Update on Dublin Ireland

Last night in Tallinn, Estonia the Irish soccer team beat Estonia 4-0 in the first leg of the Euro 2012 playoff qualifier. There were goals from Keith Andrews (13) , Jon Walters (67) and Robbie Keane (71) (81pen). Estonia had 2 players sent off for 2 yellow card offences and this helped Ireland to their largest away win for some years.

Ireland Celebrate their 2nd Gaol Last night

 On Tuesday next the 2nd leg will take place in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin and this should be a celebration of qualification for the European Championship for only the 2nd time in history, the previous time was Germany 1988. There should be a full house for this game.

Also yesterday Michael D Higgins received the seal of office to become the 9th president of Ireland, in an inauguration ceremony in Dublin Castle. At the ceremony yesterday were the two previous office holders, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese and this is the first time in the history of the office of President that there has been more than 2 living Presidents past and present. Here is a short video which captures some of the ceremony from yesterday.

 

The following link is to a short video which captured the ceremony of the inauguration of the first president in 1922. (This clip is shared courtesy of British Pathe with credit to Commentary: Sean O'Sullivan, Photography: Gordon Lewis, Produced for the Institiuid Naisiunta Na Scannan Eire - The National Film Institute of Ireland.)

THE INAUGURATION OF IRELAND'S PRESIDENT - UACHTARAN NA HEIREANN ( aka IRELAND or IRISH STORY ) - British Pathe

Amazing how much has changed yet stayed the same in 89 years.

Different Stuff

Sorry it has been a while since I posted but I have been looking for information to fill my blog with the end of the Irish Presidential election. Michael D Higgins won the election and will be made the president in about 2 weeks time in a ceremony in Dublin Castle. Higgins won just over 40% of first preference votes with Sean Gallagher in second place with just over 20% of the vote. The reason for the sharp increase in Higgins's vote from the previous polls appears to be the Martin McGuinness attack on Gallagher on the Front Line Debate last Monday.

Michael D Higgins.

This attack was in relation to Gallagher collecting money in envelopes for the Fianna Fail party while they were in Government. People want to see their President as somebody who had no secrets to hide and I think the Higgins fitted this bill. Following the vote counting Higgins ended up with just over 1 million votes so the mandate from the people is strong and hopefully he will play a major role in making Ireland a better place to live in the first 7 years of his term.


The 7 billionth person living in the world was born today in Australia. The world population is growing at a rate which means that when I was born nearly 47 years ago I was the 3,295,347,831st against the 7 billion now which means the world population have more than doubled in this time. I was also the 77,172,136,406th person born into the world. Use the following link to find your position in the world http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515 . 
India is due to take over from China soon as the most populated country in the world, the UK has 246 people per square km against Australia which has just 3 people per square km, for Singapore this is 7,272 people.


I have a lot of space to fill up now that the election is over and as the blog is about Dublin from a Dubliners view I have decided to do some posts about Dublin's in other countries. There are cities, towns, an island and some townlands with Dublin in their name and I will be looking at them over the next few weeks. I have also tried to contact people from these locations to gain a better insight into their lives. I have enjoyed doing the investigation and information gathering so I hope that you find the blogs interesting,

More Facts and Places of Interest

Dublin Fact: Dublin's main street is O'Connell Street and it primarily houses retail and recreational buildings. It is one of the widest main streets in Europe and O'Connell Bridge or Carlisle Bridge linking the north and south side of Dublin has a greater width than length which is unique for bridges anywhere in Europe.

O'Connell Street was originally called Drogheda Street by the then owner of the area on which the street sits. The man in question was Henry Moore, Earl of Drogheda who built roads or streets through his land. Not a vain character he called some of these streets after himself and in Dublin there are still streets called Henry, Moore and Earl and a lane called Off lane (previously of).

The Spire Dublin.

In 1740 or there abouts some of the land was purchased by Luke Gardiner and he modified Drogheda Street to the width it is today. He renamed the street to Sackville Street after the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lionel Cranfield Sackville, Duke of Dorset.

Carlisle Bride was built on a design by James Gandon and opened in 1793 for pedestrians and then for all traffic in 1795.

Following the creation of the Irish Free State in December 1922 Sackville Street was renamed again, this time to O'Connell Street after Daniel O'Connell who was great Irish Catholic leader in the 1800's.

The Dublin Spire which is the Tallest Sculpture in the world was erected in Dublin's O'Connell Street in January 2003. The official name for the sculpture is the Monument of Light and was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects.

Places Of Interest:  In the heart of Dublin just off Dame Street you will find Dublin Castle. Dublin actually gets it's name from a Black Pool (Dubh Linn) which was on the site of the gardens now in Dublin Castle. The site of the Castle has had some form of structure in place since 930 from the Viking era. This is truely a remarkable piece of history and is well worth a visit.

Dublin Castle

On October 7th and 8th this year Dublin Castle will be the venue for the second Irish Global Economic Forum. This forum is being hosted by the Irish Government and according to the Department of Foreign Affairs the primary purpose of the forum will be to

Engage fully with the Irish Diaspora in developing Ireland’s global business and trade relations;

Discuss face-to-face the Government’s priorities for economic renewal with key members of the international business community;

Strengthen ties with the Irish Diaspora as a key part of the Government’s efforts to restore Ireland’s international reputation abroad.

The forum will be attended by people form the Global Irish Network of which there are over 300 members, a small number of Irish based individuals from business and cultural areas, Irish Government leaders and Ministers and also senior pepole form Government Departments and Agencies.
Keep up to date with events form the forum at Global Forum.

By the way Ireland beat Italy in the Rugby World Cup to set up a last 8 meeting with nearest neighbours Wales at 6am Irish time on Saturday next.