Posted in Photography on March 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
A great images here from Paul Reynolds. We’ve featured some of Paul’s photography on the site before, in particular his photos of Dublin League of Ireland clashes. This is directly across the canal from The Barge, at Canal Road. Does anyone know the explanation, or is there any, for the random dates?
Posted in Dublin History, Photography, Politics, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged dublin, IRA Ceasefire, Photography, Table Campaign on March 14, 2012| 1 Comment »
An interesting image and quote this. The Table Campaign was founded in 1996, around the time of the IRA’s shattering of the 17 month ceasefire, with the Canary Wharf bombing on 9th February that year.
The concept was to set up a load of tables on O’Connell bridge and invite people passing by to sit down and discuss what peace should look like at those tables. There was some Sinn Fein involvement and they argued for a giant table as a striking press image. On the day of the event however all that appeared was a giant table, maybe 3m high, far too high in the air for anyone to sit at, dominating the bridge. The lesser tables for the ordinary people to sit and discuss what a popular peace process might look like did not appear. Symbolic, if perhaps accidentally, of the process as a whole where the rest of the population were limited to the role of watching the drama around the big table at Stormont.”
Thanks to Andrew Flood for the image and accompanying quote.
Posted in Dublin History, Photography on March 10, 2012| 7 Comments »
For many many years, the shortest street in Dublin was Canon Street which was situated just off Bride Street near St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was originally named Petty Canon Alley in the 1750s after the minor canons (members of the clergy who “assists in the daily services of a cathedral but is not a member of the chapter.”) of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
The street had just one address, the public house of Messrs. Rutledge and Sons, and was such described in 1949 as the ‘shortest street in the world’ (Irish Press) and in 1954 as the ‘shortest street in Europe’ (Irish Times).
Canon Street can be seen in this old photo. Rutledge and Sons is the corner building in the bottom left hand side of the picture.
Aerial view of St. Patrick's Cathedral and surrounding area. nd.
An image of the pub from the 1940s.
Rutlegde & Sons pub, 1 Canon Street. Irish Press, Apr 22, 1949.
It also hosted, to rear of the street, the famous Dublin Bird market for hundreds of years.
Canon Street Bird Market. nd. (Picture uploaded by Nioclás Mac Aodhagáin)
The pub was demolished and so the street disappeared in the late 1960s to make way for the widening of Bride Street.
Today, it is generally accepted that Palace Street, just off Dame Street and a attached to Dame Lane is Dublin’s shortest street with only two addresses. No.1 is the French restaurant Chez Max and No.2 was the building that hosted the The Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers Society from 1855 to 1992.
Does anyone know of a shorter street?
Nos 1 and 2 Palace Street on the left of the picture.
Posted in Football Articles, Photography, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged dalymount park, football, League of Ireland, Photography, Social History on March 8, 2012| 19 Comments »
Tomorrow sees Bohs first home League game of the season, and to coin a phrase, all has changed, changed utterly. We’re lucky to have a team on the pitch, never mind a team who, despite their youth, fight like lions for possession and give it their all as seen over the last couple of weeks in the Setanta Cup and our first League game against Derry. I don’t think anyone can be disappointed with the effort put in so far.
But, to the point. Tomorrow evening, at six o’clock or so, I’ll make the journey up North Circular Road. Coming to Mountjoy Prison or there-abouts, I’ll see the beacons in the distance that are the floodlights of Dalymount Park. And then I’ll start to get the jitters. They signify the start of something, generally a night of beer, shouting my head off, beer, football, camaraderie, beer, shouting my head off again and a sense of ‘home.’ They signify everything I love about this League, a feeling those who follow a foreign team might get if they were to make their yearly trip to Old Trafford or Anfield every week instead. But they don’t, and won’t ever feel it the same way. Its a feeling of pride/ despair/ love/ heartbreak/ joy/ pain. (Insert where appropriate.)
Anyways, the reason for this post. Yesterday, the seventh of March was the fiftieth anniversary of the installation of floodlights at Dalymount Park. One of the most striking features of the Phibsboro and indeed the North Dublin skyline has been around for a full half century. How old they are is anyone’s guess when you think the pylons themselves came from Arsenal second hand, and they were guest opposition on the event of their unveiling. Below is a scan of the programme cover from that night, shame I can’t find the match report.
So, for half a century, the phrase “just follow the floodlights” has been used when directing visitors to Dalymount. For half a century, people have been feeling that same feeling I do when I’m walking up the NCR on a Friday night. I can’t wait for it tomorrow, that feeling never grows old. This isn’t the end, and we told you so. Come on Bohs.
Cheers to Giofóg from thebohs.com messageboard’s Da for uploading the scan, and Dotsy for the picture above.
Posted in Dublin History, Music, Photography on March 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »
A who’s who of the Irish comedy and entertainment world played a major benefit gig, entitled The Entertainment Party Conference, in The Olmypia Theatre on July 15 1990. Money raised went to the Simon Community and a new ‘Comedy Fund’ to help subsidise improv and writing workshops for up and coming comics.
Here are two pictures of the event that have never been published before.
The first shows Philip Chevron (The Radiators of Space/The Pogues), Ronnie Drew (The Dubliners), Terry Woods (Sweeney’s Men/Steeleye Span/The Pogues) and Paul Brady.
(c) Billy Magra collection. Scanned up by Carax.
The second picture shows the closing ceremony and the crowd includes Terry Woods, Ronnie Drew, Ardal O’Hanlon, Dermot Carmody,Shay Healy, Michael Redmond, Barry Murphy, Gerry Ryan, Dave Fanning, Agnes Bernelle, Niall MacAnna, Billy Magra and a few others.
(c) Billy Magra collection. Scanned up Carax.
Posted in Dublin History, Photography on February 29, 2012| 17 Comments »
Stunning view of Christchurch Cathedral, from St. Michael’s Hill, before the development of Wood Quay.
Picture credit - unknown
Reminds me somewhat of those classic, atmospheric depictions of 1920s New York with the steam and silhouettes of people. Captured so well in Once Upon A Time In America (1984):
Picture credit -heimdalsgata
Posted in Dublin History, Photography on February 27, 2012| 7 Comments »
Giuseppe Cervi opened up Dublin’s first Fish and Chip shop on Brunwick Street (now Pearse Street) in the 1880s.
Here is a lovely snap of Eduardo Di Mascio’s shop on Marlborough Street from 1938.
Mairtin Mac Con Iomaire (author of The History of Seafood in Irish Cuisine and Culture) has identified that Eduardo Di Mascio was a carpenter from Valveri, Italy who arrived at the height of the Civil War in 1922.
Picture credit - italvideonews.com
Posted in Photography, Pubs on February 22, 2012| 10 Comments »
A striking image of The Swan on York Street from, I’m assuming, the 1950s or 1960s.
Photo credit - Unknown
Little has changed.
Photo credit - Le Monde1.
Posted in Photography, Street Art, Uncategorized, tagged Dublin Photography, Dublin Photos, Photography on February 22, 2012| 6 Comments »
“The delights a stroll around Dublin can bring you. I’ve always carried my camera around with me, but have only recently started to take it out and not give a shite that I look like a tourist.”
These lines I used for the start of a similar piece around this time last year. Sometimes in Dublin, as a local, you don’t think to take pictures of the “touristy” things like statues and the like. Then you realise you’re missing out on oppurtunities like the below. And yes, the sky was this blue on Sunday morning amazingly enough!
I must have walked past the below stencil a hundred times on a tiny section of wall not far from Fitzsimons on the Quays. It is so inconspicuous, there is very little chance of seeing it unless you know its there. I still think its great though!
Moore Street wouldn’t be Moore Street without a marauding gang of pigeons. Walking down the Street on a sunny morning with nobody about gives a great sense of the real feeling of the city. Walking around any city at this time of the morning would give the same result I guess.
Posted in Dublin History, Photography on February 19, 2012| 2 Comments »
After the Nelson’s Pillar was blown up in 1966, the head was stolen by NCAD students from a storage shed in Clanbrassil Street as a fund-raising prank to help clear their debts. Wearing sinister black masks, they held a very civil press conference explaining their motives.
The head made several secret appearances over the next six months including making its way onto the stage of a Dubliners concert in The Olympia Theatre!
Nelson’s head now rests peacefully in the Gilbert Library in Pearse Street.
Posted in Dublin History, Miscellaneous, Photography, Social History, Uncategorized on February 17, 2012| 4 Comments »
Dublin, as you’ve not seen it before. Spurred on from a post on boards.ie, I started to take a look into the USSR’s mapping of the world and was pretty dumbstruck by what I came across. At one stage, it is reckoned that the Soviet had upwards of 40, 000 cartographers and surveyors working on mapping the world in detail of 1:100,000 and some cities, including Dublin, in detail of 1: 10,000.
The Dublin map was compiled in the early 1970’s and spanned four pages. The purpose for the maps was to forward plan for a worst case scenario, should an invasion need to take place. As “places of interest,” The GPO, King’s Inns on Constitution Hill, The Four Courts, Trinity College, The Old Parliament Building on College Green and the Royal College of Surgeons are marked. Oddly enough, Leinster House and Dublin Castle go unnoticed.
Part of me just loves the fact that they picked the College of Surgeons, Four Courts and the GPO. Who knows, if they extended the map out further, would they have marked Mount Street Bridge, Bolands Mills and the South Dublin Union? Maybe Joseph Mary Plunkett’s plans weren’t so outlandish; that the sites marked for strategic importance in Easter Week remain every bit as important for military planners now. Either that or the Russians had some sentimental Stickies on their payroll. Its a scary thought.
For Maps and further reading, check out: http://sovietmaps.com/
Posted in Dublin History, Photography on February 13, 2012| 5 Comments »
I came across this picture on Facebook. It seems to show most of The Dubliners kitted out before a football game.
Can anyone give any more background information?
KBranno reckons it could be taken in Tolka Park.
The Dubliners
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Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
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Come Here To Me! 