You humans love your celebrations, don’t you? Halloween is barely over and the Christmas lights and decorations are already up. I know I am only a humble seagull, but dare I point out that Christmas is in December, not November?

Luckily, in Dun Laoghaire I can enjoy other lights: those on the pier, the yachts and ferries, Howth Head, the lighthouses. It is fascinating to watch the ferries setting out towards Wales and England or the tankers and cargo ships sitting out in the bay, waiting for the pilot ship to guide them into port.

Whenever they get a chance, the Oldies take me out for a stroll along the East Pier which is an impressive 1.3 km long. The West Pier is even longer: over 1.5 km. The other day, we were enjoying the view across Scotsman Bay from the vantage point of this Crimean War cannon on the East Pier. Two elderly American couples came along behind us. ‘That cannon must be very old’, I overheard one lady say. ‘It must be from World War I.’ ‘No, I think it’s older’, said one of the men. ‘I reckon it must be from the time of the Vikings.’ And such worldly-wise people vote in presidential elections, heaven help us!

My favourite walk is along the seafront (stopping off for a Teddy’s ice-cream along the way… did I mention Teddy’s, the best ice-cream in the world?) to Sandycove beach and the Forty Foot. This is a famous bathing place, formerly for ‘gentlemen’ only, but nowadays open to everyone. Rightly so! Unfortunately, we won’t be around for the annual Forty Foot Christmas swim. But then Christmas is in December, isn’t it?

Martello towers were built along the coast to protect against a Napoleonic invasion. There are great views from the top of the Martello tower in Sandycove and the sea looks so inviting from here. This the best known Martello tower, now a museum and known as the James Joyce Tower because the famous author once lived in it for a short time in 1904. The opening scene of his novel ‘Ulysses’ is set here. One character, Buck Mulligan, standing on the parapet on the roof of the tower, gazes out at the ‘the snotgreen sea’. Ugh! Now I don’t feel like diving in after all.

Just down the road from Joyce’s Tower is Bulloch Harbour, a haven for gulls and seals. I certainly feel at home here! Colimore Harbour in Dalkey, a short stroll further down the coast, is particularly lovely, with Dalkey Island just offshore. Apparently a pod of dolphins hang out here and can often be seen swimming between Dalkey Island and the ‘Bay of Naples of Ireland’, Killiney Bay. It is so hard to believe that all this wonderful coastal beauty is just a stone’s throw from the capital city.

Talking about Dublin, I must say it’s nice to hear the Dublin accent again. The Oldies always laugh when they hear it too. They’ve spent years trying to help Austrian students pronounce their ‘th’ in English, then they come here and the Dubliners can’t do it either! Dubliners go to ‘d’ jacks’ (the toilet), do ‘d’ messages’ (the shopping) and buy ‘dis and dat’ (this and that). A family member was getting the ferry back to France the other day when his car, which was chock full of Irish goodies, was stopped at a Garda checkpoint. The guard (policeman) enquired in typically Irish fashion, ‘Now, you don’t have anything in the car that you wouldn’t like me to see, do you?’ Remembering the two mats he had rolled up in the back under all the tea bags and Tayto crisps, he replied, ‘Only d’rugs.’