Stoneybatter celebrates with yet another fabulous festival

THE streets of Stoneybatter were filled with joy, smiles and laughter when the third annual local festival took over the area from June 21-23.

Now in its third year, Stoneybatter Festival is arguably the biggest urban festival in the city and it has been a resounding success in providing locals and visitors with great, and mostly free, entertainment.

Over 120 events took place in 57 locations across the three-day Festival, encompassing music and entertainment, food and drink, arts, culture and heritage, family fun, sport, and the environment.

The festival began on the Friday with the creation of a ‘wishing tree’ on the village green on the junction of Manor Street and Aughrim Street.

The Choir from St Gabriel’s sang ‘wishing songs’ for the recently elected new Lord Mayor, Cllr Paul McAuliffe. 

Open House Day returned on the Saturday when museums, galleries, local businesses and even private homes opened their doors with tours, talks and heritage events.

Festival-goers experienced tours of the former Dublin Metropolitan Police Barracks at 42 Manor Street, the Criminal Courts of Justice, Saor Ollscoil na hÉireann former home to Joycean characters Leopold and Molly Bloom, the Greek Orthodox Church, the birthplace of poet Austin Clarke on Manor Street, now home to violin maker Jim Beatley, and the burial place of the 1916 leaders at Arbour Hill amongst many more venues.

There was a Jazz concert at Thor Place Park and a Boules Tournament at Billy Edwards Park and St Brendan’s GAA Club held a Gaelic football tournament at TU Dublin, Grangegorman while Smithfield Boxing Club organised a boxing tournament and demonstration at Aughrim Street Sports Hall. 

A ‘Secret Cinema’ at Stable Lane was created with a great line-up including a special screening of the 1988 RTE Documentary on ‘The Villages of Dublin – Stoneybatter’ and an illustrated talk on The Great Hunger with Fin Dwyer (Irish History Podcast).

Secret Cinemagoers were delighted with the surprise guest, John Sheahan from the Dubliners, who played a few tunes following the screening of Starboard Home a documentary on the Liffey and Dublin Port. 

On the Sunday, Stoneybatter and Manor Street were closed to traffic to facilitate an action-packed Family Fun Day. Highlights included The Great Batter Bake Off with Pauline McLynn (Mrs Doyle in Fr Ted) and the return of the hugely popular best dressed dog contest, Woofstock.

Drummers from Burundi, courtesy of Lucky Barber’s Shop added a touch of colour while local Trad group ‘The Rakes of Stoneybatter’ had everyone dancing in the rain before proceedings were brought to a close.  

Once again, food and drink featured strongly across the festival programme and a wide range of local businesses hosted events and discussions on food sustainability and biodiversity. 

This year’s festival saw the launch of  ‘Where Art Thou?’, an innovative new exhibition of work by Dublin 7 creatives, which were displayed in the windows of almost 30 Manor Street shops from June 15.

Resident photographer Andy Kohn returned with his popular exhibition, Humans of Stoneybatter.

The Festival concluded on Sunday night with a party of music, song and dance for the senior citizens of the Stoneybatter area. 

The participants in Mrs Doyle’s Tea Party very kindly donated their cakes to the senior citizens’ party. Many local pubs held after-parties to celebrate another successful Stoneybatter Festival. 

One of the festival organisers, Cllr Joe Costello (Lab), hailed the third Stoneybatter  Festival a great success.

“Over 8,000 people passed through traffic free Manor Street and Stoneybatter on Sunday and all of the events throughout the weekend were packed to capacity,” he said.

“The Festival is a celebration of our local community and the creativity that surrounds us in the heart of Dublin 7.”