The Dubliner Magazine

1. Indie The Rathgar Bookshop
100 Rathgar Road, Dublin 6.
492 8600, www.therathgarbookshop.ie

How many bookshops do you know where instead of rushing home to read your latest acquisition you can grab a nice cup of coffee, head for the tranquil little garden out the back and get stuck in? Or if you fancy something stronger, try a glass of wine at one of their regular author evenings. Book lovers make the best booksellers and after 17 years in the business, Liz Meldon knows what readers want. A keen gardener, Liz specialises in gardening books and stocks an exhaustive range. EF

Top 5 Golf Courses

Portmarnock
History: Truly one of the greatest links courses in the world. Situated on a rugged, sandy peninsula north of Dublin city, once owned by the Jameson family of distillers. Founded in 1894, when two intrepid enthusiasts rowed their tiny boat from the mainland, changing this narrow, windy corridor of links land into one of golf’s supreme challenges and the spiritual home of Irish golf. Portmarnock has never figured on the British Open or Ryder Cup rota. The famous US sports writer Bruce Selcraig, upon hearing the location of the 2006 Ryder Cup, fumed, “You have Rembrandt...hanging in your kitchen, and in September you’re inviting 800 million TV viewers to watch your Disney World home movies.”
Playability: An absolute delight all year round. (Wrap up, all year round.)
Fees: €180/€215. Make friends with a member – it’s much cheaper.
Quirks: No women allowed. The Equality Authority is appealing to the Supreme Court.
Ambience: All the peace and tranquility of the Reading Room in the Kildare Street Club.

Portmarnock, County Dublin. 846 2968,
www.portmarnockgolfclub.ie

The Best of Dublin 2008 - Clothes

Fashion & Beauty

We just don’t have the money for Louboutins and Chanel anymore, so let’s get a bit creative. Here are some suggestions from our fashionisti for the best vintage shops, fabric shops, charity shops, and other great stores that will stretch our euro a tad. Of course, one also has to have a splurge occasionally...


Trendspotting
Circus
Powerscourt Townhouse, First Floor, South William Street, Dublin 2.
672 4736, www.circusstoreandgallery.com

If obscure labels make you weep with joy, then don your plimsoles and make haste to Circus Store and Gallery.  Fronted by cool-hunters Fiona and Damien, this post-modern, minimalist space is an altar to the ‘next best thing’.  Designs by Marjan Pejoski, Gaspard Yurkievich and Henrik Vibskov are all parlayed against a backdrop of white cement blocks which, come evening, turns into a funky exhibition space. The South William brigade knows to get its Shoreditch moments here. After all, hybrid is sooo this season. AOC

Charity Shop
Ritzy Rags
25 Bolton Street, Dublin 1. 873 1855

Of all the charity shops in the city – and lord knows we have a few – Ritzy Rags is the most chic. There are no drop-in donations here; all the gear comes in from Paris by the truckload, twice a year. The Friends of The Elderly charity is affiliated with Les Amis des Petits Freres in France, who are responsible for dispatching crates of clothes, classed as old, second-hand or vintage. Gretta Gray, the shop manager for 18 years, can tell her KWay from her Cacharel. She neatly categorises the merchandise into clear plastic labeled containers. You’ll find cassette tapes and videos next to socks and children’s summer hats. While we love rummaging for a find, it’s quite nice to do it in such an orderly environment. Even if you don’t strike designer gold on a visit to Bolton Street, it’s worth it just for a natter with Gretta about how it’s all about the right person finding the right thing. AF

Up the Duff

Go on you (other) boys in green

With news that paddy goal poacher El Keano is probably off to Merseyside, while The Duff is set to don the Ewood blue and white again, it's good to see that these two highly paid athletes haven't lost touch with their roots.

Sure, the Tallaght lad might be worth 25 million squids, and the sleepy one will be earning in the region of an African GDP every week, but they can still knock back pints while cheering on Celtic.

They're probably sneaking the odd bleedin' B&H too, god bless 'em.

The Apple of Knowledge...

... and the serpent

While our institutes of higher education are going down the toilet, American universities are going from strength to strength, with undergrads engaging in exactly the sort of thing they should be doing.

Like creating a giant game of snake on a dorm's facade.

School Dorm Snake Game - Watch more free videos

Before The Critics: Jody Ackland

The Festival of World Cultures returns to Dun Laoghaire this month.
We asked director Jody Ackland to explain herself

What’s your goal with the Festival of World Cultures?
We want people to get talking, to be more adventurous and to break out of their routines. Instead of going to the pub for the rest of the day after the salsa class, why not learn about West African griots, cheer on the poetry slam and then learn how to say ‘Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps please’ in five different languages.   

Top 5 Cocktails

By Derek Owens

1 Mojito Tonic
Children of the boom are a fickle lot. Ask the many would-be-publicans who have tried and failed to conquer Blackrock. Tonic is still going strong, even though it has seen a fair turnover of staff in the last year. Such change is rarely a good thing for a bar trying to maintain a high standard in its cocktail menu, but the mojitos here have held up admirably. It’s rare to call an upwardly mobile cocktail bar ‘timeless’, but the rum is good and the mint is fresh. Call it what you will. 5 Temple Road, Blackrock, County Dublin. 288 7671, www.tonic.ie

Best festival in Dublin? No, Ireland

A weekend of exceptional entertainment, the Flat Lake Literary & Arts Festival was among the cultural highlights of 2007 – and this year it promises to be even better. The festival will be held this August on the grounds of Hilton Park, a glorious country estate near Clones, a mere 90 minutes from the capital.

What to read on the beach...

Andrew O’Hagan 
The Atlantic Ocean

The atlantic Ocean is the name Andrew O’Hagan gives to this collection of essays about Britain and the US. It’s a collection of essays, most of them originally written for the London Review of Books, some about life in Britain, some about America, and handily collated under this title. O’Hagan writes about Hurricane Katrina, lad magazines, British farming, waste management. He also looks closely at the lives of two soldiers – one British, one American – who died in Iraq.

Fabulosity...

Simon Doonan 
Beautiful People

This paperback issue of Simon Doonan’s hilarious memoirs was first published in 2005 as Nasty – My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints. This was a) a reference to Gerald Durrell’s classic My Family and Other Animals; b) affectionately insulting towards Doonan’s own family; and c) potentially confusing – what are varmints? (ANS: vermin, and not, as I thought, an archaic form of ‘valiant’).