As regular readers know I’ve starting offering occasional walking tours of Dublin’s art, architecture and history the last few months. Details and a menu of tours can be found on the home page of Dublin Decoded, That will bring you to home page, but just press on any Tour title there to read the individual… Read More New self-guided tour, walking route, Scallops and Vikings.
We are in the media. or the meeja, as Irish politicians like to call it. It was very exciting for Dublin Decoded to get a mention recently in the excellent Simon Kuper piece in the weekend magazine of the Financial Times! on Saint Patrick’s day weekend. We believe we’re also getting a snippet in the… Read More Dublin Decoded in Financial Times, Irish Indo, & Dublin City radio: 2 walks for Focus Ireland
Background to the Irish in WWI, and thoughts on Irish servicemen in the First World War. – Forgotten heroes and the truth that does not speak its name. In August and September 1914, John Redmond, leader of the Irish Party and its MPs at Westminster, made speeches, notably at Woodenbridge in County Wicklow and at… Read More The Irish in World War One – Forgotten heroes.
Great Victorians, our new Dublin Decoded walking tour, is now open for bookings via email. (see blow) Our theme is Great Victorians. On this tour we explore the rich legacy of beautiful, often spectacular buildings, with their applied arts, architectural detail and decor, all from the second half of the 19th century, the Victorian era.… Read More Great Victorians, Dublin walking tour.
North by North West, is the newest of Dublin Decoded’s walking & talking tour of Dublin city centre. As always with Dublin Decoded, we’ll look at and discuss the rich, varied; often surprising historic past, and explore how aspects of that past shape our present and our city today. There is an upcoming date on… Read More North by North West, a walking & talking tour of Dublin, 18th century to medievel, history, architecture, revolution & social history.
A small but significant detail above, from the lovely little 1904 map by RISA scholar and historian Leonard R Strangeways. This magical map, is an excellent guide to understanding old Dublin, in the years before the Wide Streets Commission. We use it because it’s one of the best and clearest illustrations to understand the shape… Read More a magic map, scholar’s sketch of ancient Dublin, special tours, available for groups.
Back in 2013, I invited readers of my blog to identify this mysterious looking map, below. As many people either knew or guessed, it’s a sketch concerning Ulysses, the legendary novel routinely claimed as the best or most influential tome of 20th century literature, and written of course by James Joyce (below). I had come across the… Read More Nabokov, Perec, Joyce & Bloom; Ulysses, Maps & Games.
Another in the current orgy, of seaside-related posts. I can not help it. It is summer after all. And it was A Spectacular day today, blazing with sunshine. Very un-Irish, although we appreciate it more than anyone else in the world, and the town and country alike always look their beautiful best. Yes, sunshine. Was… Read More East is East, and West is West, Dun Laoghaire’s magic piers. Part 1.
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… Read More Exciting times… and a new start.
Some snaps and details from a recent walking tour (April 13th) with architectural historian & expert in 18th Century Dublin shops, Sarah Foster. Unfortunately the day was a cold and grey, so forgive the dull light. Some of these details (like the gargoyle above) Sarah pointed out, in a few other cases I wandered off the route to snap things that… Read More Plaques, gargoyles and granite shop fronts.
Arran Q Henderson 