selling our house

After several frantic and, it has to be said, largely unpleasant weeks, we finally have our house packaged and ready for the Dublin market. Every aspect is unreal and painful, with the possible exception of the space clearing. This part is achieved by the simple expedient of renting storage and moving as much unnecessary, space-consuming stuff as is humanly possible. We've also touched up the decor and made the place what it should have been while we were actively engaged in living there. It's a really wonderful home. No matter: a new age is dawning for both of us as we look forward to new directions, and we have every faith in the attraction of our beautiful house in its gorgeous location next to Phoenix Park and the Liffey.

Chapelizod old village centre

This is the village sqare of Chapelizod, Dublin. The pub is the Villager and behind it you see the medieval tower of the Church of Ireland church. This is Isolde's tower and by far the most important single structure in the village. At present the square is little more than a glorified car park and roadway for thousands of cars passing from the city centre to the suburbs and beyond (and vice versa), but plans are afoot to smarten it up and create a feature that recognises the importance at one time of Chapelizod's military connections. Let's hope they can do something to stop all these cars passing through the village at the same time (other than road pricing it's hard to know what options are available).