The culinary exuberance of the Taste of Dublin festival continues this weekend at the Iveagh Gardens in the heart of the capital.
The country’s most successful artisan food fair returns its fourth year, with luminaries of the Dublin restaurant scene such as Chapter One, L’Ecrivain and Town Bar and Grill joined by 15 other leading city eateries.
Revellers can use specially purchased "taste currency" to sample dishes prepared by a host of Michelin-star chefs, quaff wine and beer from around the globe and enjoy live entertainment.
Tickets are available at the door or from www.tastefestivals.ie. Prices range from €28.50 for basic admission to €82.00 for VIP entry, €25 in food vouchers and access to the exclusive Brown Thomas suite.
Former boy band Take That bring their travelling pop circus to Croke Park tomorrow for one eagerly anticipated - and completely sold-out - night. Tickets to see the band, priced between €79.50 and €59.50, have been in scarce supply since they went on sale late last year. With up to 75,000 music fans expected, gardaí will have traffic restrictions in place from 11am.
The junctions of Drumcondra Road and Clonliffe Road, the North Circular Road and Gill's Corner and Clonliffe Road and Ballybough Road will be cordoned off from 3pm onwards while road closures may also be put in place on Clonliffe Road, Sackville Avenue and O'Sullivan Avenue. Concert-goers have been asked to use public transport where available to travel to the event and motorists are advised to avoid the area.
In anticipation of this coming Tuesday's Bloomsday celebrations, a number of events including lectures, documentaries and readings from the famous tome itself will be organised by the James Joyce centre, in conjunction with a number of other city centre venues, over the course of the weekend.
Highlights include the screening of the award-winning
Imagining Ulyssesat the Irish Film Institute tomorrow at 7pm and a lecture on Joyce's unique relationship with Chapelizod and Dublin's suburban fringe at the Dublin Writer's Museum on Sunday at 2pm.
Links to and information on all events are available from the James Joyce Centre on 35 North Great George's Street, Dublin 1. Advance booking can be facilitated by telephoning 01 878 8547 or visiting the centre's website on www.jamesjoyce.ie.
Elsewhere the Connemara Air Show, a festival in honour of pioneering transatlantic pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, culminates in a free air show in Clifden tomorrow at 2pm, while the South East Gardens Festival in Waterford enters its last weekend. Further details are available on www.connemaraairshow.com and www.discoverireland.ie respectively.