Things to See..

The Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The Royal Hospital in Kilmainham on the outskirts Dublin City was built in period of 4 years from 1680 to 1684 for a cost of £22,500. The site where the Hospital was built was the location a medieval hospital founded in 1174 by Strongbow. Strongbow had been one of the leaders of the Norman invasion of Ireland and had married Aoife who was the daughter of the then King of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchadha (Dermot MacMurrough) and eventually inherited the throne himself.

Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

The hospital was actually a home for retired soldiers over 250 peopled lived in the Hospital at any one time. Queen Victoria of Britain visited the hospital on two different occasions the last being 1900 before her death in January 1901. In 1922 the Hospital was handed over to the Irish Free State and went on to be the Headquarters of the Garda Siochana (Irish Police Force) between 1930 and 1950.
In 1991 the Hospital became home to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and is a wonderful place to visit if you are in Dublin.

While in the Kilmainham area, another site well worth a visit is Kilmainham Gaol or Jail. Built in 1796 the New Gaol or as it was officially known, County of Dublin Gaol was used as a place of incarceration and execution of many Irish leaders during times of rebellion or insurgence over the years. The last prisoner in the jail was Eamon DeVelera who went on to become Taoiseach and President of the country.

New Gaol or County of Dublin Gaol

The jail is one of the largest empty prisons in Europe and is currently the Irish History Museum following a restoration in the 1960's. For years the building was left idol as it possibly had too many ghosts of the past history of the Irish struggle. The jail have been used as a site in many films over the years including The Italian Job in 1969, In The Name Of The Father in 1993 and  Michael Collins in 1996.

Presidential Election: In a RedC poll for the Sunday Business Post on Sunday last , 16/10/2011 we saw swift change in how the country expect to vote on October 27th. The poll topper was Sean Gallagher with 39% of the vote which was up an incredible 18 points from the previous poll 10 days earlier. Michael D Higgins was in 2nd place with 27% of the vote which was up 2 points. Martin McGuinness was at 13% down 3 and Gay Mitchell was down 5 points to 8%. David Norris had half of his previous vote at 7% and Mary Davis had gone from 9% to 4% while Dana Rosemary Scallon  received just 2% of the vote down 3 points.



Caricature of Candidates Tweeted by Niall O'Loughlin

The spending limits for this election is €750,000 per candidate of which €200,000 can be reimbursed by the state, which means the the bottom 4 people in the poll with a collective total of 21%  of the vote are to claim €800,000 from the state for wasting their time.

A bit of Everything Today

Dublin Fact: On April 13th 1742 the world wide premier of George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah was preformed at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street. Some of the choirs or Christchurch and St. Patricks Cathedrals took part in this production.


Places to Visit: St Patricks Cathedral is located in the centre of Dublin on St Patricks Close. The cathedral was founded in 1191, is the largest church in Ireland and has a 140 feet (43 Metre) spire. The Cathedral is headed by the Dean of St. Patricks, since 1219 and the most famous dean was Jonathan Swift who was dean from 1713 until his death in 1745. A full restoration of the cathedral was carried out between 1860 and 1900 by the Guinness Family.

St Patricks Cathedral Dublin.

Presidential Election: The pre election tours have been in full swing with all 7 candidates visiting all corners of the country and turning up where ever there is a chance of a crowd of people. On October 6th the results of a poll carried out by RedC for Paddy Power indicated that Michael D Higgins and Sean Gallagher were leading the race with 25% and 21% of the vote respectively with Martin McGuinness in third place on 16%. David Norris is next on 14% and Gay Mitchell completes a top 5 places for male candidates on 10%. Mary Davis on 9% and Dana Rosemary Scallon on 6% are the bottom two which means that if the polls are to be believed we have have our first male president since Patrick Hillary in 1990.

Michael D Higgins

Sean Gallagher

The winner of the race to the Aras will become the 9th Irish President following in the footsteps of

• Douglas Hyde who was President from 1938 to 1945.
• Sean T O'Ceallaigh who was President from 1945 to 1959.
• Eamon De  Valera who was President from 1959 to 1973.
• Erskine Childers who was President from 1973 to 1974 when he died while in office.
• Cearbhall O'Dalaigh who was President from 1974 to 1976 when he resigned his position.
• Patrick Hillary who was President from 1976 to 1990.
• Mary Robinson who was President from 1990 to 1997 when she resigned her position.
• Mary McAleese who is President since 1997.

On the day of the Presidential election the Irish public will be asked to vote on two referendums to the Irish Constitution. The first referendum is on judicial salary pay cuts and the second is on giving extra powers to committees of the Oireachtas.
The people of the constituency of Dublin West will be asked to vote in a bye election caused following the untimely death of the former Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.

The Irish Soccer team will play their final qualifying game for UEFA Euro 2012 finals tonight at 18.45 in Dublin's Aviva Stadium. They will play against Armenia and a draw will be enough for them to qualify for a playoff place at a later stage. Good luck to the team.