blog

A Special Collection for Little Readers – with Health in mind

One of the aims of the collection is to reassure parents that we have books in stock for them specifically, as sterile as possible if they are nervous about infection
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21 August 2025

Back to School Resources

To use a library resource, and to use it from home, you may need your library card and password.
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18 August 2025

Libraries: a lifeline for local communities

Libraries are one of THE most important gathering places in our communities. Not only are they places of learning and personal growth but leisure.
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26 September 2024

Library in the Community

The section’s main aim is to go out into the community and let people know about all the amazing things available in their library, both in branch and online.
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4 September 2024

A Brief History of Dublin Coddle

A traditional Irish cold weather treat, (all year round basically in Ireland), Dublin Coddle is considered food for the working class. Dubliners will tell you coddle is best enjoyed with a pint of Guinness and plenty of soda bread to soak up the juices. It was reputedly a favourite dish of the writers Seán O'Casey and Jonathan Swift, and it appears in several references to Dublin, including the works of James Joyce.A hearty coddle is made from leftovers and therefore is without a specific recipe (this leads to heated debate from purists and the new fusion brigade) and typically consists  of roughly cut spuds, sliced onions, rashers and sausages. A traditional coddle did not use carrots. The word “Coddle” derives from the French term “Caudle” which means to boil gently, parboil or stew.Apparently, coddle dates back to the first Irish famine in the late 1700s where anything to hand got thrown into the pot. The famine of 1740–41 was due to extremely cold and then dry weather in successive years, resulting in food losses in three categories: a series of poor grain harvests, a shortage of milk, and frost damage to potatoes. At this time, grains, particularly oats, were more important than potatoes as staples in the diet of most workers.Families would use up any leftover meat on a Thursday, as Catholics couldn’t eat meat on Fridays. Country people who moved into Dublin to find better work opportunities brought hens and pigs with them to raise for food. After a pig was slaughtered and sold the remains were used to make sausages. The sausages and streaky rashers were boiled up with root vegetables to make a cheap and nutritious meal.Indeed, before takeaways existed, it was a typical Dublin thing to cook up a pot of coddle early in the day and let it cool down for later. The dish could be reheated for supper after work, or a night out at the pictures, or the pub. Derek O'Connor from the Sunday Tribune wrote, "the fact that Dubliners have rejected it in favour of kebabs and takeaway pizza is a searing indictment of their moral and spiritual decay."I am inclined to agree.Why not check out our eResource RBdigital for Food & Cooking magazines. Register for RB Digital magazines or via the Rbdigital app:  Google Play - Android | iTunes - iOS | Kindle Fire. Watch our how to video for more information. Or reserve one of our many books of Irish Cookery via our catalogue.Or download the library app on your smartphone, check out the new Self-Service function in the app to borrow and return books in Borrow and Browse branches.
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17 October 2022

Dubliner and fireman Leslie Crowe

Leslie Crowe joined Dublin Fire Brigade in the 30's, married in the early fifties, and moved out to the new suburb of Santry to 60 Lorcan Drive with with his growing family.
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11 January 2022

Favourite Fictional Librarians

Librarians are generally well served within popular culture (albeit with one or two notable exceptions) as information specialists, champions of literacy and all round Good Guys
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11 May 2021

Fuel by Sean O’Brien

“I could have been more disciplined but I'm glad I'm not a robot like so many now.” In this sentence Sean O'Brien sums up his attitude to life and rugby in his no holds barred autobiography.
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10 May 2021

In with Halley's Comet

“I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.”
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21 April 2021

The Bridgerton Effect

Netflix recently announced that Shonda Rhimes production Bridgerton is the most popular drama they have ever screened.
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16 April 2021