Cónal Thomas

“What do you want?” he asks. “Full pig, full sheep, full chicken, smoked ribs?”

Of the 46 derelict sites listed almost three and a half years ago on Dublin City Council’s register, 18 are still on the list.

Launched in 2012, it was meant to draw tourists from the city centre west into the Liberties and Kilmainham, but some councillors and route-residents say it hasn’t had much of an impact.

Dublin used to have a civic museum on South William Street, but it closed for renovations 15 years ago and has never reopened.

Zebra-crossing fans say they’re safer for pedestrians than signalled crossings. But advocates for people who are visually impaired, or have intellectual or cognitive difficulties, disagree.

Methods of serving periwinkles have changed over time. Traditionally, though, they are boiled in seawater and the fleshy meat is pulled out with a pin.

Dublin gets offered all kinds of presents from visiting diplomats and world leaders: from plates to public artwork.

Des King hopes his diamond doves, New Zealand kākārikis and budgerigars will find their ways home.

There is something of a ritual most mornings in the magazine section of Eason on O’Connell Street.

Several pubs across the city have rolled out these smaller glasses in the past few years, trying to match strength or price and quantity. 

Drivers also say they’re disgruntled they weren’t consulted earlier. The consultant behind BusConnects says all feedback is welcome, but the interests of drivers and passengers don’t always align.

Charities that run such hostels say they have their own standards in place. But it’s not clear who, if anyone, is looking over their shoulders to make sure they meet them.

It would be the “height of insensitivity” if he doesn’t, when he stops in the neighbourhood later this month, says Social Democrats Councillor Gary Gannon.

The council intends to use the long-vacant site for heritage purposes, says Lord Mayor Nial Ring.

“Services on the main roads seem to be fine and will hopefully improve. But anybody who is living in the centre of estates is losing out big time,” says Independents 4 Change Councillor Pat Dunne.

It was put up in 1979 at the time of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland, but it was supposed to be temporary.

New plans for Dublin’s bus network hinge on nodes across the city, where passengers would have to hop off and change buses. What might those interchanges be like?

The painter’s work depicts his family life: playing FIFA on Xbox, falling asleep in front of the TV, and tying his shoes without help from the father he’s never met, who is the reason people often ask him where he’s from.

Years back, the Rialto Youth Project worked up training modules for gardaí to help improve their relations with younger local residents. But they’re yet to be included on the curriculum.

In mid-July, council officials wrote to Clontarf Baths to query how it planned to resolve the issue of public access. It gave it two weeks to respond.

Late at night, some passengers emerge onto the tarmac to find there are no taxis or buses to get them home or to a hotel.

Last month, staff at the Guinness archive discovered this 19th-century map of the city’s drinking establishments.

Those involved in the Horse Power project have been working to repair the relationship between Gardaí and local young men. An equine centre would help a lot, they say.

Pilot projects for five laneways in Dublin 1 are being finalised.

“We have seen a lot of cranes in the Docklands but not a lot of homes. Particularly affordable homes,” says Green Party Councillor Ciarán Cuffe.

“We go out, we recruit and we can’t get enough of them,” says Richard Shakespeare, the council’s head of planning.

Councillors want more clarity on fundraising for the new city library, the council says planned “affordable” homes at O’Devaney will be for sale (not for rent), and more.

But campaigner Tonie Walsh says an AIDS memorial is needed more urgently right now.

The area around Kevin Street Upper is pockmarked with building sites.

There were bursts of interest in 2007 and 2015, but it seems to have dropped off the agenda since.

Looking at memorials to dark times around the world may help with ideas for the former Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott Street.

“It’s still very raw for everybody in the community,” says Antoinette Keegan, whose two sisters were among the 48 people who died in the fire in 1981.

City farms let people visit with animals, grow food, and attend workshops. But some worry that they also “encourage the archaic idea that animals are merely for our entertainment”.

At issue are the number and types of permits Waterways Ireland is offering: some say there aren’t enough of the right type available for all the people who want to live aboard their boats.

Iveagh Gardens closes at 6pm throughout the summer, and much of it will be closed to the public altogether throughout July. Some would-be park-goers are frustrated.

William Cummings is working to create a space to support people struggling with mental-health difficulties. “There’s no pressure to talk but I’ll be there,” he says.

Traffic officials are looking at 21 schemes similar to the bollards recently put in to calm traffic on smaller streets in Drumcondra.

Once the last of his customers have left, Cristian Proca closes his Stoneybatter chipper and steps into the kitchen to work on his gelato.

The speedy reaction by Dublin City Archives to collect messages left at the memorial to Savita Halappanavar in the south inner-city shows a new effort to value items from the here and now.

The Office of Public Works used to let people grill in designated spots in the park.

“I’ve a friend who was attacked from behind,” says Ismail Daramola, as he holds an imaginary knife in his left hand and slices at his throat.

It was launched to help tackle illegal dumping in the city centre. But, despite all the founders’ work, the problem persists.

While the artist might be best known for his gigantic murals, Earley’s debut exhibition draws on inspiration from his family’s history.

Councillors only have two major powers left, says independent Councillor Christy Burke. With one of these recently undermined, “there’s more power in a light bulb”.

Fusion Sundays, Dublin Flea Market, and others have until 12 June to find new homes, and some have asked if the council can, and should, help them more.

Sean Kissane is searching for some of the artist’s early paintings for an upcoming show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

For years, Billy McGuire has performed the annual ceremony at Mansion House, which he says confirms Ireland’s sovereignty. That tradition may now have come to an end.

Dublin city council is looking for proposals for what to do with the old Pigeon House Hotel and power station. Some councillors would like to see them turned into artists’ studios, overlooking the bay, right by the beach.

There should be a comprehensive, public database of who owns the properties in the city, says Francis Doherty of Peter McVerry Trust. “It’s in the public interest, the common good.”

“Local people know the area and they know the people and they have the passion,” says Tony O’Rourke.

For decades, councillors have used a special rule to get information from officials in secret. Now, though, some want to change that.

Council efforts to encourage coach drivers to use a new coach park, rather than the city streets haven’t gone well so far. That’s because of opening hours, one coach firm says.

Pawel Szoka says he wants to serve the city’s healthy and growing scene.

“I grew up thinking chocolate was just one flavour, one experience,” says Simran Sethi, ahead of her public lecture on the subject on 14 May. “Then you start to see.”

“We are trying to lease the entire development to the government,” said Maurice Gillick of Platinum Land.

That could mean historic ships, or ones with a cultural or community purpose, or tall ships. Or, just cool-looking ones.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has set aside €8.2 million in grants for sustainable-transport projects in the Dublin City Council area for 2018.

Dublin City Council presses ahead with plans for parking-protected cycle lanes. Plus other cycle-lane-related news.

Women who survived the laundries should be heard and heeded, when it comes to the Sean McDermott Street site, but local residents should be listened too as well, they say.

Given the city’s affordable housing crisis, how narrow a window of history should the Tenement Museum engage with in its tales of overcrowded living?

“They’re made for dancing,” says Tessie Carroll, pointing to the high heels the woman inspects before leaving empty-handed. “Jaysus, if you brought gold here they’d want silver.”

The council had put in a bid, but says it’s been unsuccessful in securing the site – and that a private company has bought it instead.

The council plans to sell it off to a private developer, as part of its strategy to create a super depot in Ballymun for its waste-management services.

“It’s vital, I think, that you use the freshest ingredients,” says Chef Philip Chen.

A government-backed effort to regenerate the area has been asking big firms at the International Financial Services Centre to hire locally. So far, it’s had limited success.

Looking down from the walls of Iveagh Markets, which is vacant and crumbling on Francis Street in Dublin 8, are eight mysterious faces.

Here’s the story behind the limestone panels on the outside of 23 Kildare Street, and why they have the look of socialist realism.

Crumlin swimming pool has six and a half hours all week for walk-in swimmers. Two others offer windows of less then four hours a week.

“What you have here is a late-19th-century design in a modern setting,” says local resident John O’Reilly, of the compact green and narrow roads around it. “So everyday it’s a clog.”

Caught in the barbed wire wrapped around the convent’s front gate, a woman was trying to escape. As the couple passed by, she called for help.

The plan cost the council nearly €140,000 to draw up before the crash.

In the 1990s, the Irish Youth Hostel Association took charge of the chapel, and made a change.

They’ve tended to the plot not far from Thomas Street for nearly four years, and don’t know why they’re not allowed in, they said.

For the moment, the council’s plans for the Iveagh Markets don’t go as far as repossession and redevelopment. They’re much more modest.

“He’d come here every day,” says Mary Stafford, pointing to the image of Tom Boland, known locally as the Weatherman. “This was his life.”

There more than 30 bodies responsible for different areas of transport in the city, according to a list drawn up by two councillors.

How companies dictate the way space is used, managed, and presented to the public is the subject of David Flood’s art exhibition “A Place Like All Others”.

Gardai and legal professionals headed to the criminal courts often block up driveways on Montpelier Hill, say those who live there.

“The stigma of being an addict is huge, so for me it was getting the voice of the addict out there in a meaningful way,” says playwright Lisa Walsh.

The corner park near Christ Church is due for a €200,000 revamp in the coming months, but there is one key outstanding issue to settle first.

The council expects companies to roll out stationless bikes in the city from April, and other transport news.

Nobody asks Julian Cosby back to Dublin. Each year, he has simply returned.

“If Mauritius had a national dish, I’d say it’s dholl puri,” says Reshma Sumluchun, setting down two fluffy, tear-apart pancakes filled with fresh butter beans, curry leaves, onions, turmeric, tomatoes and chilli.

Research suggests that giving cyclists and pedestrians a few seconds’ lead at traffic lights can make cities safer. Some say it’s time for Dublin to try this route.

Crisp and golden, these small, teardrop-shaped snacks tempt hungry passers-by through shop windows across Dublin. For Brazilians they’re a national treasure, best enjoyed with a cold Guaraná.

Oscar López’s paintings draw on the 18th-century journeys of “the forgotten father of environmentalism”. His exhibition at Pallas Studios in the Liberties opens 21 February.

Venue staff can end up taking home some unusual leftovers from dressing rooms.

There is a case for the City Art’s Office to take a lead role in the debate, says Labour Councillor Rebecca Moynihan.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” says Fine Gael Councillor Anne Feeney, who thinks that Bank of Ireland should give up its access for motor vehicles.

Dublin City Council says that the ratio of office space to homes matches its plans for the area. But some councillors have concerns.

If you seek them out in a different corner of the city, you can still see the colourful sculptures that used to stand on Thomas Street.

It’s unclear, as yet, if the offer will be accepted.

A new project seeks to collect and record the history of Coolock and Artane.

Some councillors say it’s necessary, as city-centre traffic patterns have been changing. But taxi drivers say it would be bad for customers.

“Chef wanted” signs are common across the city. There’s a shortage of chefs, and they often move from job to job, or out of the industry.

Colin Murphy brings the high-stakes hustle to the stage of the Abbey Theatre.

On a recent day, residents were using 97 traffic cones to reserve the street parking spaces in front of their homes, in an effort to keep commuters and other outsiders from using them.

Artists Fiona Dowling and George Higgs are working with different South Dublin groups to write songs that capture the rhythms of their modern workplaces.

After a few collaborations, Barry Wallace has struck out alone with Páng, a Vietnamese restaurant specialising in rolls: Peking duck, smoked salmon, prawn and mango, teriyaki tofu, and more.

An old windmill has dominated the landscape in the Liberties for decades. But what happened to its sails?

Dublin City Council bought the stadium back in 2015 for €3.8 million, and the council plans to redevelop it, but it’s still not certain how much this would cost, or how it will be funded.

Ion Anghel lugs a generator down the quays each morning, to power his coffee business. But he really wishes he didn’t have to – that the council would provide him with a power source instead.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland says that proposals for alternative cycle routes are being developed. But some cyclists ask why they should be diverted, or why measures aren’t already in place.

The story of Samuel Stavenhagen, the man who brought baubles to Dublin.

Willie Halpin never changed his story about where he threw his rifle during the 1916 Rising. But council officials don’t want to look there.

Councillors on the economic development committee meet every two months yet some say they don’t do much.

They’re meant to encourage car sharing, but research suggests they might not be a great idea.

Each year about now, the calls start. For locals and those from further afield, a visit to the Strawberry Hall pub has become an annual Christmas tradition.

“There is nothing to stop a developer building even inside the old stone walls,” says People Before Profit Councillor Tina MacVeigh. “That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid tried to stamp out what he saw as the indulgences associated with Inchicore’s own Lourdes grotto. But that didn’t stop the crowds.

At this month’s transport committee meeting: an update on making the city better for pedestrians, and a review of how speed limits are working out.

The estimated cost of the project is now €100 million.

An Post say it plans to contract out the post office to a private operator, leaving some with concerns about future services.

You might have noticed the large arches disappear from a corner of St Stephen’s Green.

Marco Feltrin says another customer flung a racist slur at him, which led to a stand-off and Feltrin and his group being ejected, while the other customer stayed.

With extra funding, those who run the Hugh Lane Gallery hope to bring in blockbuster works and grow its visitor numbers.

A young veterinarian on Manor Street feeds a drift of pigeons each day, but some of her neighbours wish she wouldn’t, saying they’ve grown into an overwhelming presence.

“You may learn more from the rubbish than you do from the good songs,” says Tony Bardon, who started the collective several years ago.

“The old-style people in Hungary have it only with garlic,” says Zoltan Gerber. But there are all kinds of other toppings too.

Developers are generally required to include a parking space with every apartment but these add to building costs, and only 35 percent of people drive to work in Dublin city anyway.

“The thing that struck me when I first walked in here was that I felt like I’d just walked down a little side street in Korea,” says one customer. “It’s a little hidden gem.”

Small businesses in Ringsend seem to be getting rising rents from the booming Docklands next door, but little custom. Some wonder what the future holds for the village.

Barbara Scully says she was stung with a fine for having a back-dated ticket, but bought a ticket from a Luas machine that same morning.

Groundskeeper Denis McNally was curious about how a statue of the Greek philosopher came to be in a quiet corner among the plants. Here’s the story.

“I said to them, ‘If you can organise 20 or 30 people to walk to Cabra, climb up a building that a grown man wouldn’t get up, nick pallets, drag them back to the city centre … I want that skill,” says Declan Keenan.

What is it about the pubs-and-clubs parts of town that makes people want to urinate outside?

“Back home, it’s a very special dish for us,” says Shakeer Khaja.

So far this year, in the south-east part of the city alone, Dublin City Council workers have removed 52 locked-up bicycles and 36 locked-up frames – a few mistakenly.

Traditionally, the tonnes of spent grain leftover from the city’s breweries have been sent to farms around the country to feed livestock. Now, some bakers are playing with other uses.

With smart technology as an aid, Dublin’s traffic engineers have to strike a balance when deciding who gets to go, and who has to wait, at the city’s busy junctions.

The replica famine ship cost €15.5 million to build, has been repaired already, and needs more repairs. Some councillors aren’t sure Dublin City Council should keep on paying.

Alon and Dana Salman have kept the menu simple for now, with – among other dishes – soft pitas, fresh falafel, and tangy tahini.

While the percentage of children in Dublin who walked to school fell between the 2011 to 2016 censuses, the percentage who cycled rose.

Split into four vignettes, the play “The Assassination of Pope Urban II” tackles religion, death, decay, and disability.

“I became more interested about drugs and how they affect society rather than just making it all about going out on a Saturday night and getting ratted,” says Lewis Kenny. That transformation is the narrative arc of his debut play ObSession.

New bollards are meant to block cars from using smaller residential streets to cut between busy Drumcondra and Home Farm roads, making the neighbourhood nicer to walk and cycle in.

As chefs Ken Doherty and Gwen McGrath raid the market stalls in Temple Bar on a recent Saturday, they reveal a little about how they cook their dishes.

If you could borrow something from the library of things that’s set to pop up at Newmarket Square next month, would you want a sewing machine? A power drill? A wetsuit?

The council is reviewing the effectiveness of the 30km/h limits put on city streets this year, with an eye to extending the limits to new areas in 2018.

The daily struggle by delivery drivers to find spots to pull in and unload is frustrating – and can lead them to park in cycle lanes. How can we end the conflict?

An exhibition later this month examines the Eblana theatre’s importance and the much-contested but visionary scheme of Busáras itself.

Michael Higgins has been inspired by the ethos of flea markets elsewhere to set up a one in Phisboro, with few rules but mandatory baking.

The campaigner has been quietly working away for some months on a one-man show centred around his experiences as a witness to massive social upheaval in Ireland.

There’s the taoiseach of Ballymun, the lord mayor of Sean McDermott Street, the lord mayor of Ringsend and Irishtown, and the queen of Moore Street. Should there be more?

There’s a story behind each version of Dublin coddle – a story about tradition, about family, and, often, about poverty.

Each year, Dubliners get the chance to take over a parking space from the council and turn it into a wonderland of their choice. Here’s how to get involved this time.

Local opposition and a jump in the projected cost of the cycling route – from €324,000 to just over €1.2 million – mean it looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The American Bar in Vienna was completed in 1908. Its twin in Dublin was finished in 1985.

Look up on Gardiner Street and you might notice the square white faces, their mouths agape and eyebrows like Denis Healey.

Corinthians Boxing Club in Summerhill needs €17,000 to bring its building up to fire code, or it’ll have to close. But trainers there think its past is hindering its fundraising efforts.

Some say they welcome the planned redevelopment of the square, but that it would be a loss to the city if existing businesses did not form part of its future.

The old lock-keeper’s cottage on the Royal Canal is empty, with scrawls of graffiti on the walls and missing roof tiles. Willie Whelan has plans to restore it as a hub for outdoor activities.

Some councillors were disappointed when DCC Beta Projects was put on hold indefinitely. Now, though, it’s back, and on steadier footing.

Two groups of councillors recently voted on the current design for the track which runs from Clontarf to the city centre. One okayed it, the others said it wasn’t good enough.

He rigged a phone to take a photo when a vehicle of a certain height drove past. The result? He says big lorries make an average of 70 trips by daily.

Imran Rahman’s deli offers fresh and crispy samosas, spicy dals – and Punjabi cooking lessons so you can learn how to do it all yourself.

“If you got a nickname that was sort of funny or self-demeaning it stuck in the foreman’s head,” says John Walsh, who worked down the docks between 1962 and 2009.

Gregory Dunn’s newly released book of photos is really a collection of stories – like the story of Cunty the horse, and the story of Sean Dublin Bay Loftus.

It looks as if the city will get two statues of singer Luke Kelly, and plans for a pavilion at Merrion Square have been dropped, according to council officials at the arts committee meeting on Monday.

The crash forced Bohemians F.C. to re-evaluate their business model – to transform.

Dan Doherty, the man behind the soundtrack to the new film, left the civil service and devoted his life to making music. “I didn’t give a fuck about anything else really to be honest,” he says

Since he opened his shop Ayla last week, Erol Basak has been enthusiastically sharing samples of pastries and sweets with those who stop by.

Sinn Féin’s Micheál Mac Donncha says the 1981 hunger strike got him into politics. He plans to use the ceremonial role of lord mayor of Dublin to push for progress on housing.

In the areas around the IFSC and Hanover Quay, what appears to be a public park or footpath is often actually private property.

Local services like after-school programmes and creches that rely on workers from the community-employment scheme say changes are putting their futures in jeopardy.

On the Kevin Street flats and another complex over the river on North Strand Road, the outside walls are wrapped in a band of mosaic. But who decided to do that?

For years, the actor has performed his one-man show about Brian O’Nolan’s life and works at pubs and in theatres. He recently wrapped up a stint at the Smock Alley, and soon he’s heading for Salzburg.

“Around the Table” gathers stories about food, from the Docklands to Stoneybatter, from the coddle wars to cows colliding with cars in the Liberties.

At least two different places have started to offer the Hawaiian staple.

Ioan Irineu Craciun used to minister in an industrial estate out of town. Now, he and his congregation have done up an old building in the city, to serve a growing Romanian Orthodox Church.

While some push to make owning an electric car in the city easier by adding more charge points, residents of Parkview Avenue recently saw theirs pulled.

Joan Rogers holds dominion over a small organic fruit-and-vegetable patch, where she preserves heritage varieties, and helps to educate the public on growing.

As more sites are lined up for office buildings and apartment complexes, some are wondering how best to make sure that local residents benefit from the work it will bring.

Plans for the Poolbeg SDZ would make 10% of 3,500 homes social housing. Councillors want to double or triple that, and add affordable housing too. They’re preparing for a showdown.

A historian hopes to make them searchable, so Dubliners can easily find out whether their relatives were arrested in 1905-18.

Three of photographer David Thomas Smith’s works are currently on display at the gallery in Temple Bar, part of a series inspired by a message sent into space.

At the back of Frank Ryan’s pub, a blue gazebo offers fresh, hot pizzas for vegetarians, vegans, and meat eaters.

Part of the facade was apparently removed just before councillors voted to start the process of putting the building on the list of protected structures.

Local residents and councillors say they weren’t warned of the changes, and don’t really understand the rationale for them.

“The more people painting signs the better,” says Vanessa Power, the instructor. The next two-day workshop is this weekend.

A shortage of space means that some have been making films and series in warehouses. But during an acute housing shortage, is now the time to be giving land over to film studios?

Within the short space of 18 months, three of Will St Leger’s friends were diagnosed with HIV. He is curating an exhibit on 15 June, to highlight calls for a pill which lowers the risk of infection to be made available here.

Every five years, businesses in the city centre vote on whether to pay a bit extra in rates and keep DublinTown. The current campaign is proving contentious.

Massimo Scaramella was trying to enliven his end of Capel Street with a piano outside for passers-by, but there’s no way to get a permit for that.

Councillors voted on using drones to tackle illegal dumping, where to put the sports pitch in St Teresa’s Gardens, homes for Travellers, and art studios.

When the new Luas map was published last week, showing the Cross City line, some wondered why trams won’t carry passengers from one line to another.

When kids throw stones that smash bus windows, Dublin Bus suspends the route for the day, which some locals says is unfair collective punishment.

How an eccentric professor built a hidden Howth swimming spot.

But how much do, or should, Dubliners care that some have letters missing, or are unreadable?

When groundskeeper Joe Tyrrell buried Bang Bang in the early 1980s, it was in an unmarked grave. A local business wants to get the Dublin legend a headstone.

One of curator Paul Maher’s jobs has been to track the timing of the bud-bursts and autumn colours each year, feeding his data into a European network.

On our Cycle Collision Tracker, cyclists have reported accidents and near misses at roundabouts. Last month, a woman was hit by a lorry at one, and died.

Elias Edge set up his store in 1917. A century later, his great granddaughter has put together an exhibition to celebrate its survival.

The university has brought in Garda vetting for students looking to join its access programme. Some say this will put off potentially talented applicants.

Councillors had €5 million in their “discretionary fund” to spend on whatever they want across the city. Should there be rules for how they go about it?

A Blackrock bookseller calls time on his store, after nearly 50 years.

Rana Kashie says he and his friends just want somewhere free to play a bit of cricket, but they keep being moved on.

FixJam is back, and the organisers are ready to help you tinker with toasters, sew on buttons and generally learn to repair things instead of binning them.

Have you ever noticed how chipper vinegar tastes a bit different? There’s a reason for that.

The Outlandish Theatre Platform works to bring area’s diverse residents together.

Lots of the debate at a recent council meeting focused on the impact of planned city-centre transport changes. There was also a vote on “freeing” cycle lanes.

While there have been conflicting reports as to the dangers of glyphosate, found in some weedkillers, Stephen Doody wants Dublin City Council to stop using the chemical.

Local residents want to see a neglected canal bank near Labre Park turned into a proper place to keep horses, and a space for horse-welfare education.

Fáilte Ireland has agreed to transfer 33 Synge Street to Dublin City Council. Now it’s time to brainstorm ideas for how the council could use the building.

At weekends, Andrew Heney and Michael Murphy string up ropes and practice walking them above the city’s canals and parks. Murphy has his eye on the Poolbeg towers.

For some, it’s always had a separate feel to Smithfield and Stoneybatter. For others, it’s only recently become neighbourhoody enough.

“It’s all about slowing down the pace,” says Caroline Orr, a curator at the gallery.

First announced back in 2014, the effort to get a group of households to build a home on a vacant city-centre site has been chalked up as good idea, wrong time.

By discouraging vehicles from taking high-speed shortcuts through certain residential areas, the plan would create a more appealing space there for cyclists and pedestrians.

When Kieran Mulvey gave an outline of his proposals for the north-east inner city recently, one suggestion was some rebranding for the area. But some wonder if that’s a good use of money.

Featuring five artists, “Still Life: Honouring the Dead” aims to challenge preconceptions about life and death, waste, and our relationship with animals.

Soon councillors will have the option of taking home more money if they submit receipts for expenses. But some say that’d be too much work, they won’t bother.

Members of the Dublin Dock Workers Preservation Society have gathered thousands of photos, documents and artefacts, which need a home.

Kie and James Carew’s Póg Mo Goal focuses less on analysis and goals, and more on social, political, and historical currents.

Co-founder Brian McNamara says the new station’s challenge is to represent not only what’s happening in the Irish music scene, but what’s being listened to.

Equality for All Pollinators isn’t just about bees, says Kaethe Burt-O’Dea. It’s also about people just coming together and sharing ideas.

Since discovering the art of fermentation in 2015, Indigo Micciche’s been experimenting with all kinds of ingredients. Now Micciche’s ready to share recipes.

Here’s how we tried, but failed, to find any of the winners of the competitions run on Pretty.ie’s Facebook page since it was started.

The issue, according to a SIPTU press release, is “a refusal by the senior management of Dublin City Council to resource an additional four ambulances to meet service demands in the city”.

George Stamopoulos points to the meat, rotating on spits behind him. This is gyros, he announces, as if introducing an old friend.

At recent meetings, councillors discussed a hike in the price of a leisure scheme for older Dubliners, whether a project in Scribblestown should be 100-percent social housing, and more.

When Dublin City Council released its vacant sites register this month, it was entirely blank. Some ask why the council didn’t at least list its own sites.

You can walk past Little Italy without realising that, inside, you will be welcomed with an espresso and aisles and aisles of the finest Italian foods.

Some visit the Meath Street grotto in search of quiet, while for others it is about faith and tradition.

It all started about a decade ago, when a few regulars asked if they could eat some of their favourite cheeses inside, with a cold pint. By now, it’s become a tradition.

Some buildings are so badly designed it’s nearly impossible to keep it at bay, no matter how much we open windows, run ventilator fans, and wipe walls with bleach or Fairy liquid.

Since it launched in October 2015, 1815 Magazine has come in all kinds of shapes. The last issue was a deck of cards.

Chris Lynch hopes greater transparency in the sector will push landlords to improve standards, and help those with a choice to make informed decisions.

Kurb Junki says his skateboarding and graffiti chalking is all about the engagement with Dublin’s public space.

Thomas Caffrey built his company on the Snowball. Decades later, Caffrey’s is still making the classic marshmallow treat, and still family-run – third generation now.

As part of the Designated Driver campaign, pubs and restaurants have for 12 years been offering sober drivers free soft drinks.

The postmortem says the seals’ injuries were consistent with an attack by a predator.

Luas works mean no big Christmas market at St Stephen’s Green this year and some argue that if it, and others, come back, they should be done differently.

The sculptor behind the now-armless St Andrew was also behind the statues of Hibernia, Commerce, and Fidelity that sit atop the Bank of Ireland on College Green.

Some of Dublin’s graveyards are filling up and one Dublin City Councillor thinks he knows how to solve the problem.

There are parking spaces on pavements across the city, but there’s also some debate about whether it’s time to get rid of them.

Bernie Walsh is planning an upcycling co-op and shop. It’ll be something like the men’s sheds, she says, but with sewing and selling.

Ellen Aveiro used to be a prison administrator in Paranagua, in southern Brazil. These days, she runs a community centre on Dorset Street.

Each year, the government compares Dublin City Council’s performance with other local authorities’. Councillors are sharply critical of this rating system.

For years, Mary Gleeson has been pushing the council to make her daughters’ route to school safer. But there’s one thing she hasn’t tried: starting an organisation to advocate for pedestrians in the city.

Last year, Ian and Louise Ó Maonaigh cobbled together an orchestra for a charity performance. And then they did another one. The next is in December.

At Dublin City Council’s arts committee on Monday, councillors discussed an early vision for a new interpretive centre for Bull Island, and several other issues.

In the Liberties, Paul Walsh still keeps pigeons, but he doesn’t race them anymore. Pigeon racing has had its day, he says. “It’s a dying sport.”

“We’ve met with one or two people just to chat about the feasibility,” says Richard Guiney of DublinTown. “We would hope to be piloting this next year.”

It took the Irish Museum of Modern Art two years to gather all the Lucian Freud works currently on display in a special exhibition, which include female nudes, but no male nudes.

Most cyclists run red lights, according to a 2014 study conducted in Dublin. But does it matter?

The council refunds 50% of commercial rates to owners of vacant properties. Is this the year that they’ll change that?

Spread over more than 3,000 square metres, the old mills site in Kilmainham has been empty since the year 2000. Plans for it have come and gone.

Each year, Dublin City Council hires a company to go around and score the city’s playgrounds. Here’s where they all rank.

Many of Dublin’s cultural institutions buy and display public art works without any input from Dubliners, raising questions about whether they should get more of a say.

Poor facilities mean that the club is finding it hard to keep boxers, and the coaches are despondent, says Edenmore Club Secretary David Moore.

The century-old carved heads above the doors of the Garda station in central Dublin were put there by a stonemason from Ringsend.

Dublin shops and supermarkets put out seasonal bags of monkey nuts each Halloween as a nod to tradition, but sales have slowed over the years. Why that is, depends on who you ask.

The team behind the Comics Lab are taking their comic-book artwork off the page and onto the stage.

Barber Eddie Wykes used to both live and work in this four-storey vacant building on Upper Abbey Street. It needed to be knocked down some time ago, he says.

Amid the grandeur of Baggot Street, Ismael Yildiz’s kebab shack has been sat for 36 years like a leftover piece of a movie set.

As the old flat complex in the north inner city is torn down, have councillors made the right choice for what will replace it?

A look at how the trials and tribulations of Temple Bar may help guide future cultural quarters across the city. If we need them.

Work is scheduled to begin Monday, 3 October to turn the derelict church into office space, and its grounds into a public park.

Jarrod Cuffe and Baz Gargan have experimented with 65 flavours – from lime to hawthorn berry – for their new range of bitters. They’re hoping to have them in stores in late October.

Work is underway, says Brian Montague one of the owners of The Legal Eagle pub on Chancery Place. It’s been delayed but not forgotten.

The fines are so small, and enforcement so slow, that it seems to make sense for companies to put up adverts without planning permission.

Edmond Sheeran first played for Shamrock Rovers FC in 1938. He was 18 years old.

More than 10 years after the idea of a statue of folk singer Luke Kelly was put forward and approved, there are now potentially two on offer.

Earlier this week, Dublin’s head librarian unveiled the latest designs for the planned grand central library on Parnell Square. Here’s what it looks like.

With seven buildings full of artists’ studios across the city, has MART found a sustainable model to provide affordable spaces for the city’s artists to work in?

Off Abbey Street, Dublin’s Turks gather at the Turkish Social Club.

Lord Mayor Brendan Carr said councillors will get a report, and a debate, around who leaked homeless campaigner Erica Fleming’s file. But that’ll come later.

Once popular with George’s Quay locals and Trinity students, it closed in March 2015. Now it is “OPENING SOON”, according to a sign in the window. Is it really, though?

As part of the IN PLACE project, 13 artists will work in or around vacant city-centre sites, creating works that fit their surroundings.

Some Dublin bands are opting to record their music onto cassettes rather than CDs or vinyl. Callum Browne and his Little L Records label is there to help them.

Several of the top managers at the council are expected to swap roles soon.

Residents say they’re happy that their kids now have somewhere to play. But there are still some outstanding issues, they say.

At Cakes N’ More in the north inner city, Venu Sood cooks up affordable Indian snacks from poha and panipuri, to fresh, hot samosas.

Local residents say there’s been an uptick in strewn needles and antisocial behaviour around the homeless and drugs service centre. But there’s no easy solution to that.

As a creative entomologist, Nessa Darcy wants to spread her love of insects through art.

When some local residents complained about dogs and noise in the mornings in Oscar Square Park, the council trimmed the opening hours. Was it too hasty?

A guy and a girl finish their meal, and the server automatically brings the bill to the guy. Is this sexist? Does it matter?

As the Repeal the 8th campaign gears up, some grandparents are planning to join the charge. It was, after all, their fight to begin with.

Promoters say we’re missing out on an eclectic nightlife because it’s just too damn hard to set up new and interesting events. Can we make it easier?

Some believe the effort is politically motivated as previous murals at the Project Arts Centre didn’t face complaints about a lack of planning permission.

The protests after Focus Ireland closed the hostel laid bare the challenges of balancing short and long-term solutions to Dublin’s housing crisis.

After Michael Barr was shot in April, The Sunset House closed. Over the weekend, Paul Gannon put up new pictures and flags and reopened it as The Brendan Behan.

“You’re dealing with huge trucks on very small roads that aren’t necessarily designed for them,” says Green Party city councillor Patrick Costello.

In Rathfarnam, a clubhouse is a focal point for three generations of Dublin’s Italian community.

Eric Nolan started to work in kitchens when he was 14. After years of slogging it out, he’s making a name for himself with his cakes and pastries.

Keeping the Nobel Prize winner’s former home as a museum hasn’t really worked out. So Dublin City Council is looking into giving it a new life, with a new purpose.

At the Darc Space gallery on North Great George’s Street until 9 July, an exhibition plays “what if” with the Phibsboro neighbourhood.

Wildlife expert Tim Clabon reveals the flora and fauna along the banks of the north Dublin waterway, and within it.

They tried to come for the amplifiers but they’ve settled for the backing tracks.

For the past four years, Café Delice owner Mustapha Kahal has opened his doors throughout Ramadan for local Muslims.

It seems like there’s a new one opening every week somewhere in the city. Is this a coffee-shop bubble? Or are they here to stay?

On Molesworth Street, James Gorry restores paintings the old-fashioned way.

On James’ Street, Christy Egan knows who needs oranges, and who needs cigarettes.

Eight times over the last two years, the lake in Poppintree Park in Ballymun has been polluted. Dublin City Council suspects the latest incidence was intentional dumping, not an accident.

After learning the trade in New York and London, Jonathan Ellis King opened a gallery in the White Swan Business Centre, targeting international artists and collectors.

It was supposed to be closed for maybe six months, for renovation. Fifteen months later, it’s still closed, and the company hasn’t set a date for a grand reopening.

As Ballymun Town Centre has withered away, it has left area residents with few places to buy basics. Should Dublin City Council just build a shopping centre there itself?

Consultancy Aecom’s first four proposals for the cycle path seem to have been miscalculations, so now it’s come up with a fifth. How much is it being paid for all this?

Customers come to Brendan’s Café from the early houses, from the flats, and from the nearby fruit and veg market for the breakfast. Inside, very little has changed since the place opened in 1985.

Dublin’s arts office says it’s now decided where €600,000 that had been set aside for the city’s failed European Capital of Culture 2020 bid will go.

Here’s what Dublin leaves behind after a night out.

So far, 280 streets in Dublin have registered to host street feasts. It’s not hard to join them and throw a party on 12 June, says Sam Bishop.

Some North Inner City residents say the council’s posting of CCTV images of illegal dumpers is unfair, and see undoing privatisation of waste management as the real solution.

Applications are open for a project to decorate, with themed art, the paving stones that run from town through the Liberties.

Spiked with lemongrass, ginger and turmeric, and naturally fizzy, Gerry Scullion is selling his unusual brew as a healthy alternative to sugary soft drinks.

Frustrated residents felt Dublin City Council wasn’t addressing their concerns about safety during Luas Cross City construction, and their lack of a decent playground.

The corner cafe on Coppinger Row and Clarendon Street looks likely to close there by the end of the month.

The Screen cinema is closed, Hawkins House is to be demolished, and Luas tracks are being laid. What’s afoot around George’s Quay?

On both sides of the Liffey, parents are fighting for playgrounds for their kids, so they won’t be cooped up inside or forced to play on the roofs of buildings anymore.

The museum has announced a €60,000 fund this year for bursaries, exhibitions, and acquisitions. It hopes to more than quadruple that by 2018.

“Empireland” by Mark O’Kelly is an epic allegorical scene painted onto ten metal panels. It went on display earlier this month.

The arts group has found a new space in Dublin 8, and is now trying to raise money to make it look like home.

Most of what was said at Monday’s launch of the College Green public consultation has been said before, but there were a few new details.

A performer brings an ancient Japanese art of comic storytelling to Dublin, as part of the Experience Japan festival, which runs until 23 April.

What does a forward clock say at daylight savings? “Baby, I’ve all the time for you.”

Here’s the latest on plans for a revamped walking and cycling path along the canal, and the challenges involved.

At the newly opened KEMP Gallery, the walls are given over to the art of the street. Painted at the entrance: “Regard the Art, Disregard the Rules!!”

As a kid, Will St Leger was surrounded by conflict. “I remember seeing movies on TV and I wanted to be a soldier without a gun,” he said. And maybe that’s what he is, as a playful, political street artist.

The members of the Irish Naturist Association think they should be able to swim naked, and our reporter went along with them to do just that on Saturday at a pool in Dublin.

Six Dublin City Councillors won seats in the Dáil in last month’s election. So far, their parties have replaced five of them. Meet the new councillors.

In the third installment of our cycling-safety series, we zoom in on a Portobello intersection that three readers have tagged as dangerous on our collision-tracking map.

For a sobering examination of Dublin life during its most bitter period, this is likely to be one of the more enlightening revolution-related events you’ll see this year.

From 18 to 20 March, you’ll be able to get your Dublin Bay prawns prepared every which-way. And if you’re not into shellfish, there’s always fish and chips.

As a child, CrossGuns Snooker Club owner Finbarr Ruane would watch his father at work repairing the tables and polishing the cues. Today, he does the same.

At Monday’s Dublin City Council meeting, councillors asked why they’d had to read in the papers what was going on with the modular-housing programme. Plus: renaming the East-Link Bridge and cuts to Young Ballymun.

In 1993, Tommy Smith decided to capture the many characters who passed through the doors of Grogan’s. He asked artist Katharine Lamb to create the first of two pieces for the pub’s walls.

This year, it looks like six Dublin city councillors will leave City Hall for the glories of the Dáil. So, what’s the process for replacing them?

In March, councillors will again debate whether there should be further changes to the bye-laws that govern buskers. Here’s what’s at play.

One of our readers asked why many of Dublin’s fountains seem to be suffering from neglect.

Even before councillors blundered and failed to pass a local plan for Phibsboro, some local residents had been knocking around the idea of inviting experts in to draw up a grand vision for the area.

In the last couple of years, Bodytonic has opened one pub after another, expanding into neighbourhoods far from the city centre. What’s their plan?

Fairview residents and councillors want to see Thomas Clarke’s home maintained better, and perhaps turned into a museum or community centre.

Having been commissioned to complete Dublin’s Last Supper, the metres-long artwork on Millennium Walk, artist John Byrne set about looking for Jesus.

Business associations, councillors, and cycling advocates all seem happy with plans for a grand sweeping plaza that aim to transform College Green into a glorious civic space.

Activists in Ballymun are pressing for more clarity about what one of the government’s housing schemes means for them.

If your dog or cat is healthy, it’s not that risky to have them around when you go to grab a pint. So what’s the HSE thinking?

While some clubs in recent years have begun to welcome women into their fold, there are a couple of significant hold-outs. Is it an issue?

Imagine St Stephen’s Green in swathes of fabric. It almost happened in the 1970s when artist Christo Javacheff arrived in town.

Grace and David Lambert saw the need for a deli with all manner of fresh and local produce. Enter, their new store: Bang Bang.

“Is there going to be anything done with Aldborough House?” a reader asked. “It seems a great shame to let it go to waste.” So, we thought we’d do an update.

For between €10 and €40, you can pick up pieces of art by great Dublin artists. And all the money is due to go to the Irish Housing Network.

You’ve probably seen John Coll’s work about town. His most famous? The canal-side sculptures of writers Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh. At the moment, he’s working on a more contemporary subject.

If you’ve recently found yourself on Dawson Street, you’ll have noticed the mound of rubble where a large office block once stood.

Dublin City Council is considering a plan that would provide for public toilets. But is there a reason we got rid of them all in the first place? And would we even use them?

The Vintage Kitchen, one of the city’s most desirable dining spots, has spun off a sister restaurant. This one: the Little Kitchen. But is it really possible to clone a thoroughbred?

The government, filled with anticipation of the forthcoming commemoration of the 1916 Rising, is also hosting a grand old statue of Prince Albert.

David Bell represented smugglers during the Emergencia, glimpsed John F. Kennedy and served as Taxing Master of the High Court. And he’s not done yet.