What Nelson Saw

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Five views from the top of Nelson's Pillar will give you some idea what Nelson saw at the dawning of every day. While the camera was not of great quality the fact that they cannot be retaken may make them worth a look.

The first one above looks towards the Liffey as it flows past the relatively newly constructed Liberty Hall, the Custom House and the Gasometer. To the left you can see Michael Scott's Busáras.

I don't want to dwell too long on the first photo at the expense of the others, but, I gather there was fierce opposition to the construction of Busáras on the grounds that it would dominate the Custom House (front of, presumably). Nelson must have died laughing, from his vantage point, when he saw Dublin's first skyscraper rising on the west side of the custom house. Clearly a no contest in his eye.

The second one looks across at the Pro-Cathedral and the Department of Education. For me, it emphasises the backstreet location of the cathedral, compared, for example, to Christ Church or St. Patrick's.

The third shows the buildings on the north-east side of O'Connell St. with the landmark spire of St. George's church and the back of the houses in Cathal Brugha St. Note the shadow of the Pillar itself which we might have used as a sundial instead of the Millennium Chime in the Slime had Admiral Nelson not taken his leave of us by then.

The fourth one looks straight up the middle of the street, clearly showing the public toilets and mid-street parking as well as bringing in Findlater's church and the Rotunda tower.

The final shot moves a bit westwards, retaining Findlater's but showing the full of Parnell Square, including the imposing frontage of the historic Georgian buildings where the Rising was planned and which subsequently housed Coláiste Mhuire where I went to school. You can see Phibsborough church and also the spire of the Black Church where legend had it that if you ran round it three times and then went in you'd meet Old Nick himself.

How high was Nelson?

Since that fateful night of 8 March 1966, I have often wondered exactly how much of Nelson's Pillar was blown up. I went for years thinking that it was only the very top of the column. I was possibly influenced in this by the little bit of the plinth that remained perched on the top of the blown up column.

In more recent times I realised that a significant portion of the column itself had been blown away and figured that the explosion had been about two thirds the way up the column. Then I left it at that.

Today, via a link in a comment on the blog Come Here To Me!, I came across a video of the explosion, and have extracted the above still shot. Well it wasn't the actual explosion as I don't think there were still buses running up O'Connell Street at half past one in the morning in those days. Nightlink was still to come. However I was intrigued at where the video had put the point of explosion, about half way up the column. This may have more to do with the song than with any forensic analysis, so I thought it time to have a go at some of the latter.

The photo below shows an earlier shot of the pillar from Henry Street overlaid with one of my own photos from March 1966. It shows quite clearly that the point of explosion was almost two thirds (63%) up the column as I had already guessed from a previous crude measurement exercise.

Ballybrack went to War

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Ken Kinsella wrote a book called Out of the Dark in which he presented the results of his extensive research into the South Dublin casualties at the front in WWI.

Marie Baker, Cathaoirleach, Tim Carey, Heritage Officer,
and Myles Dungan, Guest Speaker

When it came time to launch the book, his publisher, Conor Graham, MD of Irish Academic Press, approached Tim Carey, the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Heritage Officer, about a launch in the County (formerly Town) Hall. Tim told him that the Council were putting on a WWI exhibition at a later time which would be dealing with this theme also. So they agreed to combine the two events and last evening's launch was simultaneously of the book and the exhibition.

Marie Baker, Cathaoirleach
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Co. Council

Marie has become Cathaoirleach of the Council after the recent local elections and she takes over from Carrie Smyth whom we met at another local occasion recently. While new to this session she is not new to the job having previously been Cathaoirleach in 2009-2010.

Capacity audience

She welcomed the capacity audience on behalf of the Council and introduced both the exhibition and the book. She recalled that those WWI participants who had been cast aside in the past were now being brought to the fore.

Tim Carey, Heritage Officer
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Co. Council

Tim, still in jet-lag from the previous day's flight home from the USA and partly exhausted from setting out the chairs in this vast hall, filled us in on the background to the exhibition and its linking up with the book. Tim has been a very active promoter of heritage in the DLR area over the last number of years and it is good to see much of his hard work coming to fruition.

Conor Graham
Managing Director, Irish Academic Press

Conor's company have made a huge contribution to academic publishing over the years. Conor himself was educated in a hard school, but that's another story.

He thanked Ken Kinsella for providing him with a wonderful book to publish and he was very complimentary about how Ken handled his relationship with his publisher. He also thanked the Council for the opportunity to participate in the launching of this great exhibition

Marie Baker, Myles Dungan, Ken Kinsella

While Conor is speaking, Marie is listening attentively, Myles is doing a final check on his notes, while Ken, as the next speaker, is reaching deep into his inside pocket for his own script.

Ken Kinsella, Author

Ken outlines the labours of 13 years intensive research and contacts. You only have to read the acknowledgement pages in the book to see how widely his net had been cast. He is particularly concerned to humanise and localise the experience of those locals who fell in WWI and to set them in the context of their times and their families.

The book falls into two broad divisions. The first 23 pages form a series of mini chapters setting out the background and to some extent condensing the experience of the participants. The next 270 pages set out brief histories and/or descriptions of the geographical areas covered, each followed by a roll of honour which sets out details of those who fell, their family background and so on.

I understand, from reading Major-General David Nial Creagh's foreword to the book, that it concentrates on families who were, or became known, to the author. So, while it is not comprehensive it is representative of a wide range of the experiences of those from South County Dublin who were involved, one way or another, in WWI.

Myles Dungan, Guest Speaker

Myles praises both book and exhibition for continuing the process of bringing these soldiers down from the attic. He recounted his own experience of finding out how little he knew of the country's WWI heritage when confronted with the probing questions of two of the countries great historians, F X Martin and Kevin B Nowlan, in the course of applying for a scholarship to UCD's history department.

Ken Kinsella and Marie Baker

I snuk this picture from behind the shoulders of the official photographer so I am not sure if it's Marie trying to inveigle Ken into attending some more of the Council's heritage programme over the summer, or, whether that was supposed to be the book rather than the heritage programme. To be fair, though, the first item in the programme is the WWI commemoration. The programme also includes Martello Tower No.7 in Killiney, which will be open with guided tours each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon over the summer season.

Dr. T. K. Whitaker, former Secretary Department of Finance,
former Governor Central Bank

All of this was eclipsed for me by the opportunity to meet Dr. T. K. Whitaker ("one t") and have a chat. When I went into the Department of Finance, he was what is now called the Secretary General, or otherwise my boss's boss's boss's boss. However, he was also chairman of the National Industrial Economic Council (NIEC) and I was on the secretariat of the Council, so I got (slightly) closer to him then than our respective grades might imply.

I reminded him that, at that time, himself and Professor Louden Ryan were, in effect, running the country, and that memory seemed to cheer him up enormously. They were a lean and hungry team, those two Northerners, when they got together.

I am aware that the Ballybrack and Killiney UDC made no small contribution in manpower to the war effort. By October 1915 some 60 men had joined up. I think there is a plaque in St. Matthias's church to 14 or so from Ballybrack who died. I assume there would be further Catholic names to add to that list, but, as we all know, it was not the Catholic thing to recognise this particular sacrifice at that time. In addition to which, strictly speaking, I was not allowed to enter this Protestant church on pain of mortal sin. Enough to be accepting the delivery of milk from a Protestant dairy in them days.

Some of the Ballybrack casualties are shown below, as listed in the exhibition's roll of honour.

When we came to Ballybrack in 1954, Alec Horner had a cab business at this address. My mother availed of it from time to time and knew Alec well.

I have drawn attention to this address before.

Madden's cottages on Madden's lane between Daleview and the Wyatville Road.

Born in Ballybrack, resident in Loughlinstown. Not really as far away as it seems. Ballybrack, Killiney and Loughlinstown villages were inhabited by a lot of the same families. I remember my mother telling me that if I was on shop duty and a local came in to complain about someone from Killiney or Loughlinstown, to listen and say nothing, as complainer and complained were quite likely cousins at least.

For some, it appears that Ballybrack itself is enough of an address. When we arrived in 1954, everyone knew everyone else, not to mention what they might have known about each other.

I started with the book cover and I'll finish with it.

A South African nurse places a wreath on her brothers grave at Delville Wood in February 1918. My uncle died at the adjacent High Wood in September 1916 when they were going the other way. The curse of the Somme on Haig and his bloody useless tanks.

WWI: Killiney & Ballybrack

My main interest in WWI is my uncle's death on the Somme. However, there are some crossovers between my work on my family history and earlier work on local history in the Killiney/Ballybrack area, as the extract from the Irish Times in 1915 shows.

Basically British recruiting officials are pressuring local authorities directly to release eligible employees into the army. They are also exerting indirect pressure through regional recruiting committes to get the local authorities to set up local recruiting committees to exhort locals to join up.

Killiney and Ballybrack feel they have done their bit with 60 volunteers from the area by October 1915. So much so that the local builder is moaning he can't find workers to enable him to carry out building contracts.

You will notice the threat of conscription still hovering in the background.

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Electoral Ephemera

General Election 1969
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Some people may remember the 1969 general election for its red scare, including the "Reds under the Bed" rantings of Kevin Boland and a not insignificant number of his Fianna Fáil colleagues. The Labour Party and their Moscow masters. Seems funny now, but it may well have kept some of the troop in line.

General Election 1969

Local Elections 1967
Church Road, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin

Moore Street 1969

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While searching for something else, I came across these five colour slides taken of Moore Street in June 1969.

The first two are taken from Radio Éireann on the third floor of the GPO, while the other three are clearly at closer quarters at ground level.

The quality is not great but given that it's forty years ago they might be of interest. This probably applies in particular to the first one which includes the 1916 buildings

Kite Fest

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Another kudo for Dublin City Council, Kite Fest at Dollymount Strand on Dublin's Northside (22/6/2014).

The rotating snake kite (above), held aloft by an inflated Tweety Bird, must surely have been the star of the show.

There were some mean kite flyers too, as this "Red Arrows" display shows.

And you can forget the swimming, this synchronised kite flying was something to behold, and the speed of it.

We were even treated to a "Dogfight over Dollymount" at one stage.

All the while, responding to slight wind shifts, the snake was changing shape at a rate of knots, so to speak.

The newly elected Lord Mayor, Christy Burke, got to "fly a kite". Well, at least as a photo op.

And he got to start a kiddies kite race from the top of a van, in the company of Deric Hartigan, who was one of the two MCs for the day.

This one proved a slight embarrassment, as, when invited to do the countown to the start of the race, the boul Christy unexpectedly did it as Gaeilge, and there wasn't a stir at the starting line. So he had to do it again as Béarla this time, and away they went. Says something about something, that does.

Didn't take a feather out of Christy though. He was too preoccupied dealing with his vertigo mounting, sitting on top of, and descending from the high van roof. Fair dues.

Meanwhile, up the Sutton end, this young lady is quietely reaching for the heavens: ad astra.

Amazingly, the profusion of high flying, high performing, kites didn't lead to a single air crash. Congratulations to all concerned.

Congratulations too to one of the stars of the show, the tireless creature who held aloft the rotating snake for the whole afternoon without so much as a complaint.

The weather was ideal. A consistent medium wind.

And where else would you get it raining cats and dogs from a clear blue sky (broken only by the occasional white cloud - as we used to write in our school examination essays).

Where is it ? No. 32

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As far as I can make out this is the serpent from the Garden of Eden with the Apple in its mouth. It is here under the foot of the Blessed Virgin.

You'll need a clue. It's outdoors and south of the Grand Canal.

Solution

Over the front door of St. Mary's church, Haddington Road.

To see all the quiz items click on the "Where?" tag below.

To see all the unsolved quiz items click on the "unsolved" tag below.

Sauce for the Goose

This is the entrance to a 1970s housing estate. It has long had two Eircom boxes under the tree. Recently it was proposed to add a third in order to bring fibre-optic connections to the residents.

This was badly needed as current connection speeds for broadband on the land lines is appalling. You might as well nearly be on the old dial-up. While the speeds are clearly way ahead of what we used to get on dial-up download file sizes and bandwith have increased exponentially and contention ratios are a state secret. But it all adds up to serious frustration for the user.

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The Planning Authority, in its wisdom, refused permission for a third box on the grounds that it was not consistent with the aesthetics of the environment. A stable in Bethlehem or a site at the top of Calvary I could understand, but unobtrusive as it is in this location? Come on.

Fortunately, they seem to have finally relented, on appeal and in the run up to the local elections, and hey presto, box no.3. I wonder how many residents, other than those who saw it being installed, will actually notice it.

So could we please have some consistency in the approach to planning decisions, at least across the Northside.

Where is it ? No. 31

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Solution

Above the door of Baggot Street Hospital.

To see all the quiz items click on the "Where?" tag below.

To see all the unsolved quiz items click on the "unsolved" tag below.

Suspense

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The "thing" caught my eye through the kitchen window. It was suspended in mid air across one of the sides of the bird table in the back garden. And there was either the remains of a spiders web, or something more ominous, involved.

I wondered what it was. Might it have been the remains of an almost eaten snail? I had recently seen a pigeon eyeing a snail which had managed to climb up onto the bird table. The pigeon looked like it couldn't quite make up its mind whether the snail was a rival for the remainder of the food on the table or whether it might itself prove a tasty morsel.

But how would the remains of the snail have become emeshed in a spider's web. Did the bird throw it in the direction of the web in the spirit of the current soccer world cup? And did only the odd thread of the web remain attached to its original base.

Or was it just one of those pieces of bird shite on its way down from on high which just happened to hit the web?

Clearly a forensic analysis of the material is required to even begin to answer this perplexing question.

The detail below is intended as an initial contribution to such an analysis.

Over to you.