Happy Scary Halloween

Raheny, Oct 2010

End of an Era

Click any image for a larger version
I went down to my local cobbler this morning with shoes for soling, but he wasn't there.

The place was locked up and the notice below was displayed on the door. Sad story.

Michael Yeates was a native of Clontarf and had been in the cobbling business for 70 years, 50 of them in these premises, in Churchgate Avenue, at the bottom of Vernon Avenue. Michael was 87 last year.

I had many conversations with Michael over the last 30 years. My own great-grandfather was a cobbler in James's Street, but way before Michael's time.

Michael used to cycle from his present home in Drumcondra to his lock-up premises in Clontarf every working day. He was a cheerful, if resigned, man whose work was as much an opportunity for a chat as it was a source of income. He took great pride in his work.

He has now been driven out. A victim of "progress", a mews, no less.

You can hear him in Natalia McCarthy's radio documentary, when he was still fighting his threatened eviction. Clearly he lost.



Update 16/8/2016

I was down in Churchgate Avenue the other day and was surprised to see no sign of development and Michael's shoemaker's looking just like the day he left it.

Except his farewell note is unsurprisingly no longer there.

How cruel.

I wondered what had become of him.

Update 26/4/2019
I had an email from Michael's granddaughter Avryl today to say that Michael passed away yesterday.

My sympathy to Avryl and to Michael's family.

He was a lovely man.

Rest in Peace

Model Railway

The sign above caught my eye as I passed by St. Paul's College today.

I had a model railway when I was young. The standard of the day was Hornby which took its power from a middle rail, much as the London Tube does these days. Hornby had been around for ages and was the quaility product on the market.

Then Triang, known for its tricycles, decided to enter the market. Its innovation was a two rail system, just like the real thing, and it also brought some new features not then available in the Hornby system.

I got a Triang set. Among the newer features were: the pantograph - an overhead electric feed like the trams or today's DART or LUAS; a mail carriage which picked up mailbags suspended alongside the track; remote controlled level crossing gates and semaphore signals.

So I went in to the exhibition expecting to relive a part of my youth. I must say I was disappointed. Today's model railways are on a much smaller scale - tiny little sets. There is much more attention paid to what I would call the off-track elements - roads, fields, houses, animals etc. The layouts were quite boring. Much of the emphasis was on the sale of components - fine for the enthusiasts but a bit much at an exhibition which charged a €6 entry fee. Also, the atmosphere was one of adult aficionados obsessed with accuracy, often of American models.

A saving grace was the man I met who was building his own miniature rolling stock and his colleague who had a huge enthusiasm for steam and who explained to me the extent to which the model locos had embedded chips and were capable of very sophisticated remote control. These two guys were my kind of enthusiasts.

Water

While it is clear that there are huge benefits from purifying water in the developing world, we should not forget that systems in the old world, and particularly in the cities, need constant renewal.

The photo below was taken today, showing that Dublin city, at least at the Leeson St. bridge over the Grand Canal, is almost two years into the current phase of renewal.



Participating in Blog Action Day 2010

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The Blair Stock Project

This poster for Blair's book is from the window of my local bookshop.

I wonder what "out of stock" means?

Did they sell loads?

Did they order very few?

Or, have they still got them in stock, but on the crime shelf, and have not noticed?


Update:

Just checked back on the window and the poster is gone.

Now, what does this mean?

Stock has come in?

They discovered the missing stock in the crime section?

They are sorry they drew attention to the fact that they stocked the book in the first place?

Update:

I enquired in the shop and apparently the wholesalers (Easons) are out of stock and can't get any more.

Strange.

Further Update:

The poster is back in the window and the book is back in stock.

Arachnophilia

Very often all we ever notice about spiders are their long legs.

This guy had a web on a tree in my front garden and he really was something to behold. Sort of between a crab and a tortoise. And that is just looking at him from (his) above.

What about (his) below, below.