'Educating Rita', from Zoom to Mooz

Believe it or not, an upmarket new Italian grocer in Stoneybatter called Mooz was once a location for a very famous film from 1983.

Walshes pub, Stoneybatter (a sort of short story)

This began life as a Christmas short story (called “The Twelve Pubs of Christmas”) then evolved into part of Black Marigolds, the second book in the ‘Moss Reid’ series. I’ve snipped it back here, so that it’s fairly self-contained. It takes place in Walshes pub on Manor Street (actually its address is 6-7 Stoneybatter) on 18 December 2013…

Walshes snug, Stoneybatter

To get a good idea of Walshes pub on Manor Street in Stoneybatter, check out this superb new video by award-winning director and music documentarian Myles O’Reilly.

It's a ballad called "Way Up On The Mountain" by Ye Vagabonds - brothers Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn. The duo currently play Walshes every Monday night.

Juno's Café, Parkgate Street

Here's a quote from Black Marigolds, the second book in the 'Moss Reid' series. It's a set piece where Moss Reid slips through a back alley (most people miss it) from Nancy Hands's smoking garden and sneaks into Juno's Bistro to see who's tailing him...

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.

The Magdalene Laundries of Stoneybatter

Stoneybatter used to have at least one Magdalene Laundry: St Mary's in Stanhope Street, controlled by the Sisters of Charity.

The Hags with the Bags, Liffey Street Lower

Visual Artists Ireland and the sculptors' union should be paying me an honorary stipend by now. You see, in each 'Moss Reid' mystery I manage to slip in a mention of at least a couple of statues at a critical point in the book.

In Black Marigolds it's a 1988 pair of brass figures by Jackie McKenna called "Meeting Place", at the corner of Ormond Quay and Lower Liffey Street near the Ha'penny Bridge.

But nobody in Dublin calls them that. Like many statues in the city these two have a more naughty nickname: "The Hags With The Bags".

Lilliput Stores, Rosemount Terrace, Arbour Hill

Talk about timing. It was May 2007, just months before the Irish economy would implode dramatically like a neutron star. I can't imagine a more difficult time to start a new business in Dublin.

Yet that's the very time that a tiny greengrocers and deli called the Lilliput Stores first opened its doors. Or, strictly speaking, door (singular).

Wuff, Benburb Street

The real-life diner Wuff made its literary debut in my second 'Moss Reid' novel, Black Marigolds...

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)?

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…