Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Serenity in 2013

After Dusk - Shanganagh Vale from Crown of Martello Tower No.7
31 December 2012

Wishing you as much serenity as you can muster in 2013.

2 comments:

  1. Shanganagh Vale

    When I went to live in Ballybrack in 1954 there actually was a Shanganagh Vale. The foxhunt had criss-crossed this whole area in the previous century, and, despite the construction of what were then modern stand alone houses, the area was still more characteristic of the countryside than of the suburbs.

    The three villages of Ballybrack, Loughlinstown and Killiney were relatively unobtrusive. Some pubs, shops and artisans cottages which blended into the scenery. Shankill was was also part of it but a bit further from where I lived.

    In the meantime the place has been concreted over with both public and private housing and a load of direct foreign investment occupying what was once the Loughlinstown Military Camp. Five thousand soldiers replaced by how many office workers/techies and the spectator view is now of Spaghetti Junction.

    I edited and pubished the Shanganagh Valley News for a brief period in 1958, and my attic printing works in the mid 1960s was christened Vale Printers. That was when the Vale had still had some meaning. Daleview was not christened that for nothing way back around 1900.

    So I was pleased to be able to take the above photo and transmute it into a watercolour, using the lights to emphasise the line of the bay and highlight its interior. And this from the crown of a Martello Tower, which was built in 1804 to repel Napoleon, and has been restored to its former glory in this century.

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  2. And just in case anyone is curious about the cropping, and the bottom edge in particular, there is a great big piece of NAMAshite just below the cutoff.

    Bella Vista and Buona Vista were long overtaken by Tower Hall which has now been replaced by an unspeakably awful unfinished filthy concrete shell of a multistorey thingy.

    Shame.


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