Des FitzGerald

@fitzgeralddes

RHA Gallery | Dublin City FM (2003-23) | Le Cool Dublin (2010-16) | 🇪🇺

2.881 Folgt1.162 Follower105 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir fitzgeralddes.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jul 24

The BEST read in the Irish Times so far this year 📰 Today's front page news: “The poor man from north Mayo or the woman from west Cork trying to find a wife or a husband will have to curtail their evening."

Singles will have to ‘get courting done early’ as judge denies Lisdoonvarna licence extension for matchmaking festival

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2026/07/23/singles-will-have-to-get-courting-done-early-as-judge-denies-lisdoonvarna-licence-extension/

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jul 14

Happy Bastille Day 🇫🇷 Napoleon Bonafrog is one of many strange things in a rather weird new place in Dublin called the Museum of Curiosities... #BastilleDay #14Juillet

A stuffed frog dressed as Napoleon Bonaparte, entitled 'Napoleon Bonafrog'. On show at the Museum of Curiosities in Dublin.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jun 26

The very end of BBC Radio 4 Long Wave 📻 at 1am tonight - feeling very nostalgic as this bit of analogue technology switches off for the final time. The 'good' weather here in Dublin isn't helping with the quality of reception. Shouting at a smart speaker' "play Radio 4"' just isn't the same...

A Roberts Radio tuned in to BBC Radio 4 Long Wave on the last night of long wave transmission.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jun 21

An easy one for me, for once! @lauracummingart.bsky.social's Guess the Picture in today's @theobserveruk.bsky.social – lovely to see the @nationalgalleryirl.bsky.social featuring here, and in such esteemed company 👏

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· May 22

What an evening with Ali Smith at the @ilfdublin.bsky.social 📚 - a worthy winner of the Dublin Literary Award 2026. Wonderful to have been in the audience and one of many to receive a signed copy of her winning book Gliff 👏

Ali Smith being interviewed on the stage of the International Literature Festival Dublin by Belinda McKeon. In the foreground is a copy of Ali Smith's book Gliff.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Apr 26

Perfect day for a 🍦on Bray Promenade, Co. Wicklow...

A photo of a large plastic ice cream cone atop an ice cream kiosk on Bray Promenade in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Apr 19

A wonderful concert yesterday afternoon of contemporary choral music with Chamber Choir Ireland and guest director David Young at New Music Dublin. Held in the, new to me, Windmill QTR.

Chamber Choir Ireland and guest director David Young taking a bow at New Music Dublin in Windmill QTR.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Apr 1

Beautiful evening for a walk through Trinity College Dublin. The moon's shining brightly - hard not to think of the Artemis II mission...

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jan 6

Happy Nollaig na mBan, Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas 🎄

A doorway with an illuminated star above the doorway

Abandoned Christmas trees in a Dublin doorway

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Nov 26

Very interesting in-conversation with artist Lelia Henry and Tom Gorman, the resident ecologist at Westport House, at the RHA tonight. Tom shared insights into an exciting woodlands restoration project currently underway on the estate.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Oct 16

Don't miss Words on the Wave – Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe at the @nmireland.bsky.social - it ends next week. Congratulations to all who put together such a beautiful book to accompany the exhibition 👏

A photo of the catalogue from Words on the Wave – Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe. The exhibition ends next week at the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare St.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Oct 4

Always think of my college days in Bath back in the 1990s when reading Seamus Heaney - today's Irish Times has a previously unpublished poem about his two sisters.

Ribbons by Seamus Heaney
In the name of the colours,
Emerald, cornflower blue,
Ruby, primrose and white,

In the name of ringlets and curls,
Polka dots, partings and plaits
And double-tied bows . . .

To-day the photographer comes
With his tripod and cowl
And plaited retractable snout,

A five-legged beast
Of gesticulation and blather
They’ll outface together,

Steady and far off and solemn
As orphans posed at a rail
In the last days of sail,

Beyond the pale of the selves
They are due to become,
The one thing immutable still

The roughcast grey of the wall
Of the school, plus
The knitted classic Fair Isle

Patterns, plus their names on the roll
As transcribed on the slats of the bench,
In a copperplate hand –

All that, and the strictly tied bows,
And one right arm and one left,
Each placed to be seen round the other’s

Shoulder, as ordered.

Seamus Heaney and four of his siblings. Left to right: (front) Seamus, Ann, Sheena; (back) Patrick, Hugh circa 1950. Photograph: Heaney family

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Sep 26

Letter of the week - perhaps year, in today's Irish Times...

Road warning

Sir, – Many years ago I saw an elderly woman with a little white dog waiting to cross a busy Dublin street. I went up to her and politely asked could I help her get across. She glared at me and screamed “F**k off, I am well able to cross a f**king road.” – Yours, etc,

FRANK KILFEATHER,
Delgany,
Co Wicklow.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Sep 24

The race for Irish President 🗳 is on!

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jul 5

I'm looking forward to hearing @ianleslie.bsky.social talking all things Beatles next week at the Pavilion Theatre - enjoying his book and now tempted by other Fab Four titles...

John & Paul - a Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie.

All Our Loving - A Beatles Fan's Memoir. Carolyn Lee Mitchell with Michael Munn.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Jun 18

A little bit of a #Bloomsday saunter around Dublin last Monday 📚

Stained glass inside the National Library with images of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

The domed ceiling of the National Library.

A reading from James Joyce’s Ulysses taking place in the large reading room of the National Library.

A straw boatered Bloomsday crowd gathered outside Davy Byrne's pub on Duke Street in Dublin.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· May 28

Some vintage Citroën cars spotted on a recent Dalkey ramble 😍

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· May 17

Wonderful to watch Canadian Carter Johnson win the First Prize at the 2025 Dublin International Piano Competition in the National Concert Hall last night 👏

Applause for Carter Johnson (28) from Canada, winner of First Prize at the 2025 Dublin International Piano Competition at the National Concert Hall last night.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· May 15

Wonderful sunset on Killiney Hill yesterday evening - I need to go up there more often for these!

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· May 5

It was @brayjazz.bsky.social Festival time again this weekend. Saw the Finnish 🎺 Verneri Pohjola & his band at the Mermaid Theatre last night. His bass player father, Pekka Pohjola, worked with Mike Oldfield. Brilliant music from them and the opening act, the Francesco Turrisi Trio 👏

A phot of the sound desk at the Mermaid Theatre last night.

The Verneri Pohjola Quartet on stage at the Mermaid Theatre in Bray last night.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Apr 27

I've been an Observer reader since around 1990, long before it was a Guardian owned publication. Today marks the first issue under new ownership. Sadly in Ireland, we're not getting the higher grade paper stock. Apart from that, still very much recognisable as the Observer 🗞

A photo of the cover of the new Observer.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Feb 12

The madness of the Trinity College Dublin Bookfair - I may have bought too many 😅

A view of the packed out Examination Hall for the Trinity College Dublin Bookfair.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Dec 31

Happy New Year from Sandycove, Co. Dublin 🍾 #happynewyear #2025

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Dec 26

It isn't St Stephen's Day in Ireland without a photo on the cover of the Irish Times of Christmas Day swimmers leaping into the Forty Foot - and @turnercartoons.bsky.social annual calendar release. So good I had to buy it twice 🤪

A photo of today’s Irish Times with Forty Foot swimmers and the annual calendar from cartoonist Martyn Turner.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Dec 4

Spotify Unwrapped as useless an endeavour as ever. Won't argue with this guy at #1 however 🤪

A portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach by Elias Gottlob Haussmann painted in 1746.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Dec 2

Great headline in Dublin's Herald newspaper this morning - the puns are flying (see below). Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud and I suspect, most relieved. Eliminatory, my dear Watson. #GE2024 #GE20

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Nov 20

Fergus Martin's sculpture 'Barrel', (2019). Showing as part of 'Kites above the Castles', at Mary Lavin Place, Wilton Park, Dublin 2. Open daily 11am – 5pm. Ends Saturday. 🖱 caga.ie/events/group-show-kites-above-the-castle

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Nov 17

Stockholm last weekend - one of my favourite cities.

Des FitzGerald@fitzgeralddes· Oct 23

Spotted this fine looking chap at the @rcsi.bsky.social this evening...