Adifferentkettleoffishaltogether

River Liffey with Upper Ormond Quay on the right

While walking along the North Quays of the River Liffey on a bright sunny summer morning, I was stopped in my tracks by the colours in the peeling paint of the panels on the disused shop front.

I love old layers of peeling paint. The colours and texture are a work of art in themselves.

Colourful layers of peeling paint

It was only when I had my fill of texture that I looked up for a shop name.

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It was clearer on the side of the building, round the corner on Arran Street East.

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Adifferentkettleoffishaltogether.

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Old Oak

Old Oak

Old Oak ~ Bronze
Sculptor ~ Michael McWilliams

I found this piece last July, as I wandered through the Westbury Mall adjacent to the Westbury Hotel, just off Grafton Street in Dublin.

Michael McWilliams was born and educated in Dublin. He has been working as a professional artist for 30 years. He works from his studio on the foothills of the Dublin Mountains.

While his main interest is landscape painting, using a palette of tones and hues inspired by nature, he also works with bronze focusing mainly on the human form.

His works are in various corporate and private collections in Ireland and abroad.

Special offer today.

Today, like all the best Supermarkets I offer two for the price of one!

Theobald Wolfe Tone
1763-1798

Theobald Wolfe Tone ~ Bronze
Sculptor ~ Edward Delaney

As you approach St Stephen’s Green from the North East Corner A large sculpture of Theobald Wolfe Tone (1763 – 1798) stands guard today. Commonly known as Wolfe Tone, he was one of the founding members of the United Irishmen and is regarded as the father of Irish republicanism.

Cyclists resting at the feet of the father of Irish republicanism. I wonder what they are scheming?

When you walk round the stone pillars the other side tells a very different story:

Hungry Heart Famine memorial
~Edward Delaney

Hungry Heart Famine memorial ~ Bronze
Sculptor ~Edward Delaney

Hungry Heart: Edward Delaney‘s “Famine Memorial”

The two parts are all one sculpture and you can read more about them in this obituary for Edward Delaney from The Guardian in 2009

This eight-minute video on Dublin, Ireland’s St. Stephen’s Green and sculptor Edward Delaney’s “Famine Memorial” (1967) gives more information.

Back on August I featured the work of Edward Delaney, with his piece Four Angels.

Little Museum of Dublin

The Little Museum of Dublin can be found in a beautiful Georgian townhouse at No. 15 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin not far from Grafton Street. It is a non-profit company and depends on the generosity of the public to survive.

First floor at The Little Museum of Dublin courtesy of the museum.

It tells the story of Dublin in the 20th Century. Launched in April 2011 with a public appeal for historic objects with a connection to Dublin during that time. The response to that appeal reflects the generosity of the Irish public, as well as the vision of the patrons in Dublin City Council.

The ground floor covers Emigration to America

There are now over 5,000 artefacts in the collection, as well as three floors of exhibition space and a café in the basement. The goal is not to sell an ideology but simply to remember the past.

The story of three women

The Little Museum was recently described as “Dublin’s best museum experience” by the Irish Times and they have been nominated for the European Museum of the Year Awards.

Did you use an old Royal

The collection includes art, photography, advertising, letters, postcards, objects and ephemera relating to cultural, social and political life in Dublin between the years 1900 and 2000.

Finlater’s Bicycle for delivering the orders

The collection is mostly comprised of donations and loans from the people of Dublin. Somehow I had difficulty with taking photos, so much of the items were familiar from my young life.

Please note: the museum is on the first floor of a Georgian building. Assistance is available for visitors with wheelchairs.

What I saw through the window

The LBC topic for Friday 26th July What you see out the window, was chosen by me long before my travels and the weather interrupted play. Little do you realise how busy I was, collecting evidence from one end of the country to the other.

Photos were gathered, sorted and ready to post when the internet connection ground down to a snail’s pace and at times disappeared altogether. Blame the weather!

View from the Dublin to Portlaoise train

Portarlington Station

In Cork City, on the bus from the station to St Patrick’s Street

Halfway up the Shandon Tower, Cork City

View of the Great Palm House from another glasshouse at Dublin’s Botanical Gardens

5am on Friday 26th July 2013, twelve hours before the rains, thunder and lightening had us trapped in the car

Please let us in! Alanah & Cariosa, my sister’s dogs

View of the windmills from the window of my car on the road near Kells, County Antrim

Sunset from my kitchen window

Click on any one for the thumbnails to see the gallery.

Windows from my travels over the past three weeks. The stories will unfold over the days & weeks to come…
The last two views are my home ground and come from my archives.

Now it is time for me to catch up and have a squint through the windows of my fellow LBC members. I hope you have looked after them in my absence.

A Darting Day.

The other day I decided to try as many of the modes of public transport available to me in Dublin.

 

Leaving Elly & George’s house, I hopped on the local bus  to town (Dublin), alighting at Heuston Train Station. From there I jumped on a Luas tram to Connolly Train Station, where I boarded the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART), that runs from Howth & Malahide on the north of Dublin bay right to Bray and on under Bray Head to Greystones in Co Wicklow.

I chose the southerly direction and a destination of Greystones.  It has been over almost half a century. since I visited Greystones, back then it was a very sleepy village.

Plenty of overhead cables at this end of the street

Although expansion has taken place in Greystones and the arrival of the ‘Dart’, turned it into a commuter town.

The other end of the street. Note the difference when the cables are underground

The place still holds on the village feeling with a wonderful selection of interesting restaurants and well looked after shops and boutiques.

Mrs Robinsons Restaurant

Mrs Robinson believes in looking after her outdoor customers.

I ambled my way about the streets and sat for a coffee at the Happy Pear  It was busy, but welcoming and the coffee was good. I sat outside and ‘people watched’.

I found this small strand from the road, but it was a long climb down

Then it was time to seek out the beach of soft coarse sand.

Soft sand, but no bright sun so far today

The sky was clearing and the sun appearing…

I see the sea!

When I had my fill, I worked my way back to the Dart Station, to head back towards town. Realising that I had never travelled all the way round Dublin Bay in one go, I got my ticket to take me to Howth.

End of the line at Howth Dart Station

Howth was really the end of the line. I have been to Howth on many occasions, so did not dally this time.

I took the Dart back to Connelly Station, from there the Luas to Heuston Station and this time a train from Heuston to Adamstown.

The fresh sea air, had sharpened my appitite and the aroma of good cooking was very welcome smell. Elly & George produced aperitifs and nibbles to snack on, as I shared my adventure and we waited for dinner.

So I was on a bus, tram, Dart and train, now that leaves boats and planes for another day!

Plenty of overhead cables at this end of the street

The other end of the street. Note the difference when the cables are underground

Mrs Robinson believes in looking after her outdoor customers.

I found this small strand from the road, but it was a long climb down

Soft sand, but no bright sun so far today

I see the sea!

End of the line at Howth Dart Station

Doh-Ray-Mee

‘Doh-Ray-Mee’ cottages, Raheny, Dublin.

The ‘Doh-Ray-Mee’ cottages in Raheny, were built around 1790 by Samuel Dick. He was a very successful Linen Merchant, who lived in Violet Hill, which later became known as Edenmore House and is known today as St. Joseph’s Hospital. He built the cottages for men who worked on his estate.

Samuel Dick was a director of Bank of Ireland and he held the top job as Governor from 1797 to 1799. He was also a director of the Hibernian Insurance Company and was a trustee of the Malahide Turnpike Road, which controlled the repairing of the Malahide, Howth and Clontarf Roads.

They are called ‘Doh-Ray-Mee’ cottages because there are eight cottages all together, just as there are eight notes on the musical scale. Their other name is ‘crescent cottages’ because they are built in a semi-circle. They are among the oldest buildings in Raheny.

Samuel Dick also built a school on Main Street beside the old graveyard of St Assam’s. It became known as ‘Dick’s Charity School’ because it was intended for ‘poor children of all persuasions’.

When Samuel Dick died in 1802, he left the Crescent Cottages in Raheny village to the people who looked after the school, so that the rent from Crescent Cottages could be used to pay the salary of the school’s teacher. At that time the government did not pay teachers or fund schools.

Over time the cottages fell into disrepair and by 1879 were in such a poor state that Lord Ardilaun, the owner of St Anne’s estate, paid £375 to improve them all.

The cottage closest to the Station House pub was once the village post office. The cottages have remained almost unchanged since they were built in the eighteenth century and people still live in them today.

A view from the road on bin day!

Ageing gracefully with a beard of greenery

View from the road

A touch of greenery adds a lived in look

Little change to the original cottage

This cottage was once home to the local Post office

A taste of my Dublin Week

Sheep shade

Monday sun and rising…

Monday sun and rising…

Sheep shade

Passion flower

Old Books

Another Granny does her thing

The title is not mine, it was suggested.

The photos were not taken by me, but I promised them back at the beginning of June.

Sure you know what a brazen hussy I am…. And the same guy was involved in that story too.

You might remember, I wrote about having a call from my friend Brian, while he was out walking one morning. He noticed something outside a house that made him think of me, so he phoned. Although it was a road he knew well and travelled almost daily when at home, he rarely passed there on foot. The road is narrow and with a lot of traffic so stopping in the car is not an option.

So what did he see…..

Book Box on a garden wall.

Invitation to leaveor take books

Lift the lid to insert the books

View frombehind the Book Box

What a wonderful way to re-purpose those books that you are finished with and perhaps discover a few treasures that others leave outside your door!

The final photograph is the view of Dublin Bay from behind the book box, on a grey day. Taken from Baldoyle, it is looking southward.

Dublin Bay, on the east coast of Ireland, is curved like open arms ready to give a great big hug to all who visit! The bay is about 10 kilometres wide and stretches from Howth Head in the north to Dalkey Point in the south.

Photo credit:
Bronwen Maher’s Dublin Bay

Thank you Brian, for the photos!

Now do you believe me?

I did meet a Toyboy this afternoon.

Phil O’Camera & Grannymar

Phil O’Camera & Grannymar

There is a place called Howth

Howth Village

View from the pier

Are the fish biting?

Pier Lighthouse

Martello Tower

Howth from the Churchyard

Garbour & Ireland’s Eye

Photos of Howth

The weirdness of my phone.

My Contact list is alphabetical

There are five that begin with the letter ‘A’ *. The gremlin chose #4
The seven ‘B’s were skipped.
Of the six ‘C’s, the fifth was selected.
5 ‘D’s & 6 ‘E‘s were passed, but the first of two ‘F‘s was chosen.
The second entry under ‘H‘ and the first under ‘L‘ also got the text.

* I thought that I was being clever. The very first entry in my contacts is Abc without any number. I entered it that way on purpose, to prevent me calling the first person on the list by accident.