Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

@Devin wrote:

Hey, I missed this thread! Where was it. It’s been taken off the Ireland/Dublin section?Oh yeah trot out the old ‘appalling slums’ line. Look I know all about the slums. My grandfather’s street, Hardwicke Street, was demolished for slum clearance. There were obviously some raging philistines around if this street and the crescent in front of St. George’s Church was demolished ……. not even bricked up if it had to be evacuated.

You’re missing the point that between the building of the Billies in the liberties (merchantile houses at first and very pretty) and the demolision of the buildings they had deteriorated through lack of upkeep and ruthless landlords.

And anyone from Dublin can all trot out the my grandfather’s street in the rare auld times excuse – conditions in slums in Dublin were appaling. Yeah maybe it was the bleeding heart liberals that read it into the parliamentary records in Westminster and later to the Dail, perhaps it was like living in a branch of Smyths Toystore? How should I know I’m not old enough to remember and merely relying on historical records and books by historians – and what do they know? Look I’m not excusing the actions of the Corpo in all areas but the clearances were considered a good idea at the time – I think they and the politicians were (rightly) more concerned with peoples heath and wellbeing than aesthetics