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.

A Tale of Two Parks

The Fair City has undoubtedly given much to the descendants of Arthur Guinness whose St James Gate Brewery gave a distinctive waft of roasted barley to the banks of the River Liffey and whose ships transporting the “Black Stuff” were a feature of the quayside opposite the Custom House when I was growing up in Dublin. Guinness is a popular dry stout beer that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is based on the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. A distinctive feature is the burnt flavour which is derived from the use of roasted barley. Unfortunately the parent company has been headquartered in London since 1932 when it listed on the London Stock Exchange and was later merged with Grand Metropolitan plc. Due to the machinations of Ernest Saunders (the only person to be cured from irreversible senile dementia!) in the “Guinness Scandal” in the 1980’s the family connection with the firm is largely a thing of the past and the company has developed into a multi-national alcohol conglomerate named Diageo. However, with his well known Gift of Prophecy, the Celtic Sage foresees a future campaign to repatriate this part of our National Patrimony to Ireland!





Summer House by the Lake



Well in better times when Guinness was Irish, the Guinness family amply reciprocated the generosity of Dubliners contributing to Irish institutions and culture and to public welfare through the Iveagh Trust, now the Guinness Trust. In Dublin’s South City Centre you can find many examples of the family’s munificence including Dublin’s best known and finest Victorian public park, St Stephen’s Green, and overlooking it are two fine Georgian Mansions both donated by the Guinness family. One is the world renowned College of Surgeon’s (RCSI) and the other Iveagh House is a splendid urban palazzo housing the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Iveagh House. Behind Iveagh House is another gift from the family, a “secret garden” the Iveagh Gardens.





College of Surgeons



St Stephen’s Green was re-opened by Lord Ardilaun in 1880 for the citizens of Dublin. This 9 hectare / 22 acre park has been maintained in the original Victorian layout with extensive perimeter tree and shrub planting, spectacular spring and summer Victorian bedding. The herbaceous border also provides colour from early spring to late autumn. Sanctuary from inclement weather can be obtained in the Victorian lakeside shelter or in the Victorian Swiss shelters in the centre of the park. It is a wonderful green lung in the midst of the hurly burly of the busy city and with its lake, flower beds, glades and shelters it is both well used and well maintained by the Office of Public Works who have added features to it without detracting from the Victorian integrity of this public space and its surrounds, encased as it is by fines cast iron fencing and sheltering mature trees.











Until 1663 St Stephen’s Green was a marshy common on the edge of Dublin, used for grazing. In that year Dublin Corporation, seeing an opportunity to raise much needed revenue, decided to enclose the centre of the common and to sell land around the perimeter for building. The park was enclosed with a wall in 1664. The houses built around the Green were rapidly replaced by new buildings in the Georgian style and by the end of the eighteenth century the Green was a place of resort for the better-off of the city. Much of the present-day landscape of the square comprises modern buildings, some in a replica Georgian style, and relatively little survives from the 18th and 19th centuries.





Map of current layout



In 1814 control of St Stephen’s Green Park passed to Commissioners for the local householders, who redesigned its layout and replaced the walls with railings. Access was restricted to local residents, until 1877, when Parliament passed an Act to reopen St Stephen’s Green to the public, at the initiative of Sir A.E. Guinness, a member of the Guinness brewing family who lived at St Anne's, Raheny and at Ashford Castle in Cong, Co. Mayo. He later paid for the laying out of the Green in approximately its current form, which took place in 1880, and gave it to the Corporation, as representatives of the people. By way of thanks the city commissioned a statue of him, which faces the College of Surgeons. His brother Edward lived at Iveagh House, which his descendants gave in 1939 to the Department of External Affairs (now the Department of Foreign Affairs).





Lord Ardilaun





Ardilaun Lodge



Over 3.5 km of pathways are accessible for all users. The waterfall and Pulham rock work on the western side of the green are worth of a visit likewise the ornamental lake which provides a home for waterfowl and a garden for the visually impaired. A number of sculptures are located throughout the green and a children's playground is a popular attraction of the park. Lunchtime concerts are performed during the summer months providing a musical interlude for office workers and visitors.





Map of Green with key features(A)Fusilier's Arch(B)O'Donovan Rossa(C)O'Connell Bridge(D)Wolfe Tone & Famine Memorial E)Lord Ardilaun(F)Countess Markievicz(G)Playground(H)Bandstand(I)3Fates



One of the more unusual aspects of the park lies on the North West corner of this central area - a garden for the blind with scented plants, which can withstand handling, and are labelled in Braille. Another feature is a sculpture group representing the Three Fates inside the Leeson Street gate (a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugees after World War II).





3 Fates









Lake



Further north again (and spanning much of the length of the park) is a large lake. Home to ducks and other water fowl, the lake is fed by an artificial water fall, spanned by O'Connell Bridge, and fronted by an ornamental gazebo. The lakes in the park are fed from the Grand Canal at Portobello.



Most people enter from the top of Grafton Street through the Fusilier's Arch (first termed "Traitors Gate" by Redmondites) at the Grafton Street corner which commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War. Irish Nationalists identified with the stand of the Boer Republics against British rule, hence the epithet this being the only time the supported Orange Men!





"Traitors Gate"



A seated statue of Lord Ardilaun sits on the western side, the man who gave the Green to the city, faces the Royal College of Surgeons which he also sponsored. His country house was the superbly located Ashford Castle at Cong in Co. Mayo, today a rather upmarket hotel on the shores of Lough Corrib.



Overlooking St Stephen’s Green you’ll find the historic Shelbourne Hotel now looking as bright as a shiny pin after an extensive restoration which maintained its character and on the first floor overlooking the Green you will find the “Constitution Room” where the Irish Constitution adopted at independence was drafted. Just to the side and dating from 1693 is another urban enclave The Huguenot Cemetery. The Huguenots were French Calvinists persecuted intermittently by the Catholic rulers of France throughout the seventeenth century. Small numbers of refugees from this persecution had come to Ireland, mainly via England, from 1620 to 1641, and again with Cromwell in 1649, but it was in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed them toleration, that the main body of Huguenots began to arrive, mostly from the countryside around the city of La Rochelle in the modern region of Poitou-Charente.









The Huguenot Cemetery



After the end of the Williamite wars, large Huguenot settlements were established in Portarlington, Youghal, Cork, Dublin, Waterford and Lisburn, where they became celebrated for their expertise in textiles, specialising in weaving, lace-making, and glove-making. In the course of time, they became thoroughly absorbed into Irish society through intermarriage, and names such as Boucicault, Maturin, Le Fanu and Trench are still familiar in Ireland today. Indeed what is now the Bank of Ireland has its origins in La Touche’s Bank set up by the Huguenot David La Touche who is well known as the subject of a cheque written in verse by Richard Chapell Whaley, High Sheriff of Ireland and father of the notorious regency Rake, Thomas “Buck” Whaley;



“Mr. La Touche,

Open your pouch,

And give unto my darling

Five hundred pounds sterling:

For which this will be your bailey,

Signed, Richard Chapell Whaley."



Richard Whaley is too connected to St. Stephen’s Green for his magnificent town mansion is now Newman House and part of the National University of Ireland attended by James Joyce and many others.



During the Easter Rising of 1916, a group of insurgents made up mainly of members of the Irish Citizen Army, under the command of Commandant Michael Mallin and his second-in-command Constance Markievicz, established a position in St Stephen's Green. They numbered between 200-250. They confiscated motor vehicles to establish road blocks on the streets that surround the park, and dug defensive positions in the park itself. This approach differed from that of taking up positions in buildings, adopted elsewhere in the city. It proved to have been unwise when elements of the British Army took up positions in the Shelbourne Hotel, at the north-eastern corner of St Stephen's Green, overlooking the park, from which they could shoot down into the entrenchments. Finding themselves in a weak position, the Volunteers withdrew to the Royal College of Surgeons on the west side of the Green. During the Rising fire was temporarily halted to allow the park's groundsman to feed the local ducks! There is a bust of Constance Markievicz on the south of the central garden.



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/10/first-female-member-of-parliament.html



At the Merrion Row corner of the Green opposite the Shelbourne there is a bronze statue of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 rebellion. Flanked by monoliths, it was immediately nicknamed 'Tonehenge'. Behind Tonehenge inside the Green there is a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845-1850 by Edward Delaney



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/03/years-of-french.html





Theobald Wolfe Tone





Memorial to the Great Famine



In 1862, Benjamin Guinness bought Nos. 80-81 St. Stephen's Green and combined the two houses, turning them into the stately mansion that is Iveagh House today. It is now home to the Department of Foreign Affairs' headquarters, and therefore cannot be visited. However, just behind the house, you'll find Dublin’s secret gardens, the beautiful Iveagh Gardens, and these are open to the public. Designed in the 1860s, they offer a combination of the French and English garden styles, so while in some areas you'll find a cascade surrounded by natural landscapes; in others you'll find grand statues and fountains.





Iveagh House





Iveagh Gardens in relation to Stephen's Green







A fine Victorian town garden, with a fountain, rosarium and maze, formerly belonging to the Earls of Iveagh. Designed by Ninian Niven in 1863, the gardens are in the process of being restored. Much has been achieved but there is still work to be done. The Iveagh Gardens are among the finest and least known of Dublin's parks and gardens. They were designed by Ninian Niven, in 1865, as an intermediate design between the 'French Formal' and the 'English Landscape' styles. They demonstrated the artistic skills of the landscape Architect of the mid 19th century and display a unique collection of landscape features which include Rustic Grotto's and Cascade, sunken formal panels of lawn with Fountain Centre Pieces, Wilderness, Woodlands, Maze, Rosarium, American Garden, Archery Grounds, Rockeries and Rooteries.



The conservation and restoration of the Gardens commenced in 1995 and to date most of the features have been restored, for example the Maze in Box hedging with a Sundial as a centre piece. The recently restored Cascade and exotic tree ferns all help to create a sense of wonder in the 'Secret Garden'. The pre 1860s rose varieties add an extra dimension to the Victorian Rosarium.









Cascade







So Dubliner’s are grateful to the descendants of Arthur Guinness of Leixlip for two of Dublin’s finest open spaces, in St Stephen’s Green a wonderful example of High Victorian formal Public Park and in the Iveagh Garden’s a total contrast, a real “Secret Garden” which is a bucolic fantasy and a true hidden enclave in the heart of the city. They are today (whatever the sins of the past) in good public stewardship and have been sensitively enhanced. On a summer’s day there is no need to justify their existence as the appreciation of the many users of these refreshing and rejuvenating spaces is obvious providing an oasis of relaxation and contemplation in the middle of the metropolis. But there is a further point about their public stewardship that there is absolutely no commercialisation, no kiosks, no cafes and no deckchairs to rent. This truly preserves them as unique havens and enshrines them as “People’s Parks” for grateful Dubliner’s and visitors alike.

DC’s Drunkard’s Onion Soup

Grafton Street, Dublin

Dublin’s Grafton Street was once the home of two funky upstairs restaurants. One still remains, Captain America’s Cookhouse is famous for its excellent collection of pop memorabilia, and for the fact that Chris de Burgh started off by playing the guitar there - a fact which produces mixed emotions! It also acted as a catering catalyst as for a time everybody in catering in Dublin seemed to have worked / met at Captain A’s. However my own favourite (and with better food) was the Thunderbird Food Company run by the O’Donoghue and Fahy families and unfortunately closed many years ago. They were kind to me on many occasions in my younger years (no more so than insisting on feeding me and my companion for free when my car was stolen and wrecked!) and I got to know most of their recipes. Their variation on classic French soup was a crock served with a crust of melted Irish Cheddar.




Captain America's Cookhouse

Now there is nothing wrong with the classic French Onion soup but variety is the spice of life and this variation is packed with onion flavour and is delicious for those occasions when soul food is needed to raise the spirits. The ingredients in the Drunkard’s Onion soup recipe below will make enough for four good portions and is a main course which will fill you all on its own.

The ingredients are;

4 medium sized onions
1 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
4½ cups of beef stock (easiest to add 3 OXO beef cubes to boiling water) - 700 millilitres
Cup of Dry Cider or Dry Vermouth
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, double if you like this sauce
Teaspoon of Demerara sugar
1/4 teaspoon of grated garlic or 1 fresh garlic clove chopped up small
French bread or sliced white bread
Irish Cheddar or Red Leicester cheese to top the bread
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
Salt to taste (not much needed and don’t add if you use stock cubes)

Technique

Start by peeling the four onions and chopping it into small bits. This is the most laborious part of this recipe - it takes 5 minutes or so to chop up four onions and the tears will flow! However if you keep a cold tap running and occasionaly rinse the knife under the running water it helps. Put the onions into a deep saucepan; add the garlic, butter and olive oil and turn up to a medium heat. Turn the onions every minute or so to ensure they are evenly cooked. Aim to cook the onions until they are a light brown colour, this normally takes 6 minutes. Then reduce the heat to its lowest setting, add the Worcestershire sauce and allow them to stew for a further 10 minutes.


The Magic Mixture

Now increase the heat to medium and add the Demerara sugar, stir and allow to caramelise. After a couple of minutes add the Cider or Vermouth and allow the mixture to reduce and thicken for a further two minutes. Then add the beef stock, season with the pepper, and then stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the base of the pan well. As soon as it all comes up to simmering point, turn down the heat to its lowest setting, then go away and leave it to cook very gently, without a lid, for about 30 minutes.


DC's Drunkard's Onion Soup

When the soup mix is ready (and there is no problem with reheating it or indeed freezing it for another time - indeed you can "Supersize" the ingredients and freeze a batch) spoon the hot mixture into individual tureens or pottery crocks and cover the surface with the lightly toasted French or sliced bread. Cover generously in the grated cheese and put under the grill for 8 / 10 minutes making sure you don’t let it burn. Serve immediately (and don't forget to warn your guests that everything is very hot!) as a substantial main course to bring comfort to the body and soul best accompanied by cider or beer!


Bon Appétit!