HAPPENINGS: A few things worth checking out around the city

Dalkey Bloomsday Festival

The Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre is hosting a Joycean Evening: A feast of Joycean Extracts linked by music & song, on Thursday, June 15 at 8pm.  Admission is €15.  A team of actors will perform enlightening extracts from ‘Ulysses’, ‘Dubliners,’ A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ and more. Baritone Simon Morgan and Soprano Donna Malone will be accompanied by Ronan Murray in songs that James Joyce sang or which feature in his work. Refreshments will be served. Book online at www.dalkeycastle.com/book-tickets

Belmayne Summer Fair

Plenty of fun is promised at the third annual Summer Fair at St Francis of Assisi Primary School, Belmayne, which will take place on Sunday, June 11 from 12noon to 4pm.

Bouncy castle, raffle, face painting, football, basketball, arts and crafts, games, music and entertainment and lots more! 

Admission is €1 and children go free. No pets allowed on the school grounds. 

GPO Witness History 

With the summer holidays just around the corner, what better way to keep your children entertained than a trip to the GPO Witness History visitor centre?

The award winning visitor centre has a special offer running throughout the summer, with kids going free on Sundays.

GPO Witness History boasts a treasure trove of historical documents and artefacts that will immerse kids in the cultural, economical and social contexts of 1916 Ireland.

Visit www.gpowitnesshistory.ie for more details.

Kilbarrack Summer Fair

North Bay Educate Together’s annual Summer Fair family fundraising event will take place at Greendale Road, Kilbarrack on Sunday, June 11 from 12.30pm to 4.30pm. 

There will be something for everyone including kids’ games, raffle, books, toys and bric-a-brac, face painting, cafe and cake stall, BBQ, international food and more. All are welcome. 

The cost is €2 for adults and kids go free. Children must be accompanied by an adult and supervised at all times.

Car Boot Sale

A car boot sale is taking place in grounds of Methodist Church, Ballinteer Road, Dundrum, Dublin 14 (just off M50 – beside Wesley College) from 9am to 2pm on Saturday June 10.  Gates open for sellers at 8am. Free parking in grounds of Wesley College. Cafe with light refreshments available. Prices for sellers is cars €20, car and trailer €30. Strictly no vans.

Bloomsday

The Bloomsday festival is taking place in various locations around the city from Sunday June 11 to Friday June 16. 

Celebrations include dressing up like characters from the book and in clothes that would have been the style of the era. One of the hallmark fancy dress items of Bloomsday is the straw boater hat.

The James Joyce Centre has been the organiser of the Bloomsday Festival since 1994 and this year’s programme includes themed exhibitions, walks, Bloomsday Breakfasts and Afternoon Teas at various locations and the Brennans Bloomsday Messenger Bike Rally.

Full programme details at www.bloomsdayfestival.ie.

Dublin Garden Squares Day

Dublin Garden Squares Day returns for its eighth year on Saturday, June 10, with a host of expert walking tours of Dublin’s historic squares and public gardens.

It follows a free morning seminar titled Squaring the City at 10am on Friday June 9 in the Irish Architectural Archive at 45 Merrion Square.

The Garden Squares Day tours on June 10 are at 10.30am at Mountjoy Square and Merrion Square and 12pm and 1pm at Fitzwilliam Square. There will also be events at Parnell Square at 2.30pm and St Stephen’s Green at 3pm. 

‘Zoo in my Garden’ children’s tours take place at the Natural History Museum, Merrion Square, at 2.15pm and 3.30pm. Full details at gardenguide.ie/gardenguide-news/16615-dublin-garden-squares-day-2017-and-morning-seminar.

Antiques and Vintage Fair

With over 20 years’ experience, Graham Muir of Belfast (pictured) will be one of many experienced traders from across Ireland and the UK participating in the Antiques and Vintage Fair on Sunday, June 11 from 11am-6pm in Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire. With over 30 stands, the fair will include expert and specialist traders offering all things antique and vintage, including fine antique and vintage designer jewellery, fashion accessories, and a wide variety of items for the home. There will also be a selection of rare coins and banknotes on offer, along with memorabilia and much more.

 Admission is €3.50. To find out more about Vintage Ireland, readers can visit vintageireland.eu or find VintageIreland on Facebook.

Down With Jazz

Dublin’s annual festival of ‘filthy foreign rhythms & divilish beats’ moves across the Liffey and into The Grand Social for it’s 6th edition on Saturday and Sunday June 10-11 with a shameless line-up of jazzy grooves. 

This year’s festival features sets from Riona Sally Hartman, Robocobra Quartet, Honor Heffernan, BigSpoon and lots more. Doors open on Saturday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 4pm.