Dublin artist Immanuel Godson
The second part of my big adventure on my day out in Dublin was to head over the famous, Darndale, the edge of nowhere as they say, to meet the one and only Immanuel godson, an amazing Northside artist and painter who creates works in a classic and realistic style spruced up with a good healthy dose of modern day humour and satire. It was actually good to see that, like Eddies homeless tour in the morning, Immanuel has also been integrated into his community, an artist of the people for the people.
Darndale (Irish: Darndál meaning ”daffodil”) is an area on the Northside of Dublin, featuring a high concentration of social housing. It is located in the north of the sprawling suburb of Coolock. Got the bus from Busaras, takes about 40 minutes.
Immanuel was kind enough to show me round his gallery and explain some of the ideas behind his art. I also had a great chat with Immanuel about his work, and some of his opinions on the modern day art scene.
Would also like to mention how cool the Darndale Belcamp Village Centre is, it really is one tranquil place where anyone from the community can go in, embrace all the great art on display and relax in their thoughts and moods. And it isn’t just Immanuel’s art that is exhibited, a good few other local talents have their work highlighted and laid out around the building. An excellent resource for the local people, hats off to whoever keeps it going.
Check out Immanuel’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwBlnaHTmRrWbp_sFsYOSYQ
And his Gab Account
Anyway so here is my video with immanuel, Enjoy!
While I was thinking of what I could do for the day out in Dublin I came across a new walking tour that was been introduced in the city, called My Streets, Ireland. What was different about this tour was that it was done by people who have lived on the streets of the capital, homeless people giving tours and telling their unique stories. So I signed up and on the day I was lucky to get a tour off Eddie who was showing a few of us around the streets of Phibsboro, North Dublin. I also got chatting to Austin Campbell, one of the people behind the exciting new venture.
Phibsboro, is a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood in North Dublin hugging the The Royal Canal. A typical red-brick terrace area, with the odd Victorian style looking pub and the always busy Doyle’s Corner thoroughfare. Easily reachable by the new Luas Cross City Line network, or if you are mad, one could, of course, walk from O’Connell Street which can take you about 30 minutes or less.
I was well impressed with Eddie, a nice young man who has turned his life around and the tour was very informative. This was a tour that didn’t so much concentrate on the sights of the city but more on the personal stories of its people. Eddie talked about his rough upbringing, why he was on the streets, and the ins and outs of life as a homeless person. It was really a great way to spend an hour and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something a little different in a tour. It certainly brought me into a world I don’t often think about, which was good.
Founded in 2002, by Gunnar Wiig and Kjetil Jikiun, Nøgne Ø is a Norwegian beer that has been kicking ass for a while now on the various online beer review sites.
This award winning beer, first brewed in 2010, had its recipe made up by an airline captain and part time homebrewer Jan Halvor Fjeld. Nøgne Ø’s head brewer at that time was also a pilot, hence the name, Two Captains! 
All a bit “urgh” to me, finding those hops are just impossible to enjoy, going down very slowly and with great difficulty. Too strong and bitter to truly appreciate or enjoy. One for the hardcore IPA heads to like, but not for me. And to be fair to them they do warn on their website that this isn’t for the faint hearted..
Windhoek Lager is a beer brewed by the Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), a Namibian brewery founded in 1920. Namibia is a country in southwest Africa of about 2.5 million people, in case you were curious, where the famous sprinter Frankie Fredericks was from, remember him? Windhoek is the country’s capital and the name given to the lager. 
Before its independence in 1990, the area was known first as German South-West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika), then as South-West Africa, reflecting the colonial occupation by the Germans and the South Africans. That perhaps might explain why they have some colonial throwback to brewing German style beers in accordance with the old Reinheitsgebot, also known as the “German Beer Purity Law”. As a reminder, the law prohibits the use of any flavourings, preservatives, or colourants during the brewing process and allows only three traditional, natural ingredients: malted barley, hops, and water. Following the rules means a slower more nuanced quality produced brew as opposed to a mass produced beer doled out quickly in a matter of days by speeding up the process with additives and inferior ingredients.
Overall it is a solid look. Ok
Founded in 1912, by Amsicora Capra, Birra Ichnusa is brewed in Assemini, a town near Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, the beautiful mediterranean Italian island. It is named after the Latinized ancient name for Sardinia, Hyknusa.
Not much comes out of the small bottle for sure, the carbonation making the beer appear alive, buzzing around like mad.
Urgh, far too much with the hoppy aftertaste. Unfiltered, yes I know.