On 6th of April 2015, Easter Monday, RTÉ in collaboration with Dublin City Council, An Post and the Ireland 2016 initiative, organized and conducted a wonderful event on Sackville Street, errrr sorry, O’Connel Street, Dublin 2, and in the vicinity, in which we explored the life as it was in 1915 in Ireland.
The name of the event was Road to the Rising and with this occasion the former Sackville Street, was pedestrianised and with the help of volunteers dressed in costumes, vintage cars, vintage bicycles, carousel, mobile cinematograph, mobile library, transformed to look like an early 20th century cityscape.
It was great fun to explore the Irish national identity, the culture and the beauty of our nation. One large scene was placed near the corner of Cathal Brugha Street, and there I made a bit of fun of Irish people inability of pronouncing foreign names and words when the name of Gioc(hi)amo – giochiamo (it.) = we play 😛 Puccini (Giacomo Puccini). There, I found another great passion of mine, the band named Beoga, and heard an Irish song about a goat which went astray.
Another smaller scene was set on top of a restored open-front tram. A scene of a period wedding was recreated, and also a funeral with a horse-drawn hearse with two beautiful black horses.
What I like most about Ireland is the community spirit all around us and the way that for good and for worst, like in a perfect marriage, the officials, businesses and arts, support each other and make us value and pay attention of what is around us.
Congratulations to all, but especially to RTÉ, they went all the length and made sure we had a wonderful sunny day, I think that was special ordered for the day.
PS A vintage Nokia900 (my precious, what will I do when this one will break???) took all pics and filming, so please be kind.
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