Green Street Courthouse

Ireland's juryless courts are back in the news this week after two gangland shootings in Dublin, and Sinn Fein has made the abolition of the Special Criminal Court (SCC) an election issue.

Arbour Hill Church, Stoneybatter

Arbour Hill's church and cemetery will feature prominently in Dublin's Easter 1916 centenary commemorations. And in Book #4 of the Moss Reid series too, as it happens. You heard it here first.

The pebbledash homes of Dublin 7

"Beyond Pebbledash"  is a sort of architectural installation in Collins Barracks, which is part of the National Museum of Ireland.

I've just been checking it out for research on my next novel.

It's a full-scale reconstruction of  the facade of one of those "typical" pebbledash-fronted houses built by Dublin Corporation in areas on the southside such as  Crumlin and Ballyfermot from the 1940s to the 1960s. And Cabra on the northside, just up the road from Stoneybatter and Grangegorman.

Benburb Street #1: the old red-light district

Over the years Benburb Street has certainly been through the wars. Literally.

If you stroll, jog, cycle or take the tram along its route on a fine summer's day it can seem like a lovely spot today. Most of us can be forgiven for not knowing - or simply forgetting - about the street's sordid past.

But I deal in crime fiction, and this happens to be a real street in Stoneybatter with countless real crimes.