The Ban Bus

Dublin is definitely a city with its own character. It’s truly Irish in all ways and not a homogenised society. So many capital cities are no different from the next capital besides the language. Although there are many peoples from many nations here they all seems to soak a large amount of Irishness.

The River Liffey that flows through Dublin is tidal and rises and falls every few hours. It seems we are right at the point of equilibrium between tidal rise and the flow of the river and we get a great view of the ‘garbage wars’ that take place when the tide peaks. A heap of garbage is pushed up stream by the incoming tide while more garbage floating down stream collides with the tidal rubbish. It spins and swirls then all join the flow as once again the tide and river head for the sea as one. Its not that the Liffey has any more garbage than any other city river it’s just that it all gets compressed in front of our flat for an hour or two each day.

Rae rang and wants to meet us at a pub near Phoenix Park. We head out and trawl the streets looking for the pub. Finally we call him and his directions have been completely confused and we are at the wrong end of Dublin. He had meant to say near St Stephens Green and not Phoenix Park. Taxi time. The taxi driver was an older guy from Summer Hill and the whole way to the pub told us how much he liked to fight at the football or pub or anywhere.

“Jus dive on in an av a poke and dig at any ol’ skull. Oh I love it I love it I do” he says.

We pay him and ask for a receipt and he pulls all of his receipts off the roll and says, “Help ya selves to one a deez.”

We tear off the bottom one and Mette notices that the next one was from a month and a half before. He’s truly been working the Dublin untraceable cash society.

The pub is jumping and has been jumping since 1739. It’s called O’Donoughues and is quite a local institution. Small, packed and loads of Guinness passing across the bar and three musicians belting out some Irish music. The atmosphere is alive and soon we are slopping down a pint and yelling at each other over the music and crowd. The musicians are great and swap instruments between them. There is no shyness here as spontaneously the crowd breaks into chorus with them as they belt out another Irish folk gem. A couple of American tourists wander in and just don’t seem comfortable with the closeness and intensity of this place. It’s a place where you push and are pushed, all spilling Guinness over each other.

When the musicians took a break I went and had a chat with them and told them about The Ban Bus and the treaty negotiations coming up in a few weeks. Would they be interested in playing at something associated with the conference and the NGO’s? Andy played guitar and banjo and loved the idea of getting involved. Maybe we can network through these guys into the Dublin music scene and get a Cailly happening. A Cailly is basically an Irish jam session and they are so full of fun and life it would be a great party maker at the end of these negotiations. The network is building and if you want to campaign about anything then hit the streets and start talking to everyone. It’s amazing who will get involved with a cause like this.