Posted in Dublin History, Football Articles, Social History, tagged Belfast Celtic, Dublin Evening Mail, Old Dublin Newspaper, Shamrock Rovers, World War II on August 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
An interesting one this, the soccer section of the papers sports section.
Shamrock Rovers and Belfast Celtic, Dundalk and Cork City, Limerick and Shelbourne and a Leinster F.A selection against Motherwell at Dalymount Park feature.
This is a gem from inside the paper. Hitler Says Relax!
Lastly, this ad for Wills’s Gold Flake cigarette’s is a bit bizarre.
Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged 1985, Keith Byrne, New York, noel murray, stowaway on August 20, 2010| 7 Comments »
Tune into RTÉ Radio 1 at 2.02pm tomorrow to hear Don’t Go Far . . . Your Dinner’s Nearly Ready, the story of two young Dublin boys made headlines around the world in 1985 when they hopped on a Dart and ended up in New York.
Posted in Pubs, Reviews, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged beer, Bohs, dublin, football, guinness, mulligans, stoneybatter on August 19, 2010| 5 Comments »
Not the best of evenings to go for a pint to be honest, with the future of the team I’m about to go shout for hanging severely in the balance. But still, pre- match pints are part of the ritual of going to games, and where better for five supporters to mourn and lament about Bohemian FC than in the heartland of Stoneybatter, half way between the clubs birthplace in the Phoenix Park and its current residence in Phibsboro.
Mulligan's of Stoneybatter, from The Tale of Ale Blog.
Mulligan’s of Stoneybatter is certainly not to be confused with Mulligan’s of Poolbeg Street fame. Whereas the latter has been discussed about in length around these parts, having one of the best pints in Dublin, you can’t get a pint of Guinness in the former. A pub in Dublin without Guinness? Yes, even though this place is a stone’s throw away from the Guinness brewery, it’s a “brewery pub” in the line of the Porterhouse. And yet what did I stump up for? A pint of… Becks. All the fancy lagers and stout on show and I went for the drink only there to service the plebians…
Apparently one time the haunt of those who couldn’t get served anywhere else in the locality, the proprietors did well to clean the place up and present drinkers with a nicely laid out bar area, stretching way back with nooks and crannies in which a solitary drinker can hide. The bar staff, well presented in pinstripe aprons and with a colossal knowledge of the wares they ply from behind a bar that harks back to the establishments past as a green grocers store. While the pint of Becks was, admittedly great (icy cold, with a head that kept to the bottom of the glass- something you don’t get much in Dublin pubs…) there was not much the staff could tell me about it. But when one of our Bohs comrades bought a fancy bottle of 7% stout, served to him in what looked like a trifle dish, the barman was able to tell him what temperature it should be stored at and what angle it should be poured at… Mad stuff.
And with that, we were off to witness arguably the worst Bohs game I’ve been to in my time. A 2-0 loss to a Galway Utd. reduced to nine men. I wish I could say the couple of beers stifled the blow, but, as nice as they were, they didn’t!
Posted in Football Articles, Social History, tagged Fanzine, Inchicore, Osam Is Doubtful, Saint Patricks Athletic, SEI, Shed End Invincibles on August 17, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Front and back page of fanzine, pages 3 and onwards below on Scribd. Best viewed at full screen size.
Previous fanzines posted on Come Here To Me:
Only Fools and Horses (Bohemian F.C)
Hoops Upside Your Head (Shamrock Rovers)
My thanks to Dodge for passing on both issues of Osam Is Doubtful to me last Friday in Bray. Something good can come out of the worst away trips.
Anyway, Osam Is Doubtful. One of two Pats fanzines I remember following the club as a youngster, with When The Saints Go Marching In being the other. Both efforts were well written, and much more appealing to me growing up than the official effort, a feeling common among my mates at the time. I suppose, the official programme has always had to “Welcome Shelbourne Football Club, their players and supporters to Richmond Park tonight….”while the fanzines could be a little more honest.
The name of this one was a nod towards a Saints legend, Paul Osam. Issue 1 noted that “The name comes from that part of the preview of every single Pats game since the great man came to the club where he’s announced as doubtful”.
32 pages in length, I intend to get issue 1 up to, opting for this one purely on the back of several ‘laugh out loud’ moments on first read. Highlights include a great piece on going to see the national team in Lansdowne Road (“I’m not joking when I say it was the worst atmosphere I’ve ever experienced and I’ve been to Pats vs. Bray in Belfield on a Tuesday night”), a nice piece on Martin Russell (free kick specialist) and a good rant at the jokeshop moniker ‘Stadium of Light’, which Pats fans never really took to thankfully.
Enjoy, and expect the other issue in the nearish future.
Posted in Football Articles, Social History, tagged Hoops Upside Your Head, League of Ireland fanzines, Shamrock Rovers, SRFC on August 11, 2010| 1 Comment »
Following on from Only Fools and Horses (Bohs) last week, here’s another League of Ireland fanzine, Hoops Upside Your Head. I’d intended to scan up a loaned copy of No Way, Referee! from Bray Wanderers, but a tip of the hat is due in the direction of the Irish Election Literature Blog, for linking me to the scans of this one. Nice work.
This fanzine comes from the 1994 season. It includes a great piece on away trips to Limerick, a report of a trip to Zabre, a piece on the incompetence of the FAI, and even an offer to send ” SRFC.bmp” to those who send a blank formatted diskette to the fanzine. Ah, the novelties of the early 90’s!
Well worth a read. As ever, best read in Full Screen. We welcome scans of League of Ireland fanzines, mail me at donal.ofalluin.2009@nuim.ie to get in touch.
Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged Dublin Fire Brigade, Mrs. Gogans Pram, Props in The Plough and the Stars, The Abbey, The Abbey Fire 1951, The Plough and the Stars on August 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A promotional image for the current run of The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey.
Sara Keating, for The Irish Times, recently wrote a fantastic piece on the background to some of the props in the current production of The Plough and The Stars at the Abbey. You’re only a click away if you want to read it.
One of the props dealt with was the pram belonging to Mrs. Gogan. She discussed the pram with prop maker Eimear Murphy.
The pram being used for the looting in Act Three is one of the oldest props at the Abbey. An original Victorian pram, it was used in the very first production of the play and every production since. Over 100 years old, it is in a delicate state; “one of the wheels is just taped on at this stage”, Murphy says. It was also badly damaged in the fire of 1951, so that while the frame of the pram is original, its casing isn’t. With its delicate frame and unique wooden handles it is totally authentic, and has been especially reserved over the years for The Plough and the Stars
The fire? Well, on July 18 1951 a fire ripped the home of the Abbey apart.The great history of the Dublin Fire Brigade compiled by Tom Geraghty and Trevor Whitehead noted that in was the busiest night of the year for the Brigade, with nine crews fighting the blaze.
What had been the former Mechanic’s Institute and City Morgue was just a gaunt dangerous skeleton festooned with The Plough and the Stars posters, and the ghost of Yeats was left to haunt an eerie smoke-filled chamber.
Flann O’ Brien (Or eh…Myles na gCopaleen) dealt with the fire in his excellent Cruiskeen Lawn column on July 25, 1951. Writing about plans to stage some major plays in the Peacock, he quipped that.
At the moment the company purports to be playing The Plough and the Stars in the Peacock. Why not Juno in the Peacock?
Or why not Autumn Fire?
No, I’m probably wrong- The Plough is probably the right play. After all, it brought the house down.
Excellent.
The photograph below is a gem, showing Fireman Frank Brennan salvaging the above mentioned pram from the ruins of the Abbey.
Thanks are due to the Dublin Fire Brigade Museum for the use of the image. What survived of the pram can be seen on stage in the current run of the O’ Casey play.
Posted in Events, Reviews, Social History, tagged Dublin Horse Show, Horse Show, Ladies Day, Royal Dublin Society on August 6, 2010| 2 Comments »
Bright sunshine and serene sky had encouraged the ladies to don the lightest and most attractive frocks. As a leading social event, the day was attended by every favourable circumstance, and was in every way a success.
So noted The Irish Times of August 24, 1911. The “splendid gathering” that is the Dublin Horse Show has remained a staple of Dublin life, though the Royal Irish Lancers and the sort are long gone from the scene. Yesterday, I made my first visit to the show, and what I found was an event even larger than I had expected.
I must say, I never fully understood the social significance of the Horse Show before visiting it myself. My mother, a child of Ballyfermot, recalls attending the Horse Show as a child with her father. Yesterday, it was clear the event draws people from all across the capital and beyond. The crowd is probably best described as international in composition, and pub rumours of waiting lists for hotels in the area suggest the Horse Show is safe for the forseeable future. With over 300 stalls, several packed bars and dozens of catering vans and even restaurants on site, the amount of employment generated by the show is staggering itself. The show runs smoothly, but only as a result of the hard work of countless staff.
Posted in Dublin History, Social History, tagged A. Raftery, Connolly Association, CPGB, Irene Brennan, Irish Communist Organisation, Joseph Deasy, Martin McGuinness, Official Sinn Fein, Stickies, Stolen Waters, Teoiric, Trade Unionists for Irish Unity and Independence (TUIUI) on July 30, 2010| 4 Comments »
My uncle Donal, based in London since 1972, is over in Dublin at the moment. Today, he dropped a shopping bag full of political pamphlets into me at work. Spanning from 1963 till 1989, the collection is quite stunning. I hope to scan most of them up over the next few months. If anyone wants me to scan one up in particular just leave a comment.
Teoiric, Official Sinn Fein. (No. 1, Summer 1971)
1916 Easter Rising Commemoraton Concert Souvenir Programme, Cumann na Poblactha. (April 1984)
Northern Ireland: a programme for action, CBGB. (1975)
Bodenstown oration, Martin McGuinness. (1986)
A United Ireland A Working Class Demand, Trade Unionists for Irish Unity and Independence (TUIUI). (October 1986)
Posted in Dublin History, Football Articles, Social History, tagged Bohemian FC Fanzine, Bohs, dalymount park, Fan Culture, Irish Fanzines, Only Fools and Horses on July 30, 2010| 3 Comments »
Introduction:As a youngster, it was the fanzines I wanted at Richmond Park quicker than the match programme. If you have Dublin League of Ireland fanzines, please get in touch and I’d love to include them on the site. I hope in time we can establish a small online section with examples from each Dublin club, everything from Some Ecstasy to Eccles Is Innocent! All of these fanzines are a credit to the people who took the time to get them out there.
PDF below, best viewed in full screen.
Posted in Football Articles, Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged europa league, football, guardian, Juventus, League of Ireland, Shamrock Rovers on July 29, 2010| 4 Comments »
As a Bohs fan, the “Quote of the day” in the Guardian gave me a laugh last Friday, the day after Rovers ahem… “historic” victory over in Tel Aviv in the Europa League Qualifiers. While I won’t begrudge them their glamour tie / day in the sun / whatever you call it tonight, I’ll watch it, and the return leg with interest and my heart being pulled two ways- hoping to see an Irish side do well against a time of Juve’s stature, and at the same time, hoping Rovers fail miserably in everything they do.
But anyways, the quote. It wasn’t the comment from Juventus forward David Lanzafame that got me giggling but the remark after it:
“We do not know Shamrock Rovers and therefore we have to study them through videos” – Juventus forward David Lanzafame looks forward to next week’s Big Vase third round qualifier against Irish side Shamrock Rovers in Robbie Keane’s hometown of Tallaght. If Juventus lose, they won’t be the first Old Lady to have been mugged in the notoriously rough Dublin village.
A bit harsh you might say? Never… But considering what the majority of LOI fans call our Wicklow brethern, the accompanying picture spoke a thousand words…
The Guardian get it so right...
Posted in Dublin History, Politics, Social History, tagged 1940s Ireland, Aiséirge, Irish Nationalism, Newspaper, Republicanism on July 28, 2010| 6 Comments »
My parents ventured to Newmarket for the monthly Flea Market there, and returned home with this much appreciated gem of a present. The newspaper comes from anti-partitionist grouping Aiséirghe, and pushes “Vocational Democracy”. It is essentially a right-wing nationalist publication.
“Vocational democray derives from the idea of the brotherhood of man in the fatherhood of God” it notes. The paper pushes for a strong Army Policy, noting that
“Apart from those in religion, the soldier in the Aiseirghe Ireland will be the most respected citizen- and not merely during a war-time like emergency period.”
Below, I have scanned the front and backpage of the four page paper, with the paper too fragile for me to risk scanning the inside pages. The old advertisements on this pages are interesting in themselves, including ads for Peter Lalor’s Lounge on Wexford Street, Monument Creameries on Camden Street and more besides.
Click on scans to expand them.
Posted in Miscellaneous, Social History, Uncategorized, tagged dublin, Dublin Graffiti, Graf, Graffiti, Maser, tivoli carpark on July 27, 2010| 4 Comments »
Last week, I got a mysterious text from a good friend who said they had something to show me. The instructions were to meet on Grattan Bridge at 16:45, and that it should only take an hour or so. Intrigued, I showed up at the alotted time, and after a ten minute walk, we ended up in the carpark of the Tivoli Theatre, off Thomas Street. Adorning the walls are hundreds of pieces of the finest in Dublin Graffiti, some of which can be seen below. Full set can be found here.
Huge piece, this must have been over 20ft tall.
Sek II - Maser 2010
From the great Maser.
Anywhere is Paradise with you...
When I do good, no one remembers. When I do bad, no one forgets.
As I said, follow the link above for the full set, theres 34 pictures in total, all available for re-use under the Creative Commons License. But best if you go visit it for yourselves; The Tivoli Theatre is on Francis Street, just off Thomas Street. Just ask the nice man on the gate, you’ll be sorted.
 | Aidan Convery on From McDaid’s to Grogan… |
 | Cormac Figgis on A divided Rathmines |
 | cian reardon on Dublin’s connection to t… |
 | Steven O'Shaughnessy on The Assassination of Kevin O… |
 | Sam on Crampton Buildings and the Dub… |
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Come Here To Me! 