18 March 2012

Saint Patrick’s weekend lasts, and lasts, in Dublin

Street art in Temple Bar this afternoon ... the window of a vacant shop (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Patrick Comerford

The spring sunshine and the fact that Saint Patrick’s Day has fallen at a weekend has created a festive atmosphere in the city centre in Dublin.

There is a large number of tourists, particularly in the Temple Bar area, many dressed in green, and some wearing those silly green hats with attached red beards.

I had the role of deacon at the Cathedral Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral this morning, reading the Gospel and administering the chalice at the Eucharist. The setting was William Walton’s Missa Brevis and Canon Aisling Shine preached on the theme of Mothering Sunday.

A harpist busks outside Trinity College Dublin this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Two of us had a light lunch in Corfu, the Greek restaurant in Parliament Street, and I then went rummaging through the second-hand book barrows in Temple Bar, and strolled on down to College Green, where a harpist busking outside Books Upstairs in front of Trinity College seemed to attract extra attention from tourists, delighted to see an Irish harp being played in Dublin on Saint Patrick’s Weekend.

The sculpture outside the Central Bank this afternoon ... but the ‘Occupy’ protesters were removed before the weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

It is a pity that the ‘Occupy’ protesters were removed from the square in front of the Central Bank. They added colour to the city centre, and might have shown tourists that there is still dismay and outrage in our city at the way bakers have destroyed our economy. In many ways they have been the conscience of this city for the past few months.

I returned to the cathedral for Choral Evensong, which included settings by William Byrd (1540-1623) for the Preces and Responses, and by Henry Purcell (1659-1995) for the canticles Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, along with Purcell’s anthem, Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mea.

After coffee in Toffoli in Castle Street, the sun was setting behind the former Synod Hall, and the tourists were still arriving at the doors of the cathedral.

The sunset lasted for another half-hour, and there’s another day left in this holiday weekend in Dublin.

Evening lights at the bridge in Christ Church Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

No comments: