milltown bridge, canon, photo by sk. an intact piece of old dublin.

i’m very sad that bewleys have closed their westmoreland street and grafton street cafes. they closed for the last time at 1800hrs today. westmoreland street, gone. grafton street, gone. i have long lamented the demise of irish traders on grafton street. there really is very little “irish” left there. you could be on any high street in the UK when walking down it. pia bang and o’brien’s and butler’s chocolates along with a couple of jewellery shops are about all that are left. what’s going to happen to bewleys? the buildings are listed but we all saw what marks and spencers did to the old brown t’s building when they swapped premises a few years back. it is unrecognisable. it’s lost all it’s character. i dread to think what will happen to the beautiful harry clarke windows and the mahogany interiors. “you must see the harry clarke windows laura” (or something to that effect) my mother said to me one day when bringing me across the threshold for the very first time.

when i was flapping my fledgling independence wings on solo trips to dublin my mother would request sticky buns. the ones with the cherries in them. i have mentioned in another post how i would sit, completely entertained and mystified by the crowds and the open fires and the camaraderie between the ‘auld dubs. i loved going to bewley’s. but then along came the celtic tiger. their coffee was terrible and their food a poor second to other alternatives, so i stopped going.

but why was their coffee so terrible? and their food so unappealing. why did they persist with serving coleslaw? why did they give up the all day breakfast? why were their attempts to modernise so pathetic (to me) and unappealing (to me)? their failure to appeal to my fickle generation was perhaps their biggest failure. why did they fail so badly with that? why especially when their hotels are such a success were their coffee shops such a failure? we all took bewelys for granted. and now they are gone. had they asked say, avoca for catering assistance, they would be booming. they would be fighting punters back from the door. has bewley’s downfall been a result of their own stubborness and failure to change and to move with the times?

please please please do not let starbucks be the next tenant. please. their coffee sucks even more!!

via the register comes the story that apple are unwilling to sell bandaid20 at its standard price of one pound and forty nine pence. it wants to sell it for seventy nine pence (sterling). of course this isn’t an issue in ireland because we don’t have an itunes store.

but are apple going to charitably donate the 70 pence for each single it undercuts the standard price at?

nikon coolpix 3100

rugby match victories do not come much sweeter than this. and they do not come much later than this.

ireland 21 : 19 argentina

ireland behind all the way. until the sweetest drop goal ever by ronan o’ gara. the wind, the wet, the drizzle, the cold, the darkness of a 1730hrs kick off on a day of oh so much rugby, it didn’t matter. none of it mattered.

superb ireland. job well done. 100% record in the autumn international matches. before the match , the father of one of the ireland internationals spoke to my father (while i listened) about what a hard time his son had had, cooped up in hotels for the last three weeks. with only one day off a week. but oh, it must be worth it all now. sometimes, the short term pain is worth it. what’s 21 days? when you bring so many so much joy and you yourself must feel such a sense of achievement.