Summer Bestsellers Ireland August 2013

This year was one of the first that I did not go down the path of researching recommended summer holiday reads because, shock and horror, I didn't take a summer holiday. Two mini-breaks replaced it with  a few days exploring unvisited places on our own green isle which were sightseeeing rather than sun-lounge reading experiences and then a few days with house guests over from Australia which (oh thank the Lord!!) coincided with our heatwave.


But most summer read recommendations are always frustratingly too late for me. If you holiday end of June/start of July then UK newspaper columns emerging in late July when their schools break up are of no use to Irish readers wishing to make purchases to take abroad with them. Rant aside, the bestseller list week ending July 27th just published gives plenty of reading ideas for the month ahead even if it is just weekend reading in the garden or, worst scenario, in your favourite chair while it lashes rain outside.
 

Bestsellers Ireland - wk ending July 27th.
1. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
2. The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
3. The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling
4. The Racketeer - John Grisham
5. Things We Never Say - Sheila O'Flanagan
6. The Bat - Jo Nesbo
7. And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini
8. Transatlantic - Colum McCann
9. Inferno - Dan Brown
10. Unseen - Karin Slaughter
11. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
12. One Hundred Names - Cecelia Ahern
13. Guilty Wives - James Patterson
14. The Hundred Year Old Man ... -Jonas Jonasson
15. I Wished For You - Amy Huberman
16. Revenge Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
17. The Magdalen - Marita Conlon-McKenna
18. Mad About You - Sinead Moriarty
19. Second Honeymoon - James Patterson
20. Hunger: The Autobiography- Sean Kelly
(21. The Spinning Heart - Donal Ryan)

Dublin Horse Show - 7th-11th August 2013

The Dublin Horse Show is always a great day out for all ages. You can go for the swanky corporate option if you have friends in high places, the mid-level option of paying for terrace seats if you want to have a bit of comfort or rough it with the stable lads and lassies by climbing up into the corner concrete public stand at the cheapest ticket entry level. Needless to say we always slum it, putting up umbrellas or sheltering under a tree if the heavens open and generally getting very excited at the speed trials and when the wall rises higher and higher for the Puissance.
 
On the outer rings some of the smaller events are worth planning in to the day. Dressage events are always impressive as the riders so skillfully handle the horses. But dressage and show jumping whilst riding side saddle is rarely seen these days and is to be presented at this years show. Along with the skill of riding in this manner the demonstration will show a variety of different habits in the strict dress code and inform about the traditions and history.

Displays will be performed by a team of side saddle riders led by Susan Oakes from Co. Meath on her horse SIEC Atlas at the show on Thursday 8th at 1.55pm in Ring 2 and Sunday 11th at 1.15pm in Ring 1. Susan is the current world record holder of the British and Irish side saddle high jump. Another reason to make your way to the outer rings during this event is that it has been sponsored by Lindt and the Lindor team will be handing out praline chocolates throughout the entire show!

Discovering Dublin - Pearse Square Park

When you know a city so well it's great to stumble across a little gem that for one reason or another has remained unknown to you. One such spot is Pearse Square Park.
 

Located at the lower end of Pearse Street as you approach Grand Canal it is surrounded on three sides by Georgian terraced houses I have found out that it was built in 1839 and was then called Queen's Square after Queen Victoria. It may have been a private square initially but was opened to the public in 1889. The square was renamed Pearse Square in 1926 but fell into disrepair, described in 1939 as "a wasteland." It is now owned by Dublin City Council who bought it in 1996 for £1, 450, refurbishing it and reopening it in 1998. A bronze sculpture titled "Harmony" by Sandra Bell was installed in the centre.
 

It is hard to imagine as one walks down Pearse Street that all of this area is built on land reclaimed and drained in the eighteenth century after the Liffey was narrowed by walls and a quay being built. A swanky area in its time, with the nearby Theatre Royal drawing actors who stayed in the square when in Dublin shows.
  Theatre Royal

The layout we see today is different from the original square, the details of which can be read in this article from the UCD archaelogy department.
http://www.ucd.ie/archaeology/documentstore/hc_reports/lod/Queens_Square_Final.pdf

 

The other squares in Dublin are; (Georgian) Fitzwilliam Square, Merrion Square, Mount Pleasant Square in Ranelagh, Mountjoy Square and Parnell Square. Victorian squares are Dartmouth Square near Ranelagh and Kenilworth Square in Rathgar. Other squares are Belgrave Square in Rathmines, College Green, Eaton Square in Rathgar, Leinster Square in Rathmines, Ormond Square in Smithfields, Wilton Place and St. Stephen's Green.