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Here are some of the key works James recommends checking out while you’re exploring The Devlin:

• A commissioned oil painting by Chloe Early located in Americana Bar.
• An original screen print from seminal op-artist Bridget Riley located at the lobby lift area.
• Artworks by Eva Rothchild, Kathy Prendergast and Dorothy Cross located in Americana Bar and third floor stairwell.
• A gargantuan monochrome painting by Joy Gerrard from her protest series, measuring at 2.5 metres wide. This is the largest artwork within the hotel’s collection and is located on the first floor lift lobby.
• An original neon Tracey Emin piece above reception.

This article originally appeared in Issue #1 of The Devlin Zine, a collaboration between The Devlin Dublin, District Magazine, & Roe & Co. Irish Whiskey.

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We meet Dee Buckley on an already busy Thursday afternoon, just before the rush of health-conscious locals come bursting through the door of Urban Health for the lunchtime rush. The place is a mecca for clean eating, an establishment “born through a love of healthy, nutritious food and an active lifestyle”, according to Dee and her husband and business partner Darragh.

What made you come back to Dublin from your travels in Australia?

That’s always the thing with Dublin for me, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Every time I went away, I just appreciated Ireland so much, especially Dublin. There’s such a cool vibe in Dublin. I’m so proud of being Irish. I’d never intended really staying away. I was always going to come back.

What made you choose Ranelagh?

I’ve lived here since I was three, I’ve grown up around here. It’s changed so, so much since I first moved in. Now, there’s such a cool restaurant and coffee shop vibe around Ranelagh, but the one thing again that we noticed was that there were no health food places. The restaurants around here are amazing, absolutely! But where could we get good, healthy products like spirulina, wheatgrass, fresh juices? That’s why we started Urban Health.

There’s a village mentality, but it’s so close to the city. Do you have that sense of community with locals?

100 per cent! That’s the beauty of Ranelagh, it’s like a country village in the big city. Everyone knows each other. All of the businesses around here help each other out. If we run out of coffee cups, we borrow them from someone else, no big deal. We keep an eye on each other. The bigger franchises don’t do well in Ranelagh, people just want to support the small local businesses.

On social media you’s talk about environmental sustainability a lot, is that important to you?

Our whole thing is we wanted it to be about healthy lifestyle. It’s not just about food, we have a yoga and pilates studio upstairs. We really believe in health as a whole. Mind, body and soul. We made the decision to try and cut down, we’re not plastic free totally yet, but all of our packaging is recyclable. That was our big goal for 2018.

Does it frustrate you, as an independent company making a big effort, going into the supermarket and seeing plastic everywhere?

The bigger companies need to take the lead. Until they start demanding it it’s making it so much more expensive for everybody else. I think what frustrates me more now though is that all of our packaging here is compostable, but when people leave here, there are no compost bins, so they are forced to put it in the general rubbish.

Speaking of being an independent company – you mentioned in an interview before that all of your waking hours are consumed by work. But does the sense of achievement drive you to keep doing it?

Definitely, I don’t think I’d ever be fully happy working for someone else. I’ve always wanted to just do my own thing. There are times where you’re answering emails at 11pm, or you’ve forgotten to order something and you waking up in the middle of the night thinking about it. But for all of the bad points, there are so many good points as well. It’s a lot of hard work, running a business, but for me doing something I really believe in is what’s most rewarding. I put my head on my pillow at night time and feel I’m doing something that can help people. I can feel like I’m actually improving their life.

“The Urban Health Shop: Health in the ‘Hood” originally appeared in Issue #1 of The Devlin Zine, a collaboration between The Devlin Dublin, District Magazine, & Roe & Co. Irish Whiskey.

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Ranelagh Arts first launched in 2005, how has the arts scene in Ranelagh changed since then?

It has become a very important part of the community. As you probably know it features art exhibitions, when we have the space, but we also have workshops, drama, book readings, book launches, historical talks. We are also really involved in Tidy Towns, so that has made a huge difference and the festival has grown in the past few years, there were 50 events this year.

What is your best memory of being involved in the arts in the area?

I am an independent curator and I put on visual art exhibitions, about a dozen in the arts centre and at least a dozen acoustic gigs. There have been some wonderful events and some better than others, obviously [laughs]! And the collective which is a creative music and poetry, spoken word monthly concert in the back garden of the centre. They are some of my best memories. It was wonderful. It was curated, not an open mic, so the person behind The Collective organised who was playing.

Dublin is a city full of creative energy, do you think there is something special about being a creative person in Dublin?

It does have a huge amount of creative energy, its size is one of the special things, you can get around easily and visit places. It of course has a very good art college, that all helps, and it has quite a few art galleries also. It isalways in a state of flux, but everyone still knows each other. Artists can work together and inform each other and learn from each other. With NCAD, DIT, Ballyfermot and Dún Laoghaire, there are loads.

What are the advantages of being on the fringe of a capital city? Are there advantages to being situated in a neighbourhood?

Absolutely, it is very near the city centre, but Ranelagh still has its own identity. We are on the Luas, but the village feeling is very important, especially to the residents. We are exposed to the benefits too, like the theatre, etc.

You have a number of different spaces on offer for different types of events, but what is the future like for Ranelagh Arts Centre?

Well, we had to close the Ranelagh Arts Centre this year because we can’t afford a market rent, so we agreed to move out after the festival this year at the start of October. Very sad of course. My background is the visual arts and I’ve been the chairperson since May. We are launching a fundraising initiative this month to enable us to rent a space where we could put on exhibitions and have an office. However, Framexperts has been taken overrecently and the new owners are happy to accomodate exhibitions for us. We will have less because we don’t have staff anymore, but maybe nine or ten a year. We will be doing a Christmas group show. We have been talking to the manager of The Devlin also about using the cinema in the basement. Hopefully it will all pan out, it would be really good for literary events, talks, workshops.

That’s very resourceful, another sign of Ranelagh coming together to help each other.

Ranelagh Arts Festival ran for three years before it got a premises, so we are just going back to that. It is important to have a main street presence but we are still going on, and of course running the festival every September. My priority is to keep the brand alive and not just every September festival but regular events. It could be walks, could be talks… Ranelagh Arts will continue. We get a generous grant every year for the festival from Dublin City Council, we couldn’t do it otherwise. It’s a community arts organisation, that’s very important. There is a great backing from local people who are very happy to be involved.

“Ireland Culture: 60 Seconds with Tony Strickland Of Ranelagh Arts Centre” originally appeared in Issue #1 of The Devlin Zine, a collaboration between The Devlin Dublin, District Magazine, & Roe & Co. Irish Whiskey.

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