Know yer town do ye?

[skins]

Peculiar thing is, the last shop before the gap is no. 37, Dunphys is no. 40. If you Google 38/39 Lr. Georges Street you find that it's down near York Road.

[Rocker]

Interesting skins!

The old maps have a continuous row of buildings at that location and the 1911 census has 38, 39, 40 listed.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/r ... 000243316/

[Sinead]

I think those gaps were there for many years, look at how the footpath is low at those points. The kerbs were very high when the trams ran through the town.
In all of the lanes there were slaughter houses. The cattle came out from the cattle market in lorries and sometimes they were held in fields/parks around the place for a few days. When they were held in the town they were then driven to the slaughter houses by men wearing wellingtons that they seemed to vanish into and carrying long sticks to keep the animals in line. I have a memory of seeing rats being shot in the lane by the Dominican Convent.
If you look carefully in the lane between Mulgrave Street and Northumberland Avenue you will see the remains of the cross gate used by Dempsey Brothers to prevent the cattle heading out into Northumberland Avenue.
Pigs were kept all over the town, in Patrick Street, Convent Road, Library Road, York Road. If I remember correctly the slaughtering was normally done on Wednesdays.
Hard to believe all the changes that have taken place.
Between the Convent Entrance and Oregano's chipper there were 2/3 very large houses with long front gardens.

Sinéad

[Holla]

From an old tattered 1955 directory
George's street lower

42 marquees rose chemist
41 Stephen Dunphy spirit dealer
39 - 40 car parking space
38 Demolished
37 Walter Doyle shoe and boot repairs
36 Basset, miss J confectioner
35 Smyth J, sub - post office grocery and dairy
Then jumps to numbers 31 to 34 Car park
ST MARYS Domini can convent prioress rev mother Ignatius
29 Drummond C
28 Murray Mrs j
27 Orango, A fish and chip saloon
26 O Laughlin M wine merchant
25 O Reilly M j confectioner and stationer
24 J Doyle printer

Here Library road intersects.

[keeper]

Very interesting Sinead and Holla, I remember there being a lot of pigs and seeing them in the lanes presumably going to slaughter, I think Hicks used to slaughter in their back yard, would that be true Sinéad ?

[Sputnik]

The car park was there when I was growing up in the ‘60’s. There were two small walls on either side of the entrance. The one nearest Dunphy’s was often occupied by an older man, maybe homeless, but the worst for the wear. His name was Dan Neville and he would greet everyone as they passed by, especially the ladies. In the weeks leading up to Christmas there was often a caravan parked behind the other wall. This was set up to collect donations of toys and money for St Michaels Hospital. A similar low wall separated the car park from the lane behind.
To Yorkers this was known as The Mogwards Lane. I have no idea where the name came from or how it would have been spelt as it was totally unofficial. There were several Slaughter-houses in the lane (and there was also one in Brocks Lane). The slaughter-men would move from one to the other. My uncle Louis was one.
The Drummonds were still living in number 29 up until the early ‘70’s.

[jabra]

I remember Scotchie Drummond lived along there. The house was set back in from the street

[Rocker]

I remember Scotchie Drummond lived along there. The house was set back in from the street

interesting name. I wonder if they were Scottish?

Holla, I didn't think Oreganos were there that long.... I suppose when I went to the Dominican in about 1965 we used to get chips there !. Oh they were gorgeous. Years are flying.

[Rocker]

Another interesting thing I noticed when I looked at the 1911 census. The occupier of No 42 was a John Burnett and Burnetts Chemist are still at that address. I wonder if that is just a trade name now or if they are decendants of the 1911 man.??

[Sinead]

Miss Burnett ran the Chemist when I was young, I don't know if she ever married, she is long dead.
Before the chipper was Oregano's it was Feraschi's (can't spell it properly) Dick Oregano married Alice Feraschi, her father
owned the chipper originally.
The butchers I remember slaughtering are: Dewhurst, Brien's and another - the lane between Workman's Club and York Road. You then met men carrying the meat over their shoulder or pushing it on a trolley up to the shops. In this way they shared the slaughter house costs. Neiland's, Brien's, Hand's, Dempsey's, Hicks and a couple of others all had their own houses. John Hick slaughter swine in the lane between Mulgrave Street and Northumberland Avenue up into the 1980's.
On slaughter days the lanes ran with animal dung, offal and blood, this was all hosed down at the end of the working day.


Sinéad

[Sinead]

Mr. Drummond Senior was 'the man' in the Picture House. His son Tony worked in the Royal Marine. The family still live around the Borough.

Sinéad

[Holla]

Wasn't a girl murdered down that way around the early 70s

[skins]

Mr. Drummond Senior was 'the man' in the Picture House. His son Tony worked in the Royal Marine. The family still live around the Borough.

Sinéad

Is my memory playing tricks with me, or am I right in thinking that Scotchie married a girl from the Noggin who died in childbirth?
It's incredible to think that Burnett's chemists has been on that site since the 1st of January 1890. The lady my mother dealt with in it was Miss Marques (spg?). I reckon that any youngster reading the descriptions on here of men herding animals to their doom in the town must imagine that the Dun Laoghaire of our childhood closely resembled a town in the Wild West.

[Rocker]

skins in the post Holla gave of the 1955 book it was Rose Marquees, chemist. So they probably just kept the name Burdett as a trade name but it is a long time in the town. I get all sorts of unusual things in that chemist and they are very helpful.

If you are worried about the wild west slur....sure didn't we all have our cowboy and cowgirl outfits back in the day!!!I remember getting a gun and caps for Christmas when I was about four years old...none of your gender difference with my Ma!!Oh and I had a sherriff badge too!! Dodge City how are you!!!

[skins]

Rocker, I was thinking that the spelling on Holla's list looked a bit off. Her name was Rose Marquess, and she died in 2009, leaving an estate valued at 1.6 million. Here's her death notice: http://notices.irishtimes.com/death/mar ... =itir_titi

[Sinead]

There was no 'political correctness' when I was growing up! I believe there was far more honesty in our
dealing with each other. There were always bullies in the school yard but they usually got their comeuppance
from an older sibling or cousin, someone was always looking out for us.
You could go along on slaughter day and actually see the animals being stunned/killed, no-one ran you away, it
was all part of life in Dun Laoghaire!
Where PTSB has their car park in Dun Laoghaire - McKeown's kept their horse!
Dun Laoghaire was a great place to grow up, it was alive! All the mothers went shopping on a daily basis. If your mother baked cakes you would be sent to buy cracked eggs in Pay-n-Take, you got them cheaper. Mrs. de Valera shopped in this grocery.
Doyle's down near Neilands was another shop selling eggs, cheese, cooked meats etc. They usually had a couple of chairs for the use of shoppers while waiting for their orders to be made up.

Sinéad

[Holla]

Rocker, I was thinking that the spelling on Holla's list looked a bit off. Her name was Rose Marquess, and she died in 2009, leaving an estate valued at 1.6 million. Here's her death notice: http://notices.irishtimes.com/death/mar ... =itir_titi

Sorry about the spelling I put them down as they were in the directory I did think the Oregano spelling looked off,I should have got the marquees one right after all I did work for the woman as a messenger boy,can you imagine cycling around the borough with bags of drugs today I mean the prescribed kind.

[skins]

There was no 'political correctness' when I was growing up! I believe there was far more honesty in our
dealing with each other. There were always bullies in the school yard but they usually got their comeuppance
from an older sibling or cousin, someone was always looking out for us.
You could go along on slaughter day and actually see the animals being stunned/killed, no-one ran you away, it
was all part of life in Dun Laoghaire!
Where PTSB has their car park in Dun Laoghaire - McKeown's kept their horse!
Dun Laoghaire was a great place to grow up, it was alive! All the mothers went shopping on a daily basis. If your mother baked cakes you would be sent to buy cracked eggs in Pay-n-Take, you got them cheaper. Mrs. de Valera shopped in this grocery.
Doyle's down near Neilands was another shop selling eggs, cheese, cooked meats etc. They usually had a couple of chairs for the use of shoppers while waiting for their orders to be made up.

Sinéad

No fear of Alzheimer's with you, Sinéad! The mind boggles at the thoughts of Bean Síle standing watching her butter being slapped with those paddles.
Yes, you could buy a broken version of almost anything.....eggs, biscuits, chocolates. Nothing was "thrun ow".

[skins]

Rocker, I was thinking that the spelling on Holla's list looked a bit off. Her name was Rose Marquess, and she died in 2009, leaving an estate valued at 1.6 million. Here's her death notice: http://notices.irishtimes.com/death/mar ... =itir_titi

Sorry about the spelling I put them down as they were in the directory I did think the Oregano spelling looked off,I should have got the marquees one right after all I did work for the woman as a messenger boy,can you imagine cycling around the borough with bags of drugs today I mean the prescribed kind.

Yeah, hard to believe now, Holla. Almost every chemist shop had a young lad working part-time making deliveries by bike. As well as yourself there was Harjoe and Pat Kelly, that I knew of.

[Jemser]

This is a great thread, it is bringing back all sorts of memories to me. One of them is the livestock being brought down through the streets to the "back" lanes to be slaughtered. In my time around 1966/67 I was 10 years old and I can remember the pigs being slaughtered by Jack Hick. Also the name Sputnik mentioned, namely " Dan Neville", which I always thought was Dan Nevin. My grandmother would always tell me to comb my hair saying "sure you can't go out looking like Dan Nevin", I never knew who this was. Also Miss Marquess, I was sent down many times to "Miss Marks" Chemist with a note for something or other. I remember McKeown's at the end of Mulgrave Street and Power's at the top, always two great shops to visit and the many shops that were there before the Shopping Centre. One last thing I was reminded of was a flock of Sheep grazing in the hockey field at Croswaithe Park. Thanks for the memories, particularly Sineád, you should write a book.

[keeper]

Loving this ! Indeed Jemser, lots of memories, don't forget Taggarts on Patrick Street ! broken biscuits by the box load !
Wonderful posts Sinéad

[Micheál]

I agree with Jemser, great thread.
And Sineads observations are delightful. Surely there's a book's-worth in all those memories.

M.

[jabra]

The thing I remember about McKeowns shop was their big brown and white dog that lay just inside
the front door and the dog's water bowl there beside him. Another thing that would'nt be allowed
today health and safety and all that.

[Sinead]

Jabra; surely the drip on Leo's nose was more memorable than the dog. Leo wore fingerless gloves - I am sure he kept us germ free!!! What of the Lyng hanging either side of the door?

Sinbad

Do you know when I think back I had the most fantastic carefree childhood in Dun Laoghaire. You were allowed roam. You were given a time by which you must be home and that was it. Us girls were warned to make sure we were not on our own near various individuals. You had such respect for your mother you followed her advise/request.

[jabra]

Sinead
I can't remember ever being in McKeown's
Shop just remember passing by and seeing the big
Brown and white dog and it's water dish