If you wander about Dublin City you will find the odd quirky shop neatly tucked down a side street. Here on Clarendon Street is a small antiques shop which is actually right opposite a Catholic Church. Whether God moves in mysterious ways in order to offer customers €35 antiques I don’t know. What I do know is that the window is full to the brim of gold jewellery. The neon sign above the door describes it as a ‘collectors haven’.

PS: Really sorry about the quality of the photos on these pages at the moment. WordPress is letting me down a little. Click on the picture to see a better quality photo. Advice from anyone would help!!

Is there any major street in the English-language world that doesn’t have one of these? A poor underpaid bloke dressed up like its -5C and advertising a Golf Sale that’s pointing this way. This is the only one I’ve ever seen in Dublin and it’s on the busiest pedestrian street, Grafton Street. Mind you, a set of clubs for €150 is pretty good…

It’s the Bad Ass Café in Temple Bar. It’s been around for years. It serves good food. And it’s famous for having Sinéad O’Connor as a former employee. In fairness, the interior looks a bit like a school canteen but the reality is that it’s good for a cheap bite to eat.

This photo is taken in one of my favourite places in Dublin (and one I would recommend to any tourist), the Market Arcade, known locally as the George’s Street Arcade. You’ll find so many unusual things from vintage clothes to gorgeous tasting fudge and from old vinyl to a chipper. And, as you can tell from this photo, you can always find a bargain too!!

This is John Kehoe’s pub on South Anne Street, just off Grafton Street. But this is the side of the pub that not many see. It contains an ornate wall with pieces of poetry from Joyce and bizarrely, Luke the barman. I really don’t know who has the most profound statement. Joyce says: ‘In the particular is contained in the universal’. Whereas Luke the barman says: ‘Within these walls, years have passed by; From the talented and famous to the apples of ones eye. All walks have tread footsteps and sipped the pint of stout. Kehoe’s with all its charm and beauty will surely live generations out!’

Yes, Joyce never really had that rhyming thing going on. Pity.

The inner workings of this café in the Powerscourt Centre are on show here. As are the sparse amount of pastries. Don’t worry though, this was taken late in the afternoon on Sunday. They’re usually all gone by 11 am anyway!! Instead, they’re stocking up on the Cokes for the next day.

I’ve no idea who Maser is but I really like this piece of graffiti on South William Street. It’s rare that you see something more than ‘Jez Luv Nat 4E’ as serious artistic graffiti. And on the other hand, I know when a bike needs to be attached to the railings but like this?!?

I’ve realised that I haven’t really shown the real Georgian Dublin. This is a good preview, taken on North Great George’s Street on the northside of the river late last evening. It’s a really nice street and even houses the James Joyce Centre.

Remarkably, Dublin is having really sunny weather at the moment, if a little chilly. So as the sun rises for another morning, I was passing the front of Trinity College. The statue you see in the foreground is actually 18th Century politician Henry Grattan, who graced the Irish Parliament building (now the Bank of Ireland, College Green). It was only this morning I realised that from the angle I was, it almost looks like he’s singing to the Trinity Front Gate…

Believe it or not this sculpture is right outside a restaurant in Temple Bar called, yep you guessed it, the Palm Tree!! Having been one of the first sculptures as the ‘latin quarter’ was being redeveloped, there’s a bit of a fondness for it among the people nearby. Just don’t go there on a Friday night… It’ll have a couple of Hens hanging out of it. Literally!