It is only right to end 2009 with good news. Many Blogistas have accused the Sage of a certain prejudice towards the place which is the sump of the Black Country in the Midlands of England, the benighted town (nay, City since 2001) of Wolverhampton. Indeed such is their sensitivity that if you say anything negative they flag you up to Blogger and the very next day run off to Telford for advice, objective advice not being available in the City of St. Wulfrun itself. Yes, throughout Britain Wolvies are famed as sensitive souls! Now there is objective support for the Sage’s lonely viewpoint for the respected Lonely Planet Guide has named Wolverhampton as the 5th worst place to live in the entire world!
Even those who live there will admit that Wolverhampton is not the most glamorous of destinations. After decades at the heart of Britain's industrial revolution no one would expect it to be. But not even they thought it would be named as one of the worst places to live in the entire world. Eight years after the old market town was awarded city status the renowned Lonely Planet guide yesterday branded it the fifth worst city on the globe.
It even ranked alongside poverty-stricken slums in El Salvador and Ghana and saw off 'competition' from Chennai in India. And to add insult to injury Wolverhampton was the only city missing a write-up. The guide explained: 'Wolverhampton is so bad we don't even have it on this site'. Crime-hit Detroit, Michigan, topped the poll ahead of Accra, Ghana, which was described as 'ugly, chaotic and sprawling'.
Many years ago when the racist Enoch Powell was elected as the local Member of Parliament Wolverhampton was an industrial rust bowl city of white rednecks and the reactionary industrial squirearchy. Since, then widespread immigration (hey, houses are cheap in Wolvie) has resulted in a polyglot culture of English Midlanders (slower than the rest of us and with the UK’s worst accent), Asian and Caribbean communities who have created a cultural vacuum based on the lowest common denominator of each. A case in point is the University of Wolverhampton which won awards for “inclusion” and is now in the middle of a financial crisis forcing it to downgrade one campus and sell off anything of value. Rated by the Times Newspaper as 112 out of 120 UK Universities it has now refused to take part in further surveys, presumably because it was being placed last. It set a legal precedent when a student successfully sued it two years ago over its crap courses. Since then it has been hit by cases of staff plagiarism and that is before you get onto the students!
Goldie - he lives in Bovingdon
Don’t take my word for it, drive into Wolverhampton on the A41 from the M6 Motorway and enjoy the wonderful approach of a town surrounded by derelict steel works and old slag heaps inhabited by …. Well you tell me! Yes, there are famous people who come from Wolverhampton but they have one thing in common, they now live somewhere else! Why for holidays and high days the inhabitants who can escape to Coventry and Manchester as better alternatives! Q.E.D.
AND LONELY PLANET'S NINE MOST HATED CITIES ARE....
Detroit, Michigan Accra, Ghana Seoul, South Korea Los Angeles, USA Wolverhampton, England San Salvador, El Salvador Chennai, India Arusha, Tanzania Chetumal, Mexico
"This cartoon was over 2000 years in the making... Just think, 10 years ago, the popular song to play New Year's Eve was Prince's song 1999. Time flies when you're paying taxes."
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"Zombies. A zombie is a creature that appears in books and popular culture typically as a reanimated dead or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful wizard. Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead."
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Bank of Ireland, originally the world's first purpose built parliament building.
Dublin in these photos from 1961 seems a different world and possibly a different planet. An American, Charles W. Cushman travelled the world for 30 years, including a visit to Dublin. When he died, he left his collection to Indiana State University, who have uploaded them, and a fascination window the provide on a Dublin which has gone. As Arthur Ryan who recently stepped down as MD of Primark remarked “we were always in recession” and money was certainly scarce. People generally used public transport or cycled to work. Most milk floats were horse drawn with the horses knowing how to pace themselves to the speed at which the milk was being delivered by the milkman. The “Breadman” on the other hand had an electric bread van normally from Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien as did the laundry vans. Amazingly, with hindsight, there were two laundry services.
The Swastika Laundry 1962
One was called (wait for it) “The Swastika Laundry” and had a swastika on the side of the van, albeit at an angle, as the Sanskrit symbol of brotherhood but you didn’t need a degree in marketing to suggest a re-branding was perhaps overdue! The other was the Highfield Laundry from the convent in Drumcondra of the same name backing onto the Archbishop’s Palace which we now know was one of the notorious Magdalene Laundries.
College Green with Trinity College and the Bank of Ireland
Cassidy's, South Great George's Street. In the 1960's this was an important retail street with Dockrell's. Pyms and Cassidys.
It was also the city of the thought police presided over for many years by the person since known as the Arch Bigot of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. It is hard now to understand the conservative nature of Irish Society but in those days a catholic needed “permission” to attend a protestant wedding and Catholics were forbidden by the church from attending Trinity College. On the other side many of the large companies, such as Guinness, were protestant companies where Catholics were not represented in management. After many years of stagnation Ireland’s greatest export was its own people and it coped with social problems by denying them and exporting them to England. Indeed it had an unrealistic world view blaming all its problems on England and believing one day Irish-Americans would come back home and make Ireland rich.
Dame Street
This was the Dear Old Dirty Dublin I grew up in the North Inner City district of Summerhill.
A special place, the Augustan capital of a Gaelic Ireland or a ravenous sow which devours its young depending on the literary source you use! An older Viking city than Oslo it was founded in the late 700’s (although Ptolemy referred to a town called Eblana in C4.) and the Viking Kings of Dublin & Dalkey ruled the Isle of Man and controlled trading in the Irish Sea. The Vikings were supplanted by the Normans in the late 1000’s who exiled the native Irish and Norse outside the walls of their new city (to Irishtown & Oxmantown respectively) and built a cathedral on the hill of their town which is known as Christchurch today. The tomb of the first Norman ruler, Richard of Pembroke, known as Strongbow, is still in the crypt of the cathedral. His daughter Isolde eloped with the warrior Tristam giving us one of the early great romantic stories, which will no doubt inspire you on Valentine’s or any other romantic weekend!
Christchurch Cathedral
Dublin Mountains from the City Centre
The name Dublin is derived from the Irish name Dubh Linn (meaning "black pool"). The common name for the city in Modern Irish is Baile Átha Cliath (meaning "town of the hurdled ford"). Áth Cliath is a place-name referring to a fording point of the Liffey in the vicinity of Heuston Station. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery which is believed to have been situated in the area of Aungier Street currently occupied by Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church.
A Horse and Cart - A common delivery method in 60's Dublin
The subsequent Scandinavian settlement was on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey, to the East of Christchurch, in the area now known as Wood Quay. The Dubh Linn was a lake used by the Scandinavians to moor their ships and was connected to the Liffey by the Poddle. The Dubh Linn and Poddle were covered during the early 1700s, and as the city expanded they were largely forgotten about. The Dubh Linn was situated where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle.
Dublin Castle
The writings of the Greek astronomer and cartographer Claudius Ptolemy provide perhaps the earliest reference to human habitation in the area now known as Dublin. In around A.D. 140 he referred to a settlement he called Eblana Civitas. The settlement 'Dubh Linn' dates perhaps as far back as the first century BC and later a monastery was built there, though the town was established in about 841 by the Norse. The modern city retains the Anglicised Irish name of the former and the original Irish name of the latter.
Government Buidings, originally the science faculty of the Royal University (Now UCD)Designed by Aston Webb, who also designed the front of Buckingham Palace
The formation of the new state resulted in changed fortunes for Dublin. It benefited more from independence than any Irish city, though it took a long time to become obvious. Through The Emergency (World War II), until the 1960s, Dublin remained a capital out of time: the city centre in particular remained at an architectural standstill, even nicknamed the last 19th Century City of Europe.
Merrion square
After the Union the city lost its economic momentum and unemployment, poverty and population increased significantly. Dublin went into a decline with many of the Georgian buildings deteriorating to tenements and the larger homes of the aristocracy being used for other purposes. Leinster House is now the Dail, the Irish Parliament (and the model for the White House, Washington which was designed by James Hoban a pupil of its architect, Richard Cassels) and Powerscourt House is now a shopping centre but was a post office.
Liffey quays
The Four Courts, one of the three masterpieces of the architect James Gandon along with the Custom House and the King's Inns
However while Georgian Dublin survived 1930s plans and World War II, much of it did not survive property developers in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The historic but now impoverished Mountjoy Square suffered heavily, with derelict sites replacing historic mansions. When in the 1950s a row of large Georgian houses in Kildare Place near Leinster House was demolished to make way for a brick wall an extreme republican Fianna Fáil minister, Kevin Boland celebrated, saying that they had stood for everything he opposed. He also condemned the leaders of the Irish Georgian Society, established to battle to preserve Georgian buildings and some of whom came from aristocratic backgrounds, as "belted earls". In the 1960s, the world's longest line of Georgian buildings was interrupted when the Electricity Supply Board was allowed to demolish a chunk in the centre and build a modern office block. By the 1980s, road-widening schemes by Dublin Corporation ran through some of the most historic areas of the inner city around Christ Church Cathedral. The nadir of this approach occurred in 1979 when Dublin Corporation destroyed the largest and finest Viking site in the world at Wood Quay, in the face of national opposition, to build its Civic Offices for its civil servants.
South City Markets
Wicklow Street
By the 1990s a greater civic pride and a new management team in Dublin Corporation saw changes in how the city was run; among the results was the restoration of City Hall to its eighteenth century interior (removing Victorian and Edwardian additions and rebuilds), and the replacement of the famed Nelson's Pillar (a monument on O'Connell Street which had dominated the skyline until being blown up by republicans) by a new Spire of Dublin, the world's tallest sculpture, on the site of the old Pillar and which could be seen throughout the city.
O'Connell Street and Bridge - Dublin's main street originally built as a square and showing the influence of the Wide Street Commissioners
The city has a world-famous literary history, having produced many prominent literary figures, including Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett. Other influential writers and playwrights from Dublin include Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and the creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker. It is arguably most famous, however, as the location of the greatest works of James Joyce. His most celebrated work, Ulysses, is set in Dublin and full of topical detail. Dubliners is a collection of short stories by Joyce about incidents and characters typical of residents of the city in the early part of the 20th century. Additional widely celebrated writers from the city include J.M. Synge, Seán O'Casey, Brendan Behan, Maeve Binchy, and Roddy Doyle. Ireland's biggest libraries and literary museums are found in Dublin, including the National Print Museum of Ireland and National Library of Ireland.
This is from the video titled "The Dubliners' Dublin" which is like a documentary with Ronnie taking viewers on a tour of his favourite watering holes, and meeting up with the lads for a few songs. The song "Dublin in The Rare Old Times" was written by Pete St. John, who also wrote "Fields of Athenry".
Pete was an occasional and welcome visitor to the folk sessions at Tailor’s Hall in Back Lane which I used to frequent and helped in the (unsuccessful) campaign to keep it as a folk and community venue.
Kim Clijsters former World Champion and Winner of US Open 2009
Caronline Wozniacki the sensational tennis star rising up in rank fast.
The two tennis players that have shown splendid performance in the tennis courts are certainly Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniacki. Kim came back after two years of retiring and as a Mother already, she is able to play tennis at a great standard winning all the current top players and clinch the US Open title. She has shown the "Mum power" indeed in the game. To further prove that she has the real skills, she had another match earlier in this month with Serena Williams the current World no. 1 and has won that game. Another tennis player to note is Caroline Wozniacki the young sensational teenager in the tennis arena. She has been playing really well and have won experienced top players at the courts making each game an exciting for the spectators to watch. She has risen to World No. 4 in rankings her best ranking so far.
Test your Awareness with Do The Test's Whodunnit. Who Killed Lord Smithe? TFL cycling safety advert! How observant are you? How did you do?
www.dothetest.co.uk
You may wonder why I feature this amusing ditty (other than it is allegedly a TfL cycling safety video)? Well it features one of the more interesting actresses in the UK and a good buddy of the Sage, Ms. Sadie McMahon. Among her many theatrical credits she has filmed 2 Episodes of Holby City playing security guard Lindsey Jones in a tragic & moving storyline where unfortunately she is attacked and stabbed by a patient.
"Inspired by a visit to Buffalo where I'd see 2 or 3 city blocks of regular downtown buildings, followed by an empty lot (gap) with some abandoned rusty car, and various pices of junk. Originally I was going to call this cartoon 'Middle-East Shopping Mall' but I doubt The Gap has any stores there. What self-respecting extremist would buy an argyle suicide vest from The Gap?"
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Once upon a time, not too long ago, there were 27 unique narrow gauge railways and tramways in Ireland. The last of these to close was the West Clare Railway in 1961, a line immortalised in song and remembered by railway enthusiasts as a special railway with more than its fair share of lore and colourful stories which ran from Ennis, the county town of Clare through a unique landscape to the wild Atlantic coast at Kilkee and Kilrush. There it stopped for the next station would have been America!
The 117-year-old Slieve Callan was returned to service on the West Clare Railway after an absence of more than half a century. The locomotive is now running on 2.5km of restored narrow-gauge track at Moyasta Junction. A tenacious local team under the stewardship of Jackie Whelan hope to restore more of the line between Kilkee and Kilrush and have appealed for the co-operation of landowners.
On 5 July 2009 No. 5 Slieve Callan was returned to the West Clare Railway at Moyasta Junction following restoration in England by Alan Keefe Ltd. The locomotive was steamed for the first time on July 14th marking the return of steam to the West Clare railway after an absence of over 57 years. Moyasta’s name is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic “Magh Sheasta” – A Little Stop or in other words, a halt.
The atmosphere and enthusiasm at Moyasta is both wonderful and contagious and the reopening of this historic line is an incredible achievement against the odds and official indifference and obstruction. No attempt has been made by the authorities even to preserve the line of route of this unique National Treasure and C.I.E. started dismantling the track the very day after the closure. Great tribute and credit has to be paid to the team who kept the dream of the WCR alive and in particular to the remarkable Jackie Whelan, his son Stephen and Locoman First Class Richard L. Gair. But even they would concede that the real Star of West Clare is that remarkable lady, who is 117 years young, the beautiful Dubs & Co. 0-6-2T “Slieve Callan.” Long may she steam and inspire volunteer and visitor alike.
For the story of this remarkable resurrection and the remarkable character behind the rebirth of the West Clare Railway see;
The West Clare Railway engine No 5 Slieve Callan being driven through Kilrush (Frances Street) on its arrival back for the first time since it was withdrawn from service in October 1959. The engine has just recently undergone a complete refurbishment in England and is now a rare example of a working narrow gauge steam driven engine with a 0-6-2T wheel configuration. Built in 1892, it is in active use on the restored line at Moyasta Junction, 3 miles from Kilrush. Video Time and location. Frances Street, Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland. 6th July 2009.
February the first 1961 saw the tragic closure of the famous West Clare Railway. On this short film we see train Driver, Christy Buggle take the 1952 Diesel Engine on a courtesy return trip to Moyasta Junction. Many of the local characters aboard were captured on this 8mm. film by Henry Street Chemist, James A. Doyle.
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