A fantastic, well-researched 24 page document by artist Sean Lynch in which he focusing on a selection of Dublin monuments that have been “used and abused” down the years. Those featured are The Crampton Memorial, The Bowl of Light, Nelson’s Pillar, James Joyce’s Tower, Sean’s Spiral, Anna Livia and the Millennium Countdown Clock. All of whom have been removed for a variety of reasons.
Lynch wrote the piece in the run up to the unveiling of his Me Jewel & Darlin’ public artwork display on O’Connell Street which ran from January 2011 to April 2012.
I was recently lucky enough to get inside Saint Werburgh’s Church, which sits on Werburgh Street near to Dublin Castle. It’s a tragedy that the church where Jonathan Swift was baptised and Edward Fitzgerald’s remains are found has fallen into a sad state in places. In a 2009 article in The Irish Times, the Very Rev. Derek Dunne noted that the once glorious church had “…been neglected for decades” and that “Saint Werburgh’s is not ours, it is in the ownership of Dublin. The work needs to be done, it is almost too late.”
In 1715, Commissioners were appointed for the rebuilding of the church, and none other than Surveyor-General Thomas de Burgh was to be the architect to oversee construction of the new church. Thomas de Burgh is an architect of great importance in the capitals history, responsible for example for the Custom House of 1707, along with the library of Trinity College Dublin and Dr. Steevens’ Hospital.
The church contains many items of historical interest, ranging from the bell associated with United Irishman Napper Tandy, which came from Saint John’s Church where he had been a churchwarden, to the fantastic pulpit which was once at home next door in Dublin Castle.
I began looking at the plaques around the church. Normally, Church of Ireland churches in Dublin tend to produce interesting plaques I find, and what I was seeking primarily were monuments to the involvement of men in the parish in the First World War. What I stumbled across however was a very unusual plaque from the 1830s with a fascinating story that connects the church to a young boy shipwrecked upon a Spanish slave ship off the coast of Jamaica.
These images form just a tiny part of the remarkable collection of 148 images contained in the Dublin City Public Library collection which you can view in full here. 26 Dubliners lost their lives in a series of car bombings carried out across the city.
The photographs are a unique source that gives a vivid picture not just of the devastation caused by the attacks, but of the horror felt by Dubliners after the bombings and the dread that further bombings would take place. The bombings occurred against the background of deep civil unrest in Northern Ireland and at the time there were intense fears in the South that they heralded a spread of paramilitary activity to the Irish Republic.
From all reports, the Lighthouse Cinema’s showing of the outlandish Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (1984) a couple of months back was a huge success. I’ve heard great stories about a dance floor organically emerging in front of the screen around half way through the show.
However, this was by no means the first time that this film has been shown in a Dublin cinema. In 1986, Stop Making Sense was shown every weekend night for nearly twenty weeks in The Ambassador Theatre.
Stop Making Sense poster
Journalists, writers and music critics such as Dave Fanning, Graham Linehan, Jim Carroll, Donald Clarke and Gerard Byrne have all spoken on the significance of these last night showings.
Ciaran Carty in The Sunday Independent (10/03/85) first brought attention to the film’s showing and urged his readers not to “miss it” as it was “only booked for a week”. (As far as I can work out, the film was shown on March 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 in 1985 and then reappeared on January 14 1986 where it played every Friday and Saturday night until May 1986. That sound right?)
The Irish Times, 08 Mar 1985.
Dave Fanning in The Irish Times (30/07/86) wrote that the film had the effect of “transforming the Ambassador into a disco”.
I went to see ‘Stop Making Sense’ every week for about fifteen weeks during its run at the Ambassador cinema in Dublin. They had to hire bouncers to stop people dancing, and when David Byrne ran round the stage, we ran round the Ambassador. Ah, me.
Jim Carroll (I.T. 11/12/03) also remembers the “couple of hundred party people” who used to “run laps around … the cinema” whenever David Byrne did something similar.
Simon Judge mentioned in a recent Le Cool piece that “bouncers were hired to curb the pogoing of the mental heads” while Gerard Byrne in Frieze Magazine said that the “madness … usually ended with police intervention”.
Donald Clarke (I.T. 15/09/06) said the experience of these late night screenings was “akin to actually seeing the band in action”.
Still from the film
Dave Fanning summed up things quite well (I.T. 16/12/8) when he said that this sold out run of shows:
…provided one of the most memorable yet unsung highlights of the Irish rock decade and gave a whole new meaning to the phrase of ‘dancing in the aisles’
Things came full circle when David Byrne played The Ambassador, which had then been turned into a music venue, in July 2002.
Do you have any memories of going to see the film in The Ambassador?
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.
“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.”
Sometimes I even post the resulting photographs up here. Below are the fruits of this weeks labours…
Anyone who can tell me where the above is, I’ll buy you a pint. Below, the Castle Hotel on Great Denmark Street.
Below is a selection of graffiti from Rutland Place, a street in Dublin I’d never been down prior today… Bizaarely enough, you think you know the city inside out and then somewhere new suprises you. Pics read left to right, a good 30 foot of tags.
I’m fascinated by Dublin’s shopfronts, ranging from the beautiful and hand-painted to the gaudy and horrific ‘temporary signs’ that have found their way even to our busiest streets. I’m hoping to photograph a few that grab my eye and boot them up in small groups of five or so with some regularity. On a recent walk that took me from the city centre to Stoneybatter, I thought I’d start with these….
I passed these earlier on today and was fortunate to be carrying a camera. The gate hinges of the National Concert Hall are truly fantastic, massive cast iron hands that grab your attention as you pass. A description of the Earlsfort Terrace gates comes from Alfred G. Jones, architect for the Dublin Exhibition of 1865, who noted that:
The principal entrance to the building is from Earlsfort-terrace, through six pairs of gates which form a portion of the enclosure wall and chain railing; this runs the entire length of Earlsfort-terrace, for a distance of 250 feet along Hatch-street. Each of the gate entrances has four piers of granite, circular on plan, 3 feet 3 inches at base, 8 feet 6 inches high, and surmounted with a cast-iron lamp-post 7 feet high. The iron gates are 15 feet wide, and 6 feet high, hung to massive cast iron hands, which are leaded into the stone piers.
The source of Jones’ comments is the old reliable Archiseek, who have a great article on the 1865 Dublin exhibition available to read here.
An interesting upcoming symposium, with free admission, looking at a wide variety of aspects of the economic and financial history of the capital.
For centuries Dublin has been the dominant location for making money in Ireland. Locals and new arrivals worked in an array of trades, businesses and professions – earning and spending, investing and losing money. As a capital city, Dublin was also home to lawyers, engineers and administrators attracted by the chance of a government job. Dubliners have lived and worked outside these approved (and taxed) workplaces too. Crime pays, and the pickpocket, fraudster and corrupt official are bound up with urban life. The world of work also involves social and political networks, fraternal organisations and strategic marriages.
Established academics and new researchers will examine the lives of people who made their living in Dublin from the Early Modern period to the late twentieth century. How did locals, rural migrants and immigrants succeed, scrape by or fail in the harsh world of commerce? What was their contribution to the evolution of the city? A wide range of papers will deal with topics including banking, architecture, women in business, printing, the professions and the technology boom of the 1980s.
To reserve a place please email: dublincityresearchgroup@gmail.com
‘Dub Rudie Giles’, under pressure from the powers of Babylon and his press agent, came out on the Ray D’Arcy show (Tues May 8) on Today FM refuting the story that he is a reggae fanatic.
You can listen back here here. Tuesday, Part 3, 48mins in.
The dream lives on. Design – K. Squires
His friends in the Reggae community understand why he has done this and support him 100%. Though it is 2012, it is still not safe for an esteemed football player and pundit to come out about his love of Roots Reggae, Jerk Chicken and heavy bass.
Rumours abound that he will be guest Selecta at the Rootical stage at Life Festival this year. Hold tight.
An image of The Irish House pub I scanned from John Harvey’s Dublin, 1949
O’Meara’s public house, The Irish House, was a beautiful pub which sat on the corner of Winetavern Street and Wood Quay until demolished to make way for the Civic Offices. The fantastic public house which dated back to 1870 became a forgotten victim of ‘The Bunkers’ constructed at Wood Quay. The magnificent exterior stucco work upon the pub displayed historic scenes and nationalist leaders from Irish history, with Henry Grattan and Daniel O’Connell featuring. Sean Lynch has noted in his history of the building that Lord Moyne of the Guinness Brewery “financed a project to salvage the exterior of the Irish House. In July 1968 scaffolding went up and all embellishments were removed and transported to a warehouse at the Guinness Hopstore.”
Today, some of the figures from the front of the building are on display in the Dublin Civic Trust on Castle Street. I photographed them on a recent visit, enjoy.
Daniel O’Connell, notice the word ‘Repeal’ on the document he clutches.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 