More on the docks, and Leo Varadkar

Ireland's latest taoiseach (prime minister) happens to be gay, young (38) and have a dad from India. Cue plenty of international headlines making out like our country has suddenly become ultra progressive. As if.

The Jobstown House, Jobstown

The Jobstown House gets a quick mention in book #4 of the Moss Reid series, The Rebel Type. I first found out about the Dublin pub via its brilliant viral videos, starting with its entry in the "Mannequin Challenge" last year (above).

A map of Stoneybatter (sort of)

As far as I know there's no official map of Stoneybatter, but here's one I made earlier (as they say on the best cookery shows). Click here for a much larger version.

As I explained in an earlier post, some of its borders are fairly clear-cut and uncontestable, others - particularly to the east where it meets Smithfield - are much less so.

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.

The Hungry Tree in the King's Inns

"Inosculation," Wikipedia tells me, "is a natural phenomenon in which trunks, branches or roots of two trees grow together."