peter Monaghan, Ronan

Goti, Eamonn Ceannt and Ian Pollock.

Until August 22 Green on Red Gallery Park Lane, Spencer Dock, D1 Caroline McCarthy, Useless Deliberately working from source material that has a functional value, McCarthy detaches it from that function, and reconstitutes it within a discourse emerging from an engagement with art practice, one in which the problems of representation, illusion, abstraction and transformation play a central role.

Until August 8 Irish Museum of Modern Art Miitary Road, D8 Etel Adnan Now in her 90s, Adnan is an extraordinary creative voice and force of artistic renown. She moves freely between writing and art, poetry and tapestry and all aspects of her creative output will be reflected in the exhibition. Born in 1925 in Beruit, Adnan has been one of the leading voices in contemporary Arab-American literature since the 1960s. A selection of Adnan’s enigmatic and colourful oil paintings will showcase her use of rapid, thick stokes representing the landscapes of California and the Mediterranean Sea. The exhibition will also include a black and white film, poetry and the recordings of the artist reading from some of her most recent published poems and writings.

Until September 13 Stan Douglas, Mise en Scène This is the first major solo exhibition of Stan Douglas’ work in Ireland. The exhibition focuses on Douglas’ recent photography, including the critically acclaimed series, Malabar People, Mid Century Studio and Disco Angola.

In presenting both photographs as well as recent film work, reveals Stan

Douglas at an exceptional moment in his artistic career. In these works, Douglas has closely interwoven music, film, theatre, photography, and digital formats, allowing them simultaneously to be associated with various forms of media, and together they provide both a rich introduction to an artist whose investigations into mistaken identity and unstable memory, reconstruction, reinvention and the long shadows the past cast into the present, make him one of the most interesting and important artists of our time.

Until September 20 We The People Curated by Annie Fletcher, Chief Curator at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Sarah Glennie, Director of IMMA, We The People will include works from Rossella Biscotti, Maud Gonne, El Lissitzky, Alice Milligan, Hito Steyerl, Jack B. Yeats.

Until October 18 Kerlin Gallery South Anne Street, D2 Sean Scully, Home This exhibition comprises of major new paintings and pastels from Sean Scully’s recent Landline series. The Landline series makes reference to the edge of land. Scully has removed almost all vertical forms from the works to create, in his own words, ‘a side-toside motion’. The horizontal band becomes the central motif, mirroring land as it meets sea and air – but far from serene, the works capture movement and energy, showing an increased freedom of brushstroke. Scully’s loose horizontal bands mimic the repetitive yet wholly unpredictable rhythm of the sea, embracing its overlap, irregularity and discontinuousness.

Until August 29 Gerard Byrne, A Late Evening in

the Future After numerous solo exhibitions, for the first time the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen will allow visitors to thoroughly engage with the work of an extraordinary representative of contemporary art in the comprehensive exhibition A Late Evening in the Future. The title itself points to the various temporal levels that meet in Byrne’s large-scale works to constitute the present.

Until September 13 The National Gallery of Ireland Clare Street, D2 Sean Scully This exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland charts the two decades, the 1980s and 1990s and juxtaposes paintings from that period with works, principally multi-part photographic sequences, made over the past decade.

Until September 20 Project Arts Centre 39 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, D2 David Claerbout David Claerbout is a master of visual ambiguity, presenting scenes built from a complex association between photography, film and sound.

Claerbout’s multiple video installation at Project Arts Centre will challenge conventions of exhibition-making, attempting to further our efforts to perceive what it is to exhibit while exhibiting.

14 August - October 10 The Royal Hibernian Academy Ely Place, D2 185th Annual Exhibition The RHA Annual exhibition, now in its 185th year is the most ambitious public event in the Academy’s calendar.

Ireland’s largest open submission exhibition includes painting, sculpture, print, photography, drawing and architectural models and it brings together

the works of RHA members, invited artists and artists selected from open submission.

Until August 8 Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre, Tallaght, Dublin 24 Approaching the Landscape This exhibition brings together art works and artists who respond to our surrounding environment. Each artwork presented in this exhibition interprets a specific terrain, or perspective which reflects how we as people negotiate our personal territories. This exploration inherently highlights the changing appearances of our environs.

Furthermore, these various territories reflect upon the geography of the local area of Tallaght; with it’s proximity to the mountains, city centre, sprawling suburban landscape and the changing nature of its inhabitants.

Until August 31 Temple Bar Gallery and Studios Temple Bar, D2 Celine Condorelli, Gavin Wade – Display Show Display Show exhibits a number of portable exhibition systems from reworkings of Frederick Kiesler’s display units of the 1920s and 1940s, by Celine Condorelli and Gavin Wade, through to Yelena Popova’s customised flight case containing paintings with references to constructivism, Nazi theft and hoarding of artworks. Mobile walls, plinths and architectural modifications focus on the gestures and actions of friendship, support and politics within the processes of producing images, furniture, architecture and communities.

Stan Douglas, Mise en Scène Until Sunday 20 September | IMMA, Kilmainham | Free This is the first substantial solo exhibition of Stan Douglas’ work in Ireland, and will include the major new film work Luanda Kinshasa (2013). Also included are many of Douglas’s recent photographic works, including the critically acclaimed series, Malabar People, Mid Century Studio and Disco Angola. In these works, Douglas has closely interwoven music, film, theatre, photography, and digital formats. They provide a rich introduction to an artist whose investigations into mistaken identity and unstable memory reflect on our present as much as our past. The show reveals Stan Douglas not only as one of the most important contemporary artists working in the fields of film and photography, but one at an exceptional moment in his artistic career.

Until September 20

NEWS, REVIEWS, LISTINGS, MUSIC, ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, FASHION, STREET STYLE, EATING OUT, EATING IN, NIGHTLIFE, DAYLIFE, HETERO AND GAYLIFE, FILM, THEATRE, PARKS, SHOPS, PUBS, CLUBS AND HAPPY DUBS, WHAT’S ON, WHAT’S GOOD, WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?

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Bar, Dublin 2

BEST OF… AUGUST

BEST NIGHT OUT

BEST THEATRE EVENT

BEST TOUR OUTSIDE DUBLIN

The Meeting House

The School for Wives by Molière

Tullamore D.E.W. Visitor Centre

Whether it’s fine food, delicious drinks or a good ole boogie you’re after this weekend, look no further than The Meeting House where you can enjoy all three in the heart of Temple Bar. Kick off the night with a cooling cocktail on the terrace, and when the sun goes down, head inside to soak up the atmosphere and indulge in the fragrant flavours of South-East Asia. Dishes like crispy sea bass tempura, blackened chicken and spicy steak salad will leave you sated but not stuffed, and well able for the dance floor where internationally-acclaimed DJs mix soul, funk, disco and re-edits into the early hours. You’ll probably see the sun come up again.

A new version by Peter Reid Presented by AC Productions This brilliantly funny farce is given a 21st Century attitude.

Arnolphe, a rich, arrogant middle-aged socialite has a fear of clever women. He intends to marry the beautiful, naïve Agnes.

She has been raised away from all things worldly. Arriving to inform her of his plan to marry her, he finds that she has fallen for the young, handsome but none-too-bright Horace. Arnolphe’s attempts to keep them apart have hilarious results.

Situated right in the heart of Ireland, there is an incredible experience that has been waiting for you since 1829.Take a trip to the beautifully restored home of Tullamore D.E.W. and immerse yourself in the history and magic that lies inside the walls of this 19th century bonded warehouse, where their whiskey making tradition began. Enjoy a guided tour which blends audiovisual and traditional storytelling and put your new knowledge to the test with your very own Tullamore D.E.W. personal tasting session. Glasses Up!

The Meeting House, Meeting House Square, Dublin 2

THE NEW THEATRE, East Essex St. Temple Bar. Dublin 2.

016703361 info@thenewtheatre.com Tickets : €15/12 www.thenewtheatre.com

Bury Quay, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

057 9325015 www.tullamoredewvisitorcentre.com

BEST MEAL IN TOWN

BEST BREAKFAST

BEST INTERNATIONAL BAR

Mao, Chatham Row

Bobo’s

GENERATOR

Treat your taste buds to delicious Asian food and sip up Low Calorie, Classic and Dessert Cocktails shaken to perfection while listening to funky tunes pumping by firstclass DJ’s from Musicmaker Dublin. This is the scene you’ll find Friday and Saturday nights at Mao Chatham Row. Savour the flavour with mouth-watering curries, a shared platter, or a Mao classic for the full Thai experience. Then sip a CosMAOpolitan, Ginger Dragon or Toblerone to tame the flames! As an official Leinster Rugby food partner check out healthy dishes as chosen by Leinster Rugby’s nutritionist, just look for the little blue rugby balls on the menu. Call your besties, pick the perfect outfit, pack your selfie stick then drop in for a night you won’t forget.

Mao, 2 Chatham Row, Dublin 2 01 670 4899

Bobo’s are a neighbourhood diner. Who aim to provide an Irish take on high-end fast food, delivering mouth-watering burgers made from top quality prime young heifer meat.Their all day breakfasts have recently been getting rave reviews, from Full Irish, to the French Toast, Bobo’s is definitely worth a visit to start the day.The food is fresh, locally sourced, served in generous portions, and freshly cooked to order - all in a fun friendly atmosphere, with a large dollop of nostalgia thrown in.

50-51 Dame St, Dublin 2 | ph: 01 672 2025 22 Wexford St, Dublin 2 | ph: 01 400 5750 info@bobos.ie

Great grub, drink specials and a packed events schedule combine with a captive audience of tourists to give one of the best international bars in the city. Located just off the Luas Redline in the exciting Smithfield District, this bar is a winner for those looking to practice “speaking foreign”.

An ever-changing crowd guarantees a unique experience every time. Don’t miss out on the burger, rumoured to be among the best in the city.

Smithfield Market Fair, Generator Hostel Dublin, Smithfield Square, Smithfield, Dublin 7

BEST FESTIVAL

BEST MUSIC VENUE

BEST PHOTO STUDIO

The Irish Craft Beer & Cider Festival

ARTHUR’S

4th Floor For Photo

The Irish Craft Beer& Cider Festival returns to RDS, Dublin from 27-29th August, 2015. A celebration of Irish craft brewing, live music and fabulous Irish artisan food. This Gathering of brewers and cider makers features over 50 stands and over 200 craft beers and ciders, from all four corners of Ireland. 10,000 attendees are expected over the three days to meet the brewers, and to sample their wares, many of which are available only at the festival!

An intimate venue in the heart of the Liberties area.

Holding about 80 people with a full bar and an on stage Petrof piano. The room also has a turf fire for those winter gigs nights and a classic vinyl player for anyone to use. It is steadily getting the reputation of one of the best venues in town. Some of Ireland top musicians take part in regular Blues N Roots gigs including The Ed Deane Band, The Backroad Blues Band, The Solely Blues Club, The Lazy Band, Ye Vagabonds, Mick Pyro and Jawbone

With creative spaces sprawling across Dublin and a variety of talent on offer, 4th floor for photo stand out as one of the cities more professional stages for portrait and family photography. This impressive space and at The Chocolate Factory just off O Connell St has been here for more than 5 years and is unique in atmosphere and character alike.

With each client comes an individual approach with the talented team always seeking the opportunity to work with all creative people. From fashion to family, weddings, events and more 4th floor also support a variety of polish community projects here in Dublin.

August 27 - 29th 2015 in Dublin’s RDS www.irishcraftbeerfedtival.com Group rates for 20 or more contact carley@ greydogevents.com

28 Thomas St, Dublin (01) 402 0914

www.4thFloorforphoto.com

BEST TREATS

BEST MEAL IN TOWN

BEST CLUB NIGHT

American Produce @ Fresh

Mao, Chatham Row

A GUY CALLED GERALD

Fresh The Good Food Market has long been established as one of the Dublin’s finest quality food stores, but did you know they also carry a huge range of American products? If it’s Twinkies, Hersheys, Reeses, Redvines,Twizzlers, Butterfinger, Fruit Loops,Tootsies Rolls, Flipz, Milk Duds and many more your after why not drop in and check them out . With stores in Grand Canal Square, Smithfield, Camden St and IFSC, Fresh is perfect place to get your American favourites.They even have Pop-Tarts!

Treat your taste buds to delicious Asian food and sip up Low Calorie, Classic and Dessert Cocktails shaken to perfection while listening to funky tunes pumping by star DJ’s from Musicmaker Dublin. This is the scene you’ll find Friday and Saturday nights at Mao Chatham Row. Savour the flavour with mouth-watering curries, a shared platter, or a Mao classic for the full Thai experience. Then sip a CosMAOpolitan, Ginger Dragon or Toblerone to tame the flames! As an official Leinster Rugby food partner check out healthy dishes as chosen by Leinster Rugby’s nutritionist, just look for the little blue rugby balls on the menu. Call your besties, pick the perfect outfit, pack your selfie stick then drop in for a night you won’t forget.

Mao, 2 Chatham Row, Dublin 2 01 670 4899

On Saturday August 29th Acid House legend A Guy Called Gerald takes over the Button Factory for Sense. When the history of postmodern dance music is written he is ubiquitous: his visions, his stylistic versatility and open mindedness had a huge influence on the development of global dance culture.

Particularly well known for floor fillers like “Voodoo Ray” & “Emotion Electric” this will be his second Dublin show of 2015, after a massive sell out earlier this year.

Sense have grown hugely since their birth two years ago and they have released a stellar lineup for the final part of 2015 with George Fitzgerald, Max Cooper, Paul Woolford + many more TBA!

See www.freshthegoodfoodmarket.ie for more information.

Advance tickets available on Resident Advisor from €10. Strictly over 19s.