Ursula Mattenberger exhibition

“As if for the first time” is the title of an exhibition of 24 drawings, paintings and mono prints of Dún Laoghaire and the sea by Swiss born artist Ursula Mattenberger.

The exhibition is running at the Gallery Upstairs at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire until thMarch 27 . In the exhibition Ursula records her intense involvement with the changing face of Dún Laoghaire and, in particular, what she calls the fragmentary remains of its powerful maritime history. A variety of mixed media images provide a new awareness of the richness and variety of the artist's adopted home of Dún Laoghaire.

Water Safety Training

Irish Water Safety, the statutory body established to promote water safety in Ireland recently carried out training with the Harbour Police in both a theory and practical session. IWS educates people in water safety best practices, develops public awareness campaigns, rescue skills and behaviour to prevent drownings and water related accidents.

Artist in residence begins work

A local artist, Julie Merriman has begun work in the town and Harbour on a residency programme jointly funded by the Harbour Company, the Arts Council and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. The background concept for her appointment is based around the forthcoming physical and cultural changes to the town and Harbour over the next seven to ten years. The intention is that Julie can provide original work and objective vision of the overall changes to the harbour environment during this time and the coming years.

Website

The Harbour Company had to take urgent remedial action recently when its website (www.dlharbour.ie) was subjected to external attack. Most of the previous functionality of the site has now been restored except for the 365 day graphs in the weather section. Work on new additions such as the current “weather trend” will be completed soon. The website is the best local site for finding the real time weather, updated every fifteen minutes, in Dún Laoghaire including temperature and wind information direct from the weather station on the East Pier.

The website also contains a great deal of information about the Harbour and its history. Documents available to read and download include notices to mariners for Ireland and the United Kingdom, maps of the marina and a walking map of the Harbour area. Also on the site is a booklet on the history of the Harbour and its construction, information on the RMS Leinster tragedy in 1918 and shipwrecks of the Harbour and Dublin Bay.