Come Here To Me!

I’ve found a few interesting immigrants living in Dublin in 1911 thanks to the great National Archive of Ireland (NAI) census website.

– A Swedish ‘Masseur’ by the name of  Kent Magnus Lindeberg living with his Scottish wife and Dublin born daughter in 19 Upper Leeson Street.

– Norweigian born Carl Ludwig Dybing, an Adjutant in the Salvation Army, living with his English wife Clara Dybing in 3 Mountpleasant Parade, Rathmines.

–  A 63 year old ‘hairdresser and perfumer’ by the name of Mathias Greiveldinger Prost from Luxembourg who lived with his Cork born wife and six children at 24 St. Stephen’s Green.

– There was only one Dutch person living in Dublin in 1911 and that was Fritz Hintre, a turner, living at 151 Rialto Cottages with his Irish wife and three children.

– There were eight Portuguese, mainly students, living in Dublin and only seven immigrants from Hungary. Three Greeks, none of which had Greek sounding names and seven Danish of at least three were sailors. A sizeable number of 74  Austrians, many of whom were waiters.

I’ll do something on unusual religions tomorrow.

Rathmines, 1911. (thejournal.ie)

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I’ve always been fascinated by this coin, which I was given years ago by my father. Such coins were once pretty common in Dublin, and while most wouldn’t have thought of hanging onto them, a few people did. Frequently Dublin shoppers would look at their coinage and find the likes of ‘UVF’, ‘UDA’, and ‘REM 1690’ (Remember 1690, a reference to the Battle of the Boyne) upon their coinage.

UVF stamped coin (1961 issue date)

In recent times, it seems like dissident republicans are the ones largely responsible for the stamping of coins, and I noticed a recent Belfast Telegraph article dealing with this issue, as ‘RIRA’ has been appearing on currency in the north of Ireland.

A quick search in the archives revealed a fantastic piece in The Irish Times in February 2003 by Joe Armstrong, in which he noted that:

Perhaps the Loyalists were tapping into an earlier nationalist tradition, given that some early 19th century British coins were counter struck with the slogan ‘Repeal’, referring, of course, to the aspiration to repeal the Act of Union between Ireland and Britain.

One coin referenced in the article was said to be stamped ‘BOMB DUBLIN’, although I’ve not been able to find an image of this particular counter struck coin. The earliest reference to the vandalised coins I can find is from the Irish Independent, in an article dated December 1st 1969, in that article it was noted that a boycott of goods from the Republic in the north was intensifying, and that “the boycotting of Irish money had reached the stage that some Irish 2/- pieces are turning up stamped U.V.F”

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Kelly’s on the corner of O’Connell Street (then Sackville Street) and Bachelors Walk, which later became Kapp and Peterson (Image: NLI)

I noticed recently while walking through the city that Peterson pipes have moved from their Grafton Street HQ to a new premises on Nassau Street, just around the corner. The Dublin institution began life under the Kapp name, before becoming Kapp and Peterson, and later merely Petersons.

Frederick Kapp, from Nuremburg in Bavaria, opened a shop in the late 1870s in Dublin at 53 Grafton Street, which sold Briar and Meerschaum pipes. In time, this business would become known to generations of Dubliners as Kapp and Peterson, with the Peterson name coming from Charles Peterson, a Latvian immigant hired by Fredrick Kapp. In time, the Peterson family would buy-into the company and Kapp and Peterson was born.

For many years Kapp and Peterson operated from a business premises at the corner of O’Connell Street and Bachelors Walk. This premises was damaged during the Easter Rising of 1916, as the below newspaper piece shows, and was acquired by the company soon after the rebellion.

Image via the fantastic http://pipedia.org/

Passing this building today, Dubliners may not notice two excellent little features that hint at its former life, which we have photographed below. In the woodwork of what is now the Daniel O’Connell Newsagents, the letters KP can still clearly by seen:

Above the building, the name ‘Kapp and Peterson’ is still perfectly visible too.

Hopefully both of these features will be preserved well into the future, as they were the kind small but historic important details in a city that can often be lost.

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In September 1961 an Aer Rianta flight from Lourdes made a surprising landing, coming to a halt in the middle of the Dublin to Belfast road, near Cloughran. Incredibly, the 69 passengers and 4 crew on board avoided any serious injury, and about a mile and a half from their planned landing location they emerged from the plane.

Irish Press image of the plane resting on the roadway.

The plane was operated by Starways, a Liverpool based company, and was carrying Irish pilgrims. Heavy rain on the night of Tuesday, September 19th was blamed for the incident. The Irish Press described the landing, noting that “it skidded along the ground and crashed through a hedge about half a mile from the airport”. When the plane came to a halt on the road, its nose was in a ditch on one side of the road,and its tail on the far side. The captain of the plane was Ian Johnson McClean, a Glasgow native.

The plane came within twenty yards of striking a car, and among those on board were some members of the clergy. One couple from County Offaly attributed their survival to the bottles of Holy Water they were carrying at the time!

Holy Water saves the day (Irish Press)

In the aftermath of the crash, the investigation into the incident revealed that the plane had almost struck the Airport Control Tower, and this Irish Independent image gave a good idea of just how serious the failed landing was, showing the distance between the airport and the place where the plane came to a halt. Unsurprisingly, most on board thanked ‘a miracle’ for their survival!

(Irish Independent).

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Four years before the launch of the The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny and two years before The Liffey Laugh Comedy Festival in Dublin, there came “Com-Fest ’90”.

Part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 1990, sponsored by Tenant’s Laugh and in association with Serious Productions, it was described as “Ireland’s First Festival of Live Comedy” and offered nine nights of stand-up between the 3rd and 13th of October 1990.

The international highlights were British left-wing comedian Jeremy Hardy and, his then wife, American actress and comedienne Kit Hollerbach.

Two of Ireland’s greatest sketch teams of the time were represented; Mr Trellis (Kevin Gildea, Ardal O’Hanlon and Barry Murphy) and The Quacksquad (Joe Rooney and Paul Tylak) as well as a number of Irish comedians like Ian MacPherson, Owen O’Neill, Jon Kenny who would have been considered veterans at this stage.

Then there was Sid Sinatra (a.k.a Alex Lyons who now does a lot of scriptwriting for the BBC), Mark Staunton who went onto make films, Karl MacDermott, who gave up the stand up for scriptwriting around 2000 and Niall MacAnna, now special events director with MSN.

Last but not least there were the ‘newish kid on the block’ –  Sean Hughes, Morgan Jones and Dermot Carmody who all went onto to do big things to varying degrees.

Finally, the multi-talented Shay Healy who acted as M.C.

While The Olympia and The Project Arts Centre are obviously still on the go, ‘The Goldfish Bowl Comedy Club’ in Whelans and ‘Laugh At The Loft’ in the Purty Loft in Dun Laoghaire only lasted for a couple of years after.

Dermot Carmody went onto to win the ComFest ’90 Laugh Trophy and the £1,000 prize fund.

Com Fest poster 1990 (BM collection)

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This aired on Sky Sports last night, and is a pretty interesting piece, an outsiders look-in at football in Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Athletic feature heavily, with an interview with Liam Buckley and footage from the recent Dublin derby between ourselves and Shamrock Rovers. Thanks to Gareth Maher for uploading this onto YouTube.

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Over the weekend, Anti-Fascist Action Ireland unveiled a new plaque and mural to celebrate their 21st birthday.

The plaque above Connolly Books in Temple Bar, launched by Tom Redmond, Manus O’Riordan and Cllr. Cieran Perry, is dedicated to all those Irish who went to Spain to fight for the Republic during the Civil War.

Plaque, Connolly Books (Photo – MW)

The mural at The Cobblestone pub in Smithfield, unveiled by Harry Owens and Thomas the artist, is dedicated to local Irish Republican and International Brigader Bob Doyle (1916 – 2006)

Bob Doyle mural, Smithfield (Photo – SO)

More pictures can be viewed here on their Facebook page here.

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The Irish Times, December 20 1884.

I’ve always loved this illustration of two Dublin newsboys from The Irish Times, published in 1884. It is the earliest illustration of Dublin newsboys I’ve been able to find, and shows two ragged youngsters resting in the doorway of a bank premises.

While street selling is an ancient tradition, the idea of the ‘newsboy’ came to prominence in the British Isles in the 1850s, with the arrival of cheap daily and evening newspapers. Writing in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1924, George Wm. Panter noted that:

The newsboy as we know him now is quite a latter-day institution. Lai Brough, the comedian, whom, doubtless, some may still remember, used to tell how in his early manhood he became assistant publisher to the Daily Telegraph on its establishment in 1855, and that while occupying that position he originated the custom of selling newspapers in the streets by organising a staff of two hundred and forty boys for the purpose. We have seen that the custom existed of selling newspapers in the streets previously, but undoubtedly newsboys were first hired for that purpose in 1855.

References to newsboys operating in Dublin can be found in The Irish Times from the early 1880s, with a letter signed ‘Pro Bono Public’ appearing in the paper in 1882 noting the ‘many trials and hardships which the majority of the newsboys of Dublin have to contend with’ and asking ‘would it not be a truly charitable and benevolent undertaking for the citizens of Dublin to provide a Newsboys Home in a central place’ for the use of these young Dublin workers. In the 1880s, Dublin newsboys were presented in newspaper reports as being typically ragged and barefoot, with The Irish Times in 1884 producing the above illustration entitled ‘The Tired Newsboys!’ showing two young, ragged dressed youths asleep in a doorway, with a poem underneath noting that ‘they may perish! of cold or some worse fate!’

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High Flying Saints! Photo: Photopat (C)

There’s nothing as painful as following a match by text updates, not least an FAI Cup Semi-Final. With work obligations, I was destined to follow Pats yeterday through a series of sporadic text messages from the brother. The first one, that “in a moment of unprecedented football history, Dundalk are two-nil up before kick-off”, raised a smile at least.

This image above, from one of the weekly club photographers Photopat, really captures it for me. Last year, the banner in the semi-final against Shelbourne told the lads to ‘Rise like lions after slumber’. This year, the lions have certainly risen.

The last time we won the cup, the Irish Press was still in existence!

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