A lot of cities have little quirks or traditions that locals appreciate, despise or laugh at, whatever. Some are local, some are citywide but most of the time they're all interesting :D So I was interested in learning about any of these on our island, from Belfast to Cork. What quirks has your city got??

In Dublin, southside, there is a church on the way into the city-center on the N11, that has this pseudo-annoying sign that changes every few months or so. Its always a religious message, some are annoying, some are quite clever, but I always like seeing a new one appear and cringing at it on the way to college, along a few others on the bus. Some I can remember are:

Ch ch, whats missing? r u? ..and... Know god, know peace. No god, no peace.
Now it says, "This sign will change, god's love remains."...This one sucks.

Also there is a newsagent in dún laoghaire that has no door because it never closes, ever.

So any more in Dublin I dont know about? northside? What have ye got Belfast, Galway etc?

QFT (Queens Fim Theatre) on University Street is a favourite. Its a 2 screen art house cinema in one of the Victorian mid-terrace townhouses. Totally unassuming from the outside but surprisingly large when you go in. I've never seen another like it.

Is that what you had in mind?

Yeah, cool, more of this:D Couldnt find any pics of the outside of that unfortunately.

Try this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhanagan/497901331/

Without wanting to get political here, another unique thing about Belfast is the July 11th bonfires. Regardless of what you might think of them it is quite a sight especially when viewed from one of the hills.

I can remember being in rainy bundoran one 11th night and watching BBC newsline with the webcam of Belfast, a few of the fires had been lit up in North Belfast and the city looked like it had gone back 100 years with billowing black smoke rising, no longer from productive mills.

Like PB, don't want to get political but one thing Belfast does good is politcal murals/graffiti. The murals deserve their place but the graffiti really gets me laughing. Some are hilarious, others a bit close to the bone the rest are funny because they show how illiterate people can write on walls!

Heres a few I laughed at:

(an old one, pre 1998) Don't worry, the RA have had their Wheatabix!!
(The usual from the Village) No Pope Here!!! (then underneath) Well who the f**k would blame him?
(This is a bit harsh from the time of the hungerstrike, it was written on a billboard advert for Hague Whiskey, the Ad was supposed to read "Don't be vague, have a Hague". Instead someone had scrubbed out the 'have a Hague' bit...) Don't be vague, starve a Taig
(one which totally threw me) We love you and miss you, you great man!! In memory of Barry White! (This was up the falls!?)

Can't say I approve of the bonfires, purely on the impct they have on the air quality and the damage they cause, mainly in public estates that we are expected to pick up the cost for and repair in addition to cleaning all the crap up.

I'd much rather they use beacons.

Deceptively small alright PB.
Id say the bon-fires are quite a spectacle seen from the hills, wouldnt mind seeing that.


(an old one, pre 1998) Don't worry, the RA have had their Wheatabix!!
(The usual from the Village) No Pope Here!!! (then underneath) Well who the f**k would blame him?
(This is a bit harsh from the time of the hungerstrike, it was written on a billboard advert for Hague Whiskey, the Ad was supposed to read "Don't be vague, have a Hague". Instead someone had scrubbed out the 'have a Hague' bit...) Don't be vague, starve a Taig
(one which totally threw me) We love you and miss you, you great man!! In memory of Barry White! (This was up the falls!?)

Ha!:lol: Some of those are funny alright. Hunger strike one irks me a bit but meh :/ The murals in the north are really unique, great artists on both sides. Belfast is a very political city, quite hard to get away from that fact it seems :P

Be great if there was just one enormous bonfire with clean burning wood on it instead of the mess that bonfires create although ive noticed alot of difference over the past few years since they ran the tidy bonfire competitions.

Belfast has the largest Celtic Cross in Ireland at St Anne's Cathedral:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmcmichael/1304198265/

See that the billboard at the Aurora site has now been replaced with a huge ad proclaiming Belfast now has the largest KFC drive-thru in Ireland as well. Now that is an accolade.

Beautiful cross, how do you feel about that spire?

There are far too few KFCs in the republic T_T ...need more southern ones, anything odlum, nordisk, eh?

I like it. Its makes for a distinctive feature but is still quite subtle. Complete rip off from your own though. Plagerism being the sincerest form of flattery I suppose. You'll have to get a ferris wheel now.

Ha! :D Yeah, im sure they'll include it in a stimulus package.

Now that Belfast has Google Street View you can get a better feel for these places:

QFT:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Falls+Road+Belfast&sll=-33.826769,151.235194&sspn=0.008218,0.018325&ie=UTF8&t=k&layer=c&cbll=54.585305,-5.934015&panoid=G4LjmQiTSZfRxOofElgLRw&cbp=12,20.90888540675538,,0,-8.497739879188158&ll=54.585288,-5.93384&spn=0.001433,0.004581&z=18

St Anne's Cathedral:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Falls+Road+Belfast&sll=-33.826769,151.235194&sspn=0.008218,0.018325&ie=UTF8&t=k&layer=c&cbll=54.603105,-5.92898&panoid=D8eVgHM9nUjVP4F53ckjzQ&cbp=12,121.11187774232674,,0,-24.508196721311485&ll=54.603047,-5.929146&spn=0.001432,0.004581&z=18

Interesting all right, Street view is cool.
Was the spire part of the original design or added later?

Another one, nerdy this time ;) Dublin's no tie fighter signage...

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8306/ireland49og3.jpg

lol!

Duke of York pub in Belfast!

Little known facts about Limerick City..

In 1919, Limerick became a soviet state, completely independant of Ireland so that it wouldnt be considered apart of Britain!

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Also Limerick City is the Sports Capital of Ireland and was awarded as european sports capital for 2010!