Dublin Can Be Heaven: I was on the Internet today trying to find a topic for my next blog and I came across this lovely You Tube video of a Song by Noel Purcell called The Dublin Saunter. The video is a collection of photos of Dublin City through the years. Enjoy 4 minutes of peace.
The video shows a statue of Philip Parris Lynnott or Phil Lynnott as he was commonly known. Phil was the son of a white Irish mother and a black Guyanian father and was born in West Bromwich in England on August 20th 1949. Phil and his mother lived together in the north of England for 4 years together before Phil went to live with his grandmother in the Crumlin area of Dublin.
During his childhood Phil admired artists like Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix and decided to follow in their footsteps and become a musician. Phil went on to form the band Thin Lizzy and had both commercial and critical success with hits like Whiskey in the Jar and The Boys are Back in In Town among others. Phil passed away on 4th Janurary 1986 after a short illness.
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| Phil Lynnott Oslo 1980 |
The source of the song Whiskey in the Jar is really unknown but may date back to the 1650's as it appears to resemble the plot and some lines of a ballad called Patrick Flemming which is about a highwayman who was executed in 1650. Jumping forward 3 centuries the song was recorded by Irish folk group The Dubliners. The song became their signature tune and appeared on many of their albums in the 60's. In 1973 the song became a hit for Thin Lizzy and surprisenly in 1998 was relaesed by the band Metallica who received a Grammy in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Preformance for the song.
Presidential Election: All 7 canidates for the election will be on the The Late Late Show on RTE television tonight. The show is the longest running chat show in the world and is currently fronted by Ryan Tubridy having being hosted by Pat Kenny and Gay Byrne in the past.
As the The Late Late Show is a chat show I would imagine that the debate will be light hearted and entertaining and nothing like the future debates which will be fronted by more experienced political commentators.
Places to Visit: Croke Park in Dublin city is a sports stadium owned by the the amature sporting body of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The GAA run the games of Hurling and Gaelic Football among others. These are Irish games played by teams around the world. The stadium is the 3rd largest stadium in Europe and only the Nou Camp in Barcelona, Spain and Wembley Stadium in London England are larger.
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| Croke Park |
Croke park has a capacity of 82,300 people and was full to capacity on September 18th this year when Dublin beat Kerry in the All Ireland Football Final to win a trophy called The Sam Maguire for the first time since 1995
