Come Here To Me!

I stumbled across this advertisement in the newspaper archives for the unveiling of the millennium countdown clock in the River Liffey. 10,000 people had turned up to see the clock turned on for the first time in March 1996. The project, funded by the National Lottery, was a total failure to put it lightly. The clock was plagued by the issue of visibility in the River Liffey, and in the end the National Lottery chairman John Hynes told The Irish Times that “the Liffey beat us”.

The idea of placing a clock in the River Liffey was first put forward in 1994, when the National Lottery appealed to the public for entrants to its ‘Countdown 2000’ competition. The winning clock design was proposed by Gráinne Hassett and Vincent Ducatez, two architects living in Dublin. For their proposal, they received a £10,000 reward.

In a 1994 newspaper report on the clock for The Irish Times, it was noted that:

Surrounding the clock, which will start ticking at midnight next New Years Eve, will be ‘reeds’ of metallic-coloured carbon fibre, fixed on buoys from which loudspeakers will send out, at 30 second intervals, recorded sounds of Dublin life- the clank of Guinness barrels on pavements, foghorns, seagulls cries and the calls of Moore Street traders.

Video footage of the unveiling of the clock features in the 1996 episode of Reeling In The Years, at the very beginning of the show. Gay Byrne, Joe Duffy and Ruairí Quinn were on hand for the event. A massive fireworks display marked the event.

Dublin’s Millenium Clock.

Three days after the clock was placed in the River Liffey, it vanished from its location. One Dubliner was reported in the media as joking “I’ve heard of moving statues, but this is ridiculous.” When approached by the media, the National Lottery at first insisted it didn’t know where its own clock was, before telling the media a day later that it had been removed for the purpose of facilitating boat races. Bizarrely, The Irish Times reported that there had been a rumour magician Paul Daniels had “mad it disappear” while in Dublin!

To compliment the clock in the river, the National Lottery placed a postcard booth on O’Connell Bridge, where Dubliners could purchase a postcard for 20p bearing the exact amount of time left at that moment until the new millennium. Images of the postcard were uploaded to our Come Here To Me Facebook page by Lois McGrath after we issued an appeal to see one.

Millenium Postcard. Image uploaded by Lois McGrath.

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Detail of the shopfront. All credit – Lisa (http://builtdublin.com)

The Manhattan on 23 Harcourt Road was a late night cafe ran by the Woods family from about 1954 until the late 2000s.

A cafe on the same premises was ran by Anthony Tighe in the 1940s known as Tony’s. In April 1941 he was up in court for allegedly  ‘selling or permitting to be sold intoxicating liquor without holding an Excise licence’. On February 1st, it was put to the judge, Tighe had been selling intoxicating liquor between the hours of 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Evidence was given that customers with porter in cups were found on the premises by Gardaí. Tighe told the judge that ‘none of the drink was paid for and that he was only treating the people’. The case was dismissed as there was not sufficient evidence to convict. In February 1952, the Performing Rights’ Society was granted an injunction to restrain Tighe from permitting his cafe to be ‘used for the performance, in public, for profit, of musical works of which the right of performance was in the society, without its consent’.

The Woods family opened The Manhattan in 1954. It was known widely as Aunty May’s. It was popular with several generations of late night revellers, students, taxi men, shift workers and musicians.

Detail of the shopfront. All credit – Lisa (http://builtdublin.com)

Lisa Cassidy’s excellent Built Dublin blog, which focuses on details of Dublin architecture, recently wrote about The Manhattan:

The main sign, on white backlit plastic, looks an awful lot like it might have been hand-painted. It’s pretty sharp and I hadn’t noticed until standing right underneath. You can see it around the edges and the curves of the letters, or inside the windows of the skyline, where the brush didn’t quite follow the lines. Letters are steadily disappearing with time, leaving us the two bookending skylines, a bit of the ‘m’ and the second ‘a’, and just ‘ttan’ unobscured. The skylines are probably the best part (a vague suggestion of tall buildings totally undermined by there being very few, rather big windows) and if the building is ever demolished, I’ll be scavenging for them.

On the window railings below, there’s an ‘m’ held in the centre above the small, thick panes of glass. It’s slightly silly, like a monograph on a beach towel, but it also disturbs the closed-down domestic look by putting the business at the forefront. There’s little possibility that the customers in search of soakage would have spotted the detail, sure, but it’s a nice oddity in daytime.

A recent post on the Come Here To Me! Facebook page generated a whole load of memories:

Nicko Farrell –  “Never went home without hitt’n the manhattan for a mixed grill and a bottle of the house white (milk!), served up by aunty may, the stairs up to da loo was like a ladder it was that steep at least half a dozen punters fell down it most nites, but due to embarrassment or the gargle they just got up and headed off, don’t think anyone ever claimed, twas a different era but good times none the less.”

Colm Carty –   “I used to run a club in McGonagles in the late 80s and afterwards always brought the guest DJs there for a fry up. Coldcut, Dave Dorrell and Norman Jay amongst others all loved it. As far I remember they had Tyson versus Bruno on the TV one”

Brian Coyle – “This is the only place I was ever a regular in my life. Most times the breakfast was on the table before I’d taken my jacket off. One memorable night was ignited by an aul fella who baited a few lads from Cork with the “you shot Michael Collins” line… to which someone retorted “It might have been an eskimo that shot him but we’d still buy frozen fish.”

The Irish Times looked at the topic of late night cafes and restaurants later in 1990.

‘After Midnight’. The Irish Times, 03 March 1990.

While the Trocadero and Pizza Stop are both still open, neither remain open late. Topo Gigio on Balfe Street is closed while The Kapriol on Camden Street is now Zaytoon.

Today the Gigs Place and Tandoori Bite on Richmond Street South and Afsana and Shans’ on Temple Lane South remain favourites  for hungry revellers after a night out.

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Constable Sheahan memorial (Photo: Donal Fallon)

While many Dubliners have not heard of Constable Patrick Sheahan before, the vast majority will be familiar with the monument in his honour which until recently stood at the junction of Hawkins Street and Burgh Quay, at least to walk past. It has been removed in recent times as construction is underway on the Luas bridge which will span the Liffey. Constable Sheahan was a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police force, hailing from County Limerick. He lost in life in tragic circumstances in May 1905 when he was overcome by deadly gas in the sewers of Dublin as he attempted to rescue unconscious workmen. The events of that tragic day are well-documented in an article by Tom Donovan for the Old Limerick Journal, available to read in full here:

On Saturday May 6th 1905, a workman named John Fleming opened a manhole- cover at the corner of Hawkins Street and Burgh Quay at around 3 p.m. He descended a ladder into the 24foot sewer to investigate a broken pipe and he was immediately overcome by the deadly gas, as were two of his colleagues who rushed to assist him. Christopher Nolan, a who witnessed the incident, ran for help. He found Constable Sheahan, of College Street Station, standing at O’Connell Bridge. Tragically for him, he was on duty to relieve a friend who wanted to go to the theatre.

Sheahan’s heroics touched the heart of native Dubliners, as this young man of only 29 had given everything in an attempt to save others. In 1906 a monument to Sheahan was erected, paid for my public subscription, and placed at the site of the tragedy. Interestingly, it contains both Irish and English language inscriptions, and notes that: “This memorial was erected in memory of Patrick Sheahan,a constable in the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force who lost his life on the 6th day of May 1905.”

Illustration of Captain Patrick Sheahan from Jim Herlihy’s excellent ‘The Dublin Metropolitan Police’ (Dublin,2001)

Sheahan was a well-known and much liked character in Dublin, and stories of his bravery had existed in the city long before his death. One of my favourite stories about Sheahan related to him ‘single-handily’ wrestling an escaped bull on Grafton Street. Wondering how much fact and how much folklore was involved in the tale, we went looking for the newspaper reports of the day.

The Irish Times of 24 March 1904 details a ‘Exciting Incident In Dublin’ during which a number of police officers wrestled an escaped bull on Grafton Street. The paper reported that:

A large roam bullock which escaped from its keeper, between six and seven o’clock last evening, while being driven along Harcourt Street, created quite a scare in the locality, and before it was finally captured and slaughtered in the vicinity of Grafton Street, after a prolonged struggle with several policemen, it injured two persons, who were subsequently removed to hospital.

The animal had made a dash from Harcourt Street station in the direction of Wexford Street, knocking down a young girl by the name of Kathleen Regan in the process. Running madly through the city, it made its way to Whitefriar Street where the five year old Christopher John Walsh was struck. Its appearance on Grafton Street caused pandemonium, and it was here that men of the Dublin Metropolitan Police confronted the animal. Sheahan was not alone, as folklore has had it, but in the company of another DMP man, Constable Kerby. A local stableman named Thomas Arbuthnot joined the two police officers, as they followed the bull into Anne’s Lane. An extraordinary twenty-minute tangle with the animal would result in the two DMP men using a rope to essentially ‘lasso’ the animal, and when they succeeded in wrestling it to submission with the assistance of bemused Dubliners, they called on Martin Tierney. Tierney was a butcher on Capel Street. The bull, marked JSC on the left hip, found itself next in an Abattoir.

Just over a year after this incredible incident, Sheahan himself was dead. On an interesting aside, Shehan is a relation of John Sheahan, a fine traditional musician who is now the longest-serving member of The Dubliners folk band!

Image of John Sheahan from the fantastic It’s The Dubliners website, at: http://itsthedubliners.com

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A Dublin university side (TCD and UCD) who faced Bohs in 1930.

A brief post to draw attention to an upcoming History Ireland Hedge School, taking place this Saturday at 3pm in Dalymount Park as part of the annual Phizzfest. I was chuffed to be asked to speak at this one, and hopefully I can give the perspective of a younger LOI devotee as well as looking at some of the historic aspects of the game we’ve covered on the site here. Dalymount Park really is the perfect setting to talk about the beautiful game.

In the spirit of hedge schools of yore, where wandering school masters taught pupils in improvised surroundings, this year’s History Ireland Hedge School @ PhizzFest moves to the home of Irish football, Dalymount Park, for a discussion on the history of the game. Why was it called the ‘garrison game’? What were the circumstances of the split with the Belfast-based Irish Football Association in the 1920s? Why are League of Ireland clubs so poorly supported and resourced? Join Hedge School master, Tommy Graham, to address these and related questions with the panel: Paul Rouse (sports historian, UCD); Donal Fallon (Come Here To Me blog); Brian Trench (PRO, Bohs); and David Toms (Waterford supporter & UCC).

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The rivalry between UCD and Trinity College Dublin is long-standing in Dublin, but with UCD now located in the suburbs the banter between the two universities isn’t quite as strong as in the past. I stumbled across this great newspaper report recently, which comes from Trinity News, a student newspaper at Trinity College Dublin. The report from January 1965 is fantastic, blaming the “frustrations of life at Earlsfort Terrace” for an incident which saw UCD students taunting the other university to celebrate the end of term!

Via ‘Trinity News Archive’ (trinitynewsarchive.com)

The Trinity News Archive website is a treasure trove of not alone news reports like the above but also images. This fantastic image for example shows the 1965 film Blue Max being shot on campus. The film, set during WWI, saw Trinity used as a German Army headquarters.

Via ‘Trinity News Archive’.

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