Peter Moran - Mamuska Background

The Dublin Miniatures Postcard Collection

The Dublin Miniatures are now available as a collection of 22 unique postcards, plus a specially-designed cover card which features a map of the city pointing to the locations where each composition was written. The full set is available now for the special launch price of E20 (includes P&P to anywhere in the world).
Watch the videos for each composition below.

The Liberties Set


The Liberties is an area in the heart of old Dublin. From the roof of an apartment building you can see right across the rooftops of Dublin, all the way to the Wicklow Mountains. The birds flying in front of the camera shot here were a happy accident. This lent the music its flittering right-hand figurations over the sustained chord in the left.

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The Liberties is an area in the heart of old Dublin. St. Patrick's Tower, a distinctive feature of the Dublin skyline located near the Guinness brewery, is a decommissioned windmill, once the largest in Europe. I wrote this piece while sitting at the base of the tower. From that perspective, I feel the music tries to wind its way upward.

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The Glasnevin Set


Glasnevin is an historic part of Dublin City believed to have been founded by St. Mobhi in the early 6th century. The towers that line the walls of Glasnevin Cemetery were built in the 19th century to keep watch for grave robbers. Other business and residential buildings from that period can still be seen outside the cemetery today.

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Glasnevin is an historic part of Dublin City believed to have been founded by St. Mobhi in the early 6th century. The Royal Canal marks out the southern boundary of the Glasnevin area. Still open to canal boats, it is mostly maintained today as a scenic walkway, where this piece was written.

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Glasnevin is an historic part of Dublin City believed to have been founded by St. Mobhi in the early 6th century. Glasnevin Hill leads down to the bridge over the Tolka River, the centre of the old Glasnevin village and now the location of the National Botanic Gardens and the distinctive "Pyramid Church". I always take a moment to stop here whenever I'm passing by. The music reflects these moments, as set against the sense of movement created by the meeting of river and the steep hill.

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The Docklands Set


The Dublin Docklands area, originally a centre for industry and shipping, has been largely regenerated as a business and cultural space today. Boland's Mills, a building with a long history in Dublin City, was earmarked for renovation before the financial crash. It stands now in stark contrast against its modern surroundings as it has fallen into disrepair. In composing this piece, it was the patterns of broken windows, and perhaps even the imagined sounds of breaking glass, that captured my attention.

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The Dublin Docklands area, originally a centre for industry and shipping, has been largely regenerated as a business and cultural space today. This piece was written a little further up along the Liffey while walking from the Millennium Bridge to the Ha'Penny Bridge. When crossing these bridges it is sometimes possible to feel them bouncing underfoot and this is the effect I sought to capture in the music.

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The Dublin Docklands area, originally a centre for industry and shipping, has been largely regenerated as a business and cultural space today. Old warehouses and the railway tracks embedded in the cobble walkways along the river point towards the industrial history of the area, which influenced the heavy, chugging sounds of the music.

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The Temple Bar Set


Temple Bar is a predominantly pedestrian area in the centre of the city known as Dublin's cultural quarter. This piece is reflective of a quiet walk through the cobbled streets.

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Temple Bar is a predominantly pedestrian area in the centre of the city known as Dublin's cultural quarter. Meeting House Square is an open space that houses a range of activities from markets to open air cinema and concerts. This piece re-interprets a motif from an earlier Dublin Miniature to create a livelier mood.

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The Medieval Dublin Set


Medieval Dublin is the area around Dublin Castle and Christchurch Cathedral where the Vikings, and later, the Normans, first settled. Winetavern Street runs underneath the arch of Christchurch. I wrote this piece listening to bells of the cathedral, using simple piano techniques to imitate the ringing sounds.

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Medieval Dublin is the area around Dublin Castle and Christchurch Cathedral where the Vikings, and later, the Normans, first settled. Along its length, Cook Street hides the longest surviving portion of Dublin's medieval walls, which at one time overlooked the River Liffey. In writing this aggressive music, I could imagine these early Dubliners defending the walls against invading forces.

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Medieval Dublin is the area around Dublin Castle and Christchurch Cathedral where the Vikings, and later, the Normans, first settled. This piece was written while listening to the bell-ringers of Christchurch alternating the same two pitches. As they rang, I listened to the overtones which sounded above each pitch and combined them to create this piece.

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The Oxmanstown Set


Oxmanstown, located just north of the River Liffey, opposite the original medieval Dublin settlement, is the area to which the Vikings (the East men, or Ostmen) were expelled when the Normans conquered the city in the 11th Century. Recent cultural and property developments in Smithfield have rejuvenated the area in parts, although some new buildings still remain empty or unfinished, while some older buildings appear disused for many decades. This unusual juxtaposition of stagnation and momentum is reflected in the music.

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Oxmanstown, located just north of the River Liffey, opposite the original medieval Dublin settlement, is the area to which the Vikings (the East men, or Ostmen) were expelled when the Normans conquered the city in the 11th Century. The Richmond Hospital site has been in use for over three hundred years, originally as a Dominican convent. It was rebuilt in its current ornate style in the late 19th century, leading to the joke that its architectural plans had been mixed up with those of the Taj Mahal. The music also uses a number of ornamental devices which weave around just two or three key pitches.

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Oxmanstown, located just north of the River Liffey, opposite the original medieval Dublin settlement, is the area to which the Vikings (the East men, or Ostmen) were expelled when the Normans conquered the city in the 11th Century. St. Michan's church was built during this period. Renovations in recent centuries led to the discovery of mummified human remains which are now on display in the crypts below the church. This music was written in the graveyard outside the crypts and seeks to capture the sombre mood.

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The Dublin Bay Set


Dublin Bay looks out over the Irish Sea, stretching from Howth Head at the north of the city to Dalkey point in the South. The Two Towers, iconic features of the Dublin skyline, are the chimney stacks of a now de-commissioned ESB power generating plant.

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Dublin Bay looks out over the Irish Sea, stretching from Howth Head at the north of the city to Dalkey point in the South. Bull Island was inadvertently created from the build-up of silt and sand that resulted from the building of the protective walls along Dublin port. The island is now home to a range of local wildlife and has become a dedicated nature reserve. While writing this music, I was struck by the peaceful quietness of the reserve, and particularly by the slow floating movements of everything around me, from the butterflies and tall reeds to the kites on the beach.

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Dublin Bay looks out over the Irish Sea, stretching from Howth Head at the north of the city to Dalkey point in the South. Sandymount Strand is a beach area just outside the city centre. The quiet, peaceful atmosphere of the strand offers a stark contrast against the bustle of the city. This was the mood I sought to capture in the music, with the faint cry of the sea gulls overhead.

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The Dun Laoighre-Rathdown Set


Dun Laoighre-Rathdown is an administrative county within Dublin located around the southern end of Dublin Bay. Dalkey is a picturesque village on the coast with many residencies built along the sea front. There is a neat, crisp feel to the area that I tried to capture in the music.

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Dun Laoighre-Rathdown is an administrative county within Dublin located around the southern end of Dublin Bay. The Martello Towers were built along the Dublin coast in the 19th Century to defend against an expected invasion from Napoleon. The tower in Sandycove is the best known of these since James Joyce stayed there briefly in 1904 and later used it as the setting for the opening scene in Ulysses. This music was written on the roof of the tower where it is possible to enjoy an undisturbed view right across the bay. The notes are a reflection of that great sense of space.

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Dun Laoighre-Rathdown is an administrative county within Dublin located around the southern end of Dublin Bay. The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) is an urban rail system that runs the length of the city, following the coastline along the south side. The only pitches used in this piece are taken from the rising tones of the railway announcements and the beeping of the DART's opening and closing doors. I arranged the musical material into short repeating patterns to capture the rhythmic movement train.

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The Dublin Miniatures are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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Dec 5th 2025

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