On the Town: According to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Michael Conaghan, The Little Book of Dublin will be the book everybody carries in their pocket. "It typifies Dublin," he said.
Commenting on its shape, size and colour, he said: "This is the little green book . . . It's a great delight. It's catchy, catching the spirit of Dublin and all the idiotic things we've done over the years."
The newly elected Lord Mayor, who is originally from Dunkineely, Co Donegal, launched the book this week at Hughes & Hughes booksellers in St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre, and saluted the book's author, Tom Galvin.
With almost 200 facts about Dublin, and illustrations by cartoonist Tom Mathews, the book offers a potted history of Dublin at a glance.
Among those at the launch, was Antoinette Quinn, author of a biography of Patrick Kavanagh and of the forthcoming centenary edition of Kavanagh's collected poems, to be published by Penguin. Quinn will give a lecture on Kavanagh and on this collection in the National Library in late September.
Robert Nicholson, literary curator of the Joyce Tower in Sandycove, Co Dublin, said this year's Bloomsday was "the biggest we've ever had, with more than 800 visitors on the celebrated day in June".
Galvin cited the origins of some of Dublin's street names as providing the quirkiest stories in the book. For example, South Frederick Street is named after George II's son, who was killed by a cricket ball. And did you know that Mountjoy Square is the only true square in Dublin? (Merrion Square is a rectangle, he said.) Others at the launch included Galvin's literary agent, Jonathan Williams, his wife, Asha, his publisher, Edwin Higel and his four sisters, Melissa O'Hogan and Denise, Joanne and Marion Galvin.
The Little Book of Dublin by Tom Galvin is published by New Island