O’ Connell Street, Dublin
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No problem buddy:)
I had to throw these two pictures in. First is the Red Cross holding a souvenir of the battle of the “Block”. Somebody from the free state army had too much time on their hands, what building is missing a clock? “Boots Dublin” or the clock under the “City of Dublin” sign?
Would you look at these eejits sitting on the ledge:D Not for me, I tell ya
Aye, being stuck on that ledge not good. good snaps of desperate days of Irishman fighting Irishman.
Btw, without being a pedant, are you sure that the men in above photo are ‘staters’? if so are they medical corps – just the red + on white armbands etc are intriguing…
Hutton, I never said the men holding the clock were free “Staters”? The men holding the clock are indeed Red Cross, yes.
The reason why I figure the damage to the clock was done by the Free Staters is this……
Two clocks that I know of were on the East side of the street. The Republicans were on the East side of the street too, so it would be impossible to hit it.
The third clock was at 55 Lr O’ Connell St (Chancellor and Sons) as well talked about by Graham. Even by a stray bullet, It’s impossible for the men in the Block to hit this clock as most of the firing was coming from Henry Street and northwards.
Besides, the Staters had all the time in the world (within reason) to disembed the Republicans. Isnt it possible that a Stater got bored and fired at the clock as the Brits did in 1916 at Chancellor and Sons?
Hutton is right though, thanks man. The wording of the pictures above have been re-edited so theres no misinterpretation.
Colm
Great picture there of the newly built Metropole with its grand lanterns to the front, and Edwardian bronze/timber casements. What a grievous loss that was, and so late, in the 1970s 🙁
Note the grand archway at the entrance to Henry Street below, a very typical feature of Dublin streets up until the middle of the 20th century. This perhaps provided secure rear access to the Standard Life Assurance building (now NIB) around the corner on O’Connell Street? Now replaced with that blue yoke of a shopfront – otherwise the same building.
Also the lovely recently finished proscenium arch shopfront across the road I think Christine Casey referred to, also with what appears to be a grandiose balcony overhead.
Now replaced with, eh, this…
And in an appalling state of repair further up as we saw a few pages back.
The coherence of the public domain design is also already being eroded, barely months after the street was finished, with these ghasty new litter bins being peppered around the city.
It is extraordinary that such a massive commision for the most fundamental element of municipal street furniture, that is to be scattered across the entire city centre, went to the most crudly designed and finished yoke any authority could possibly lay their hands on. How DCC could in any way consider these horrible gun metal grey lumps of scrap metal to be a positive addition to any city street is beyond me, Needless to say advertising provision has also been made on all of the units.
In any event, why is any other bin on O’Connell Street other than those part of the suite designed for the thoroughfare? And scattered willy nilly about the GPO to add insult to ingury. Yet more ever-formidable inter-departmental coordination on the part of DCC.
Those bins look truly appalling. What in God’s name happened to the nice, clean, silver ones that used to line the street? As happened with Henry Street after its redevelopment, the silver bins only seem to have been used for a few months before being replaced by older ones. Is it the case that the DCC couldn’t afford to rent them out for longer lol?
I’m in Sydney at the moment (in general, a very clean and well kept city, puts Dublin and the DCC to shame) so haven’t seen the bins first hand, But before I left Ireland in September, the council seemed to be ‘testing out’ several different types of bin, as there were at least half a dozen ghastly different styled bins littering the city. Is this still the case?
Has anyone contacted the DCC to ask them what the hell they’re doing?
Also, does anyone agree that Dublin doesn’t need more bins, but rather fewer bins that are simply bigger? Bins on a street can really detract from its character and look ugly. This is especially the case where the bins are badly designed and do not blend in with the surrounds, as is the case on Henry and O’Connell Street now that the silver bins have been removed. In my opinion, people who litter are always going to litter, no matter how many bins are beside them. Whereas people who don’t will walk the extra few metres to find a bin. Again, Henry Street is a good example. There seems to be an ugly, out-of-character bin literally every 10 metres and yet you’ll still see people dropping their rubbish on the street.
Like, Daragh…I am also away from home and seeing these ghastly bins for the first time:eek:
Good ole DCC. NUFF SAIDGraham, earlier in this page you mentioned that there was great archive footage of some of the buildings collapsing in O’ Connell Street (1916). I love looking at old pictures and footage of Dublin but finding footage is the problem for me. I have these three videos (Documentaries),
The Shadow of Beal na Blath by Colm Connolly ( R.T.E)
Curious Journeys by Kenneth Griffith
Hang up your brightest colors also by Kenneth GriffithIn the whole three there is maybe 30 seconds of old footage. Can you recomend any videos or DVD’s of any documentaries or the like?
Thanks, Graham:)
There was a thing on RTE years ago called ‘In Flags and Flitters’ – I remember it as having lots of old footage.
I have a feeling I have it on video stored since way back then (God knows where). If I find it and can manage to convert it to DVD I’ll PM you.
Also the RTÉ Seven Ages DVD contains a certain amount of footage, as did some of the television series Hidden Histories, various editions of which featured some good material, including footage of the above building collapsing if I recall.
To clarify Daragh, the brushed steel bins are still on O’Connell Street, only now they are interspersed with these new yokes – though it would appear that some have also been replaced by them.
Agreed there are too many bins on certain streets like Henry Street – especially given how hideous the new ones are. And with their all-singing bags crudely exposed.
And here they are ‘complemented’ with the new suburban bin also dumped in the city centre. Ironically these (painted an elegant grey in the suburbs) look decidely better than those alongside ‘designed’ for the city centre.
Truly hideous, although one wouldn’t expect anything less from DCC.
Does no one in the Council have any idea about how to make the city appear prettier? I agree that the Council has implemented many good initiatives over the past decade or so and has spent much time, money and effort on rejuvenation projects in the inner city. But when it comes to simple tasks like street beautification projects and street repavings etc. they’re a disgrace. It’s as much their fault as it is the citizens’ that Dublin remains such a dirty, unappealing looking city
I know we always say this, but you wouldn’t see anything like this in Paris, Madrid or Rome etc.
I wouldn’t normally approve of public vandalism, but these bins are deserving of it.Heck i might even throw on the al hoody myself and go down there with hurley in hand and make pieces of it.Lets make a night of it lads and destroy these monstosities.
@demolition man wrote:
I wouldn’t normally approve of public vandalism, but these bins are deserving of it.Heck i might even throw on the al hoody myself and go down there with hurley in hand and make pieces of it.Lets make a night of it lads and destroy these monstosities.
Well Demo Man afore ye do that how about fixin the Light on toppa the Spire…..yes my people its STILL all blackness at the pointy end.
Although mind u they did manage to get the half-way light workin again……. 😉
are these new yokes to replace bins all over the city centre ? or just confined to specific areas … are they part of the new street furniture tied in with JC Decaux signage ?
Those photos make them look like something out of Dr Who – slighly scary lines of bins moving through our city centres.
Mind you they’re better than the new ones just fitted in Drogheda as part of the West Street Pedestianisation- mounted on a single pole they have no covering so the wind gets at the rubbish inside, secondly there is nowhere for smokers to put our cigarettes so there have been quite a few fires, and finally the ‘bin liquor’ that runs out the bottom has been making nasty stains on the newly laid granite surface but the pole on which the bin is mounted is too low for the council to get the cleaning machines under, so all the bins (a few months old) have to be scrapped.
Whatever about joined up thinking – how about just plain thought!
I believe the industry term is ‘juice’…
The side pavement trees on O’Connell Street are lookingly lovely now – maturing very well.
City trees always look their best this time of year, with their early vivid green foliage contrasting with the severe stone all about. These ones are filling out nicely too.Yes, the council did an excellent job with the trees (they had also done a good job with the bins by installing nice, contemporary, large silver ones, but as we now know that’s all gone wrong!)
By planting semi-mature trees they made sure that vandals or wind couldn’t knock them down or damage them. It also meant it took less time for the trees to have the desired impact on the street.
I’m always amazed at the ‘twigs’ which so many councils seem to plant in suburbs all over the country which are then broken or simply snapped by vandals a few days later. I live in Rathfarnham and there’s a stretch of grass just in front of Marlay Park which has had its trees replanted at least three or four times in as many years because of vandals’ actions. I know it’s not convenient or even possible to plant 100-year-old, grandiose, fully mature trees all over the city, but why the councils can’t plant trees that are at least a few years old and big enough to withstand the Irish winter wind and vandals’ actions is beyond me.
Also, by leaving sufficient space around the trees’ roots on O’Connell Street, the Council has left room for them to grow without destroying the new pavement in future years. Again, this is something that the councils appear to have overlooked in so many other areas of Dublin.
This rash of new litter bins is reaching pandemic proportions! I just passed the corner of Talbot Street and Amiens Street and there were 3 in a row, not 1m from each other. There seems to be a new philosophy afoot that if you provide enough bins then Dublin’s litter problem will disappear.
These new bins must be costing a fortune but as with every other piece of street furniture they are being installed without any thought (bike stands and signage poles spring to mind, and of course the new JCDecaux projects). The case of O’Connell Street is awful and you would have to question what is wrong with the original design (which fits in with the stainless steel image adopted for the street), but its not the only case. Grafton and North Earl Streets are also getting the bins even though the cast iron look fits in with their street design. The new bins look crap here. The bins are all over the central city now. Variations of them on Capel Street (in black) as part of its makeover (another 3 year job!). Its such a waste of money!
Our city is quickly turning back into a dump.
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