Dublin goes south

What a wonderfully sunny weekend it's been. Somehow, it had passed me by and I hadn't even realised it was going to be on until a friend rang me to see if I wanted to go and check out the Africa Day festivities in the Iveagh Gardens.

It was Sunday and it was sunny and warm. The park was full of Africans living and working in Dublin, locals out for a good day out, and more than a few half-African, half-Irish families. I don't know very much about African music -- OK, so I don't know anything about African music -- but the bands that played were loads of fun and the food, mmm, the food was fabulous. I think a lot of people must've heard about this event by word of mouth, because although I hadn't seen any posters about town, the park was packed with thousands and thousands of people. We ended up staying for six whole hours!

Later this month, African-American culture is celebrated in Dublin with the Soul Festival. Which reminds me, on Friday night Saoirse came over with a DVD of an old Irish movie, The Commitments about ... a Dublin soul band!! It's a great film though I think Dublin's probably changed a lot since 20 years ago. Still, it was fun spotting familiar bits of the city on the screen, and I'm pretty sure I've actually seen several of the actors about town, just a bit older and greyer!

0 comments:

Post a Comment