I'll be honest, I got lost looking for the main building of the CLES... I certainly hope I'm not…read morethe first. The building itself is a tad inaccurately described as "the white building" in the equally grandiosely titled for its purposes Goldenbridge Integrated Complex. It's a converted church mideway into a housing estate just over the canal from the Goldenbridge LUAS stop. Curmudgeonly grousing aside, when focusing on the community service this place provides, it should be strapped with colonnades, gold leaf and marble facing. This is a facility staffed by some very dedicated folks working hard to help the local public stay working. LES works in conjunction with FAS and Social Welfare to provide back to work schemes and resources for job seekers in the surrounding area. Not only are there courses on improving CVs and interview skills, but copiers, computers, internet access and a FAS jobs console. The staff are genuine as well -happy to offer a cup of tea and a sympathetic (if proactive) ear as well as a game plan for getting back on one's feet.

TY was an amazing year for me...one whole year of school where I had nothing to do except develop…read moremy non-academic self. A 2 week course in media as Gaeilge seemed perfect. And so it was. Meeting lads from the northside (still exotic to my southsider upbringing at that stage) and accosting random people on the street to do interviews seemed like such a good idea. And all 'ar son ár dteanga náisiúnta'? Even better. Language promotion, teaching, outreach and entrepreneurship all come under Gael Linn's considerable remit. While much of their work is unacknowledged in the wider sphere, it is still an important facilitator for Irish businesses, particularly in the Gaeltachtaí. They also run courses as Gaeilge and generally work to promote Irish as a living language...tír gan teanga, tír gan anam, mar a déarfá...

A great website which allowed us to find care for our little daughter. We found someone trained in…read moredisability who wanted to work in Ireland. Its inexpensive to use, and there are new people registering all the time, so finding someone is easy. We're needed this service for a long time in Ireland!

This service is great, especially for foreigners who don't know their way around Irish government…read moreservices. The staff were extremely helpful in explaining the process of applying for grants and applying at colleges to me and printed off lots of information and told me where to go for more information. Funnily enough not a lot of people seem to know about this service, but they have a lot of information on government benefits and processes. You might have to wait for a short while though because it can get quite busy.

This building house publications spanning over 100 years dealing with various subjects of Irish…read moreinterest. It is the place to find the primary publications and source material for Irish culture, heritage and history. It is an excellent resource if you are doing research for a thesis or any research area for that matter. It also is a great way to delve into the makeup of Ireland. It goes without saying that the people working there are experts, so they can easily help you with your queries. It's open to the public so if you are a tourist and want to get a informed perspective of Ireland, go here. Actually I guess the same could apply even if you are an Irish citizen.

The National Archives is in the old Jacob's Biscuit Factory, which was occupied by the rebel forces…read moreduring the Easter Rising in 1916. Unfortunately, a lot of records were destroyed in the Four Courts during 1922, but for all papers related to Governmental Departments, et al. They offer free Genealogical Services, which is great for people who don't know their way around the archives/ what exactly they're looking for. They've also put the Census of 1911 online, so now it can be accessed from anywhere in the world. The archives are quite disorganised when you're actually in there and I've gone in several times and located files that I wanted to look at and the files were nowhere to be found. Also the archives don't have their catalogue digitised so you have to search through different finding aids to locate the files that are of use. They do have a bit of a search engine on their website, but it is limited in the results it returns/ the search criteria you can set.

If you have never been here before you need a readers ticket just take along some photo ID and a…read morehouse bill and this can be sorted quite quickly. This is a great place for research and also genealogy. Although there is so much info here it can be difficult to find so go to the genealogy room first for advice first. Going to the NA is a little like going to a dress shop and telling them what you want and they bring one dress out at a time and ask if this is what you like! They could do with a few floating helpers as it would speed up your time for finding what you need. Some of the workers there are helpful some just point or refer you to someone else - which could be improved upon. I am one of these people who when given directions to find things can never find them - 'You cannot miss it' is a kiss of death to me! I am however a great map reader and there is no map in this place! Still it is all we have so I have to be a fan.

I lived quite near here for a few years and my flat got broken into early one morning this year so…read moreit was the first time I had the occasion to call the Guards here. The woman who answered the phone was very nice and concerned and said she would get someone to my house asap. The Garda car actually arrived at my front door within minutes, however I found them to be very unhelpful once they were inside. It was a male and female Garda and the male seemed to think I'd taken ages to report the crime. He wanted to know what was with the time delay! While I felt like they weren't taking me too seriously, they did take my details and phoned my mobile around an hour later to say they were sending a crime scene person to me that day to dust for prints etc. So all in all I felt like they did their job well. My intruder was never caught though!

Provides support, professional development and facilities for primary and secondary level teachers…read more The centre is also where the "write a book" project is run out of. I chose this picture because, hidden in the grounds of IADT, nobodies ever able to find the place. Also, it doesn't help that it's nowhere near Blackrock.