The horseman of Stirrup Lane

Less than a month after the tribute to Stormzy went up in Dublin's Smithfield district, another cool mural has arrived just around the corner, in Stirrup Lane. It's brilliant too.

Smithfield's mural to Stormzy

This mural tribute to rapper Stormzy has appeared overnight on the wall of the old Block T building on the Haymarket side of Smithfield in Dublin.

Damn Fine Print

Damn Fine Print was set up in 2011 as Dublin's first "community easy access screen print studio".

Slack space #3: Block T and The Complex

Locksmiths can tell you a thing about the ups and downs of an area, the comings and goings in the neighbourhood, new homeowners, fledgling businesses, a spate of burglaries, squatters, break-ins, you know the kind of thing.

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.

The mystery of Tully’s Tiles

I was a big fan of the Tully's Tiles sign in Smithfield. Its crucifix-like qualities reminded me of Salvador Dali’s painting Christ of Saint John of the Cross with its unusual perspective.

Smithfield and Stoneybatter by drone

The rise of the drones is a recurring theme in the third Moss Reid book Ghost Flight.

Here's some recent aerial footage from a drone as it flies around Stoneybatter and - more particularly - Smithfield in Dublin. Ignore the music and concentrate on all that green copper roofing.



(And while we're at it, my rant about drone porn is on my writing blog at melhealy.wordpress.com)

Berlin #4: Smithfield's 'Checkpoint Charlie'

Back in 1965, Smithfield Square and other parts of the northside of Dublin were transformed into Berlin, to much excitement and hoopla.

Richard Burton was in town - with Liz Taylor in tow - to film The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

Chinatown, Dublin

Dublin doesn't have a Chinatown. Not officially. And I kinda blame the officials.

The Grange Inn and the 'DIT effect'

At one time the Grange Inn at 19 Grangegorman Road Lower was a cosy, quiet, great little local working-class bar. It was originally going to be a key location for my third book in the 'Moss Reid' crime series, Ghost Flight. Then the recession dragged it down.

The Market Cafe, Smithfield

If there's one certainty in life it's death. And if there's one certainty in retail and catering life it's that no business will last for ever either.

Perhaps the economic crisis has made us acutely aware of this, as the credit crunch crunched and the onward digital revolution wreaked havoc on entire business sectors such as travel agents and record shops.

Oscars Cafe Bar, Smithfield Square

Americano coffee with milk urn (not actual size)

Oscars in Smithfield on Dublin's northside is celebrating its first birthday this weekend, and in its first twelve months the place looks like it has settled down into a very relaxed groove.

The sounds of the Luas Red Line

The Luas - Dublin's light rail or tram system - is only a decade old, yet it is now deeply embedded in the life of the city centre.

It features in all of my crime novels so far. The "network" (I use the term very loosely) currently has two disconnected lines, reflecting the disconnected thinking at the time they were planned and built.

Where is Stoneybatter in Dublin?

Stoneybatter is the centre of Moss Reid's universe in my series of crime novels about the foodie PI. But where exactly is Stoneybatter (aka Cowtown or Oxmantown)?

A Google Map of places in 'Another Case...'

The first book in the 'Moss Reid' series, Another Case in Cowtown, is pretty much a “Stoneybatter novel”. I've compiled a map on Google Maps of some of the real-life places in this part of Dublin mentioned during the story.

Book #2: ‘Black Marigolds’ - out now in paperback

Stoneybatter, Dublin, Ireland, December 2013

Whistle-blowers, corrupt councillors, top-ups, dig-outs, missing persons and a dead body or two? Gastronomic private investigator Moss Reid is back with another shedload of hopeless cases, scrummy recipes and an awkward dilemma or two with the brussels sprouts.

It’s only ten days until Christmas, the streets are full of festive festoonery, and a right-wing politician in Dublin is being blackmailed in a honeytrap. And if you’re laying a honeytrap, you may as well start with the honey: a honey as young and sweet as you can get…

Book #1: ‘Another Case in Cowtown’

Dublin, Ireland, summer 2013.

It’s the middle of a heatwave, and things are hotting up for Moss Reid.

He’s the kind of downscale private eye who likes to have the right priorities in life: eat, drink and investigate – in that order.

But the Stoneybatter sleuth has way too much on his plate this month: an adoption trace, a missing person, a couple of cheating spouses, a series of thefts at a top Dublin restaurant, and someone has nicked his laptop.

So what’s he doing sitting in an interrogation room, in an itchy boilersuit, being grilled (and boiled and finely diced) by the Murder Squad?