BY ELIZAVETA TOLMACHHEVA

10/08/2023

DUBLIN'S MOTION BY ELIZAVETA TOLMACHHEVA [THIS WAS A WORK IN PROGRESS WHEN I LAST SAW IT]

When I first photographed this in July it was a work in progress and no information was available and the artwork was only black and white.

Superb new artwork ‘Dublin’s Motion’ by Siberian artist & graphic design student Elizaveta Tolmacheva. Artwork located at Weaver Park, Liberties, Dublin 8. 

Weaver Park is the first purpose built Public Park in The Liberties area in over a century; a major step forward for Dublin City Council in addressing the deficit of quality green active amenity space providing outdoor recreational opportunities for the local community of Dublin 8 and further afield.

There are a multitude of uses provided for within the park design, including grassed lawns, a terrace onto Cork St., an enclosed play area, a picnic space, a skate park, extensive seating along internal walls and perimeter zones with tree planting, mounding and play features. The central lawn accommodates small scale active and passive uses on a day to day basis but can also provide the space for larger events such as markets, parties, exhibitions and performances. Weaver Park was officially opened on the 2nd October 2017.It has to date proved to be a highly valued and much used space by all age groups.

A BIRD VIEW

09/08/2023

A BIRD VIEW BY INGRID NOLAN [PAINT-A-BOX STREET ART ON VIEW AT JAMES LARKIN ROAD]

This example of paint-a-box street art by Ingrid Nolan is inspired by Bull Island and some of its inhabitants.

The North Bull Island just 10kms northeast from Dublin City Centre. From Clontarf you can walk over on foot via either the wooden bridge or Causeway Road. In case you are concerned the causeway crossing isn’t tidal, so you won’t get stuck on the island.

STAY PAW-SITIVE BY REBECCA LOW

06/08/2023

Location: Mount Prospect Avenue/James Larkin Road, Clontarf East, Dublin.

Rebecca Low Biography: "I am a 27-year-old Doctor who works in the Mater Hospital. I paint as a hobby and have found it to be extremely therapeutic in the past few months. I studied art to leaving certificate level"

Today was a Bank Holiday here in Ireland and at about 7am I was awakened by an amazing amount of noise due to a sporting event on the street where I live and I had np option but to leave my apartment so I decided to visit St Anne's Park. As I left my apartment the weather was beautiful but when I arrived in St Anne's there was a light shower of rain and I had to seek shelter for about fifteen minutes. Two hours later there was a torrential downpour that caused flooding in the park. 

Mount Prospect Avenue is a prestigious residential street in Clontarf, Dublin 3. It is located just a short walk from the seafront and St Anne's Park, and is home to some of the most desirable properties in the area.

The avenue was originally developed in the 1860s, and many of the houses on the street are large, period properties. There are also a number of newer apartments and townhouses on the avenue.

Mount Prospect Avenue is well-served by public transport, with buses running regularly to and from Dublin City Centre. 

Note: The event that I mentioned by the Inner City Running Club who organised a 10k & 21k run on August 6, 2023, at 9am. The starting point is Henrietta Flats immediately across the street from my bedroom. The entry fee was €35 and the The event was sold out.

TRIBUTE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

02/08/2023

It should be mentioned that I have been aware of Frederick Douglass since 1964 because I had an  American teacher who had been a missionary priest and had been a great admirer of Frederick Douglas and Susie King Taylor [the first African American Army nurse].

I included this photograph because of the following news item [31 July 2023] "A striking bronze statue of author, anti-slavery campaigner and early champion of women’s rights Frederick Douglass has been unveiled in Belfast city centre." The lifesize statue was created by  Scottish figurative sculptors Alan Beattie Herriot and Hector Guest. It is located beside the historic First Presbyterian Church in Rosemary Street where Douglass delivered lectures during his time in Belfast. I plan to photograph this memorial when I next visit Belfast.

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c.February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, during which he gained fame for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to enslavers' arguments that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.

Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as an enslaved person in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Following the Civil War, Douglass was an active campaigner for the rights of freed slaves and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, the book covers his life up to those dates. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage, and he held several public offices. Without his knowledge or consent, Douglass became the first African American nominated for vice president of the United States, as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

Douglass believed in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, as well as in the liberal values of the U.S. Constitution. When radical abolitionists, under the motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticised Douglass's willingness to engage in dialogue with slave owners, he replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."