Royal setting for grand weddingsDublin's newest wedding venue is the one of the city's oldest and most venerable institutions, the Royal College of Physicians on Kildare Street. Founded in l654, the College was and continues to be a licensing body for doctors and in 1815 built Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital as a teaching hospital.
In l860 it purchased what was the Kildare Street Club, rebuilt it and opened it as its headquarters in 1864. The college celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2004 with a major refurbishment of the building, which contains the oldest medical library in the world, moving its administration to a separate address.
Now the lovely interior of No 6 Kildare Street, with its elegant rooms, stained glass windows and beautiful furnishings, is a venue for conferences, weddings, dinners and other events. Prices range from €350, for a half-day hire for the Stokes or Stearne Rooms, up to €4,000 for the Corrigan and Graves Hall Suite. Wedding rates are separate; so far 17 weddings have been held there. For further information, see www.numbersix.ie or call Adrienne Clarke at 01-6698808. - Deirdre McQuillan
Uncovering a Tullamore jewel
Offaly's best kept fashion secret is Gladys Adams's enticing emporium in Tullamore, Co Offaly which sells vintage and contemporary furniture, fashion and jewellery.
Adams counts Mary Cowen among her many customers, a woman she describes as having real style and whom she is looking forward to dressing once shemakes her debut as the country's first lady next month.
An inveterate collector, Adams started with antique furniture, but branched out to include fashion four years ago.
"Young people are really into vintage clothing particularly, the 1950s and the 1960s at the moment," she says - having recently sold a black l970s Valentino dress to a customer going to a wedding. Clients like Mrs Cowen go for the youthful tailoring of the Mashiah brand from Germany, which she stocks exclusively, along with Turkish and Italian labels and the Irish designer Yasmin Velloza.
"People are dressing up seriously now and going for the wow factor," she says. Currently organising a big fashion show in the Heritage Hotel in Killinard in September, she is raising funds for the ENT Zambia Trust. Gladys Antiques & Interiors ("I haven't got around to putting in the fashion bit yet," she explains), Riverview Industrial Park, Tullamore, Co Offaly, 057-9341516. - Deirdre McQuillan
Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with Amnesty International and top musicians Christy Moore, Liam Ó Maonlaí and others at the Helix Theatre, DCU on May 1st at 7pm. Tickets €10. www.thehelix.ie
Festival time in the garden
April may well have been chillier than normal, but things are hotting up in the horticultural world. Ireland's newest garden festival, Bloom, which was inaugurated last year, returns again to Dublin's Phoenix Park, from Thursday May 29th to Monday June 2nd.
The core of the event will be the 30 show gardens by Irish designers: among them old hands such as Paul Martin, Oliver and Liat Schurmann, and Elma Fenton, as well as newer names such as Lurene Tallon, Colm Doyle and Dean Lacey and Maximilian Kemper.
All the country's best nurseries will be gathered in the floral pavilion, while a food market will feature Irish artisan produce. The show, which is presented by An Bord Bia, broadens this year to include a "health and wellness arena", and a craft trail. Children are well catered for with a special play area and interactive gardens.
The following weekend (June 6th-8th) finds another festival, Garden Show Ireland, at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down, with show gardens, nurseries, horticultural experts, a band in the band stand, and cream teas on the lawn. Now, can we have some summer with that please? For tickets to Bloom, call 0818-300260 or see www.bloominthepark.com. Adult tickets start at €18; family discounts available. - Jane Powers
'European Baskets' at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, features work by almost 80 basketmakers, and demonstrates the massive variety in basket-making techniques across Europe, from Scandinavia to Spain. The exhibition runs from May 3rd to July 13th. For details, call 056-7761804 or see www.ccoi.ie
Carly Sings us a song
IF ONE HAD to describe singer-songwriter Carly Blackman in a single word, the most appropriate adjective would probably be "offbeat". She performs professionally as Carly Sings, but little else about the 25-year-old chanteuse - whose soon-to-be-released debut album The Glove Thief has been creating quite a buzz - is as straightforward as her moniker. She speaks softly, with some unorthodox inflections that are the inheritance of a childhood split between Ireland and France. And it's not just in conversation that her phrasing could be described as idiosyncratic.
She is candid about the difficulty she has in finding musicians on the same wavelength as herself. "I've been told that, if I want to fully represent the album in a live context. I ought to consider performing it with a backing band. But in the past I've been frustrated with musicians for not being able to follow my rhythm or my key changes, which are quite odd I suppose."
A classically trained pianist, whose influences range from George Gershwin to the Moldy Peaches, Blackman came to songwriting relatively late, following a spell as a playwright and student journalist in Trinity College. After discovering (to her surprise) that she could sing, she made her live debut two years ago in a jazz club in Montparnasse. One is reminded here of Diane Keaton in the film Annie Hall, performing It Had To Be You to a noisy, indifferent club audience.
"Oh, quite the opposite!" laughs Blackman. "I was so frightened that I was shaking onstage and had to be given a shot of bourbon when I came off. But, in a way, that performance almost set me up for later disappointment, because there was total silence from the crowd there and the response afterwards was very warm."
The Glove Thief's 12 tracks cover the (admittedly well-trodden) territory of relationships and romantic entanglements, but the lyrics are blunt and occasionally provocative, in a way that distinguishes Carly from a field of demure, lyrically obtuse female songwriters.
"I do sometimes come out with lines that are kind of filthy," she giggles. "I think it's because my demeanour is so sweet - I'm not trying to be sexy - that people are surprised by that. But those lines are so childishly articulated that you couldn't be offended."
Co-produced by Blackman with electronica composer Steve Shannon, the album also features contributions from French musicians Axel Concato and Jérome Pichon as well as several Irish session musicians. It is available through Blackman's MySpace page, as a download from iTunes and in a limited number of independent record shops. Several record companies have expressed an interest, but Carly refuses to sit around waiting for them to make up their minds, which is why she has chosen to go the independent route.
"I don't see this as an album whose popularity will grow slowly in cult circles," she says. "I think it will make an immediate impact." Eoin Butler
The Glove Thief is available for pre-order at www.carlytunes.com www.myspace.com/carlysings, www.itunes.com and from Road Records, Fade Street, Dublin 2