Day one recce Dublin

The last time I was in Dublin was October 2010 with a much more intimate space to explore. That of Sonic Bed London for the Science Gallery’s first exhibition Biorhythms. Now I’m here with my body outside, moving through different sound spaces and on two wheels. With Emily Longworth (SG) my knowledgeable guide plus shining sun, it’s a blast.

By lunch time I’m already thinking I have a sense of the city having pedalled through curving Georgian streets, the calm of the very full canal, bang new housing offices fancy bars, cranes, road-works, vibrant and independent and old shop-fronts Capel St kind of low rise making me think of Westerns sometimes, the backs of the old fruit market, Summerhill housing, the Liffy and a whiff of the sea on the Eastern most harp like bridge whilst of course tackling the one ways and avoiding the hills and cobbles.

End of the day? oh how wrong was she. This city is huge in variety and the finding of easily followable routes is clearly essential to get a taste of it. Also there is a brilliant compositional core to all this. That of the writing of Dublin author Mia Gallagher and most particularly her 2006 novel Hellfire.  This story’s central character is Lucy who weaves you through her life as she’s coming out of prison on her way to meet the bloke who’s somehow at the core of everything that’s happened to her. With the sound of more than real narrative that names the streets and places I’m now cycling through, it’s rich.

Even better, I finally get to meet Mia tomorrow and we’ll be figuring out how to proceed.