Come Here To Me!

Construction under way on the Central Bank (Dublin City Public Libraries)

The Central Bank on Dame Street divides Dubliners. Some praise it as an architectural achievement, while others curse it and argue that it takes away from all around it, in particular Temple Bar. Archiseek have recently uploaded a fantastic documentary on the bank and its construction to YouTube, and it’s likely to appeal to many Come Here To Me readers.

A documentary film by John Sisk & Co., on the construction of the Central Bank of Ireland on Dame Street, in Dublin.

Dublin once boasted a large number of ornate cage-work houses.

Bernard Morgan wrote in the Irish Independent on 5th April 1949 about one particular one in Cook Street off Winetavern Street. When it was demolished in 1745 the:

…timber was found to be a state of reasonable preservation. An oak beam, carried over the width of the house, bore a Latin inscription, the English rendering being “Thou Who made the heavens and the earth, bless this house which John Lutrel and Joan caused to built in the year of Our Lord 1580”.

The last surviving cage-work house was situated on the corner of Castle Street and Werburgh Street. Just opposite the Lord Edward pub and Burdocks chipper. The house lasted all the way up until 1812 when it was demolished by order of the Commissioners of Wide Street and the materials sold for £40.

Dublin’s last remaining cage work house. Published in the Dublin Penny Journal, 1813. Credit – archiseek.com.

Thomas Cromwell in Excursions Through Ireland: Province of Leinster, published in 1820, described this house as being:

…of Irish oak and from the date in front it appeared to be erected in the reign of Edward II, the arms were those of the Fitzgerald family. Oliver Cromwell, according to tradition, occupied the house while he was in Dublin. It is somewhat singular, as a proof of the superior of cage-work houses, that none of the erections in the time of Elizabeth’s successor, James, in which brick and stone was first adopted, are thought to be standing to this day.

Cromwell is likely to be incorrect by stating that house dates back to Edward II’s time i.e. 1272–1307. Perhaps it was just typing error? The vast majority of Dublin’s cage work houses were built in the The Elizabethan era(1558–1603)

The view of the corner of Castle Street and Werburgh Street today. Credit – builtdublin.com

I’ve always done an annual post on the blog looking at things I think would make good gifts for Dubliners or those with a keen interest in the history and culture of the city. This year I’ve gone for what I think is a mix of the weird and wonderful. We reccomend you first buy five to fifteen copies of the Come Here To Me book, then move on to the following….

T-Shock Milk Bottle:

I’m a big fan of what T-Shock is doing lately, and love his print mixing a Transformer with the Dublin millenium logo of 1988. No two things say 1988 quite like our sham millenium or the Transformers. The milk bottle was an obvious follow-up! They’re available from Designist on Sth Great George’s Street just across the road from George’s Arcade. I have one on my mantlepiece.

Transformers meets Dublin Millenium (Image: T-shock)

Sketchy Ink- Why Indeed?

I absolutely love this print, which is limited to 50. It’s a great tribute to a real Dublin landmark, the Why Go Bald? sign. It’s available from This Greedy Pig, and costs €25.

Sketchy Ink- Why Indeed

Jim Fitzpatrick prints.

Jim Fitzpatrick is doing great work with his online store, selling signed prints of some classic and iconic images, such as his work for Thin Lizzy and Phil Lynott. While the Che Guevara print might be out of my price range, the classic Thin Lizzy prints are available for under €20!

Fatalistic Attitudes, Jim Fitzpatrick.

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The Dublin Waxworks at 30 Henry Street was a beloved institution for the young of Dublin in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As was written of the waxworks in a 1940 edition of The Irish Times, not alone was 30 Henry Street home to a museum of waxworks, it also housed a theatre and provided great entertainment to Dubliners. Night and day, the paper noted:

…the hall of No.30 Henry Street was crowded with the young and old who came to see Mr. James’ new programmes of wonders and surprises, all compromising the latest and most sensational from foreign lands, never lacking in the qualities of the humorous, the dramatic and the grotesque.

This March 1916 advertisement is typical of the shows performed at the waxworks, when the “original wild dancing bushman” visited:

‘The original wild dancing bushman’ – March 1916

In June 1913, the waxworks was visited by Anita “the living doll”, who was described as “the tiniest adult lady that ever lived.”

June 1913 advertisement.

The waxworks had been established by Charles Augustine James, who arrived in Dublin in 1892 from the English midlands. The Irish Times noted that James had a “keen interest in the conditions of the working class in Dublin” and that “he financed outings, beanfeasts and parties of all kinds, but still his mind sought for some way in which he could provide a place where a working man could take his wife and family in the evenings. The Henry Street Waxworks was his solution”. In addition to the waxworks, the bijou theatre hosted comedy, drama and visiting acts and wonders.

The waxworks in Dublin contained no ‘chamber of horrors’, something James despised the thought of in such a family environment, but did boast waxworks of political figures and icons, including Parnell, the Duke of Wellington, Gladstone and many others.

Among its most frequent performers was Marcella, the “Midget Queen”, who “sang popular lyrics of the day and always swept her audience along with her.” The first mention of Marcella I can find associated with the waxworks is in the Freeman’s Journal in July 1893, where it was noted she was “the rage of Dublin” and that she “is not wax but alive”

‘The Midget Queen’

In April 1902, the premises was damaged by a fire, and the Freeman’s Journal noted that “figures which were intended to represent white skinned people were of a dusky hue from the smoke.” The paper noted that the damage done on that occasion was in the region of £1,500.

It was not the fire of April 1902 which would ultimately defeat the Henry Street Waxworks, but the fires of Easter 1916. During the rebellion the Henry Street Waxworks suffered greatly, but prior to its destruction it provided some comic relief to the narrative of Easter Week! Seamus Ua Caomhanaigh recalled in his statement to the Bureau of Military History that:

There was a good deal of fun during the week.In close proximity to the Post Office in Henry St. there was an institution called the Wax Works. I was never in it but I assume it was something like Madame Tussauds in London only on a very small-scale. It had a shop in front. Access was had from one house to another by breaking holes in the walls of the houses, so that one could walk from one end to another of the Street without leaving the shelter of the houses. With the accessibility of all that the Waxworks had to offer, it was not long till a number of our troops were arrayed in various uniforms and costumes from the wax figures, and musical instruments were also acquired, such as mouth organs, melodeons and fiddles,the playing of which and the singing which accompanied them, made a good deal of the time pass very pleasantly.

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Photo Credit: George Kelly

Both Shamrock Rovers Football Club and Shelbourne Football Club were founded in Ringsend, yet both play their home games in distant corners of the capital today. Shelbourne are across the river in Tolka Park, and Rovers are now based in Tallaght Stadium following a turbulent period after the loss of their iconic Glenmalure Park home.

Both clubs take their names from their Ringsend origin, with Shelbourne taking their name from the Shelbourne Road, and Shamrock Rovers’ name coming from Shamrock Avenue. Interestingly during a league clash between the two last season, Shels fans proclaimed themselves ‘Ringsend’s Number One’, while Rovers displayed a banner which claimed they were ‘The Pride of Ringsend’.

Yesterday, the Pride of Ringsend Supporters Club unveiled this plaque on the CY Club in Ringsend, marking the connection between Rovers and the area. It was unveiled by Laro O’Byrne. It is not the first commemorative marker placed by Rovers fans in Dublin, as the location of Glenmalure Park, home of the club from 1926-1987, is also marked by a memorial.

There are other domestic football commemorative plaques in the city, such as the plaque at the Phoenix Park gate lodge marking the foundation of Bohemian Football Club there in 1890. Anything that marks the history of The Beautiful Game in this city is a welcome addition.

The Irish Press (16 August 1969)

While the attack on the British Embassy in Dublin after Bloody Sunday in January 1972, is more widely known and certainly was more successful, there were attempts to burn the building down three years previously after the Battle of Bogside and the turbulent events of August 1969.

During Saturday night (August 18) and the early hours of Sunday morning (August 19), thousands of protestors laid siege to the embassy and attacked the building with petrol bombs, bricks, stones and bottles. Gardai baton charged the crowd twice. At least 50 people were injured, including 16 Gardai.

In the city centre, at least 60 premises were attacked with 80 plate-glass windows were smashed. More seriously, in the eyes of the Gardai, “pump handles were wrenched off numbers of petrol pumps at filling stations adjacent to the embassy in the demonstators’ endeavours to get petrol”.

Around the Holles Street and Merrion Square area, where the embassy was situated, barricades were built, cars were burnt and a large fire was started outside the Mont Clare Hotel.

At least 17 people were up in the court in the following days after being arrested during the clashes in Dublin.

During protests in the city earlier in the week, thousands descended on Collins Barracks to demand guns and several were injured in scuffles outside its gates.

“A girl is comforted by a photographer after being injured in Saturday night’s clashes at the British Embassy”. The Irish Press, August 18 1969.

Update: Going, going…..gone! Both tours are now at capacity. Thank you all so, so much. We’ll send on the details soon to all done to attend. Apologies if you missed out.

Earlier in the week, I asked on Facebook if readers would be interested in the idea of taking a charity one-off walking tour with us. I work with a tour company professionally (Historical Insights, we’re the lovely people you see outside the front gate of Trinity) and the idea of a one-off tour focused around the blog and book appealed to me, with the other lads chipping in a tale or two along the route. In the spirit of Come Here To Me the tour would be done for charity, and while obviously I’d like to contact them before putting any names here, it’s the elderly of Dublin we’ve had in mind.

The response was phenomenal. We’re now tempted to do two, one on January 3rd 2013 and one on January 4th 2013 with a 1pm starting time provisionally. The tour would last just over 2 hours, with a €10 asking price and that money going towards a good cause. From experience, I’d like to keep the groups to 25 people maximum. The tour would leave from a city centre location (obviously enough!), perhaps The Spire.

If you’re interested, drop an email to comeheretome.dublin@gmail.com, saying which day’d suit you. I think it’s the most democratic way to do it, as we’ve asked both on Twitter and Facebook and the response is huge. If you miss out, there’s nothing saying we won’t do another charity tour in the future, don’t hate us!

I picked this great image up recently, showing the unveiling of the monument to Queen Victoria inside the grounds of Leinster House in February 1908. A huge image, I had to scan it in two parts, as you can see in the centre of the scan.

From ‘Black and White’, February 22nd 1908.

We’ve looked at this statue in some detail before, and Victoria is quite literally a ‘Moving Statue’.

The statue would survive the revolutionary period intact, but following Irish independence focus turned to it and the potential of removing it. While several statues associated with the British empire were targeted by militant republicans in the first few decades of independence, it was the state which began looking at ways to remove Victoria from her position in front of the parliament. In August 1929 The Irish Times reported that discussions were under way to remove the statue “on the basis that its continued presence there is repugnant to national feeling, and that, from an artistic point of view, it disfigures the architectural beauty of the parliamentary buildings”. In the Dáil however in 1930, the government line was that “The statue in question is not regarded as a valuable or attractive work of art; nevertheless, it is not thought that its effect on popular taste is so debasing as to necessitate the expenditure of public funds on its removal”

Removed from the grounds of the Dáil in July 1948, she spent several years in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, and was ultimately gifted to the people of Australia! In 1986, the statue departed Dublin Port in a container vessel bound for Australia. Following a request from the Lord Mayor of Sydney, a decision was reached to send it on a “permanent loan” basis.

Today, she sits happily in Sydney, with a plaque reading “presented by the Government and people of Ireland in a spirit of goodwill and friendship”

At peace in Sydney.

In January 1971, Loyalist bombers from the Ulster Volunteer Force planted an explosion within the Daniel O’Connell tomb at Glasnevin Cemetery. This explosion caused significant damage to the stairwell of the impressive tomb, which removed one of the finest views of the city for many years. The windows and window frames of the tower were blown out by the explosion, and Gardaí kept a 24 hour watch on the monument for some time following the failed attempt at blowing it up. It was not the only important site to Irish nationalists which would be bombed by Ulster Loyalists. The final resting place of Protestant Republican Theobald Wolfe Tone was also bombed by Loyalists, as was the Daniel O’Connell monument on O’Connell Street.

Gardaí examine the Glasnevin Tower following the 1971 explosion (The Irish Times)

This was not the first time the O’Connell tomb was damaged by bombers. In 1952, A Dublin schoolboy prank had seen an explosion in the famous Glasnevin Tower grab national media attention, and indeed a 15-year-old was dragged through the Children’s Court. On June 6th 1952, an explosion inside the Tower baffled authorities at first. The explosion damaged the windows of the tower, and the Irish Independent reported the following day that a “home-made bomb is thought to have been used.” Three boys were quickly arrested, one of whom was brought before the courts.

In a statement to police the boy said that “about two years ago I learned from other boys at school how to make explosions with potassium chlorate, charcoal and sulfur.” He was alleged to have told Gardaí he had set off some small trial bombs in the area, and had “purchased the ingredients for the bomb in small quantities in chemists’ shops for only a few pence.” On the afternoon before attempting his bombing at O’Connell’s tomb, the young 15-year-old used an old bicycle frame to pack in the required ingredients.

At 8.30pm on June 6th, the youngster climbed the O’Connell Tower, planting his crude explosion on the top storey with a lighted candle. When asked why he had done it, the lad remarked that “because it was so high”, he expected “a lot of noise and a big flash.” Unlike the bombing which would follow in 1971 then, this one was motivated mainly by boyhood boredom and curiosity! A punishment of 12 months probation was handed down.

On the day of the young teens appearance in court, the District Judge told him “you were before me two years ago for taking lead, was that to make bombs?”. He responded that “no, that was to sell!”