How well do you know Dublin?
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Indeed! Not even knowing the building in the first instance tends to generate difficulties 😮
A great one ctesiphon, and a striking picture too of your ladies in red – don’t think it’s been mentioned.
So what of this place – what was it built for and when? A very odd looking affair; surely they’re not Portland dressings are they? I stand by the 50s-60s estimate 🙂Nope Mr O’G – that earlier picture wasn’t Luce Hall in TCD 😉
Not a million miles away though. Something of a love it or loathe it edifice.Graham, for some reason I think your unsolved image is The Museum Building in Trinity, with the Berkeley beyond it, but I cannot figure out from what angle it is taken. This of course leads me to believe that it is not it, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.
Seamus et al-
My vanity is encouraging me to ask whether the crossword clues made sense, or if they’re as baffling as ever, i.e. did you work out why the Dominicans led to ‘opposite’, for example?Graham-
Don’t think the stone is Portland, though I’m pretty sure it is stone rather than concrete. I think they were purpose built as warehouses, possibly even for the company that currently occupies them today. I lived in the area a few years ago and I was struck by the ‘facadist’ nature of the buildings, as though the local authority had said ‘You can build bland boxes, but for heaven’s sake put a nice front on them!’ (I’d still lean towards a date no earlier than mid-1980s or so.:) )Newmarket is a strange place- it reminds me of parts of Edinburgh. I suppose this is mainly because its name recalls the Grassmarket and Haymarket, but also slightly because of its spatial quality. Maybe hard to see when it’s surrounded by crud such as the above and poxy tax-break apartments, but if you squint hard enough… This is why I said it was a dull building ill-befitting the location; I’d love to see Newmarket developed as a proper open space in the heart of the old city instead of being left to the boy-racers to practice their handbrake turns at 3 in the morning (though its openness is one of its best qualities- wouldn’t want it to be cluttered with street furniture junk and inappropriate vegetation). There’s a promising new development at the western end on the way (mentioned in a thread a while back on new Coombe developments), but I don’t know if there are any plans for the square itself. Interestingly, the square isn’t that old. The Edinburgh echoes led me to think it must have been an actual historic market square, but I heard somewhere that it was only laid out like that in the late 19th century or so. Must chase up the facts on it. Anyone know?
@ctesiphon wrote:
My vanity is encouraging me to ask whether the crossword clues made sense, or if they’re as baffling as ever, i.e. did you work out why the Dominicans led to ‘opposite’, for example?
Well it always easier to “see” the answer to the clues when you’ve seen it…:o
@ctesiphon wrote:
When the Dominicans look in the mirror, they will know their place. (8)
You might feed your sheep here, as long as they aren’t white, or black. (5)
Here, on Fergus, I’ll buy and sell you at the races. (9)
By itself. (6)By and large, they’re good clues. I’m still not sure about #2, and #1 may need a bit of brushing up, in the unlikely event that you’ll be using it again!
I think #4 was an excellent clue. Would absolutely not be out of place in any of the great crosswords. #3 perhaps was perhaps overstating the whole market thing – Newmarket-on-Fergus, buy and sell, the races (Newmarket). It might be better here to have divided the clue into two parts. One part could be used to generate the words “New” and “Market”, and the second part might be “at the races” or something which would lead us to think of “Newmarket”. As it stands, the word “New” would not, I think, be generated by any of the words in the current clue. Now, what such a clue would be, I really am not able to say.
My quibble with #1 is that if the Dominicans were to look in the mirror, which has been identified by a couple of posters as the river Liffey, they would see somewhere like Aungier Street or South Great George’s Street, I would think. That’s assuming that you are talking about the Dominicans in the Friary on Dominick Street/Dorset Street. It might have been better in this case to consider the Capuchins, whose headquarters is on Halston Street but whose larger Church is the one on Church Street. Looking from there into the “mirror” would bring you much closer to the location of this warehouse. Unless of course the Dominicans were to look in the mirror at an angle, rather than along the more obvious north-south axis. Hmmm.
I’m afraid I still don’t get the sheep connection in #2.
And some of the above points may well be put down to the ungraciousness of the defeated:D
Thanks for putting up the photos and the clues. Oh yeah, and the answer.:) That last photo kept me and it looks like several others entertained and puzzled for a long time.
@ctesiphon wrote:
When the Dominicans look in the mirror, they will know their place. (8)
You might feed your sheep here, as long as they aren’t white, or black. (5)
Here, on Fergus, I’ll buy and sell you at the races. (9)
By itself. (6)Thanks Seamus. Too kind.:)
1) Dominicans = Order of Preachers = OP]opposite[/I].
2) Feed sheep = graze; Aren’t black, or white = grey: So Gray’s.
3) We know.
4) (For the others, Seamus): when you multiply a number by itself you get its Square.
@ctesiphon wrote:
1) Dominicans = Order of Preachers = OP]opposite[/I].
Oooooh, very good. I didn’t know they were the Order of Preachers. Completely distracted by the Dominicans on Dominic Street. You were right not to change the clue under duress from your colleague.
2) Feed sheep = graze; Aren’t black, or white = grey: So Gray’s.
You could perhaps have put in “sounds like” at the beginning of the clue here? Still good though.
Yeah grey was the only one that I got 😮 – but agreed with Seamus that the stating of a location (‘here’) in the clue led us too far astray. “Munching sheep, as long as they aren’t white, or black. (5)” might be more appropriate…
Fantastically cryptic first clue, but I think you also unintentionally led us astray with this, ctesiphon, when you suggested the Liffey theory to be “far closer than you might think” – when you were in fact really talking about the reflection. Saying that, I was wary of this, as given your usual concise self, Newmarket is hardly an accurate reflection of the Dominican complex across the Liffey, so it kinda had to be something else. The level of elusiveness employed here was also a little inconsistent with the other clues, so it didn’t really encourage one to delve much deeper.
But all in all a very testing round 🙂 – nice neat final clue too.No cryptic hints regarding the below, only to say that there is no open sky in this photograph. It’s not the Museum Building alas Phil, though i see how the frilly edging resembles its string course detailing.
Just because it’s within sight of the rugby pitch doesn’t actually mean it’s an educational building…
@GrahamH wrote:
No cryptic hints regarding the below, only to say that there is no open sky in this photograph.
Putting it in simple terms, this photo includes a black bit on the left, a white bit in the middle and a greyish bit on the right. The white bit gives the initial impression of clouds, perhaps indicating that this photo was taken on an overcast Dublin day.
Being pedantic, I suppose it could still be indicative of clouds, which might not necessarily be “open sky” (as in the blue stuff we see on a sunny day) in everybody’s book. But that would be too devious and clearly not what was intended in the above quote.
So that white bit in the middle is most probably a wall.
In summary, I think what we’re looking for here is a white wall somewhere within sight of College Park.
Anyone know a white wall somewhere within sight of College Park?:D
To these eyes, the white and grey bits are either two similarly coloured walls, the grey one being more in shadow because the dark strip in the middle is a corner, or else two walls in the same plane with some class of expansion joint in between.
One question- is the photo the right way up, or has it been rotated? Unlikely, but I must ask to eliminate some confusion.
Also, Graham- to clarify, when I said dodger wat way closer to the first word than s/he might think, it wasn’t a ‘Liffey theory’ I was referring to, it was the fact that dodger used the word ‘opposite’ in his/her guess.
I know! But we didn’t know then – that’s the point! 🙂
I am really surprised the above building hasn’t been pounced on yet – it’s been discussed a number of times on this forum in relation to a specific matter of its ‘being’ (though probably before both your times cte & Seamus :o). A very prominent structure too – not at all a minor location.
And an embarrassing correction: it is not visible from Trnity’s rugby pitch, at all in fact. However it is very near as originally stated..
Indeed I saw it only today – definitely a building you will pass one day with the light catching on it, and will immediately correlate with the abstraction above.@GrahamH wrote:
It’s not the Museum Building alas Phil, though i see how the frilly edging resembles its string course detailing.
Ooh, Graham, this is causing me sleepless nights at this stage 🙂
I have a few new ideas, but I am not entirely sure as of yet.@phil wrote:
Ooh, Graham, this is causing me sleepless nights at this stage 🙂
I have a few new ideas, but I am not entirely sure as of yet.Would some kind resident of Dublin get up on their bicycle, do a few laps of TCD, report back here and hopefully put us out of our misery?;)
Seamus O’G wrote:Would some kind resident of Dublin get up on their bicycle, do a few laps of TCD, report back here and hopefully put us out of our misery?]I have done a fair few laps at this stage (not with the sole intention of looking for this I must ad :)) and still can’t figure out where it is.
I am not sure if it is taken from within Trinity though.
Nope not the Pav roigsh, though it’s loike, on thash soide of the campus alroighsh CM 🙂
Is it a campus building, or is it a city building though? Hmmm…
I can’t give the materials away as you’ll get it instantly. All I can say is focus on the frilly edge – it is by no means a minor detail on this building. It features prominently on the facade. So dominant indeed that it’s probably not even noticable.
The meeting of the planes might suggest the Milennium wing of the NGI by Benson & Forsyth, but I can’t reconcile the ‘frilly’ bit with the sharpness of the B&F building in my mind.
Might try the bike ride at lunchtime, Seamus.
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