Lois Kapila

Bottles in the post to retirees of some distilleries have fed rumours of pensions paid in the golden stuff. There’s some history behind the myth.

Dublin City Councillors met at City Hall for their November meeting on Monday night. Here’s some of what they voted on.

Many said they would support going back with a new plan to seek permission again from An Bord Pleanála.

Patrick Nelis visits the Residential Tenancies Board most days, sometimes twice a day, to argue cases for tenants. He didn’t always do this. He used to work with horses.

“Batter man or something. I don’t know what they call me.”

There’s an inflexibility to rezoning industrial land, wrote a Department of Housing official in an email in February. “Its been represented to me quite a few times.”

In Rebuilding Ireland, the Department of Housing promised an affordable housing scheme would be finalised by late 2016. Here’s why that didn’t happen.

In 2017, emails and memos from officials at the Department of Public Expenditure suggest they were unconvinced of the need for affordable-housing schemes.

There was low turnout to this month’s council meeting at City Hall, but the councillors who turned up talked about making Dublin dementia-friendly, tackling bogus self-employment, and more.

It’s trying to kit out the premises in a way that emphasizes a zero-waste and packaging-free approach, says Sam Toland.

The plan envisions a cycle lane buffered from traffic by a line of parked cars. How would people get from the footpath to their cars? some ask.

At meetings at City Hall this week, councillors talked about changes in plans for how to use council land, possible traffic changes around Sandymount Green, and the roll-out of more “hubs” for homeless families.

Most of the complaints to the council since the beginning of 2017 are still being looked into, and less than a quarter of the properties are back under long-term leases.

The rent’s up and Ranelagh Arts can’t pay, so it’s out 8 October and hasn’t found a new home yet. This is one more change in a changing neighbourhood, and one more lost arts space in the city.

We’re looking for a full-time city reporter to join our team. Apply by 7 September.

Dublin City Council is trying foam, flames, vinegar and old-fashioned weeding as it tries to roll back the use of herbicides in the city. But some are asking why weeds have to be weeded out, anyway.

“A great start would be for a developer to talk to the community,” says Tony McDonnell.

For years the council has been saying they will be made into apartments for people who are homeless. But that still hasn’t happened.

We want to be able to do more and better journalism. So we’re making some changes to our online edition and our subscription rates.

Within the first six months of this year, the RTB spent more on hiring rooms for hearings than it did for all of last year.

Michelle Boyle’s show “Outside the Urban” is on at Axis Ballymun until 24 August.

Because the land is owned by a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council-owned company, and not the council itself, councillors won’t get their usual say in whether it is sold at this stage.

It’s a smallish patch – but some local councillors say they’re against the idea as they grow more concerned about the lack of apartments and houses being built in the neighbourhood.

“It’s only in Ireland that I actually started, really started, out of loneliness you could say,” she says.

Some of the other depot sites could be used for social and affordable housing, a report to councillors says.

From a hole in the kitchen wall to drips from the ceiling, over the years Rita Cahill has catalogued an array of problems with her home, built as part of the Ballymun regeneration.

In his memoir, Seamus Kelly – founder of the Ballymun Concrete News – sets about convincing journalists and publishers of the need for positive news. It’s a hard sell, right now.

Even though it’s a busy shopping street, Meath Street in the south-inner city has just one lonely bin.

At a recent meeting, councillors for the north-west of the city talked about road closures, the campaign for a new school, and delayed social housing.

As a major landowner, state-owned Córas Impair Éireann (CIÉ) is helping to shape the city. But is it acting in the interests of all?

“There’s a lot of money being spent and we can’t find out what’s happened,” says Una Caulfield of the Griffith Avenue and District Residents’ Association.

Skein Press want “new, fresh thought-provoking writing”, says Gráinne Shanley O’Toole, one of the founders. They just launched their first book.

Genna Patterson and Kevin Murray say they wanted to flag how the rent had gone up in their old apartment, but were frustrated by the rules.

Iness and Michel Lunga went to the council, the RTB and the Gardaí for help, but last week had to move out. A previous tenant says he went through something similar.

While the emergency hostel at Lefroy House has evolved over the years, some say they’re still concerned that teenagers have to leave during the day – and that some are there too long.

We’re very pleased to be launching Counciltracker.ie today, which will let you quickly and easily see what issues your local councillors have been voting on, and how.

A “cost-rental” pilot project may deliver two-beds at a cost far below what’s on the market, says Housing Agency CEO John O’Connor.

The council says it wants mixed neighbourhoods so it tries to gets its slice of “Part V” social housing on-site in new developments. Costs mean it’s looking to relax that.

We’re getting there. Thanks to those who have supported this project so far!

Great news, thanks to 72 supporters, as of 30 March, we now have enough to pay a market-research firm to do this survey. Thanks everyone! We’ll get to work.

Perhaps, it’s time to try to revive a pedestrian lobby, some say.

The landowners lobbied for the change and told councillors they plan to develop affordable housing there. Some councillors worry they’ll just flip it once its value rises.

With help from Dubliners and the Space Engagers app, the Peter McVerry Trust hopes to identify and bring back into use 45 vacant homes by 2020.

In one part of the north inner city, more than 35 percent of households had more than one person per room. And more than 8 percent had more than 2.5 people per room. Guess which?

These companies are paying for adverts to run next to a Mail Online article exploiting the difficulties of a grieving, troubled woman. Is this really the kind of thing they want to associate their brands with?

Since 2006, the team has worked with 432 students. Of those, 386 have graduated at least once, and the rest are studying at the moment.

On Sunday 25 March, we’re going to spend the day uploading data on how Dublin councillors have voted on key issues into a new council-tracker site. If you can spare the time, we’d love some help.

One is the song of a broken-hearted bachelor. Another speaks to the trials of being an international student.

We’re looking for a full-time city reporter to join our team based in Kilmainham. Apply by 21 February.

Most councillors voted against Mannix Flynn’s motion to call for an end to the Artane Band as it is now, but he said that wasn’t the end. “This is going to go on,” he told them.

At their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors approved plans to set up a new “cultural company”, discussed new rules for market-stall traders, and bade farewell to a senior council official.

Decades of research has suggested that children from lower income backgrounds have something of a word gap, compared to their privileged peers. For the last 10 years, a programme in the Docklands has been trying to tackle that.

The Department of Housing wouldn’t give a breakdown of how much each council built in 2017, making it harder to verify. But we’ve pieced some together.

The vision of CORE Ballymun is for a modern streetscape with affordable housing and retail, the profits from which would go back into the community. But it needs council support to become real.

On Monday evening, Chief Executive Owen Keegan presented councillors with the targets by which the council will measure whether it’s doing a good job delivering services.

A Dublin City Council spokesperson said the council intends to put in 1,000 more stands over the coming year. Where are they needed most?

It can be a hassle to chase down whether a landlord does actually sell up when they say they plan to. So let us check for you.

So far, cyclists have marked 62 collisions with Luas tracks on our Cycle Collision tracker. These accidents are clustered in three areas in the city centre.

Councillors didn’t get through all of their agenda at Monday’s full council meeting, so they’ll have to come back to finish it later this month. But here’s some of what they discussed.

Have you spotted a promise made by a politician that you really want us to track? Let us know and we’ll put it on our 2018 “They Said What?” calendar.

A chunk of the new social housing that the government has delivered in recent years has been from one source: “voids”, vacant homes that have been refurbished. But some are confused by the figures.

Winnie Mc Donagh opens up her home to teach young Traveller mothers what she knows about baby massage.

We would like to talk to renters who have had to move when the government closed their homes for being overcrowded and/or substandard.

Here’s some of what Dublin councillors discussed at November’s monthly council meeting.

At this month’s housing committee meeting, councillors discussed the idea of tearing down thousands of homes in aging social-housing complexes and replacing them with new builds, among other issues.

Some argue that Iveagh Gardens should remain cloistered and quiet. Others say that making it more accessible would benefit Dubliners and restore it to the original vision.

At Monday’s monthly meeting, councillors questioned Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy on current policies – before moving on to their usual business.

Twice a month, they park up – one evening in Sandymount, the other in Clontarf – and invite people to look more closely at the skies above the city.

Several homeless Dubliners have pitched up in tents along the Royal Canal and say its safer than the alternatives. But they’ve been told they have to move on.

Oppermann Associates, which was also the architect on the troubled Priory Hall development, was architect on at least one of the schools recently found to have fire-safety defects.

At City Hall on Monday, councillors criticised Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy for not showing up, talked about setting up an RTB for social housing tenants, and more.

A rapid-build structure put up by Western Building Systems, the NSAI inspected it in 2009, and since 2014 it has been embroiled in a court case.

Imagine you’ve invested in land in Dublin. How might government policies affect whether you hoard it or not? Play our game to see. Illustrations by Aidan Harte.

The Office of the Information Commissioner has ruled that the Department of Education must release fire-safety reports for a number of schools. The department has four weeks to appeal.

We’re taking a week off so there’ll be no edition on 23 August, but we’ll be back the week after.

Government LIHAF subsidies to private developers, meant in part to produce affordable housing, might produce a 0.5 percent discount on a €470,000 home.

Matthew Johnston’s YIMBYism (Yes-In-My-Back-Yardism) is pro-development, pro-density, But the former Facebook worker is still thinking through the details – and the limits – of these stances.

Through classes and commissions, Jordan McQuaid is sharing what he has learnt about the flexible art of silk-screen printing.

A group of entrepreneurial Dubliners are eyeing up the land at St Michael’s Estate for a different kind of affordable housing, built through a community land trust.

Yesterday, members of the group I BIKE Dublin lined up for a second time to physically block vehicles from parking in city cycle lanes, so cyclists could use them.

At recent meetings, Dublin City Councillors discussed regulating bicycle-hire schemes, the 1,000-home St Teresa’s Gardens redevelopment, street-sign design, and more.

Dublin city councillors voted to set up a group to look at solutions to damp and condensation, and learnt that they have partial access to social-housing-list details.

Most journalists would agree that the default position should be to name those we quote in our articles. But government spokespeople resist this, insisting on anonymity.

Councillors in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown want more details on how affordable homes will be on a site in Cherrywood that’s been allocated part of a €200 million government fund.

While details of what might be named, or renamed, are yet to be decided, the majority of councillors voted in favour of the idea.

In this book, which offers lessons for Dublin, Peter Moskowitz looks at the growing inequality of American cities – and how planning and housing policies have pushed aside the poorest.

Hugh Brennan says that the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance has the capacity to scale up.

The government has chosen the housing projects that will get LIHAF money, which requires developers to commit to some affordability. But it seems it doesn’t have final agreements on how much.

Since 2008, the number of Dublin City Council employees has been slashed by 23 percent. On Monday, councillors met with management about how this affects services.

At meetings this week, councillors discussed where exactly “family hubs” for homeless families will be, and settled on social and affordable housing figures for Poolbeg West.

Dublin City Councillors discussed one proposed housing project near Kildonan Road and another in Scribblestown, as well as a historians-in-residence initiative.

In votes over the National Maternity Hospital and whether or not to fly the Palestinian flag over City Hall, councillors grappled with the question of when they should recuse themselves from the chamber.

What should you do if you’re a tenant caught between a landlord and a vulture fund, like Ivan Budanov?

Jamshid Kamvar has been working for almost 20 years to change how Dubliners see kebabs. Now, he’s hoping to roll out more restaurants.

When fire broke out at 1/2 Mountjoy Square in February, some pointed to a history of planning complaints at the property.

We want to understand the reasons given for tenants’ evictions across the city, and whether they are legal notices. Please tell us your story.

Councillors agreed to a redesign of Wolfe Tone Park, backed public-private partnerships to build social housing, and discussed the number of rough-sleepers.

Do you live in Ireland and have a love story to share? Writer Henry Martin is looking for unusual love stories to adapt for the theatre.

Livia Paldi has taken up her post during a time of reflection at the 50-year-old art institution.

The soundtrack in a restaurant can affect everything from how long people linger, to how much they drink, to what the food tastes like to them.

Councillors questioned the bill for Ballyfermot Leisure Centre, discussed excavations of St Thomas’ Abbey, and learnt about plans for Francis St.

In the last 50 years, “Laocoön and his Sons” has gone from a centrepiece of art education to a piece of furniture in the student union. What’s the story?

At Monday’s monthly meeting, councillors heard again about the future of the fire brigade, questioned a plank of the social-housing plan that includes PPPs, and more.

If you’re looking for something a bit more secure than email, here are some options.

Do you have a call-centre job which requires you to work from a desk alone at home? We’d like to hear more about your experiences.

This documentary weaves together candid footage and interviews to build up a story of the regeneration, exploring what was lost as the towers came down.

Some councillors are wary about whether the council’s strategy for moving homeless families from hotels by 1 July is going work.

At their monthly housing committee meeting, councillors talked about plans to further research the impact of Airbnb on the housing market, and more.

While Admiral bills itself as a mainly Russian restaurant, the menu includes Eastern European dishes, as well as some from the Caucuses and Central Asia.

Here’s some of what was discussed when councillors met for their monthly meeting on Monday 6 February.

Here are 52 pages of documents we got under FOIA, about the €1.6 million funding package meant to address the neglect of parts of the north-east inner city.

Some councillors argue that Dublin City Council carries out unnecessary and costly works on vacant council homes, when they’re in decent condition and tenants are eager to move in.

At several spots around the city centre, cyclists have trapped their wheels in the Luas tracks near site works, leaving them with injuries.

Young people aged 10–14 who live or study in Dublin’s inner-city area are invited to submit stories by midnight on 31 March 2017.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve each year, family and friends gather to watch the date change on the arch at St James’s Gate.

At the meeting Monday, councillors discussed whether to progress their flagship house-building plan, and ideas for whether, and how, to assist cafe culture.

One idea in the redesign is to lay a smooth strip through the cobblestones on some streets to make it easier for cyclists and people in wheelchairs to navigate the neighbourhood.

For more than a year now, DCC Beta Projects has been on hold. “The council talks about citizen engagement, but this was actually doing it,” one councillor said.

At their last monthly meeting of the year, councillors approved by-laws for speed limits, sold some Priory Hall flats, and debated swallowing part of Fingal.

There aren’t delays at the Department of Housing right now, Keegan told councillors. The council is slow in getting projects to the department for approval.

Like many buildings across the city, the historic pub has been left vacant and allowed to crumble. The developer says it’s no longer possible to preserve it.

Councillors voted in favour of four new adverts in the south-east of the city to help fund DublinBikes, and said they were frustrated they hadn’t been kept in the loop about a new homeless hostel in the Liberties.

An internal investigation said staff all knew how to handle data under data-protection legislation, and didn’t break those rules.

In the debate around the latest, and earlier visions, for Moore Street, the voices of the small business owners in the neighbourhood – many of them immigrants – are missing.

At last week’s Dublin City Council housing committee meeting, councillors discussed who’s monitoring homeless services and how to make sure you aren’t removed from the social housing list.

There’s a big patch of dirt in the middle of the Bridgefoot Street allotments that Richard Taplin would love to see more groups and individuals use.

At this month’s full council meeting, councillors debated whether to ask RTÉ for some of its land for housing, the cost of cutting the grass, and more.

It’s about “combating the social stigma, empowering women, and demystifying our bodies”, says the zine’s editor, Michelle Powell.

“We don’t want to really have this us-and-them thing against the council. We would love to come together,” says Phili Halton.

Lots of those pet peeves you have about walking around, or hanging around, in the city’s centre? The council has a new long-term plan to tackle them.

A Dublin City Councillor who is also a member of the museum’s board proposed that the council give a once-off payment to the museum. She argues that this doesn’t present a conflict of interest.

Across Dublin, rough sleepers have given up on calling the “homeless freephone” to get a spot in a hostel for the night. There’s no point, they say.

From now until 10 December, a grassroots project is exhibiting memories and mementos that celebrate and explore the history of the Oliver Bond Flats.

At Monday’s meeting, Dublin City Council Chief Owen Keegan said there was a “temporary hiccup with funding.”

At a lab in the North Inner City, a PhD researcher is trying to work out how to use flours and extracts from crickets, mealworms and silkworms to make something yummy.

One councillor wants Dublin City Council’s parking enforcers to set up a hotline so you can summon a tow truck to clear vehicles parked illegally in cycle lanes.

Councillors spend a lot of time passing motions that are supposed to change life in the city, but many of them don’t seem to go anywhere. Why not?

The publisher of a book that wins a Costa Book Award category must pay £4,000, and if it wins book of the year too, that’s a further £5,000.

What’s the latest on the Epicurean Food Hall, unpaid work trials, that stretch of vacant buildings on Camden St, and the city centre’s free wifi?

In the latest in his Dublin local history series, Maurice Curtis tries to uncover the many layers of Temple Bar.

In this short film set in Dublin, Jijo S. Palatty offers a critique of segregation and its drivers, and an exploration of what he sees as the conflict between pluralism and liberalism.

Should we be filming them? Should they be filming us?

Yemi Azamosa set up the Fried Plantains Collective to make sure there are events in Dublin put on by Black women, and LGBTQ Black women, to talk about things that affect Black people’s lives.

The council is looking at putting up multi-storey buildings in the city centre made of stackable prefab homes. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about its first batch of rapid-build homes.

Each year, Gardai and street traders meet in the Liberties for an annual football match. “It’s a great rivalry,” says Joe Cullen.

Have you noticed that there’s more kimchi on menus these days? Aoife Martinho and Dom Breslin have come up with a local version they hope will catch on.

“No rent allowance or HAP accepted sorry,” said the text alert, even though since 1 January landlords aren’t allowed to discriminate in this way.

After two decades of writing, has Karl Parkinson’s time finally come?

There are several club nights for goths in Dublin, and one group has just added another.

At their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors got to motions that had been waiting 18 months to be debated: on sex shops, speed limits, and more.

Brendan Carr suggests that the city introduce plaques for businesses that pay the living wage, and says he’ll push for a hotel bed tax in the city.

“Vacancy watch!” wrote in Davey Donnelly, with a photo of an apartment block on James Street. “Vacant as long as I’ve been in the area.” What’s the story?

With its Naples-style pizzas, Dublin Pizza Company aims to combine the best of Italian cooking techniques with the finest Irish produce, said founder Michael Ryan.

In Dublin 6, nine empty social housing units might soon be filled. It’s taken a lot longer than it should have.

At the weekend, kids and parents and coaches crammed into a small playground in the neighbourhood to highlight the need for sports facilities in the area.

Dublin City Council spends millions every year on hotel rooms, B&Bs and hostels for people with nowhere else to live. And it wants them to know they have rights while staying there.

Here are a few of the key issues discussed at Dublin City Council’s monthly meeting on Monday, and who said what.

It’s not easy to make old clocks run right.

As barber Patrick Carr tells it, he can do two things: cut hair and speak Irish. So in his Fleet Street barbers, he’s brought the two together.

Here are a few big picture statistics from our cycle collision tracker data.

The scheme needs more funding, and councillors are considering both raising the membership fee, and getting more revenue from advertising.

RTE has said it will release a new diversity strategy in the coming months, but it’s unclear if it will lead to visible change at the station.

Cycle lanes, mapped: imagine if these were the routes available to cars.

In their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors passed a new litter plan for the city, disposed of a few council buildings, and debated whether the College Green 1916 banner should be dragged from the front of the Bank of Ireland.

Dublin City Council wants 25 percent of all trips in the city centre to be taken by bike, and it needs more ideas for how to reach that goal.

Last summer, artists got the chance to paint some of Dublin’s grey traffic-signal boxes with bright, beautiful designs. If you kicked yourself for missing out, you’ve got another chance to apply now, for the next round.

City planner and rights activist Kieran Rose has found himself with more time since the marriage equality referendum passed. Now, he’s set his eyes on the Seanad.

Three-bedrooom houses in Dublin should ideally be at least 100 sqm, a standard the council held an Ailesbury Rd development to in September. But smaller homes are apparently okay in Poppintree, for rapid-build houses, for homeless families.

As the Luas Red Line glides through Dublin’s city centre, it passes trash-strewn empty lots, vacant patches, and boarded-up buildings. Is it ever going to change?

The decor is Indian kitsch, with colourful posters from Bollywood films and vintage Air India adverts on stripped-back walls.

Look what arrived at the end of last week!

You can get most foods in Dublin from the fermented tastes of Korea to the bean puddings of Nigeria. But there is a tragic gap in the city’s restaurant scene: there’s nowhere you can order a platter of fragrant Ethiopian stews. Why?

1. Are you for or against the elimination of the local property tax? FOR 2. Are you for or against repealing the 8th Amendment? FOR 3. Are you for or against the creation of a directly elected mayor for the Dublin area, with greater powers over, housing, transport and revenue raising? FOR 4. Who should […]

1. Are you for or against the elimination of the local property tax? FOR 2. Are you for or against repealing the 8th Amendment? FOR 3. Are you for or against the creation of a directly elected mayor for the Dublin area, with greater powers over, housing, transport and revenue raising? FOR 4. Who should […]

If you’re not supposed to spend more than 30 percent of your income on housing, how much would you have to earn to rent a one-bedroom apartment?

A selection of Seamus Kelly’s photographs from a decade of publishing the “Ballymun Concrete News” are on display at Axis: Ballymun until the end of March.

Just when you thought you had all the coffee-related paraphernalia that you could need, Andrew Douglas of Urban Farm has plans to launch a new kit to help you grow food on your grounds.

If the route to fixing the housing crisis is all about adding supply, it’s not looking too good.

If you want to know how your local councillors have voted in meetings at City Hall, you can search our database. We’re working on loading up more votes, so let us know what you’d like to see included.

On Parnell Square, a group of dedicated students attend each week to learn how to listen to classical music. Some have been turning up for more than two decades.

At the moment, about 120 creatives from web developers to performers work in the Block T building on all kinds of projects. They’re looking for a new home.

As of late on Tuesday night, 20 organisations had filed returns to say that they lobbied Dublin city officials or councillors in the last months of 2015.

The Capel on Little Green Street reopened about three weeks ago after a refurb. So what’s it like now on a Saturday morning?

Promising Muslims a “New Golden Age of Islam” if they immigrate to Ireland, a website and linked Facebook account have generated some rather heated discussions online recently.

At their monthly meeting on Monday, councillors voted to press ahead with the first major Dublin City Council housing project since the economic crash.

Dublin City Council has filled its Cycling and Walking Promotion Officer position. We’re not allowed to interview her for the next few months, but here’s what we know.

Dublin City Council had its monthly meeting Monday. Here’s what happened with some of the issues we’ve been following.

“Never give the full truth. You should always keep something back. Always, keep the mystery alive,” says Bam Artist Artiste.

Ten questions about events and people this year. Go on. Have a go.

Setting a vision for the area is even more important now that the sale of the Phibsboro Shopping Centre to a developer has been agreed.

There’s a growing interest in exploring creative ways to make galleries more accessible. The National Gallery, for example, offers touchable guides to an increasing number of its paintings.

Dublin’s city councillors gathered Monday for their monthly meeting. Here’s what happened.

It’s unlikely they’ll get a reprieve, but there are a stack of arguments as to why now is a bad time to offer to sell homes to social housing tenants at massive discounts.

For the last five years, James David Seaver has whipped up costumes for Dublin’s greatest drag queen, but that’s just one side project of many.

For most women, periods are a short inconvenience. For a minority of us, they can bring weeks of depression, anxiety, and a whole bunch of other symptoms.

A general round-up on how things are going.

Do you wander around Dublin and wonder why it is the way it is? Do you have questions about its people, politics, parks, and landmarks? We would love to answer those questions for you, or with you.

A group of councillors led by Sinn Fein passed a status quo €803 million budget Monday. The drama was in the sudden appearance of €1 million from “down the back of the couch”.

At Monday’s meeting, councillors said they wanted to reflect before going ahead with the sale of commercial properties in Temple Bar.

On Thursday evening at City Hall, councillors are due to discuss some of the details of sites earmarked for modular housing.

We’ve moved!

Ponderings and progress so far.

Last week, we wrote about the dearth of information available on six recent appointments to the 12-member board of the National Transport Authority. Now we know more.

Dublin City Council has a new plan, which is basically the same as the old plan, to improve O’Connell Street. But should it? And can it?

Open meetings help to ensure better, more accountable government. Right now, council-watching can be a bit tough, but improvements may be on the way.

Both Dublin City Council and the Fine Gael-Labour government are moving forward with plans to bring in modular homes for homeless families by Christmas.

After a bust-up over how much should be in a community gain fund for Sandymount, Ringsend and Irishtown, councillors voted to ask An Bord Pleanala.

We’re seeking stories about Dublin superheroes for the Christmas fiction issue of Dublin Inquirer. Feel free to interpret the theme loosely.

On Monday, small groups stopped to say goodbye to the last of the Ballymun’s iconic towers, Joseph Plunkett. On Tuesday late afternoon, engineers began to demolish it.

At City Hall on Tuesday, councillors voted for a 15 percent decrease in the local property tax after a debate that centered on whether it is a progressive tax.

Pat Muldowney doesn’t consider himself an activist. But accidentally helping to feed hundreds of desperate refugees on a Greek holiday island opened his eyes to the crisis.

Later this month, Dublin city councillors will vote to set the level of the Local Property Tax for Dubliners, including, in some cases, themselves. They could reduce it by up to 15 percent.

The Abbey Theatre has quite an art collection, but archivist Mairead Delaney likes to highlight one in particular: the portrait of Annie Horniman.

It’s ramp-it-up time at Dublin Circus Project. Earlier this month, the non-profit group of circus artists opened up new quarters at Bannow Road in Cabra.

There have been calls to increase rent supplement rates to keep more families from becoming homeless, but Labour Minister Alan Kelly says that would lead to an increase in rents. Is he right?

The city’s traffic signal boxes are being painted, a handful at a time, by artists. The aim? To vamp up some of Dublin’s drab-looking streets.

When Mary Oyediran believed her house was being targeted because of her race, she embarked on a day-long odyssey.

The suspended-coffee movement took off in Dublin a couple of years ago, but it has met with mixed success. Some cafes have struggled to give away coffee.

On display at the Chester Beatty Library after years of restoration, the Tale of Oeyama scrolls offer grisly colourful paintings and delicate calligraphy.

Dublin City Council is set to discuss options today for working with private players to build homes on several council-owned plots. Councillors are wary of public-private partnerships and intent on construction of social and affordable housing.

Deputy Lord Mayor Cieran Perry talks about his involvement in the 1990s anti-drug movement and how the government needs to move faster on homelessness.

Illustrator John Rooney loves fiddly details. That’s one of the reasons he was drawn to the tale of Maurice the Mummy. All the bandages.

Politicians who successfully opposed the opening of a sex shop in Drumcondra say they want to ensure that adult stores aren’t build anywhere near schools or playgrounds. Would that effectively ban them from the city?

You might soon be able to get a permit to live on a houseboat in Grand Canal Basin, in the heart of the Silicon Docks. Or you might not.

Chef Farid Tadjine sells his sticky sweet kalb el louz each year during Ramadan at Camden Halal on Lower Camden Street. Get it while you can.

The government plans to reform the asylum system. But for those who have been in direct provision for years, it’s a struggle to move on.

Barred from covering meeting at which she was elected, our reporter found that many people didn’t even know who the last mayor was – or care much.

Dublin City Council has chosen a chair to oversee the millions of euro in a community gain fund for those living near the Poolbeg incinerator.

Dublin City Council Fianna Fail group leader Paul McAuliffe makes his case on the difference between his party and Fine Gael, why he voted against the O’Devaney Gardens refurbishment even though he’s concerned about the housing crisis, and why Sinn Fein shouldn’t get the mayorship in 1916.

Last week, we asked whether Dublin City Council should continue funding the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Here’s how you voted.

The award of €100,000 for an top novel is supposed to spotlight Dublin as a literary capital. But given that it’s now fully funded by taxpayers, do we want to keep it?

From his base in an industrial estate, Dr Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri is looking to carve out a larger space in the public debate for himself and his Islam.

At the Dublin Food Co-op in The Liberties, about 35 people turned up to chat about starting a housing co-op, as a way to get themselves an affordable – and democratic – home.

Sandymount resident Joe McCarthy keeps asking the same question: three percent of what? He thinks the answer could be worth nearly €5 million.