Living wall

There once was an annual music festival that was called Music in Great Irish Houses. That's exactly what it was. All chamber music, but the idea was that performances took place in stately homes and so on. After some years they seemed to run out of venues and the name changed to Great Music in Irish Houses. Same concept, different name. By this stage, some of the venues had little tor nothing to do with the notion of "great houses", so two years ago another name-change came about. A mouthful — The Dublin International Chamber Music Festival is its new moniker.

Anyway … it's always on at the beginning of June, so it's festival time. I booked for four concerts, and tonight was the first. The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective were performing. In a newish building, sometimes known as the Town Hall, which is located in The Windmill Quarter. Its address is 1 Windmill Lane, which was the location of Windmill Lane Studios, made famous as U2's recording venue.

I went with my mate Tom (of Chew-and-Chat fame). It was a wonderful night of fabulous music-making, rather spoiled by the intrusive sound of a very noisy air conditioning system. We had a drink afterwards in The Dockers. Right beside the pub we spotted this living wall on the site of yet another new office building. We need more of this sort of thing to liven up what is becoming a dismally ugly city, with much of the problem caused by the pandemic-induced rush to cycle lanes.