Dublin Homecoming

GPO, O'Connell Street, Dublin


The Dublin "Spike" (don't ask!) and the statue of Trade Union leader Jim Larkin asking the question "where can I get a taxi around here?"

I went back to the Fair City to see the parents and friends old and new. On the Friday met up in the Holy Grail of Irish traditional music O'Donoghue's in Merrion Row. This is a real unchanging Dublin pub – a long hardwood bar soaked with the sweat and beer of five generations, photos of real old patrons on the walls, a ticking clock and the laughter of old men, and an atmosphere of peace and timelessness.


Dublin Luas Tram

For more on the Dubliners and O'Donoghue's see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/farewell-ronnie-drew.html

We had a wonderful night in O'Donoghue's, proving that a stranger is a friend you haven't yet met. Love and respect to some special people, Jessie, Robert, Ann, Frances, Hugh and Nuala not to mention Con still behind the bar after 30 years!




O'Donoghue's Bar

It was a night of mixed emotions as we were meeting in honour of an old friend and talented musician who passed away in February 2009 and who used to play here. This was also where he met and proposed to his first wife Jessie who was here with us for the first time in 20 years and sang a song in his memory.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/gerard-cowan.html


Bagatelle's famous Dublin anthem "Summer in Dublin"



One personal pit stop was a return visit to Yamamori which is a popular Japanese restaurant located a stone's throw from some of Dublin's trendier pubs such as the Globe and Hogan's. It's a bright, airy and well-decorated affair, with large windows looking out onto South Great Georges Street. The food is hardly adventurous given Japanese standards, but always reliable, and with sushi, teriyaki and a variety of Japanese beers on the menu, it's an ideal spot for an early dinner. Yamamori also has a lunch menu with a range of noodle dishes that are certainly good value for money. This is very different from the normal UK Noodle Bar operation with a far longer menu incorporating Bento and Sushi dishes as well as the usual noodle and rice dishes.


Yamamori Noodles Still Life; "Bento Box with a Panama Hat"

There were random rambles around my hometown including meeting my good buddy Niall who had celebrated his 70th the day before and has done a great and altruistic service by restoring Martello Tower No. 7 in Killiney, Co. Dublin. It is the only Martello Tower in the world restored to its original condition and with working cannon. Niall also restored the surrounding gun emplacement and glacis so it can be seen in its original context.



For the story of Martello Towers see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/martello-towers.html


Molly Malone, carrying all before her


A rather big little person


The Boys are Back in Town, Phil Lynott outside Bruxelles, Harry Street

Finally on my random rambles in Foster Place I noticed that the Armoury of the Bank of Ireland had been converted into the Irish Waxworks display. Waxworks are not my thing but it is an interesting display if a bit like a Curate’s Egg, good in parts. However I was delighted to see the Armoury for the Bank of Ireland was originally the world’s first purpose designed parliament building. After the rebellion of 1798 the bank was given the right to raise its own militia to protect their premises, hence the Armoury.

For the story of the world's first purpose designed Parliament Building see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/irish-parliament-building.html


Armoury of the Bank of Ireland, now the Wax Museum


Dome of the Assembly Room in the Armoury

The National Wax Museum is a privately owned waxworks museum in Dublin, Ireland. On October 7, 2009, the museum officially re-opened (although it had been open to the public a number of weeks prior) following extensive renovation at its new location in the left flank of the Irish Houses of Parliament, at Foster Place. I am not a great fan of the genre and I really went in to see the building the Armoury. Having said that the Waxworks uses the space quiet well and it was interesting to see the use they had made of the old vaults under the building – they are now billed as “The Time Vaults of Irish History”.


Waxworks of Brendan Behan and Patrick Kavanagh, in real life the best of enemies!

However much of the displays are aimed at the kiddies and the view of Irish History given by the exhibits was that bit too simplistic and one sided for me. The “Grand Finale” leads to the assembly room of the Armoury which has a fine glass domed ceiling and is devoted to Irish musicians – I wasn’t impressed that yours truly wasn’t mentioned by name for organising the Boomtown Rats first concert as much of the display is concerned with one Robert Geldof, late of the Boomtown Rats and of this town.



For my part in pop history / infamy see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bob-geldof-and-me.html


Grafton Street, Dublin


Nothing new here, Riverdance playing for 3 months at the Gaiety Theatre

The biggest disappointment on this trip was a stroll down what was Dublin’s most fashionable and upmarket shopping street Grafton St. It is mentioned in Paddy Kavanagh’s famous allegorical poem of unrequited love “Raglan Road”;

“On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge" and also immortalised in Noel Purcell’s “Dublin Saunter” where he sang:
"Grafton Street's a wonderland with magic in the air . . ."

To read about Raglan Road and Paddy Kavanagh see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-raglan-roag.html


Buskers, Grafton Street


Sand sculpture Grafton Street

Well there is little magic in the air these days. When I was young the street had unique upmarket shops of which only the Jeweller’s “Weirs “gives an impression of what it was like. At the top on St. Stephen’s Green was the Dandelion Market full of short lets and really interesting shops which was a place of pilgrimage on a Saturday. Halfway along the street Bewley’s Café with its neo-Egyptian frontage didn’t need to advertise as they roasted coffee in the window and the scent wafting down Grafton Street drew you in. As Brendan Behan remarked it was an honour to have our most fashionable Street named after a “Right Royal Bastard.” The street was named after Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton, the illegitimate son of Charles II of England who owned land in the area. The street was developed from a then existing country lane by the Dawson family in 1708, after whom the parallel Dawson Street is named.


Thomas Davis statue and fountain College Green

It has lots of memories for me, from the Thunderbird Food Co. to The Diceman, Thom McGinty who I knew who was a wonderful mime artist to Captain America’s Food Company where a certain Chris De Burgh used to play. Well there is little magic any more as the “entertainers” are aimed squarely at the tourist pound and the shops by and large look like any part of a Clone Town British High Street and a not very upmarket one at that. It looks like short sighted greedy landlords have killed off this particular Golden Goose.