Given the fine spell of April weather, I set off on my e-bike, having packed a picnic and binoculars. First stop was the free Sunday at Noon concert in Hugh Lane Gallery in Parnell Square. The combination of Mozart and Beethoven string quartets, two of my top four composers was enticing. Ludwig stimulates my intellect while Wolfgang Amadeus makes me smile! The Contempo Quartet from Bucharest has been playing for 30 years and is known as the Abba of classical music! 

I cycled through the city to Ringsend & Irishtown and on to Sandymount. It is a great pity that the Sandymount Strand Road cycle lane never happened due to a legal challenge. The Dublin City Council appeal decision has now been announced. The High Court decision was overturned. I found the traffic and size of the cars on the road dismaying. Therefore it was good to get on the South Dublin greenway at Booterstown Marsh. I stopped there to be away from the noise of the Merrion Road, and to enjoy the birdlife on the An Taisce-managed property. I saw a fine group of teals near the railway line. My picnic included home-made Malawi banana bread! Easy-to-make recipe was supplied by Christian Aid.

South Dublin Greenway and Monkstown church

On leaving the Marsh, I bumped into Rebecca Jeffares and her cleanup band of volunteers who were picking up rubbish from the site. I wished them well in their work! I was given a DRS can for the 15c. Deposit – I can’t resist picking up plastic bottles and cans with the Deposit Return Scheme logo on my travels! Then I was off on the greenway heading south to Dun Laoghaire. At Blackrock rail station, there is a pinch point where the lane is very narrow and not possible to cycle with pedestrians. It is planned that the garden wall beside it will be moved back to widen the greenway.

Image from https://monkstownchurchofireland.com/history/

The West Pier in Dun Laoghaire is a popular destination for Birdwatch Ireland outings. It is wilder and quieter than the tidier East Pier which attracts many tourists and locals alike. Here I spotted oystercatchers, diving cormorants and black guillemots. A short hop from there brings me to Monkstown church for my second concert of the day. It’s a lovely building from 1831 designed by John Semple. He also built the Black Church in the north inner city. He greatly enlarged the Georgian church built in 1785. This concert featured the Dun Laoghaire choral Society performing works by the other composers in my Top Four: J.S. Bach and Handel. Handel’s Dixit Dominus was the centre piece, a very lively work from his earlier life. There is more to him than the Messiah! 

With the sun still shining, just outside the church, was the weekly Monkstown Palestine vigil which I attend occasionally, as it’s quite a cycle from Kimmage. My Dublin Friends of the Earth and fellow climate activist Fergal Costello is one of the organisers. They are now in week 67 with little sign of the killing ending. On the way home, I stopped by the Booterstown Marsh again as the low evening sun heightened visibility for bird watching. I observed a big flock of black-tailed godwits (I think they were not bar-tailed!) roosting near the island – a wonderful sight. Virtually every one was standing on one leg. I now understand that this behaviour is due to the birds being able to reduce heat loss by having one less unfeathered leg face the elements.

All-in-all, this was a great day out in sunny Dublin on a 32km round trip. It would have been very difficult to fit all this activity in without the help of the two wheels. 

By An Taisce member Eric Conroy — April 2025