Books and Drinks

Hey hey, Next Chapter folks! I’m not associated with the event, so please purchase your tickets on Eventbrite🎟 - just scroll down on the link below and find the Mik Pyro event! [https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/arthurs-blues-and-jazz-club-7474750537](https://www.eventbrite.ie/o/arthurs-blues-and-jazz-club-7474750537) Tickets are going fast for this one! Join us for Mik Pyro’s Blues Cartel at Arthur’s this Sunday for a mix of Chicago and Delta blues. 🎷 The band features on guitar/vocals Mick Pyro, former front man of The Republic of Loose and on bass/vocals John Quearney of The Business Blues band. Smiley Emmanuel completes the line-up on drums.

Join us for coffee, a chat and bring your project at the CHQ (fully accessible venue). We're usually at the tables in the middle of the building - just look out for the yarn :) There's a choice of cafes, including the Bakehouse & Starbucks. There's no charge for the meetup but we ask please that you join our Whatsapp group if you plan on staying with the group. Cost is only €5 a year to pay for Meetup subs etc.

As you walk in the hotel, turn right from the bar, and you’ll find another bar where drinks are served.
We’re right behind. This meetup is free to attend. Just grab and pay for your own drink when you order to support the bar and keep things cool with the venue.

Newly started IG: https://www.instagram.com/letsgetsocialdublin/ Every event is **5 euros** to the host, you can pay by using Revolut or Cash. This helps me maintains the group as this takes a lot of time and effort. Get ready to reach new heights and forge lasting connections doing Indoor Bouldering Adventure this Sunday **at 14:30!** Whether you're a seasoned climber or brand new to the sport, this event is the perfect opportunity to challenge yourself, have fun, and meet fellow enthusiasts in a supportive and social setting. Located at the Bloc Climbing Gym in Ballymount, indoor bouldering social event is suitable for climbers of all levels. No climbing experience? No problem! Our friendly group will provide guidance, tips, and encouragement every step of the way. Whether you're learning or honing your skills, you'll find plenty of support and encouragement from your fellow climbers. After our exhilarating climb, we'll gather for some well-deserved refreshments and socializing, where you can swap climbing stories, share tips, and make new friends with fellow adventure-seekers. So lace up your climbing shoes, chalk up your hands, and get ready for an afternoon of adrenaline-pumping fun and friendship at our Indoor Bouldering Adventure this Sunday! Let's climb, connect, and conquer together. See you there! 🧗‍♀️🤝🧗‍♂️

**The perfect way to see Dublin through a new lens.** 🏙️✨ **We’re teaming up with our wonderful community member,** **Angie,** for a creative afternoon stroll as we capture the soul of the city—without the digital distractions 📵. This isn't about "the 'gram"; it's about the art of looking. We’re putting our phones on aeroplane mode and picking up our cameras to focus on the lines, light, and life along the River Liffey. Angie loves capturing the hidden details of the city, and she’ll be co-hosting this walk to help us all find those perfect angles and unique perspectives. 🥾 The Route: We’ll meet at the iconic **Samuel Beckett Bridge** and wind our way down the quays. We’ll be hunting for the best angles of Dublin’s architectural gems, including the **Custom House**, **Liberty Hall**, and the historic **Ha’penny Bridge**, where we will finish our journey. * **Duration:** Approximately 2 hours. * **The Finish Line:** For those who fancy a treat and a chat, we’ll head to **Cinnamood** on O’Connell Street afterwards for some coffee and their famous cinnamon rolls! ☕️🌀 *** 📵 The Vibe: Before we set off, we’ll tuck our "connected" selves away and chat while creating art! 📸 **Build Connection:** Even though we stay offline during the walk, the connection doesn’t end there! After the event, we’ll encourage everyone to share their favourite "snaps" of the day our **WhatsApp group**. It’s a lovely way to see how everyone saw the same city through different eyes. 🖼️🤝 *** 🕰️ The Schedule: * **12:30 \|** Meet at the Samuel Beckett Bridge. * **12:45 \|** Photo Walk begins. * **14:30 \|** Arrival at Ha'penny Bridge & optional coffee at Cinnamood. *** 🐥 What to bring: * **📷 Your Camera:** Whether it’s a professional DSLR, a film camera, or just your phone (strictly for photos—no scrolling!). * **👟 Comfortable Shoes:** We’ll be on our feet for about 2 hours. * **🌦️ Rain Gear:** It’s Dublin! Let's be prepared for all four seasons. * **💛 Yourself:** No "content" creation required, just your creative eye. You can also just come to socialise, we love those walks together! *** 🎟️ Tickets & Support: This walk is **free/donation-based**. We believe offline creative time should be accessible to everyone. If you’d like to support our mission and help us organise more of these events, any contribution is warmly welcomed! 💛 **⚠️ Liability:** *Please note that everyone is responsible for their own safety and personal possessions during the walk. Let’s look out for one another!* We can't wait to see the city through your eyes! ***Please do not worry if there are not many attendees on meetup - we also host our tickets on [Luma](https://luma.com/theofflineclubdublin) \- the events always happen\!*** **Hugs, The Offline Club Dublin**

Join us every Sunday and tell a story as a group by playing a beginner-friendly roleplaying game. Every week we have 2-3 different games - you will choose which game you play on the day. All materials provided and rules are explained at the start of each game, you just need to bring your imagination. 🎭 **This week's facilitators:** * 🧬 **Cyrus** with *[Dead Serious](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a_8HoeLE_anm-9TifDPy71cig5l92P9P/view?usp=sharing)*, a one-page RPG where you play invincible unyielding warriors. The most ELITE of the ELITE: The DREADBUTCHERS. But the squad has a malfunction - they can experience EMOTION. In this game you must always remain in character. If you laugh, stop talking in a DEEP IMPOSING voice or don't take the mission seriously your character might.... EXPLODE! * 🐺 **Scott** with *[Campfire](https://witchpleas.com/products/campfire-the-any-story-anywhere-intro-rpg)*, a story-based game by our own Wojtek Borowicz. A group of friends have rented a cottage in the woods near Briançon, a remote Alpine village in France. They plan to spend a couple of days kicking back, drinking mulled wine, and skiing in a nearby resort. They are weary from their long journey, but that will soon be the least of their worries. Can they survive the night once the deadly secrets of Briançon emerge from the darkness on the night of the full moon? *** Feel free to ask the organisers any questions you have (here or on our [Discord server](https://tinyurl.com/indie-rpgs-dublin)).

Passeggiata poi pizza? Fancy a walk along Sandymount Strand? Facciamo una passeggiata sul lungomare di Sandymount, poi andiamo a mangiare la pizza, o bere solo una birra, in compania. We will meet at the entrance to Tesco's in Sandymount at 2 PM. The event should last 2-3 hours, walking: 1-1.5 hours.

We will do a walk around the beautiful gardens - lots of beautiful plants and flowers to see! 💐😃 **We will meet just inside the entrance gates near the cafe, grass area there. https://www.botanicgardens.ie The weather forecast for this today is pretty promising so hopefully we’ll see you joining us for a great walk & coffee/ lunch afterwards! 😃 💐 Walk takes approx 1.5 hours on the flat **Note: if you are delayed or need to cancel, can you please leave a message below so that we can wait for you (or cancel your booking) thanks 🙏

**See Dublin through a new lens—and with new friends.** Welcome to **Quality Time**. We’re "breaking up" with the shallow events to give you something better: a creative afternoon stroll designed to capture the soul of the city. This isn't about "the 'gram" or content creation; it's about the art of looking and the joy of being present. We are so excited to co-host this walk with our wonderful community member, **Angie**. Angie has a passion for capturing the hidden details of Dublin, and she’ll be guiding us to help find those perfect angles and unique perspectives that we usually miss while looking at our screens. ### 🥾 The Journey: We’ll meet at the iconic Samuel Beckett Bridge and wind our way along the quays. Together, we’ll hunt for the beauty in Dublin’s architecture—from the grand Custom House to the historic Ha’penny Bridge. * Duration: Approximately 2 hours of movement and creativity. * The Finish Line: For those who fancy a treat, we’ll head to Cinnamood on O’Connell Street afterwards for coffee and their famous cinnamon rolls! ☕️🌀 *** ### ✨ The Quality Time Vibe: Before we set off, we’ll tuck our "connected" selves away (phones on aeroplane mode!) so we can truly engage with the city and each other. **Connection that lasts:** Quality Time doesn't end when the walk does! We encourage everyone to share their favourite "snaps" in our community WhatsApp group afterwards. It’s a lovely way to see how we all saw the same city through different eyes. 🖼️🤝 *** ### 🕰️ The Schedule: * **12:30 \|** Meet at the Samuel Beckett Bridge (Look for Maja & Lexie! 🦄🦆). * **12:45 \|** Creative walk begins. * **14:30 \|** Arrival at Ha'penny Bridge & optional coffee social. *** ### 🐥 What to bring: * **📷 Your Camera:** Professional DSLR, film camera, or your phone (strictly for photography—no scrolling!). * **👟 Comfortable Shoes:** We’ll be exploring for about 2 hours. * **🌦️ Rain Gear:** It’s Dublin! Let's be prepared for all four seasons. * **💛 Yourself:** Whether you’re a photographer or just want to socialise and enjoy the walk, you are so welcome! *** ### 🎟️ Tickets & Community Support: We believe everyone deserves access to Quality Time. If you’d like to support our mission to build a more connected Dublin, any contribution is warmly welcomed! 💛 **A Note on Attendees:** Please don’t worry if the numbers look low on Meetup—we manage most of our community through **[Lu.ma](https://luma.com/qualitytime_dublin)**, and our events are always full of life! **⚠️ Liability:** *Everyone is responsible for their own safety and possessions. Let’s look out for one another!* We can't wait to see the city through your eyes. **Hugs, Maja & Lexie** 🦄🦆 *(Quality Time Team)*

🌿✨️ B E A L T A I N E - Ecstatic Fire Dance, Sacred Song & Tea Ceremony We are back!! Honouring the vibrant fertility and pure magic of the earth as she blossoms and expands in all her glory. You are warmly invited Saturday, 3rd May, 6:30pm - 9:45pm to a potent BEALTAINE ceremony of dance, sacred song, and tea outdoors in nature with our leafy friends & the winged ones. ✨️ Together, we will weave ecstatic dance with Kirtan (call-and-response style chanting rooted in ancient Indian traditions), HeartSong, and a tea ceremony with locally foraged healing herbs, creating a powerful arc of embodied transformation through movement, heart and voice. Come celebrate this turning of the wheel, an immersion in joy, connection, and renewal deep within the spirit of the forest. 🤍 The dance guided by DJ Aidan Kavanagh will help release tension, emotional blockages, and mental chatter through free, intuitive movement. It bypasses the thinking mind and opens the body. Following this release, Kirtan & HeartSong gently guided by Felicity Ananda, invites us to reconnect & nourish our hearts and spirits through communal chanting & prayer & songs, inviting devotion & unity . The sequence is like a wave of voice and body reconnection ceremony. The meeting together of dance & mantra offers our nervous system a total reset from expressive release to calm centredness. Aidan's DJing is set after a heartopening hawthorn tea ceremony, where we will invite our intentions for the evening. Dance and heartsong can help further clarify & deepen our intentions. Music will be a mixture of ethnotronika, world, folktronica, hypnotic and heart opening beats. ✨️ No dance, singing or meditation experience is necessary. This is an OUTDOOR event. Please dress in layers and bring a blanket/yoga mat/cushion for your comfort. No car? No problem! You can message Felicity to join our Whatsap Carpooling group on 0894037056. Come along this Bealtaine, free your dancing body & singing soul & let's celebrate the lusciousness of the land & the expansion of these times together. Link in bio. Le croí, Aidan & Felicity \* Feel free to contact Aidan on 0876383781 or Felicity on 0894037056 for any further enquiries. * Parking is limited so carpooling is encouraged. You will be invited to join a carpooling whatsap group upon securing your ticket.

Welcome, readers! Our May read is **_Kindred_ by Octavia E. Butler.** The story follows Dana, a Black woman living in 1976 California, who is suddenly pulled back to a Maryland plantation before the Civil War. She learns her survival is tied to a white slaveholder’s son. Forced to move between centuries, she must endure the brutal realities of slavery while fighting to hold on to her identity. Tense, intimate, and unforgettable, Kindred explores how the past refuses to stay buried. Looking forward to discussing with everyone! We will meet at Zaftig Brewing Co in their event room in the back. We are welcome to bring in our own food, but **drinks must be purchased at the bar.** Happy reading! 📖

Join us for Mercy of the Gods by James S. A. Corey. How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end. The Carryx - part empire, part hive - have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin. Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand - and manipulate - the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.

This month we’ll be ready Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett. Feel free to come and chat even if you don’t finish the book!

Posting this early because seemingly all Sundays in May are holidays or busy! I picked a shorter thriller that's hopefully a fast read/listen. [Columbus library link to book](https://cml.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S105C3458940) Location: Grandview Cafe, *1455 W. 3rd Ave*, Columbus, OH 43212 [Menu](https://www.grandviewcafe.com/menu) Book summary: Daniel leads a rich life in the university town of Athens, Georgia. He's got a couple close friends, a steady paycheck working for a regional airline, and of course, for a few glorious days each Fall, college football tailgates. He considers himself to be a mostly lucky guy -- despite the fact that he's suffered from a debilitating disease since he was a small child, one that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair. Largely confined to his home, Daniel spends the hours he's not online communicating with irate air travelers observing his neighborhood from his front porch. One young woman passes by so frequently that spotting her out the window has almost become part of his daily routine. Until the day he's almost sure he sees her being kidnapped.

**Our May novel is: *The Quiet Librarian* by Allen Eskens** **This month’s book is set in the 20th century and mixes historical fiction with suspense and thriller elements. It also centers on women’s stories and relationships. The novel is 368 pages in print or 8 hours and 12 minutes on audiobook.** Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared. Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia—until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend—the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head\*\*.\*\*