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Here is a small selection of stories available for young children to borrow at your local Library.  If you don’t see what you’re looking for, please ask a staff member.  Check this page for regular updates.ColoursTales from Acorn Wood: Colours (Based on the Tales from Acorn Wood books by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler)My First Mr Men ColoursAlphabetABC by Kim SeboldCountingEaster Counting by Barbara Barbieri McGrathHugless Douglas Numbers by David MellingTales from Acorn Wood: Counting (Based on the Tales from Acorn Wood books by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler)ShapesMr Men Shapes by Roger HargreavesLife ExperiencesFeedingHow to Feed Your Cheeky Monkey by Jane ClarkeThis is me, EATING! by Neal LaytonBedtimeWhiffy Wilson, The Wolf Who Wouldn’t Go to Bed by Caryl Hart and Leonie LordBedtime by Nicola Lathey and Tracey BlakeSpot Says Goodnight by Eric HillBig Enough For a Bed by Sesame StreetBath TimeWhiffy Wilson, The Wolf Who Wouldn’t Wash by Caryl Hart and Leonie LordTime for a Bath by Phyllis Gershator and David WalkerPotty TrainingPirate Pete’s Potty: A Ladybird Potty Training Book by Andrea Pinnington and Jo Dixon (for boys)Princess Polly’s Potty: A Ladybird Potty Training Book by Andrea Pinnington and Jo Dixon (for girls)It’s Potty Time by Tracey CorderoyIt Hurts When I Poop! A Story for Children Who are Scared to Use the Potty by Howard J. Bennett and M.S. WeberKnock! Knock! Who’s There? by Nick Pierce and ElissamburaNappy Duck and Potty Piggy by Bernette Ford and Sam WilliamsGetting DressedGeorge by Nicola SmeeFeeling SickBetsy Goes to the Doctor by Helen StephensGet Well Soon, Spot by Eric HillPrincess Polly’s Potty: A Ladybird Potty Training Book by Andrea Pinnington and Jo Dixon (for girls)Teaching MannersPirate Pete and Princess Polly Please and Thank You by Andrea Pinnington and Jo DixonThe Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson and Axel SchefflerSharing is Caring published by Dorling KindersleyGoing to SchoolHugless Douglas Goes to Little School by David MellingWhiffy Wilson, The Wolf Who Wouldn’t Go To School by Caryl Hart and Leonie LordHolidaysMaisy Goes by Plane by Lucy Cousins List compiled by Maria Sheahan (Librarian, Ballymun Library)19th May 2017 See Also: Check out the full list of books read by Ballymun Library Baby Book Club and books read by Ballymun Library Toddler Book Club.Ballymun Library Book Clubs for Babies and Toddlers.

Harry Boland, a tailor, originally from Phibsborough, but living in Clontarf was 30 years of age in 1917. He had been prominent in the GAA as a member of the Dublin hurling team and county chairman and was a member of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers. During Easter Week he fought in the GPO and was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in the Rising.

Summer comes around, the ground hardens, and the thoughts of many people turn to the playing fields of Clones, Thurles, Castlebar, and other venues throughout the land. All dream of a visit to Croke Park in September. These photos from the Fáilte Ireland Tourism Photographic Collection celebrate the lucky few who played in All-Ireland Finals in the second half of the twentieth century.

Dublin City Library and Archive and The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association presented a seminar titled 'Messines Peace Park: Its contribution to Irish-British reconciliation' on Friday 19 May at The Council Chamber, City Hall, Dame Street.

12th May is Nurses Day when around the world people are celebrating nursing, on what was Florence Nightingale’s birthday.  The Royal College of Nurses theme this year is #nursesheroes and one nurse which most definitely is deserving of this title is Rose Mary Savage (1893-1983), whose personal papers was donated to Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association Archive at Dublin City Library and Archives, and have recently been catalogued. Rose Mary Savage, second of three daughters, was born into an English military family in India of the British Raj in 1893. Her childhood was spent between continents, east and west taking in Northern Ireland where her father had connections. After receiving her secondary education in Sussex England she returned to India at seventeen to spend a number of seasons attending balls, festive ceremonies and doing the rounds expected of any young debutante of her age and social class. A keen observer and talented artist, she kept a diary entering comments and sketches of what she saw.By the end of 1914, Rosemary was newly trained in First Aid by Belfast Centre of St. John’s Ambulance,  and keen to contribute to the war effort. She carried out fund raising events in County Antrim in aid of the ‘Comfort Fund’ for the 13th Royal Irish Rifles over which her father had been put in command.Image: RDFA/107/026 – colour copy of poster: ‘In Aid of The Comfort Fund’Her application to be taken to Women’s V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Department, offering her services as a volunteer nurse was accepted on 16 May 1916 (See item: RDFA/107/027) . She served for three months with the Ulster Volunteer Force Hospital in Belfast and was then sent  to Rouen, France, where she would work with Number 12 General Hospital of the British Expeditionary Force until 30 January 1919. Her sketches of day to day life in the hospital camp were used in nurse-mate Olive Dent’s autobiographical work, A VAD in France published by Grant Richards Ltd., 1917.  While stationed at Rouen Hospital Camp she was visited by her father, who was commander of 13th Royal Irish Rifles, after the Battle of the Somme (1916) in which he had fought and survived. Both received recognition for their exceptional contributions during World War 1.Image: RDFA/107/008 "Night Duty" sketch by Rose Mary Savage.After the War, W. H. Savage rejoined the British forces in India for a while before retiring in 1919 and spending his final days writing about his life in the Indian and British armies. (See Item: RDFA/107/003).  Rose Mary also returned to India and married a Lieut. William E. Maxwell of the 3/10 Beluch Regiment in 1924 and the couple had a son and a daughter. They fled India just before the fall of the British Raj 1947and found a permanent home in Bandon, Co. Cork where they lived out the rest of their lives. William died of a heart condition in 1951. Rose Mary remarried in 1960, a Richard Lee. She ran a farm and livery business along with her new husband and lived to the age of ninety. She died in February 1983 and is buried in her local churchyard at Briny, Co. Cork. In St Peter’s Church, Bandon, her name is on a memorial which lists the local Bandon people who participated in the Great War. The Rose Mary Savage Collection contains 28 items including photographs, newspaper cuttings, reception programs, correspondences, group photos of V.A.D. nurses and medical orderlies, a short biography of R.M. by Tom Burke. The collection can be accessed in the Reading Room of Dublin City Library and Archive, and is also available online via the Digital Repository Ireland. 

What’s it like to eat in Dublin? As this image gallery shows, Dublin boasts a rich and varied food history that includes everything from haute cuisine to kosher pickles to a “Wan an’ Wan” by the Liffey. Some of the Dublin eateries in these pictures came in and out of existence within just a few years, making their stories harder to trace. Others evolved into cultural institutions, famous not only for their food but for their contribution to the vibrancy of Dublin life.

Robert Shaw was one of Dublin’s foremost financial experts, with his own bank, Robert Shaw and Son at Foster Place. He was born in 1774. His father, Robert Senior moved to Dublin in the 18th century where he prospered as a merchant and became the Accountant General of the Post Office. In 1785 Robert Senior acquired Terenure House, an estate of 35 acres – a sign of his growing wealth.

Listen to award-winning Irish author Sara Baume as she reads from her second novel a line made by walking, and discusses how she came to write this, and her debut novel, spill, simmer, falter, wither. Recorded at the Central Library on 9 March 2017, as part of the Contemporary Irish Literature Series.'A line made by walking' charts a young artist's search for meaning and healing in rural Ireland.

Booker-nominated novelist Donal Ryan and Patrick Kavanagh Award-winning poet Martin Dyar visited the Central Library on 2 March 2017 for a special evening of collaborative and interactive explorations of their work.

The Monica Roberts Collection contains mainly letters she received from Irish Men fighting on the Western Front during World War 1. However two Belgian soldiers also correspond with Monica Roberts, writing in both French and English.  Library Assistant, Finola Frawley has transcribed and translated these letters, and provides us with an insight in their remarkable subjects and contents.Sepia photo of Freddy Berckmans (standing) & José Verachtert (seated). Ref: DCLA/RDFA.01.08.039AFreddy Berckmans serving in D44 2/I of the Belgian Army and writes approximately 17 letters to Monica which span from May 1914 until 24 January 1918 . The letters are mainly written from the Belgian Front, though he was only 17 at the outbreak of World War 1 and was initially in training.  His family and Monica Roberts’ know each other socially and he frequently refers to friends they have in common. He addresses her in the formal “vous” showing respectfulness. The tone is one of affection, humour and deep appreciation for presents she sends to him by post – butter scotch, air pillow, sardines, fountain pen, watch, (pen and watch were both later stolen), pipe & tobacco, writing paper, knife, electric light, inkstand, waterproof clothing, chocolates, cigarettes. A friend they have in common is a Mrs Conner who lives sometimes in Bradford, sometimes in London, and whose delicate health is often mentioned. Freddy’s mother, like Monica Roberts, sings and participates in concerts in aid of the war effort and this is also referred to.In one of his early letters, Freddy gives a breakdown of his 24-hour shift on guard duty, 4 x blocks of 6 hours: 2 hours’ guard followed by 4 hours’ rest from 5 p.m. to 5 p.m. the following day. He is also doing his telephonist exam in order to go to the Front hoping Monica will keep his confidence and not tell his mother.  (31 May 1914, RDFA1.05.004)Studio Photo DCLA/RDFA1.09.018 of Freddy Berckmans sent to Monica Roberts. Ref. DCLA/RDFA1.09.018A (click to enlarge)By late summer 1916 his battery of artillery using four ‘105’ cannons are almost ready to go to the Front & he is very gung-ho saying, “I am very happy to be going to the Front to defend our dear little Belgium… I will never forget my promise to you – the head of the Kaiser, sitting over the piano in your living room while I sing ‘Are we Downhearted? No!’” (21 July 1916 RDFA1.05.007) The Belgian and British battalions in the Somme area seem to hit it off quite well and Freddy makes frequent references to ‘the Tommies’, ‘We are much better off here [St. Quentin] than in Eu. The food is much better produced by the chefs of the Front who have come to meet us. They talk to us like friends and are very nice. We have been wearing khaki for one week now, just like the Tommys’ [translation]. (21 July 1916 RDFA1.05.007)The learning and singing of English songs plays an important part in Private Berckmans’ leisure time, “I learned two more English songs. (Little gray home in the west) and another rag time” [30 October 1916 RDFA1.05.012] and ‘my friend [José Verachtert] shall be very pleased to get some news of you, we sing all our songs together, and he speak English very well” and ‘I should like to learn ‘Yacka Hula Hickey Dula’ [Hawaiian Love song written 1916] and ‘But you can do me a great pleasure in sending me the couplets of "Long, long trail" I got only the chorus, and I want to know it entirely’ [20 October 1917  RDFA1.05.015].A letter written 24/01/1918 giving the address as 55 Upper Mount Street, Dublin with Freddy’s signature but written by fellow soldier & friend, José Verachtert shows the two soldiers’ much anticipated wish to visit Dublin when their next leave came through was fulfilled, ‘I shall of course pay you a visit when I am leaving Dublin I think next week anyway I shall write you the day I shall be able to do so’ [translation]. Interestingly the listing in Thom’s Street Directory for years 1917 & 1919 for that end of Upr Mount Street ran: Nos. 55-61, “Vacant”. No. 62, “Belgian Refugees’ House”.The last we hear of Freddy is a reference to him in a letter written by José Verachtert to M.R., ‘‘Heard accidentally, Freddy's going soon for the Brigadier's examination. Hope he will succeed.’ [12/09/1918].José Verachtert wrote 30 letters to Monica Roberts between July 1917 and January 1919. Born in approximately 1894,  Verachtert is a despatch rider in the Belgian army who has spent enough time in London to speak & write English quite well. His family business was destroyed when the German army bombarded Antwerp causing the death of his father. In one letter he gives a ‘small report from the past few days’ in order to give a glimpse into life of a solider.  He describes vividly the destruction of a pretty Belgian village by German shelling from 17th to end of July 1917 with entries such as ‘July 28th.  Afternoon  Mighty bombardment during many hours with heavy shells; (one of them exploded four yards from the place where Freddy and I were working; we got a lot of ground etc. upon us. It was rather an very unpleasant feeling, to be buried alive!’  (29 July 1917 RDFA1.08.005)Sepia photo of Freddy Berckmans (standing) & José Verachtert (seated). Ref: DCLA/RDFA.01.08.039A (click to enlarge)He speaks a lot of the boredom of the trenches and suffers from depression, common to many soldiers on returning to the Front after being on Leave. He is also frequently worried about what he will do after the war and doesn’t want to be a burden to his widowed mother who is on the Germans’ watch list, she ‘is subjected to a special watch as they [the Germans] suspect her for having helped young men to join the army’. (19 October 1917 RDFA1.08.018)22/11/1917, He gives a run-down of his daily routine, ‘After wake-up which is at 7 a.m. there's breakfast; work from 8 o'clock to 11.30; then rest and dinner. At one o'clock potato peeling. At 1.30 tea break. Work from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. Supper & wash to freshen up. Then studies begin. Military classes, dry & tiring classes. I have already sat & passed the brigadier's exam and am preparing slowly for other exams’.And speaking of his friend in the same letter, ‘Freddy & I have been meeting up quite a bit this past while. Thanks to him my mood is still up-beat. He is a very dear friend and I love him like a brother.’In his last letter dated 31/01/1919 José says he is living in Anvers, but does not say if he has found a job. However he must have some means as he plans to go to London at the weekend.