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Have you ever wanted to learn how to sing or to play an instrument? Do you want unlimited access to the best in video-based art & music instruction? Would you like all this for free?If your answer is yes to all of the above, then we have just the online resource for you!ArtistWorks for Libraries provides Dublin City library members with world-class instruction through self-paced video lessons from Grammy Award–winning music and artistic professionals.From introductory to advanced lessons, ArtistWorks offers everything needed for musical and artistic instruction, as follows:    Beginner to advanced music instruction for the most popular string and band instruments    Instruction from professional musicians    Art and voice classes    Video-based lessons with bookmarking features    On-the-go learning with 24/7 remote access    Browser-enabled access for desktop and mobile devicesArtistWorks features these lessons and many more:    Acoustic Guitar    Ukulele    Harmonica    Electric Bass    Banjo    Piano    Percussion    Mandolin    Rock Guitar    Art    Singing    Flute Register for ArtistWorks at https://www.rbdigital.com/dublincity/ with your Dublin City library card number. 

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Séamus Ennis, the renowned musician, singer, folklorist and broadcaster who left behind, to quote from one obituary, “a priceless heritage of Irish tradition to the nation”. Inspired by on-going centenary events taking place across Dublin and at the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre, this blog briefly examines Ennis’s final years and death. (The bronze statue of Séamus Ennis which was unveiled in Naul on 24th October 2001. Courtesy of the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre)In 1975 Ennis settled in The Naul to live out his remaining years on land which had once belonged to his grandparents. A countryman at heart, he felt a strong attachment for the area and christened the plot where he lived in a caravan ‘Easter Snow’ (after the slow air of that name which he was fond of playing). He played an important role in helping to revive interest in uilleann piping during the twentieth century. While he continued to perform across Ireland and sometimes further afield, Ennis’s health gradually deteriorated during the period and he underwent an operation for cancer of the throat. An able cook who could deal expertly with game, as his health continued failing it was noticed that he began to lose interest in food.On the afternoon of Tuesday, 5th October 1982, Ennis passed away at home during his sleep. He was 63 years old. No inquest was held into the death, with the post-mortem examination taking place the following day. On Thursday evening Ennis’s remains were then brought from St. Vincent’s Hospital, Elm Park, to the Church of the Nativity in Naul, with friends and neighbours standing in the rain for almost an hour to greet the cortege, which had been delayed in heavy traffic.The following morning Ennis was buried in the adjoining Naul Cemetery. Leading traditional musicians had crowded inside the tiny Naul church alongside neighbours for the funeral Mass performed by local curate Father Malachy J. Mahon, who also officiated at the graveside ceremony. After the recital of a decade of the Rosary in Irish, broadcaster Séan Mac Réamoinn delivered a bilingual funeral oration in which he spoke of Ennis’s sincerity, prowess as a piper, and fidelity to north County Dublin and Ireland. This was followed by a lament – “Cois Abhainn na Séad” – played by Liam O’Flynn (Liam Óg Ó Floinn) on a set of uilleann pipes given to him by his deceased friend and mentor. (An uilleann piper at a Dublin Street Carnival in College Green, 1984. Available at;http://digital.libraries.dublincity.ie/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:42327)Since his death efforts have been made to keep Ennis’s memory alive. These include the renaming of a section of Jamestown Road (Finglas) in his honour in 1994, and unveiling of a bronze statue of Ennis with uilleann pipes in hand beside the newly opened Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre (now the Séamus Ennis Arts Centre) in Naul seven years later. On Friday 3rd May, a new Dublin City Council ‘Séamus Ennis Commemorative Plaque’ will be unveiled in Finglas at the site of Burgess Galvin & Co. Ltd., Jamestown Road.Dr. James Curry, Historian in Residence, North West Area.Dublin City Council Historians in Residence are available to meet groups and schools, give talks, walks etc, run history book clubs and advise on historical research. 

Dublin supported James II at the Battle of the Boyne, but following his defeat by William III, a protestant ascendancy resumed control of the city and began to forge links with the new and successful monarchy.  This process intensified after the death of Mary II in 1695 left William III as sole monarch. Dublin Corporation added William’s arms to the City Sword  in 1697 and in the following year, the king presented a chain of office to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, carrying the monarch’s bust on a medallion, which is in use to this day.But these expressions of loyalty were not sufficiently public for the City Assembly, which early in 1700 decided to erect a statue of the king, to be placed on a pedestal in the old Corn Market.[1]   From the inception of this project, the Assembly was aware that the statue could become a focus for protest by Jacobite supporters, and decreed that it should “be defended with iron banisters”. [2]  Two Dublin merchants, Henry Glegg and John Moore, who were on business in London, were asked to commission the sculptor Grinling Gibbons to execute an equestrian statue of the king in copper or mixed metal and a contract was signed on 9 April 1700.[3] In fact, the statue was executed in lead.  Gibbons was to be paid £800 sterling in four instalments: £200 on signing the contract, the same again two months later, a further £200 when the statue was shipped off, and the final £200 when the statue had arrived and was in position.[4] The Assembly then decided that the statue should be placed, not in the Corn Market, but in a more prominent location, in College green. It was also agreed that the stones of St. Paul’s gate in the city walls, which had been demolished by alderman George Blackall, should be used to make a pedestal for the statue.[5]  The statue was unveiled on 1 July 1701, which was the 11th anniversary of the Boyne (following the Julian calendar in use at the time). The lord justices, who were guests of honour, were “entertained by publicly running out some wine” – presumably so they could have the fun of watching the populace scramble for a drink.[6]  The event became a yearly one, with a parade around the statue, and volleys of muskets fired in the air. Some security was afforded to the statue when the city    Plumber, Alexander Erwin, was paid £13-0s-9d for “fastening the iron work around the king’s statue”[7] and this afforded adequate protection to the monument for the best part of ten years. This honeymoon period ended in 1710. The City Assembly was informed that on Sunday 25 June “some persons disaffected to the late happy revolution, did offer great indignities to his late majesty, king William of glorious memory, by breaking and defacing some part of his statue erected on College Green”. [8] In fact, his sword and truncheon were broken off. The lord mayor, Sir John Eccles, believing that the attack was fuelled by drink, ordered that a “strict inquiry be made in the several public houses what guests were [there] at unseasonable hours” on the evening of 25 June.[9]  The authorities at Dublin castle offered £100 for information and the city offered a further reward of £50, which was claimed by a local man, Richard Markham.[10] The guilty parties were Trinity students who were expelled from the  college. But attacks on the statue continued. In October 1714 a truncheon, which was in the king’s hand, was broken off and removed and in 1715, the year of the first Jacobite revolt in Scotland, the Corporation decided to build a watch house beside the statue and post a couple of sentinels there.[11]Protestant sentiment continued in Dublin throughout the 18th century. The position of William III’s statue outside the Parliament House, made it a focus of the Volunteer rallies which took place in College Green in the 1770s.  The Lord Mayor’s Coach, which was commissioned by the Corporation and built in Dublin by William Whitton, was carved with unionist symbols, including orange lilies to honour William III.  The Coach was first unveiled on 4 November 1791, when it led a procession to mark the Birthday of William III – a procession which took place each year thereafter.  Equally, there was a Catholic reaction, and in 1798 the sword was removed and an attempt was made to saw off the kingly  head.   In 1805, supporters of Catholic Emancipation covered the horse with a mixture of tar and grease, while in 1837 the figure was blown completely off the horse. [12] It is said  that Surgeon-General Sir Richard Crampton, who was a tremendous snob, was at a dinner party in St. Stephen’s Green when a distraught man came to the door looking for him and saying: ‘You must come quickly Sir – a most distinguished gentleman has fallen off his horse in College Green!’   Whereupon Sir Richard rushed off – to find king William’s statue prone on the ground![13] On this occasion the statue was repaired by John Smyth, whose father was the more famous sculptor Edward Smyth.(Plinth of King William's Statue)The statue of William III continued to excite controversy well into the 19th century.  In 1842, city architect Hugh Byrne recommended that the cut stone base and iron railing around the statue were so defective that they should be removed and replaced and the finance committee was instructed to do so. [14]  In spite of these precautions, the statue continued to suffer physical attacks necessitating repairs, which were conscientiously carried out: in 1843 alone, such repairs cost the City Council more than £73.[15]    But after the Home Rule Party seized control of Dublin City Council in 1880, this careful attention was not applied to the city’s statues and in 1888 they were reported as being dirty, with William III’s statue also being dangerous. [16]   A report about the statue in the following year, found that it was indeed dangerous, with the horse in particular having sustained several cracks with a likelihood of it falling into the street and causing injury.  The City Engineer recommended that the statue should be repaired – at a modest cost of £35 – and that a new site should be found for it at Foster Place, away from traffic.[17] It was also suggested that a plaque should be added recording that the monument had been restored by the Corporation of Dublin during the Mayoralty of the Right Hon. Thomas Sexton.  However, although the repairs were carried out, the statue remained in College Green.  Even though the City Council members were largely nationalist, there was no suggestion that the statue should be removed altogether and a proposal from John Erskine of Belfast, offering to purchase it, met with the abrupt rejoinder ‘The Statue is not for sale’. [18][1] Anc. Rec. Dublin, VI, p. 232.[2] Ibid.[3] Surviving works by Gibbons in Ireland include a monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin to Narcissus Marsh, archbishop of Armagh, and two in Kinsale, Co. Cork to the Southwell family.  See Edward McParland, ‘A monument by Grinling Gibbons’ in Irish Arts Review (Yearbook, 1994), pp 108-9.[4] Anc. Rec. Dublin, VI, p. 235.[5] Ibid., VI, pp 237, 239.[6] Anc. Rec. Dublin., VI, 248-9.  The lord justices were Henry Moore, 3rd earl of Drogheda; Narcissus Marsh, archbishop of Dublin; and Hugh Montgomery, 2nd earl of Mountalexander.  T.W. Moody, F.X. Martin, F.J. Byrne, A New History of Ireland, IX, (Oxford, 1984), p. 491.[7] Anc. Rec. Dublin, VI, 256. [8] Ibid. VI, pp 416-7.[9] Ibid., VI, pp 416-7.[10] DCA, MR/36: Dublin City Treasurer’s Account Book, 1651-1717, fol. 622b. Markham was paid £50 ‘for discovering the Persons that did Deface the Statue of King William’ but their names are not given.[11] Anc. Rec. Dublin VI, pp 540-1.  This pattern of attacks on the statue of William III lasted throughout its history. It was finally blown up by the old I.R.A. on 11 November 1928, the 10th anniversary of Armistice Day. Dublin City Council disposed of the shattered pedestal in 1929, as it was judged to be a hazard to traffic.[12] Cliona Cussen, ‘Public Sculpture: a cautionary tale, or Ni Neart go baint da cheile’ in Sculptors Society of Ireland, vol. 10, no. 4, 1989.[13] Frederick O’Dwyer, Lost Dublin, (Dublin, 1981), p. 27.[14] City Council manuscript minutes, vol. 11, pp 185-6.[15] Ibid., vol. 12, p. 146.[16] Dublin City Council minutes, 1888, item 180[17] Dublin Corporation Reports, 1889, vol. 3, pp 61-2.[18] Dublin City Council minutes, 1889, items 257, 281 

For the month of February, Rathmines Library will be going to the dogs, or rather, the dogs will be coming to us!  Tarsila Kruse’s exhibition, 100 days of Dogs, will be visited by 200 local schoolchildren, we will be running a Paws and Claws Animals in Literature Quiz and Canine Capers, two doggy-themed films, will be shown  in the library on the afternoons of 16th and 17th February.For schools, we will have some very special visitors to library. Their minders will also be along  tell us about the valuable work they do in the community.As a response to the exhibition, children are being invited to draw their own companion animal – whether it is one from a story, an imaginary beast or their own pet – and the best entries will receive a special prize.  The pictures will be on display in Rathmines Library during March and some selected entries will appear on the Dublin City Libraries blog. The closing date is 8pm on Wednesday 21 February.Download entry form and terms and conditions (PDF, 196KB) or pick one up at the desk in Rathmines Library.The Chinese New Year on 16th February will herald the Year of the Dog, so there could be no better time to celebrate all things canine with us in Rathmines Library!...and as if that's not enough to tempt dog lovers, we have a special display of books about dogs! Tarsila Kruse illustrates children's picture books, works as a Doodle Doctor for Children’s Books Ireland and runs Illustration Workshops. www.tarsilakruse.comHer new book, 100 Days of Dogs is about the meaningful relationships between dogs and their humans. The first picturebook she illustrated, Ná Gabh ar Scoil! was shortlisted for both the CBI Children’s Book of the Year Awards 2016 and the Gradam Réics Carló 2016 (Book of The Year for Young People in Irish).Search for books illustrated by Tarsila Kruse in our library catalogue. 

New: Healthy Ireland at Your Library service is now available in all local libraries across the country. The programme will enhance current health information in public libraries by providing new books, e-books, e-audiobooks and e-magazines on health and wellbeing, a wider selection of health information for all users, and through a service delivered by trained library staff for this programme. Look out for special books collection, online health resources, programme of events from January to March with a focus on physical health, mental health and health literacy.Health information - Guidance on access to informationBooks on Health and Wellbeing: large collection of books on health and wellbeingOnline Health Information: eBooks, eAudiobooks and eMagazinesProgrammes and Events: talks, discussions and workshops relating to various health and wellbeing topics (January - March 2018)All of these services are available free of charge.Healthy Ireland Book ListHealthy Eating     The Plan by Aoife HearneYour middle years by Paula Mee and Kate O’BrienMental HealthComing through depression by Tony BatesAn Introduction to Coping with Depression by Lee BrosanAn Introduction to Coping with Stress by Lee BrosanThe relaxation and stress reduction workbook by Martha DavisMind over mood: Change how you feel by changing the way you think by Christine A. Padesky Dennis GreenbergerAn introduction to coping with sleeping problems by Colm EspieMindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment-and Your Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn Assert Yourself by Gael LindenfieldMindfulness for Health: A practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing by Burch Vidyamala and Danny PenmanAlcoholEasy Way to Control Alcohol by Allen CarrThe Illustrated Easy Way to Stop Drinking by Allen Carr and Bev AisbettOvercoming Alcohol Misuse by Marcantonio SpadaGet your loved one sober: alternatives to nagging, pleading and threatening by Robert MeyersTobaccoStop Smoking with Allen Carr [with audio disc)Most natural and effective ways to quite smoking: Easy-to-do steps to end the cigarette habit forever by Allen DoePhysical Activity     Pilgrim paths in Ireland: A guide by John G. O’Dwyer    Up and running: your 8-week plan to go from 0-5k and beyond and discover the life-changing power of running! by Julia Jones and Shauna Reid   ParentingThe Incredible Years: A trouble-shooting guide for parents of children aged 2-8 years by C. Webster-Stratton-----------------------The Healthy Ireland Fund was launched by An Taoiseach, Mr Leo Varadkar, T.D., Minister for Health, Mr. Simon Harris, T.D. and Minister of State, Ms Catherine Byrne, T.D. on October 2nd, 2017. Healthy Ireland is a national framework for action to improve the health and wellbeing of Ireland over the coming generation. Find out more: www.healthyireland.ie/about/For further information and to provide feedback, go to www.librariesireland.ie