Exciting times… and a new start.

It has been the maddest few weeks of work for a very long time…

For many years now I have run cultural programs for schools and colleges, or led one-off tours for schools and language schools, of history or art history, around the city of Dublin.  Sometimes I take them to the National Museum, or the Natural History Museum  (see my post on this magical place from a few months back)  or to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral here in Dublin, to teach them about Irish History, (more posts on this if you look)

Or – best of all – to the National Gallery to teach students about how to Read a Painting, about the sign language of old art and the symbols of saints and so on;  about how to begin to de-construct a painting, about the older conventions of depiction, and traditional ways that artists and painters built and constructed meaning within their work, through light, gesture, compositional tricks, through allegory, saintly attributes, symbols and iconography.

Now I’m striking out on my own, with my own little start-up business, lunching, no wait, launching a little start up tour business, Dublin Decoded   http://dublindecoded.com/

We will aim to give the art, artefacts of Dublin real depth in terms of understanding the history and meaning, making history and art history more in depth, accessible and alive.

The last few weeks have all been about mastering the new website, designing flyers, working with designers, and learning a million other things.  The site only really went live today.   And now I can not wait.   Please join us if you get the chance, and/or if you know people who might be interested or people who are coming to Dublin, please spread the word.     Thank you.

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26 thoughts on “Exciting times… and a new start.”

    1. Many thanks Anthony, and i appreciate all the terrific ideas and support i’ve had from you and from many other great friends. You are especially knowledgeable about social media and so on, and of course, you are right, there probably should be some sort of newsletter. I shall have to give it some thought. Thank you.

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  2. i have a friend who likes Dublin a lot. he keeps talking about his month long stay there. if there’s a chance in future, i would like to visit too. so much history… thanks for the peek into your country, especially Dublin 😀 the new wesite looks fabulous. may i highlight that on the first picture with you in it, the sentence “wasauthor of the highly popular and well regarded Hidden Dublin” was author need a spacing, i think? 😉

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    1. Many thanks Sam, I appreciate that, good proof reading and for your kind wishes also. 🙂 Many thanks also because am absolutely delighted you like the look of the new Dublin DEcoded website. I am heading back there right now to put in that spacing! Thanks again, and best wishes from Dublin, hope to see you here some day. -Arran.

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    1. Thank you so much Christina. if you do, please be sure to tell them to tell me that you sent them. Yes, i am all very excited about it. Really hope you like the look of the new blog. I’ve had to disable comments there because its a business, but always available here) Please do spread the word, that would be amazing. Many many thanks again. – Arran.

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    1. That would be fantastic Roy, I can not think of any thing better or nicer. Even if there does not appear to be anything on the schedule, drop me a line 5-8 days in advance anyway. i am thinking of doing some extra tours i the national gallery here on Thursday evenings. Hope to see you in Dublin some time anyway, and please do spread the word if you get the chance. Thanks again, and very best regards- Arran.

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  10. I would like to convey to you the most cordial regards and best wishes for prosperity and professional achivments.I take the opportunity to congratulate you for this project and I hope to reach your objectives. As your student, I was really impressed about what I saw and what I heard. Of course, I will spread this excellent news. I hope that everything is ok with you. All the best!
    Regards from Romania,
    Cristian Dan Danescu

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    1. many thanks Cristian, I remember you well from classes at the school, you were a great person to have in class. Many thanks for these best wishes, I am delighted you are following the blog, and the new website too now, thank you. I hope all is well with you and your law practice in Bucharest. My very best & sincerest regards, from your old teacher- Arran.

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    1. Thank for saying that, I really appreciate it. It is quite an investment, and not just the hundreds of hours, and a steep learning curve too. You know, just today, I found out to my horror, that even if I type the entire phrase “Dublin Decoded” into a Google search, we don’t even appear on the first 6-7 pages! Also smaller issues vis a vis readability on phones. (It is readable, but not perfectly formated, yet). Oh well, we shall continue to work on it and to improve, and we shall always do our best. Thank you for your support. Please spread the word. 🙂

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  14. It all takes time. One of the key things in search engine optimisation is to get as many links back to your site from others that you can. Google will start ranking you higher the more links there are. 😉

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    1. you know, it’s funny, I used the WP architecture to build the other site but on WP.org, because I’m self-hosting, and the site layout & functionality is completely different. At the moment I can’t even see stats for the other site, so I don’t have the first idea how many people have visited. Much to learn and work on!

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