Come Here To Me!

The circumstances that have brought this position about have been created and deliberately encouraged, by both the State and the administrators of local government in this city. We had here some months ago in this City of Dublin a floating ballroom on the Liffey and on that floating ballroom we had an imported band, brought over from London. There was money spent by our local administrators on that ballroom…

The above is an excerpt from the Poor Relief (Dublin) Bill, 1929. The Bill was put forward in order to help relieve the the impoverished in the greater Dublin area as the Free State, still in its infancy, struggled to deal with societal problems, yet still had money to put a floating ballroom on the Liffey during a Civic Week the same year, importing a  band from London and causing much consternation in Dáil Éireann.

The offending barge…

The questions were put to General Mulcahy of the Cumann na nGaedhael led 6th Dáil by a Mr. Eamonn Cooney, who, though a member of Fianna Fáil, made quite an impassioned speech about the haves and the have- nots of Dublin, that can be found here.

Very little about the barge itself can be found, and it resides now, a rusting wreck, on the scrub-lands at Bull Island.

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The Lafayette Building on the corner of D’Olier Street and Westmoreland Street is a real Dublin landmark, and stands in great contrast to O’Connell Bridge House next to it. It seems younger Dubs refer to O’Connell Bridge House as the ‘Heineken Building’, but the corporate advertising on the building has changed several times! The Lafayette Building, which looks straight down O’Connell Street, is a far more visually pleasing building. It takes its contemporary name from the famous Lafayette photographers. As Christian Casey has noted in her architectural study of Dublin, it was built for the Liverpool and Lanchasire Insurance Company in the 1890s. Casey has described the building as a “Portland stone baronial excercise with Gothic and Ruskinian leanings”. J.J O’Callaghan was the architect, and the work was dubbed ‘O’Callaghan’s Chance’ by his contemporaries!

O’Callaghan’s contribution to Dublin’s architecture was significant, and as Frederick O’Dwyer has noted he designed a number of Dublin public houses for example, among them Mooney’s on Harry Street but also pubs on Baggot Street, Amiens Street and South Richmond Street among others. O’Callaghan was the architect responsible for the Dolphin Hotel, which for many years was to be found at Essex Street in Temple Bar. The building remains today.

The Dolphin Hotel in the 1930s.

The stonework of the Lafayette Building gives some indication of its former life. Above the Westmoreland Street entrance to the building, the London and Lanchasire Insurance Company logo can be seen. The building was originally constructed for use by this company:

London and Lanchasire Insurance Company.

(more…)

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Some fantastic images here of Dublin women protesting in 1963 against the controversial ‘Turnover Tax’, which is explained in this blast from the past from The Irish Times. So controversial was the tax, it led to insults flying across the Dáil floor including “Thugs”, “Yellow”, “Contemptible”, “Coward”, “Perjurer” and “Low thing”. The images come primarily from the news media of the day, and are the kind of wonderful images that are forgotten to history unless someone goes about bringing them to public attention. The North Inner City Folklore Project thankfully saw the historic value of the images.

I like this first one for the fantastic slogan on the placard, “Stupid Men Make Stupid Taxes”. It shows a crowd of demonstrators passing College Green.

The Garda in the traffic box makes this one for me, although you’d miss him on first glance. Daniel O’Connell looks over proceedings.

Lastly, we have the protestors best weapon making an appearance, the megaphone!

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While heading to the Sugar Club yesterday from Baggot Street, I stumbled across this tiny little row of terraced houses off Lower Pembroke Street beside Fitzwilliam Square.

You can see the start of the terrace, the house with the red door, down the lane. (Picture – Google maps)

Totally overshadowed by the office buildings surrounding it, the hidden away terrace only has three houses on each side.

Anyone know anything more about them?

Mackies Place, Dublin. (Picture – JayCarax)

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One of the most unusual and amusing architectural details in the city, in my opinion, is the stone carving of monkeys playing billiards on a window column at No. 1 Kildare Street.

Monkeys playing billards (c) Flickr user ramson

Now housing the the Alliance Française, the beautiful building was built for the Kildare Street Club in 1860-1 by architects Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward. Founded in 1782, the club was based at No. 6 Kildare Street from 1782 – 1860 and then at No. 1 Kildare Street from 1861 – 1977.

A fire ripped apart its original premises on 11 November 1860 killing three maid-servants and destroying their 15,000 volume library. A superstitious person might see something in the fact on May 4 1967, a fire swept through the top floor of No. 1 Kildare Street causing extensive damage.

The club merged with the Dublin University Club in 1976, thereafter sharing the premises of the latter at 17, St Stephen’s Green. However it still owns No.1 Kildare Street and currently leases the building out to a Heraldic Museum and the Alliance Française.

(c) A wider shot showing the monekys. From ‘http://deise-dispatches.blogspot.com/’

Debate on who the actual sculptor of the monkeys was as been going on for several decades. The three main candidates being Charles W. Harrison, the O’Shea brothers and Charles W. Purdy (Purdy & Son).

This author of this Sunday Independent article from 1969 is of the opinion that that they were the handywork of Purdey & Son.

Sunday Independent. Nov 02, 1969.

While an Irish Times article (Nov 25, 1961) alleges it was the O’Shea brothers and a piece from the Irish Press (Nov 7, 1975) states that it was Charles W. Harrison. For the record, it seems our friends over at Archiseek are on the pro O’Shea side.

Frederick O’Dwyer in his 1997 book The Architecture of Deane and Woodward gave his own opinions on the matter:

Frederick O’Dwyer, The Architecture of Deane and Woodward (Cork, 1997), 336.

Either way, the monkeys are a wonderful piece of work. They themselves have been the source of many jokes, table quiz questions and riddles as this Irish Times piece from August 15 1928 suggests:

Quidung. An Irishman’s Diary. August 15, 1928.

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