Just in time for the Year 2000 celebrations a new pedestrian bridge arrived in Dublin. But, since it's just a few feet from the famous Ha'Penny Bridge, folks have been wondering just what to do with the Millennium Bridge. Well, you can...

• Play Pooh Sticks
• Bury a Friend
• Sell It
• Steel the Ardagh Chalice
• Park It
• Take the Bridge to Babylon
• Millennium Bridge Building Guide

Winnie the Pooh and Piglet invented this terribly exciting game. To play you need a stick, a bridge, and a river. Eliza Lodge is ideally sited for the most exciting game of Pooh Sticks in Dublin.. Right in front of the Lodge flows the Liffey River, and right in front of the Lodge stands the Millennium Bridge.

Now all you need is a stick. Since Eliza Lodge is situated in the heart of Dublin, you won't have to go far to find a tourist shop and buy a blackthorn walking stick. Use the walking stick on your short way back to Eliza Lodge and onto the Millennium Bridge. Toss the stick into the river.

No,wait! Since Eliza Lodge has such lovely new rooms with fine big beds, it's easy to bring a companion along. They can buy a walking stick too! So, now you can both toss your sticks into the Liffey at the same time. The first stick to emerge from under the bridge is the winner. Shout "I win!"

(We wrote these paragraph in all seriousness, of course. And then were amazed to discover that there is a annual World Championship Pooh-Sticks Race. You've just got to be astonished by the number of ways people find to amuse themselves. There might even be a few you can't do at Eliza Lodge.)

Ireland, you may know, has been the fastest growing economy in the world since 1996. Termed the Celtic Tiger, good times have come to Dublin. There's a buzz to the place.

So, in the spirit of the Tiger's roar we invite aspiring Cubs to seize opportunity and make a business success of the Millennium Bridge. For comparison and incentivizing, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has become a Golden opportunity for one enterprising company. The folks at San Francisco Scattering at Sea will, for proper recompense, scatter the ashes of your dearly beloved at the base of the bridge's pylons. (Their motto: "Visit the scattering site and enjoy a vacation in a great city..." We kid you not!) With such an inspiring example, surely someone should do something similar at Dublin's newest bridge.

Hmmm.... no, upon mature reflection, Dublin already offers a similarly unusual funereal service. Get yourself buried at St. Michan's Church just a few hundred yards down the river and the magnesium salts in the crypt's limestone will mummify your body and split open your coffin in just a few decades. (Visitors can even shake the dried up hand of one poor soul called the Crusader.)

Nope, the Bridge needs something really useful, a surefire business. Like... like how about opening a guesthouse for all those folks coming to share the buzz and shake the crusader's hand. Yeah! And give it some penthouse rooms with a balcony and lots of glass windows so folks can see up and down the river. And maybe put a great restaurant there!

Naw... been done before.

Hmmm... how 'bout a service that scatters the ashes of your dearly beloved fireplace? A 10 foot bungie jump - for the rest of us? A crocodile wrestling pit - two sides of the cage are already in place....

The government of Ireland put its telecommunications company on the market, its bank, and its airline. What's next? Why, the Millennium Bridge, of course. Just like the HaPenny Bridge which collected tolls in the early 1800's of a half penny, this promises to be hugely successful IPO. Just as the HaPenny Bridge became the symbol of Dublin in the 20th century, the Millennium Bridge Sale can celebrate the Gimme Years.

Simply follow a few modern, scientific business principles and we're away. Synergize (build near the HaPenny Bridge). Focus on the core business (walking on water), Re-engineer the functions (walk above the water), Downsize (close the HaPenny Bridge), Empower the competitive process (advertise the glories of the Millennium Bridge), and Streamline the business processes (have long, long power brunches at Eliza Blues restaurant).

Irish metal working has a tremendously long history. In fact, the National Museum's prehistoric gold collection (about a 10 minute walk from Eliza's) is the most extensive in the world. Among Ireland's greatest treasures is the 8th century Ardagh Chalice, pictured on the left.

Now consider the Millennium Bridge. The winner of a design contest with 153 entries, the bridge is, in the words of the designing firm, "simple, lightweight, transparent and structurally daring." The design features an "asymmetrical parabolic arch" which accommodates wheelchairs and pedestrians.

In other words, Ireland is still a land that prides itself on its metal work. A steel town!

Well, not exactly. The dominant theme of the city centre is Georgian. That is, during the reigns of George's One, Two, and Three in the 1700's, the classically elegant buildings and street scenes which still dominate Dublin were put in place. Huge swathes of the town are centuries old. Dublin castle, Trinity College, the old House of Lords, the current Parliamentary building - the place is bursting with classic buildings. Many are open to the public or have been turned into museums. Since these things aren't behind glass, any number of classic buildings have been turned into shops, restaurants, and offices.

Of course, nowadays the Georgian influences compete with throngs of shoppers and the bustle of a modern European capital city. Famed designers like John Rocha exhibit their wares beside the Waterford Crystal and Irish linens for which Ireland has been famous for centuries.

Besides the standard tourist tat like leprechauns with blinking red lights, wool and tweeds are still an outstanding value. Custom jewelry, particularly silver, is another specialty. Yep, the place is still heavy into metal.

Really, the thing Dubliners like most is simply to sit and watch the passing parade. There are some great city parks like Phoenix Park with its zoo and large herd of deer. But, everyone's favourite spot is at the monument to the "Great Liberator" Daniel O'Connell next to his eponymous bridge.

Just a three minute walk from Eliza Lodge, the statue of the leader of the Catholic Emancipation movement of the early 1800's is truly the heart of the city. O'Connell Street, the nation's main thoroughfare, stretches onward from the statue. The base of the monument is awash with sitting spots where you can watch the passing throngs.

As it happens, the winning design for the Millennium Bridge didn't include such a monument, a place to watch the faces. As it happens, Eliza Blues restaurant, with its big windows looking onto the bridge and passing foot traffic, provides what the winning design does not. A place to park it.

	Not really, of course. This just gives us a chance to throw in a picture of Mick Jagger and get listed in the search engines when folks look for The Rolling Stones. Ya see, the lads' 1997 tour was called Bridges to Babylon. Quite a tie-in, huh?
	If we were really going to push it, we'd include a picture of Helena Bonham Carter who played the Bridge of Frankenstein in Kenneth Brannagh's film.
	Or we'd mention Simon & Garfunkel's hit song Bridge Over Un-Troubled Liffey Waters. And no celebrity search would be complete unless we mention of Julia Roberts in Pretty Bridge Woman.
	But, since we're above all that we won't talk about the time that Madonna had to cross a bridge to enter New York, or the bridge tournament that took place in the same hotel where Frank Sinatra was headlining, or...

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