Off to Dublin!

I am tryng to get unfinished business completed in the middle of also working this week as I am off to Dublin tomorrow for a few days. I wrote a short article today for 'The Watermelon' the newsletter of Green Left which will be available at the Green Party conference in Sheffield next month. I also completed some fliers for the next meeting of the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum which will meet on September 12th and will be discussing how the London Ambulance Service has responded to the recommendations of the 7/7 bombing inquest.

I also met Chris Levick from the Small Parties Unit of the Westminster Fund for Democracy on Monday to discuss progressing the Moldova project which we kicked off with our visit to Moldova in late June. We are now looking for several Green Party councillors to travel to Moldova over the next few months to meet elected Green councillors there. And I also attended the London Federation of Green Parties meeting on Monday night where I was re-elected as the party's delegate to the Stop the War Coalition and thanked for my efforts there over the last two years.

I am off to Dublin for a few days to visit my brothers and see some of my good friends there. It is the city of my birth and where I spent most of the first 25 years of my life and I always enjoying returning there. I am going to go and visit a small museum in Dublin Castle which I have not yet managed to get to - the Irish Police Museum, which recounts the history of both the first police force in the world, the RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) formed in 1822 as a paramilitary police force to control the restive Irish and the police force of the new independent Ireland, formed in 1922, where my grand uncle was one of the first commanders.

I am also hoping to go to a theatrical performance in the Irish Writers Centre based around the wit of Dublin writers from Shaw to Beckett. The spirit and wit of Dublin is always infectious and " the gift of the gab"as the Irish call it, is never in short supply.

For a feel of the city's spirit here are 'The Dubliners' with a classic Dublin ballad 'Finnegan's Wake'. Looking forward to sampling the Guinness and the craic!