No Idle Day
Rua Ruth is home to stories about the romantic, rosy-tinted side of Dublin, while I choose to write about the brighter side of life in the city it doesn’t mean that I haven’t considered the dark. I believe one of the darkest aspects of life in Dublin is our homelessness crisis, something I quite literally walk by everyday. But, as Desmond Tutu said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” and No Idle Day festival, a Young Hearts Run Free project created by Siobhán Kane is just such a project which brings hope to homelessness in Dublin and raises vital funds for the Dublin Simon Community.
This Saturday I will be doing a very special Lost Fashion History of Dublin Tour for No Idle Day with all proceeds going to Dublin Simon Community. The tour begins outside the National Gallery of Ireland, Clare Street entrance from 1pm – 3pm. Come join me its going to be fun! You can book on Eventbrite here.
There is also an amazing line-up of events happening all weekend from a Magical Mystery bus tour that goes on a secret journey around the city, painting classes with Don Conroy at The National Gallery to a fun readings by short story writers Joanna Walsh and Lara Williams in Books Upstairs and much, much more. besides Check out the line-up and book No Idle Day here.
The festival runs from Friday, 21st October – Sunday, 23rd October 2016.
See you there!
About Young Hearts Run Free & No Idle Day
No Idle Day 2016 is the second installment of Young Heart Run Free’s small biannual arts festival which raises money for Dublin Simon Community. It was set up in 2008 in order to help promote the creative community in Ireland, as well as raise funds for Ireland’s homeless organisations. They put events on in unusual spaces, in order to re-appreciate and reimagine landscapes, and have been on hillsides in Howth, to record shops in Reykjavik, to churches, galleries, and basements of office blocks. They have collaborated with Iceland Airwaves, Dublin Fringe, St. Patrick’s Festival, International Literature Festival Dublin, and Quarter Block Party, among others, as well as founding their own biannual Festival – No Idle Day, in 2014. Their contributors have included; President Michael D. Higgins, Villagers, Mike Scott, Andy Irvine, Katie Kim, John Grant, Alasdair Roberts, Porcelain Raft, Paula Meehan, Sylvie Simmons, David O’Doherty, The Strypes, Spencer Krug (Moonface), John Banville, Kevin Barry, Dónal Lunny, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock, and several other brilliant artists.