Come Here To Me!

My uncle is an inspector with dublin bus and he recently told me that after february there’ll be no more nitlelink buses on any routes. He said the cost of fuel and wages plus the added hassle with drunken people has led them to this decision – Boards.ie

Anyone have any more info on this?

If true, this decision will have colossal effects on Dublin’s night and weekend life.

Old Nitelink ticket

What a shame that Dublin’s oldest shop, sitting on Parliament Street, was ever allowed fall into the condition it sits in today. Thomas Read’s was listed in the 1862 Dublin Street Directory over here, and Éamon Mac Thomáis noted in his priceless Me Jewel and darlin’ Dublin that “Thomas Read of 4 Parliament Street was established in 1670, and are one of the oldest cutlers in the world.”

It really is one of the most historic shopfronts in the capital, and has sat as it is now for many years, sometimes falling victim to graffiti and vandalism. Just think what could be done!

In 1997, The Irish Times noted that:

Through peaceful and turbulent times over the past two centuries it was the place to buy a good pair of scissors or a set of kitchen knives. All of its current stock, housed in glass cabinets, is still in place behind the shuttered windows. Mr Michael Smith, of An Taisce, said Read’s was another victim of the property boom, along with many other Dublin icons which had become casualties of the Celtic Tiger economy that was turning the city into a “faceless, nameless place”.

Is there any hope for Thomas Read’s? I’d not given it much thought until I walked past recently, and noticed graffiti scrawled across its wooden shopfront. Lets hope the shopfront is there for many years to come.