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.

Join Panoramic Ireland to photograph Irish, and Dublin, scenes.

Photography workshops and tours available all year round, throughout Ireland.

Panoramic Ireland's Dublin Photo Tours don't stop during the winter, we enjoy photographing all year round in Dublin and throughout Ireland.

Just have a look through the Blog section for more.

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.

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.

Red sky at night, shepherd's delight goes the old saying. And that red sky in the evening does usually bring good weather the following day.

There is science to back up the ages old phrase, a red sky is caused by small particles of dust and other airborne particles are trapped in the atmosphere by high pressure.

These particles block light from the sun, scattering or deflecting the light as it passes through the atmosphere.

The shorter wavelengths of blue and violet get scattered more easily leaving more of the longer wavelength red light to make its way across the sky.

Of course, to see this weather phenomenon often it helps when the predominant weather comes from the west which it does in Ireland.

So between you and the sun is the incoming high pressure from the west with dust that scatters shorter wavelengths of light.

Photographers usually enjoy photographing sunsets, so maybe it should be changed to Red sky at night, photographer's delight.

Join me, Panoramic Ireland, to photograph fine sunsets like these all over Ireland.

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:

After photographing a concert in Dublin this week, I headed out through the city centre to photograph some more before making my way home.

It was a cold evening and dark by the time I was along the River Liffey, in the distance I could see the Convention Centre and Samuel Beckett bridge lit up in green for Saint Patrick's Day, closer by, I could see Dublin's famous Custom House, a late-18th century Georgian building fronting the river.

Of course, I didn't have the usual tools of the landscape and long-exposure photographer, in this case a tripod. The tripod is obviously not useful for concert photography and not permitted anyhow in the pit area.

Dublin's Custom House, one of the city's fine Georgian buildings sits above the River Liffey as it flows through the capital of Ireland seen here with arches lit up in the colours of the flag of Ukraine.

The Custom House is very recognisable to Dubliners, it was designed by one of the finest Georgian architects who designed many of Dublin's most iconic building - James Gandon; it opened in 1791 to serve as the building in which to collect and pay taxes for good shipped through Dublin, most goods travelling via the quays - the riverside.

Patrick Kavanagh, the cantankerous poet who came to live in Dublin from the tough country life in County Monaghan, spent much time on Dublin's Grand Canal.

So much so that he was honoured with a bench and a statue on the waterway that runs from the River Liffey to the River Shannon.

In his Canal Bank Walk he starts Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal.

He wrote the poem after his treatment in 1955 for lung cancer, in which he had one of his lungs removed, during a summer of convalescing on the banks of the canal.

Panoramic Ireland spends much time also on the banks of the Grand Canal in Dublin, the very canal that Kavanagh loved so much, drawing inspiration also both before and after cancer treatment.

Remember to support local business this Christmas, buy a photo tour for yourself or a voucher for a friend.

Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal

Pouring redemption for me, that I do

The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,

Grow with nature again as before I grew.

The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third

Party to the couple kissing on an old seat,

And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word

Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.

O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web

Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,

Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib

To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech

For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven

From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.

Canal Bank Walk by Patrick Kavanagh

Blue hour in Dublin, photographing the city's modern riverfront skyline.

The River Liffey east of the city centre has changed substantially in the past 15 years. Formerly the quays here were flanked by red-brick Victorian warehouses of only a few storeys high as can be seen in the middle section of the image here.

Now, new buildings line the river and, although not lofty, their scale does eclipse those old warehouses.

The colour here from the buildings suiting the blue hour's natural tones.

Today 28th of May 2021, the Irish Government announced the next phases of Ireland's reopening post-covid.

This includes the return of international travel on the 19th of July, which as Father Ted fans will know is also the day in history when Galway was liberated from the Indians, Marathon became Snickers and of course the ice age ended.

The 19th of July will see visitors from the EU able to return to Ireland which has had the most severe lockdown in Europe, and then at some point beyond that travellers from outside the region will be able to visit- from the USA, Canada etc. If fully vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 / Coronavirus or with a negative test then no quarantine will be necessary.

Panoramic Ireland's photography tours and workshops are bookable from now through all of 2021, so plan ahead and check availability for your visit to Dublin, Galway, Cork, Antrim Coast and anywhere else in Ireland.