Conference tallis::celt

725.0. "Ireland as I remember it,70's, Dublin" by RUTILE::AUNGIER (Ren� Aungier, Site Telecoms Manager, DTN 885-6901, @FYO) Sat Mar 10 1990 13:33

    I wrote a note some years ago, or at least it seems like years ago
    about the past, the 50's and 60's. Well the other day I was trying
    to decide where I will go on holidays. I have 15 days left which
    I have to take before the end of May. The Irish Tourist Board are
    showing advertisements on French television here and it started me
    thinking about Ireland and especially Dublin, where I grew up. Also
    my parents sent me a St Patrick's days card and my father said
    "remember the good old days you spent in Dublin".
    
    I would like to tell you about the seventies and what happened to
    me and around me during that decade.

    The seventies were the years I was in secondary school, O'Connels
    Schools. It must have been 69 when I went to secondary school, I
    have forgotten exactly what year.
    
    I remember my first day in secondary school, anybody out there that
    went to O'Connells will no doubt remember the HUTS in the middle
    of the school, and the handball allies down the end. I believe I
    went into 1B, in those days, the class went from A to G, A was
    generally the class where all subjects were taught through Irish
    and also it had another distinction, they were supposedly the brainier
    and so on down to G, so you can imagine, based on this system, the people
    in the G class might as well not have been in school, this is not
    a serious comment I am making. 
    
    We had a a number of teachers in secondary school, I remember some
    of their names. I was back in Ireland last year and I brought my
    children along to the school for a visit and some of the same old
    teachers were there, some seemed not to have changed in all those
    years. The was Ben Finnucan (Commerce),  Larry Logan (French), Sean
    Conlon (??), Josh (Maths + English), Larry Logan (Geography) and the 
    other teachers names escape my mind for the moment.
    
    They were all a great bunch of teachers with the exception of Josh,
    a real out and out murderer. I remember one day in class he slapped
    3 boys and 2 of them fainted and the other almost from the force
    of the slaps, they had to be brought out into the yard and helped
    to walk around while someone else went to the lab to get smelling
    salts. This teacher used to run something the equivalent of a
    government which was elected every month by the class, I was president
    twice. It was in reality, more like a dictatorship. You had to appoint
    a minister of justice, his job was to stand up the top of the class
    when Josh was out and if anybody made noise he wrote their names
    down. The unfortunates whose names were down were slapped, you became
    very unpopular quickly. If the minister of justice had no names
    down he got slapped, so there was always at least one or two names.
    
    It was not all bad, there was Larry Logan who would start whistling
    when somebody said "LE FEMME", and start making shapes to indicate
    that it was feminine so that the student would correct himself and
    say "LA FEMME". He was also the one that tried to introduce rugby
    into the school. I played a few times and gave up.
    
    I played on the school Gaelic team, some of the lads of my year
    went on to play for the Dublin minors and seniors, guys like John
    Thompson.
    
    Dublin was a great place then. O'Connells was close enough to the
    city centre that sometimes we would walk down Summerhill to the
    Ambassador cinema. Finlaters was on the corner of Cathal Brugha
    street and O'Connell's street, it is gone a long time now. They
    were once the bottlers of XXX Guiness in Dublin. The old Carlton
    cinema was nothing like it is today. Further down O'Connell Street
    and a place I loved was the Capital cinema along side the Irish
    Press. Close beside that was the Metropole, this was a great Dublin
    spot, there was a cinema, dance hall and restaurant, it was a great
    shame that they got rid of these 2 cinemas and replaced them with
    a ugly looking shop. 
    
    On Saturdays I used to go to the Metropole and anybody out there
    that knew it will remember that the entry was a massive size as
    there was the entry to the cinema, restaurant and dance hall all
    together. I used to buy a ice cream at the entry and then walk into
    the cinema without paying as if I had just come out for an ice cream,
    it makes me laugh, the only problem was that they only changed the
    film every 2 or 3 weeks but sometimes I would go the following Saturday
    and watch the same film. They had some quantness that the cinemas
    of today do not have. 
    
    Nelson's Pillar was still there as far as I can remember. It was a meeting
    point, everybody met at Nelsons Pillar in those days. I cannot
    remember going up there. Now a days it is Cleary's clock that is
    the meeting point, sometimes the GPO. In Henry Street the was just
    Roches Stores at the time, it was one of the first shops in Dublin
    to install an elevator, I used to just go in there to go up and
    down the elevator. The dealers in Moore Street were there at the
    time but it has changed a lot over the years, Queeny is dead, there
    were a few famous characters along Moore Street. People like my
    grandmother went there once a week to buy their fruit and vegetables
    and of course an old chat, my grandmother knew all the dealers and
    they knew her. Hanlon's in Moore Street was the place for fish,
    it is still there. Less people now go to Moore Street to buy their
    vegetables. In those days supermarkets were not too widespread and
    so the pilgrimage to Moore Street was a weekly one. In Raheny where
    I lived there was only 2 shops where you could buy food, Walsh's
    and Cronins. Cronins is gone but Walsh's is still there plus a few
    dozen supermarkets with a 2 mile radius.
    
    I have to go home now but if anybody has any old memories of Dublin
    and what they remember of it in the 70's, please do not hesitate
    to add it. I always play the song "Dublin in the rare old times"
    by the Dublin City Ramblers and it is true, Dublin has changed
    for the worst in my opinion. Mc Donalds, PizzaHut etc have taken
    away the really pretty old fronts that O'Connell Street had back
    then. Sometimes old is beautiful. I am not one that would like to
    halt progress as long as progress does not destroy the beauty of
    the city.
    
    Rene
    
    
    
  
    

    The other day I was driving through Geneva and came across a scene
    which reminded me of O'Connell Street back in the early 70's. The
    motor show is on in Geneva and the army are directing traffic.
    
    There was an army man in a box marked red and white and it reminded
    me of the pointsmen (thats what we called them in Dublin) on the
    bridge directing traffic before they put up traffic lights in O'Connell
    Street. 
    
    There was also the Tara Street swimming baths, long since gone.
    This is where I learned to swim. Way back then there was not very
    many swimming pools in the city and hardly any outside the city
    centre. I used to walk by them and it would bring back the noise
    of all use kids shouting and screaming as we learned to swim. The
    person that taught me to swim was Paddy Phips and Nick Corish, they
    are both well known for their involvement in swimming. I believe
    one of them is dead now, God rest his soul. We occassionally swan
    in the Clontarf baths, these were open air and sea water, you would
    probably not call them swimming baths now a days but then they were
    magic.
    
    There was a famous jewelery shop on the corner of O'Connel Street
    and Burgh Quay, I cannot remember the name now, it is now a building
    society. There is the cinema just beside it, its name escapes me
    now.
    
    Along Summerhill at the time there were tenements, I remember these
    well, as you walked by the stench of urine and other smells made
    you sick, people lived in them, they dated back to the 1800's. The
    living conditions were appalling, you could see the kids in the
    rooms from the street and with as many as ten to a room, it was
    definetly not the best of hygenic conditions. They have since been
    pulled down and nice new town houses built. They look a lot better
    and from what I hear, people are glad to stay in the city. The tenants
    seem to have more respect for them that they seemingly did for the
    tenements.
    
    The Savoy cinema was there way back, I had only been to it once
    or twice. I really cannot recall much of it front.
    
    Towards the end of 69 or 70 I went to the Gaelteacht in Connemara,
    a place called Kill Kieran, a beautiful place, I can still see it
    as I type. I have alredy spoken about this place in the previous
    note so I will not add any more. There was a great bunch of lads
    and we had a great time. If there is by any chance any old classmates,
    fellow travellers or so like drop us an old line. I have met one
    or two already through notes but I am sure there are some more out
    there.
    
    Unemployment, crime, violence were not spoken abot much in those
    years. Life seemed to be unspoiled. I makes me a bit sad to think
    that things change so quickly and that violence, crime and unemployment
    have become so common that they are accepted as normal.
    
    Everyday my brother and I would take the train from Raheny to Connelly
    Station and walk up Buckingham Street to O'Connells, there was no
    DART trains at the time, in fact ther were not many people who
    travelled on the train. There was only 2 stations after Raheny,
    Harmonstown and Killester or the other way round, now there seems
    to be at least 2 more.
    
    I remember we used to go sometimes to the swimming pool at Guinesses
    brewery, we would pretend our father worked there. It was the only
    olympic size swimming pool in Ireland, not that my swimming was
    up to olympic standard.
    
    There were ships all the way up the Liffey, now a days there are
    few. We used to see the kids from the city centre swimming in it
    near Butt Bridge and off the Customs House.
    
    I worked on Saturdays in a Motor Factors, a shop that sold car parts
    and I used to make about 2 pound for the half day. The Motor Factors
    is now gone, it was in Blessington Street, Bramac it was called.
    I would walk down Frederick Street, the Garden of Rememberance,
    the Ambassador cinema, Parnell's monument, Nelson's Pillar, Clearys
    onto Abbey street where I would catch the bus. Irish Life was not
    there at the time, Brooks Thomas had a place there under the railway
    bridge and strecting up part of Abbey Street. On arriving in Raheny
    I used to buy a bottle of Cidona and a few packets of crisps and
    home to watch the television.
    
    The village of Raheny has not changed a lot in the years, there
    is still the graveyard, the old church, the Manhattan pub, the Raheny
    Inn, Cahill's garage, Reynolds shop, the credit union. I t is a
    lot more built up just outside the village.
    
    I must catch a few winks now.
    
    Rene