indian flag: The Fair City

Showing posts with label The Fair City. Show all posts

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Dublin Homecoming

GPO, O'Connell Street, Dublin

The Dublin "Spike" (don't ask!) and the statue of Trade Union leader Jim Larkin asking the question "where can I get a taxi around here?"

I went back to the Fair City to see the parents and friends old and new. On the Friday met up in the Holy Grail of Irish traditional music O'Donoghue's in Merrion Row. This is a real unchanging Dublin pub – a long hardwood bar soaked with the sweat and beer of five generations, photos of real old patrons on the walls, a ticking clock and the laughter of old men, and an atmosphere of peace and timelessness.

Dublin Luas Tram

For more on the Dubliners and O'Donoghue's see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/farewell-ronnie-drew.html

We had a wonderful night in O'Donoghue's, proving that a stranger is a friend you haven't yet met. Love and respect to some special people, Jessie, Robert, Ann, Frances, Hugh and Nuala not to mention Con still behind the bar after 30 years!

O'Donoghue's Bar

It was a night of mixed emotions as we were meeting in honour of an old friend and talented musician who passed away in February 2009 and who used to play here. This was also where he met and proposed to his first wife Jessie who was here with us for the first time in 20 years and sang a song in his memory.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/gerard-cowan.html

Bagatelle's famous Dublin anthem "Summer in Dublin"

One personal pit stop was a return visit to Yamamori which is a popular Japanese restaurant located a stone's throw from some of Dublin's trendier pubs such as the Globe and Hogan's. It's a bright, airy and well-decorated affair, with large windows looking out onto South Great Georges Street. The food is hardly adventurous given Japanese standards, but always reliable, and with sushi, teriyaki and a variety of Japanese beers on the menu, it's an ideal spot for an early dinner. Yamamori also has a lunch menu with a range of noodle dishes that are certainly good value for money. This is very different from the normal UK Noodle Bar operation with a far longer menu incorporating Bento and Sushi dishes as well as the usual noodle and rice dishes.

Yamamori Noodles Still Life; "Bento Box with a Panama Hat"

There were random rambles around my hometown including meeting my good buddy Niall who had celebrated his 70th the day before and has done a great and altruistic service by restoring Martello Tower No. 7 in Killiney, Co. Dublin. It is the only Martello Tower in the world restored to its original condition and with working cannon. Niall also restored the surrounding gun emplacement and glacis so it can be seen in its original context.

For the story of Martello Towers see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/martello-towers.html

Molly Malone, carrying all before her

A rather big little person

The Boys are Back in Town, Phil Lynott outside Bruxelles, Harry Street

Finally on my random rambles in Foster Place I noticed that the Armoury of the Bank of Ireland had been converted into the Irish Waxworks display. Waxworks are not my thing but it is an interesting display if a bit like a Curate’s Egg, good in parts. However I was delighted to see the Armoury for the Bank of Ireland was originally the world’s first purpose designed parliament building. After the rebellion of 1798 the bank was given the right to raise its own militia to protect their premises, hence the Armoury.

For the story of the world's first purpose designed Parliament Building see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/irish-parliament-building.html

Armoury of the Bank of Ireland, now the Wax Museum

Dome of the Assembly Room in the Armoury

The National Wax Museum is a privately owned waxworks museum in Dublin, Ireland. On October 7, 2009, the museum officially re-opened (although it had been open to the public a number of weeks prior) following extensive renovation at its new location in the left flank of the Irish Houses of Parliament, at Foster Place. I am not a great fan of the genre and I really went in to see the building the Armoury. Having said that the Waxworks uses the space quiet well and it was interesting to see the use they had made of the old vaults under the building – they are now billed as “The Time Vaults of Irish History”.

Waxworks of Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh, in real life the best of enemies!

However much of the displays are aimed at the kiddies and the view of Irish History given by the exhibits was that bit too simplistic and one sided for me. The “Grand Finale” leads to the assembly room of the Armoury which has a fine glass domed ceiling and is devoted to Irish musicians – I wasn’t impressed that yours truly wasn’t mentioned by name for organising the Boomtown Rats first concert as much of the display is concerned with one Robert Geldof, late of the Boomtown Rats and of this town.

For my part in pop history / infamy see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bob-geldof-and-me.html

Grafton Street, Dublin

Nothing new here, Riverdance playing for 3 months at the Gaiety Theatre

The biggest disappointment on this trip was a stroll down what was Dublin’s most fashionable and upmarket shopping street Grafton St. It is mentioned in Paddy Kavanagh’s famous allegorical poem of unrequited love “Raglan Road”;

“On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge" and also immortalised in Noel Purcell’s “Dublin Saunter” where he sang:
"Grafton Street's a wonderland with magic in the air . . ."

To read about Raglan Road and Paddy Kavanagh see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-raglan-roag.html

Buskers, Grafton Street

Sand sculpture Grafton Street

Well there is little magic in the air these days. When I was young the street had unique upmarket shops of which only the Jeweller’s “Weirs “gives an impression of what it was like. At the top on St. Stephen’s Green was the Dandelion Market full of short lets and really interesting shops which was a place of pilgrimage on a Saturday. Halfway along the street Bewley’s Café with its neo-Egyptian frontage didn’t need to advertise as they roasted coffee in the window and the scent wafting down Grafton Street drew you in. As Brendan Behan remarked it was an honour to have our most fashionable Street named after a “Right Royal Bastard.” The street was named after Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton, the illegitimate son of Charles II of England who owned land in the area. The street was developed from a then existing country lane by the Dawson family in 1708, after whom the parallel Dawson Street is named.

Thomas Davis statue and fountain College Green

It has lots of memories for me, from the Thunderbird Food Co. to The Diceman, Thom McGinty who I knew who was a wonderful mime artist to Captain America’s Food Company where a certain Chris De Burgh used to play. Well there is little magic any more as the “entertainers” are aimed squarely at the tourist pound and the shops by and large look like any part of a Clone Town British High Street and a not very upmarket one at that. It looks like short sighted greedy landlords have killed off this particular Golden Goose.

Dublin Homecoming

GPO, O'Connell Street, Dublin

Molly Malone, carrying all before her

A rather big little person

Armoury of the Bank of Ireland, now the Wax Museum

Grafton Street, Dublin

Buskers, Grafton Street

Monday, December 28, 2009

Dublin in The Rare Old Times

Bank of Ireland, originally the world's first purpose built parliament building.

Dublin in these photos from 1961 seems a different world and possibly a different planet. An American, Charles W. Cushman travelled the world for 30 years, including a visit to Dublin. When he died, he left his collection to Indiana State University, who have uploaded them, and a fascination window the provide on a Dublin which has gone. As Arthur Ryan who recently stepped down as MD of Primark remarked “we were always in recession” and money was certainly scarce. People generally used public transport or cycled to work. Most milk floats were horse drawn with the horses knowing how to pace themselves to the speed at which the milk was being delivered by the milkman. The “Breadman” on the other hand had an electric bread van normally from Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien as did the laundry vans. Amazingly, with hindsight, there were two laundry services. One was called (wait for it) “The Swastika Laundry” and had a swastika on the side of the van, albeit at an angle, as the Sanskrit symbol of brotherhood but you didn’t need a degree in marketing to suggest a re-branding was perhaps overdue! The other was the Highfield Laundry from the convent in Drumcondra of the same name backing onto the Archbishop’s Palace which we now know was one of the notorious Magdalene Laundries.

College Green with Trinity College and the Bank of Ireland

Cassidy's, South Great George's Street.
In the 1960's this was an important retail street with Dockrell's. Pyms and Cassidys.

It was also the city of the thought police presided over for many years by the person since known as the Arch Bigot of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. It is hard now to understand the conservative nature of Irish Society but in those days a catholic needed “permission” to attend a protestant wedding and Catholics were forbidden by the church from attending Trinity College. On the other side many of the large companies, such as Guinness, were protestant companies where Catholics were not represented in management. After many years of stagnation Ireland’s greatest export was its own people and it coped with social problems by denying them and exporting them to England. Indeed it had an unrealistic world view blaming all its problems on England and believing one day Irish-Americans would come back home and make Ireland rich.

Dame Street

This was the Dear Old Dirty Dublin I grew up in the North Inner City district of Summerhill. (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/james-joyce-and-me.html )

A special place, the Augustan capital of a Gaelic Ireland or a ravenous sow which devours its young depending on the literary source you use! An older Viking city than Oslo it was founded in the late 700’s (although Ptolemy referred to a town called Eblana in C4.) and the Viking Kings of Dublin & Dalkey ruled the Isle of Man and controlled trading in the Irish Sea. The Vikings were supplanted by the Normans in the late 1000’s who exiled the native Irish and Norse outside the walls of their new city (to Irishtown & Oxmantown respectively) and built a cathedral on the hill of their town which is known as Christchurch today. The tomb of the first Norman ruler, Richard of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, is still in the crypt of the cathedral. His daughter Isolde eloped with the warrior Tristam giving us one of the early great romantic stories, which will no doubt inspire you on Valentine’s or any other romantic weekend!

Christchurch Cathedral

Dublin Mountains from the City Centre

The name Dublin is derived from the Irish name Dubh Linn (meaning "black pool"). The common name for the city in Modern Irish is Baile Átha Cliath (meaning "town of the hurdled ford"). Áth Cliath is a place-name referring to a fording point of the Liffey in the vicinity of Heuston Station. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery which is believed to have been situated in the area of Aungier Street currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/st-valentine-in-dublin.html

A Horse and Cart - A common delivery method in 60's Dublin

The subsequent Scandinavian settlement was on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey, to the East of Christchurch, in the area now known as Wood Quay. The Dubh Linn was a lake used by the Scandinavians to moor their ships and was connected to the Liffey by the Poddle. The Dubh Linn and Poddle were covered during the early 1700s, and as the city expanded they were largely forgotten about. The Dubh Linn was situated where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle.

Dublin Castle

The writings of the Greek astronomer and cartographer Claudius Ptolemy provide perhaps the earliest reference to human habitation in the area now known as Dublin. In around A.D. 140 he referred to a settlement he called Eblana Civitas. The settlement 'Dubh Linn' dates perhaps as far back as the first century BC and later a monastery was built there, though the town was established in about 841 by the Norse. The modern city retains the Anglicised Irish name of the former and the original Irish name of the latter.

Government Buidings, originally the science faculty of the Royal University (Now UCD) Designed by Aston Webb, who also designed the front of Buckingham Palace

The formation of the new state resulted in changed fortunes for Dublin. It benefited more from independence than any Irish city, though it took a long time to become obvious. Through The Emergency (World War II), until the 1960s, Dublin remained a capital out of time: the city centre in particular remained at an architectural standstill, even nicknamed the last 19th Century City of Europe.

Merrion square

After the Union the city lost its economic momentum and unemployment, poverty and population increased significantly. Dublin went into a decline with many of the Georgian buildings deteriorating to tenements and the larger homes of the aristocracy being used for other purposes. Leinster House is now the Dail, the Irish Parliament (and the model for the White House, Washington which was designed by James Hoban a pupil of its architect, Richard Cassels) and Powerscourt House is now a shopping centre but was a post office.

Liffey quays

The Four Courts, one of the three masterpieces of the architect James Gandon along with the Custom House and the King's Inns

However while Georgian Dublin survived 1930s plans and World War II, much of it did not survive property developers in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The historic but now impoverished Mountjoy Square suffered heavily, with derelict sites replacing historic mansions. When in the 1950s a row of large Georgian houses in Kildare Place near Leinster House was demolished to make way for a brick wall an extreme republican Fianna Fáil minister, Kevin Boland celebrated, saying that they had stood for everything he opposed. He also condemned the leaders of the Irish Georgian Society, established to battle to preserve Georgian buildings and some of whom came from aristocratic backgrounds, as "belted earls". In the 1960s, the world's longest line of Georgian buildings was interrupted when the Electricity Supply Board was allowed to demolish a chunk in the centre and build a modern office block. By the 1980s, road-widening schemes by Dublin Corporation ran through some of the most historic areas of the inner city around Christ Church Cathedral. The nadir of this approach occurred in 1979 when Dublin Corporation destroyed the largest and finest Viking site in the world at Wood Quay, in the face of national opposition, to build its Civic Offices for its civil servants.

South City Markets

Wicklow Street

By the 1990s a greater civic pride and a new management team in Dublin Corporation saw changes in how the city was run; among the results was the restoration of City Hall to its eighteenth century interior (removing Victorian and Edwardian additions and rebuilds), and the replacement of the famed Nelson's Pillar (a monument on O'Connell Street which had dominated the skyline until being blown up by republicans) by a new Spire of Dublin, the world's tallest sculpture, on the site of the old Pillar and which could be seen throughout the city.

O'Connell Street and Bridge - Dublin's main street originally built as a square and showing the influence of the Wide Street Commissioners

The city has a world-famous literary history, having produced many prominent literary figures, including Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett. Other influential writers and playwrights from Dublin include Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and the creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker. It is arguably most famous, however, as the location of the greatest works of James Joyce. His most celebrated work, Ulysses, is set in Dublin and full of topical detail. Dubliners is a collection of short stories by Joyce about incidents and characters typical of residents of the city in the early part of the 20th century. Additional widely celebrated writers from the city include J.M. Synge, Seán O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Maeve Binchy, and Roddy Doyle. Ireland's biggest libraries and literary museums are found in Dublin, including the National Print Museum of Ireland and National Library of Ireland.

Trinity College

See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/dublins-fair-city.html

And the history of the Irish Parliament Building

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/irish-parliament-building.html

This is from the video titled "The Dubliners' Dublin" which is like a documentary with Ronnie taking viewers on a tour of his favourite watering holes, and meeting up with the lads for a few songs. The song "Dublin in The Rare Old Times" was written by Pete St. John, who also wrote "Fields of Athenry". Pete was an occasional and welcome visitor to the folk sessions at Tailor’s Hall in Back Lane which I used to frequent and helped in the (unsuccessful) campaign to keep it as a folk and community venue.