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Irish Examiner
19-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Examiner
Saturday with Maeve Madden: 'We don't do Deliveroo or takeaways – I don't like fast food'
8.30am I get up at around 8.30am or 9am on an average Saturday. I like to go out on a Friday – often it's a date night with my husband Andrew or we'll have dinner together and a drink at home. Once I'm awake I have to get up. It's not very healthy, I know, but the first thing I do is go on my phone. I'll take some electrolytes and a litre of water. I drink most of my water in the morning. I will then have a pre-breakfast snack. I used to do a lot of fasted workouts but these days I'll have a small snack such as some brazil nuts, a boiled egg and some raspberries. 09.00 I'll go for a walk even if it's just 15 minutes around the block. I go for a walk every day without fail because otherwise, as a self-employed person, I'd be sitting at my desk all day every day. We travel a lot but I'm currently living in Dublin. I love to walk in Herbert Park and to buy my veg in the market there on a Sunday. We might walk down to Sandymount Strand and on the way back we'll pick up almond croissants. 10.30 I'll make an omelette with feta cheese, spinach and tomato and we'll have a bowl of berries and our pastries. We'll sit at the breakfast table for an hour or so, have a couple of coffees and chat about life. 12.00 Often on a Saturday we'll drive up north to see my mum and family in Newry. We always go for a walk – we'll go to Slieve Gullion or the Mournes or along the greenway in Newry. Mum will get her hair done, we'll do some grocery shopping and then we'll all go for dinner at 6pm in the golf club. After dinner, we'll walk the dog and then we'll watch GoggleBox on the TV – it's a very wholesome family routine. If we're staying in Dublin, we'll usually do some chores before heading into town. Maeve Madden: "Dinner is our time to catch up and spend time together. Saturday is our chill out day – I try to make sure it's the one day of the week that I don't work." 14.00 We will go for a browse around the shops. More often than not we'll pop into the Westbury Hotel – perhaps for a little glass of champagne, especially if my mum is in town. There's always a great buzz in the Westbury and it's great for people watching too. An ideal Saturday would be spent in London where I have a lot of great friends. We'll get dressed up, go out for a glam dinner, for drinks and maybe even a little dance. I love being in Ireland though – it's definitely a less frantic way of life than living in London. 19.00 I might pop into Lotts & Co. to pick up some ingredients for dinner. We don't really do Deliveroo or takeaways – I just don't like fast food and I'm funny about takeaways so we tend to cook for ourselves. 20.00 Dinner is our time to catch up and spend time together. Saturday is our chill out day – I try to make sure it's the one day of the week that I don't work. I try to avoid doing social media on a Saturday too otherwise I'd be on my phone all the time. I've been doing social media for so long now that I don't think anyone cares if I miss a day of posting. I've learnt that it's important to be present with the people around you. Saturday is a day for being offline and spending time with family and friends. 21.00 I'll chill out on the couch and will send voice notes to people in my various friend groups from the different places I've lived around the world. I love to watch crime documentaries but recently I've gotten into Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923 and then ended up watching everything Taylor Sheridan has ever written. I also love the Real Housewives series but I tend to watch those by myself rather than with my husband. If it's late and I don't want to concentrate too much I will throw something on like Schitt's Creek which I know so well I can almost fall asleep to it. 23.00 I take magnesium and melatonin every night which help me to sleep. On a Saturday I'll probably be in bed by about midnight. It's funny – I used to start getting ready to go out with my friends at about 11pm when I lived in London but now I start thinking about going to bed at that time. I sleep with a silk bonnet on – I was doing that long before the 'shredding' trend caught on. I hate having my hair around me when I'm sleeping and it helps with my hair health. I sleep with a Drowsy sleep mask on, use ear plugs and have blackout curtains. Maeve Madden is the founder of Queens Don't Quit - empowering women through wellness, movement and community. She is also a brand ambassador for ORS Hydration, promoting fast, effective hydration to support a healthy, active lifestyle. See and @maeve_madden on Instagram.
Irish Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
€6m regeneration of area between Grafton St and Dawson St to begin in weeks
The €6 million regeneration of the area between Grafton Street and Dawson Street in Dublin city centre, first announced more than a decade ago, will finally get under way in the coming weeks. The two-year construction project involves a revamp of South Anne Street, Duke Street, Lemon Street and the lanes which run between them, with Leinster granite paving, tree and flower planting, water bottle filling stations, a play area, public seating and bicycle stands. Dublin City Council will also for the first time introduce automated rising bollards, instead of flexible wands, to stop delivery drivers from entering the zone outside authorised hours. The scheme aims to capitalise on the pedestrianisation of South Anne Street four years ago, and the enthusiasm for outdoor dining which grew during the Covid-19 pandemic. READ MORE Duke Street is currently pedestrianised at its western end, from just past Duke Lane to where it meets Grafton Street. Following consultation with disabled people organisations, it will remain open to traffic at its eastern end from Dawson Street to Duke Lane and will have a disabled parking bay, but no general parking. Lemon Street will remain pedestrianised but will be upgraded with a new play space. Deliveries will be permitted from 6am to 11am only. However, the council said it has already experienced difficulties on South Anne Street with delivery vehicles continuing to enter the space all day, driving over the plastic bollards and parking on footpaths. To counteract this, the new scheme will use retractable bollards at the entrances to South Anne Street and west of Duke Lane on Duke Street, which can be raised or lowered into the ground automatically, to prevent entry outside permitted hours. A planning application was lodged in December 2022 and approved in April 2023, with the project then subject to detailed design and tenders for construction. Work is finally to get under way in May and could take up to two years the council said, but will phased to minimise disruption. The scheme was part of the Grafton Street Quarter Public Realm Plan, published in October 2013, which envisaged a €14 million investment over three years in the area between Dawson Street and South Great George's Street. The repaving of Grafton Street was completed in 2015 and work then began on the streets to its west including part of Wicklow Street and Harry Street and Balfe Street which leads to the Westbury Hotel. Work was in recent years completed on Chatham Street, but significant elements remain unrealised, including a civic plaza and urban park at St Andrew's Church at the junction of St Andrew's Street and Trinity Street, the repaving of South William Street and Drury Street, as well as the redevelopment of the South Anne Street Duke Street area.
