I have posted about Dublin’s Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary before; it sits now beside modern buildings along the south quays on the city’s River Liffey.

Known as the Dockers’ Church it was built in 1863, opened in 1864 and became a parish church in 1908; its quayside position on the busy River Liffey meant that many of the dockworkers frequented the masses held there and today it has a strong congregation of old and new with many of the new arrivals working in Ireland’s tech sector now attending on a regular basis.

Those new buildings, including the one seen here just beside the church, a workplace for some of the new workers in Ireland’s services industry have contributed to some ill-feeling on account of size, shading and overshadowing the church.

As a result, due to local protests, in 2018 the developer of many of these buildings contributed over €3 million to a fund to repair and restore the church and its surroundings. The City Quay school (jigsaw building) received €1 million and the remainder went to the church.

After some works to the front, most of the €2 million has been transferred to the Archdiocese of Dublin; the Archbishop of Dublin is the parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Currently the interior of the church is in bad condition with damp, mould, decay and in much need of repair, but the parish can’t now use the funds it received from the developers.

The exterior view, seen here with reflections in the calm River Liffey at night, is much more pleasant than the peeling-paint interior.

It’s a story that will continue to provide interest, to someone at least.

Dublin's Docklands underwent significant, almost complete redevelopment in the 2000s with the biggest names in the tech industry still building and locating in the area today.

Here in Grand Canal Square the public realm was designed by landscape architect Martha Schwartz and the choice of red paving blocks and these tall red glow sticks were designed deliberately to give a red carpet effect coming from Daniel Libeskind's 2,000-seater theatre.

On the right is the distinctive chequered pattern of the Anantara The Marker Hotel.

This is now a good-looking part of the city and the redevelopment has brought a lot of life into the area that was run down for many decades at the end of the 20th century.

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The Olympia Theatre needs little introduction to Dubliners having been in existence for 100 years this year, with its famous canopy standing over the footpath on Dame Street.

In 1879 it opened as Dan Lowrey's Star of Erin Music Hall on the site of Connell's Monster Saloon. Undergoing several name changes it was rebuilt and reopened as the Empire Palace Theatre in 1897.

Opening finally as The Olympia in 1923, a whole century of touring and local artists have happily performed at the venue.

Generations of Irish people have returned to the Olympia to see the most famous actors and musicians in the world performing at the venue including David Bowie, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hady, Noel Coward, Alec Guinness, Blur, Foo Fighters, Florence + The Machine, Hozier, Dua Lipa and REM to name a few.

Major plans are afoot for Saint Stephen's Green, the shopping centre is due to be replaced and works are due to start soon for Metro North that will see a lot of major redevelopment.

In 2019, Davy Group bought the famous and unique Saint Stephen's Green Shopping Centre pictured above. They have submitted plans for complete redevelopment of the site which will add two floors in height, reduce the amount of retail space and add office space instead. 

As a consequence, the entire structure will be removed and replaced with something like this, below.

Dublin's Custom House is no stranger to the pages of Panoramic Ireland, the iconic structure was finished in 1791 and has been probably Dublin's most recognisable building ever since.

Architect James Gandon designed and oversaw the construction of the Custom House, literally the place where taxes or customs were paid on good coming in to and out of Dublin.

Built with Portland stone, a fine white limestone from the south of England, the Custom House exuded a strong sense of authority over the merchants in Dublin yet the location was obsolete by the time it was finished as the main port operations had moved much further downstream to accommodate larger ships of the late 18th and early 19th century.

The Custom House is seen here with half reflections on a calm River Liffey affected by a little wind.

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Sunset on Saint Patrick's Cathedral, one of Dublin's most famous buildings.

Founded on the site of Saint Patrick's conversion of a local pagan to Christianity in the 5th century, the first reference to the site dates from the 9th century but it is 1212AD before the church becomes a cathedral.

The original tower was destroyed and rebuilt in 1370, the spire as seen here pointing skywards was added much later.

Interestingly there was a university founded here at Saint Patrick's in 1320 that, had it still been in existence, would be the 10th oldest university in the world.

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Here from one of our photography workshops in Dublin this week, the colours of the Convention Centre set to those of the Irish Tricolour - Green, White and Orange.

And of course, this time of year is a good point to think about buying a voucher for friends and family to use throughout the year.

If you are travelling through the streets of Galway you may well spot this unusual house with its horseshoe-shaped windows.

The quirky building was owned by horse-mad local man Michael Cunniss who spoke with Ireland's national broadcaster RTE in 1982.

A man before his time, Michael complained to the RTE reporter about the "...smelly old cars going along the road..." and he even kept a horse in the house that could watch TV through a hatch in to the living room.

It is common enough even today to see old forge buildings with horseshoe shaped doorways but nowhere else have I seen windows in this style.

Have you seen this house, or another similar?

What would have been Dublin's tallest building, to be built on the former City Arts Centre, seen here above on the left - the red brick building, has been refused planning permission by Dublin City Council.

In the image above the proposed building would continue out the top of the scene. 

Dublin City Council found that the proposed building would have a significantly detrimental visual impact on the River Liffey and its vistas.

Grant Thornton, the City Quay National School and the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin were amongst the principal objectors to the development.

The character of Dublin's most iconic building, the Custom House, would also be seriously impacted by the scale of the proposed development.

It seems in Dublin, that despite the city's traditional low height building policy, developers are trying to build high in the characterful city and not in the suburbs or urban fringe.

Adobe Lightroom Classic is full of shortcuts and learning them all can be slightly overwhelming.

Here is one shortcut that is useful, well two maybe.

Exporting photos from Lightroom is one of the most repeated tasks and speeding up that process can make a project quicker.

There are a few ways to get to the export dialog in Lightroom: