June july2014 newsfour1 40

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June / July 2014

IN YOUR FAVOURITE LOCAL PAPER…

Page 4: Artist Fin Dac works with Ringsend College

PEDAL POWER E

By Steve Kingston xercise and enjoyment are two things most of us would like to be getting more of. Combine the two with helping a worthy cause and you have the Cafe Java Annual Charity Cycle, established three years ago by Cafe Java founder and owner Kieran Mulligan.

Depending on your level of fitness, you can choose between a 20k or 40k cycle or a guided walk around some of Sandymount’s lesser known walking routes.

In addition to the main cycling events, there is a 5k family fun cy-

cle, which means that families with young children can participate.

The main beneficiaries of the event are St Vincent de Paul and Aware. Kieran became interested in helping the latter charity following the suicide of Welsh football player Gary Speed in 2011. “I heard about the death and couldn’t understand how someone who seemed to have everything could do that,” he tells NewsFour. “I rang Aware and spoke to them about it, and they explained more about the crippling effects of depression. I felt I had to help in some way, and as it was the middle of the recession and all

charities were suffering, I decided to stage something myself.

People are becoming more health conscious in general and cycling has taken off in a big way all around the country. An awful lot of people in the area now exclusively cycle into work, so I thought an event that featured cycling would be popular.”

Every penny raised by the event goes directly to the charities. The costs of staging the event are covered by Mulligan personally and other business owners in the village pitch in to make Sandymount Green a hub for the event, with food and drink stalls along with activities for kids. Mulligan is keen to stress that “There’s a very tight community here and all the local businesses do what they can to help.”

Brian Brady from Bray finished first in this year’s 40k event, held on May 10th, with a very respectable time of one hour 25 minutes.

He tells NewsFour he had “pedalled into town once or twice” but is not a keen cyclist. However, he found his competitive streak when he hit the starting line. It was the

longest cycle Brady had ever attempted and he plans to try even harder next year.

Barry Fitzpatrick from Sandymount says he was heading out the door to take part in the event when his kids became interested. “They saw me getting the bike out and asked what I was doing. When I told them, they were keen to come along as well.”

For Eugene Fanning, of Marlborough Road in Donnybrook, this was a second time taking part. “I’m not getting any better at it though.

I had a friend with me and I only went the distance because I didn’t want her showing me up; she did anyway,” he tells NewsFour. Both charities are very important to Fanning, who had roped a few friends into participating but, “the chance of rain put them off on the day and they didn’t show. They’re lightweights, but they had to pay up anyway.” He plans to return for next year’s event. “Maybe I’ll bring my mate’s kids and do the walk though; it’s more my speed and at least I might beat them.”

Next year’s Annual Cafe Java Charity Cycle will take place on Sunday May 25th 2015. The event has raised nearly €60,000 so far, and local charities are benefiting from the proceeds.

Page 6: Dock Workers Preservation Society

Pages 20-21: Running for Our Town. Diarmuid and Eppie Gavin

Page 22: Dodder Action cleans up the river

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

The Editor’s Corner

NewsFour Newspaper is part of a DSP Community Employment Programme.

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NewsFour Managing Editor CE Supervisor Karen Keegan Editor Eric Hillis Staff Liam Cahill Rúairí Conneely Maria Shields O’Kelly Craig Kinsella Steve Kingston Aimée MacLeod Gavan Bergin Contributors Jimmy Purdy Donna Dunne Noel Twamley Nicky Flood Gemma Byrne Kirstin Smith Felix O’Regan David Nolan David Carroll Austin Cromie Cory Hanson Lorraine Barry Design and Layout Eugene Carolan Web Designer/Ad Design Karen Madsen Photographer Ross Waldron (All photos by Ross Waldron unless otherwise stated)

Sandymount Community Services, 13A Fitzwilliam Street, Ringsend, Dublin 4.

Telephone: (01)6673317 E-mail: newsfour@gmail.com Website: www.newsfour.ie

Opinions expressed in NewsFour do not necessarily represent the views of Sandymount Community Services.

Printed by Datascope Ltd, Wexford

The Letterbox

Dear editor, I picked up several copies of the paper today and I will pass them around our Core Group. The paper is very interesting, I must watch out for it again. I think the paper is very well produced; compliments all round. The article reads very well and my Frederick is delighted to see himself in print! He will be happy to pawtograph photos on request! Our thanks to both you and Donna for featuring Cats’ Aid. A feature like this helps to raise awareness of animal welfare, which is important.

Cats’ Aid will be having our annual summer sale in Sandymount in June, date to be confirmed, perhaps that could be mentioned in the next issue?

Purrs and head butts from Frederick.

Best wishes to all your team, Cyrileen Power Cats’ Aid Dear editor, Sometimes we receive NewsFour from a friend Bridget Tiedt.

To my surprise my confirmation photo was in it thanks to Anna Rossiter Hulgraine. I am the first one, in the front row beside Anna.

I am living in California with my husband since 1962 a long way from Haddington Road. Enclosing a photo of me to-day in our back garden. My brother George Molloy was also in this issue for the 50th anniversary of the Brugh Padraig reunion.

Thanking you so much for NewsFour.

Peggy Molloy Arotcharen

s Spring turns to Summer, it’s all change here at the NewsFour office. Our editor Emma Dwyer and journalist Donna Dunne have moved onto pastures new and we wish them both nothing but the best on their new paths.

That means yours truly will now be handling editorial duties.

After almost a year and a half of writing stories, I’ve decided to accept a new challenge. I’ve survived it so far, though I have noticed a few grey hairs emerging. To fill the gap left by myself and Donna, we’ve recruited two new journalists, Craig Kinsella and Steve Kingston, both of whom have close ties to the area. They arrived in our final week before going to print and managed to get their first stories into this very issue. We’re sure after reading their work you’ll be looking forward to more from both of them.

Of course, our veterans, Liam Cahill and Rúairí Conneely, have contributed lots of great articles, as usual, along with Maria Shields O’Kelly, who made her debut last issue and has now firmly settled into the team.

Gavan Bergin, who contributes a piece looking at Pearse St Library’s Sports Archive, is currently compiling a book on the history of soccer in the D4 area. If you have any information or materials you think might be relevant, please get in touch.

We’ve got another great competition this issue. Thanks to Trinity College Dublin, we’ve got four family tickets for their Brian Boru exhibition, details of which you can find on page 17. Each family ticket admits five and to enter the draw, answer the following question: “Which King died at the 1014 Battle of Clontarf?”

Send your answers by email to newsfour@gmail.com or by post to NewsFour, 13A Fitzwilliam Street, Behind the library, Ringsend, D4, no later than July 10th 2014.

Enjoy this issue and don’t forget to check our website, www. newsfour.ie, updated Monday to Saturday with great articles from our web editor Aimée MacLeod. Search for NewsFour on Twitter and Facebook and follow us to ensure you don’t miss any local news.

Eric.

NEWSFOUR AROUND THE WORLD

My name is Helen Magee (nee Sheehy) and I am sending this photo from The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas taken on St. Patrick’s Day. I grew up in Bath Avenue and live in Texas. My family live in Irishtown and Shankill and I visit often. My sister always sends me the NewsFour which I love to read. I am hoping you will surprise her by printing this photo.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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THE WALL OF NAMES

By Maria Shields O’Kelly he George Reynolds flats complex in Irishtown is a hive of activity. They are a first-class example of what is achievable when a group of individuals pool their skills for a common goal. From the displays of floral colour attributed to the efforts of resident Claire Power to the summer barbeques and discos, George Reynolds flies the flag of community spirit.

The reason for this is largely because the residents are actively taking charge of their own environment.

The 77-foot wall that sprawls itself across the length of the complex was not painted when the flats were refurbished some years ago. Resident Anthony Byrne took matters into his own hands and organized a paint day. On April 1st the wall was

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cent object of controversy.

Some people initialled it, some grouped their families together and some, like Lilolil, went tongue-in-cheek with her nickname. The wall will now act as a constant memorial to all who have lived in George Reynolds flats and there is a plaque placed on the wall in commemoration of all its deceased residents.

Anthony Byrne told NewsFour about one particular resident, the late Lar Dunne, whose saying had always been, “The flats aren’t finished until that wall is painted.”

painted by a group of local volunteers. Before this happened,

however, the residents painted their names across the wall,

making their mark on what had become the dwellings’ most re-

Pictured from left to right: Anthony Byrne, Agnes White, Claire Power, Lily (Lilolil) Benson and Noel Carr.

Photos by Maria Shields O’Kelly.

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MO’ MURALS: RINGSEND COLLEGE TEAMS UP WITH ARTIST FIN DAC

By Rúairí Conneely s part of a civic and entrepreneurial effort to enhance the look of the Dublin Docklands, the Gibson Hotel has undertaken the second year of its Artist in Residency programme.

This year, the artist in question is Fin Dac, street artist and globetrotter. In keeping with the intent to enrich the Docklands and adjacent neighbourhoods, Fin has produced a mural for the Gibson itself (pictured), brightening up an empty lot, and at time of writing is set to work with students from Ringsend College to produce a mural on their site.

NewsFour catches up with Fin in his sumptuous hotel room in the Gibson, where a huge foam mat is laid out on the floor to protect the carpet from spray can oversplash.

Fin is in work mode, alert and chatty. First off, we talk about how this residency and collaboration with students came about. “I travel a lot as part of my work. I’ve just spent five months in the States, in Los

Angeles, now I’m here,” Fin says. “While I was in LA, my assistant heard about this residency, that it was in its second year and that the hotel was looking for candidates, so she mentioned it to me and contacted the hotel. They had already contacted the College.”

Fin is a painter of large outdoor works, murals with a portraiture sensibility, unlike the more hip-hop influenced conventions that people associate with street art. His subjects tend to be beautiful women in black and white, with ornate colour overlaid (a signature motif is a sprayed-on domino mask).

He also produces gallery work for indoor display but the Ringsend College mural is a collaborative work. “Basically, we’re going to paint a wall and the kids will help me. In what form that help will be I don’t know,” says Fin. “If the teacher in charge is ok with it, I’ll show them how to cut stencils with craft knives.

We’ll see.” By the time this story sees print, the mural will

UNCERTAIN FUTURE FOR POOLBEG INCINERATOR

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

By Liam Cahill ublin City Council voted to abandon the Poolbeg incinerator project recently. The project, which has already cost the city €96 million, has been embroiled in a contentious battle between local residents in Dublin 4 since its inception as far back as the 1990s.

“We have a real opportunity to put behind us this disastrous project,” says Labour Cllr. Dermot Lacey. “Let’s once and for all bin this incinerator and give Dublin a chance to get our waste strategy right.”

In recent years, the project has

become somewhat of an ongoing embarrassment for the City Council. In December 2012 a report, conducted by the Local Government Auditor, found that the Poolbeg project was “weak” and “not adequate”. It slammed the City Council for spiralling consultancy costs that had broken the €24 million mark, which in turn “breached procedure guidelines”.

In February of this year, the project faced another disaster after reports surfaced that the City Council had paid €200,000 a month for PR and security at Poolbeg. In January, the City

have been completed for some weeks.

As an example, he shows a brief video called A Little Time to Play, a record of a trip to Colombia. “I did a mural there with kids from a barrio. There were about 15 or so kids, aged between six and 12, and I doubt any of them had ever seen a spray can in their life, so they just went nuts. They wanted me to paint footballers, and they added their own stuff to it.” On the video, the kids have created a chaotic mass of clashing colours, and we see Fin going over it to add the finishing touches, giving form to their enthusiastic mess. “No one gets bored throwing paint around,” he adds, drily, “some of the kids were spraying their football boots all mad colours; they really took to it.”

The students at Ringsend College will no doubt be less impressed by a simple spraycan but Fin seems to have already made his mark with them. “The art teacher from the College, Margaret Beausang, brought

the students over when the residency began, and I was able to give one of the girls a gift,” he says. “A friend of mine designs nails, like false nails,

and she’d done a set with one of my portraits. I don’t wear false nails, obviously, so I gave them away. It seems like a good start to things.”

Manager, Owen Keegan, said the Poolbeg project had proved to be “extremely challenging”.

“This is another Quarryvale,” says former Sinn Féin Councillor for Pembroke South-Dock, Daithí Doolan. “When they took the planning powers away from councillors after Quarryvale this is what happened. The worse decisions have been made, not by Councillors, but by the bureaucrats in City Hall and in the Customs House.”

When asked to comment, Dublin City Council said the City Manager will “submit the business case (a plan about the project) to the full Council before any final decision is made to proceed with the project.”

Left: A child protests against the incinerator.

Photo by Kim Haughton.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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By Steve Kingston s with the Docklands themselves, the make up of the people who live and work there is changing. For generations, the same families have worked on the docks, passing vacant positions from father to son and keeping it in the family and community.

This built a unique social structure in and around the area, one that has been fractured by the loss of industry and development of the area but also, in some ways, is stronger for it. When any industry changes or winds down, the first casualties are usually the people who live and work around it, and the Dublin Dock Workers Preservation Society is working hard to ensure the memories and stories of those people are preserved forever.

Alan Martin, who worked on the docks, as first a Tallyman, Book Checker then Senior Book Checker, was brought into the fold by his father when he was 16. His Grandfather also worked on the docks and he was proud to continue the family tradition. In early 2011, he and Declan Byrne, with the help of John Walsh and Jimmy Carton, set up the Dublin Dock Workers Preservation

DOCK WORKERS SOCIETY

Society. They are helped out by Brendan Dempsey, Mick Foran and others, and they have been steadily gathering and cataloguing photographs and memorabilia ever since and now have several thousand photographs that would otherwise never have been brought together.

They have been holding regular photographic exhibitions with a twist; they arrange for some of

the people in the pictures to be on hand to talk to visitors. A picture may tell a thousand words but the chance to speak to those involved is an opportunity that rarely comes along.

Under beds, in cupboards, attics and garden sheds all over the area and beyond, there are treasure troves of history waiting for discovery. These are the hordes that The Dublin Dock Workers

Preservation Society is interested in finding, before they are lost.

One important resource that was tragically destroyed was a shed that was used by crane drivers and others for tea breaks and eating lunch. It was plastered with photographs and other items of interest, before it was demolished without notice and the contents are now gone forever with it.

Alan Martin also says that “Stuff

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014 often gets thrown out when someone dies”, so the society is keen to point out that you don’t have to wait until a relative has passed away before donating material. It is a great way to connect retired dock and associated workers with each other to share and preserve their living memories.

When people retire they often move to outlying areas; the events the society hold may be the only chance a lot of retirees have to meet and reminisce. The dock workers themselves are only part of the picture however; there were thousands of people involved in businesses and industries that serviced the docks.

Alan is quick to tell NewsFour, “We’d love to hear from people from any industry”.

The society is planning an exhibition that they aim to make their best yet. It will be held in the coming months, so check your local listings for details as they emerge.

You can find the Dublin Dock Workers Preservation Society on Facebook or you can contact Alan Martin directly on 087 2095974 Pictured: Alan Martin from the Dublin Dock Worker Preservation Society.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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NEW SERVICE FOR TENANTS

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By Craig Kinsella ewsFour was present on May 14th, when the Dublin Simon Community launched its new Tenancy Advice Service, in partnership with Dublin 2, 4 and 6 Citizen’s Information Service.

The service was launched by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Henry Upton, who described the launch as “just another step in an ongoing campaign” in the attempt to combat homelessness. The service offers advice to single people, couples and families who have problems with their tenancies and are in danger of becoming homeless.

At the launch event, Sam McGuinness from the Dublin Simon Community appealed for immediate action to be taken to prevent more people falling into homelessness.

McGuinness acknowledged the importance of an additional €50 million housing spend by Minister Jan O’Sullivan, but also stressed the significance of this new service, particularly at a time when 1,600 people and families must resort to living in emergency accommodation in the greater Dublin area, the vast majority of which are often children.

“People are now being shut out of the rental market and have no option but to look for shelter in emergency facilities, or resort to sleeping in doorways and squats,” McGuinness says.

“Yesterday, our early morning inner city street count recorded an increase of over 200% of those sleeping rough since January 2014.”

He stated that the Dublin Simon Community is doing everything possible to address these damning statis-

tics, and that they provided the catalyst for the creation of the new Tenancy Advice Service, but he accepts that the organisation faces an uphill battle, with the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive expected to spend €4.5 million on emergency accommodation for people who are homeless this year.

“Without increased housing supply, immediate measures to address the private rental market and changes to rent supplement, our efforts will have minimal impact,” he says.

McGuinness highlights the importance of the service and says that early intervention is crucial to prevent more people from falling into the homeless bracket.

“By getting to people early and keeping them in their homes, we can prevent the need for this type of spend and have the funds directed to helping those who are homeless or at risk,” he says.

Dublin Simon Community’s Caroline Norris, who works with the Tenancy Advice Service, says that there is no economic safety net

in place to prevent people from being priced out of the rental market.

“People who never expected to become homeless are seeing their situation spiral out of control quite rapidly.

Without the safety net of family or friends to rely on, we are finding that there is often just €200 standing between a person/family and eviction,” she states.

There are many types of information offered by the service, such as advice on how to maintain your tenancy, managing rent and bills, your rights and responsibilities as a tenant, and entitlements in relation to housing.

The drop-in advice clinic’s opening hours are 9.30am to 12.30pm on Thursday mornings, in the Carmelite Centre, 56 Aungier Street, Dublin 2.

Pictured: Caroline Norris from Dublin Simon Community, Tony Quinn CEO of the Citizens Information Centre and Liz Carroll from Carmelite Citizens Information Centre.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

MOVEMENT AT BOLAND’S?

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By Rúairí Conneely hose who routinely pass Ringsend Road and Barrow Street may have noticed activity within the bounds of Boland’s Mill in March of this year. Workers and heavy machinery were on the site for some weeks, leading some to speculate that a mass clean up is finally underway.

The site has been sealed against intrusion for safety reasons for a number of years, chiefly as a result of PCB contamination. PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls) were routinely used as coolant and insulator fluids for electrical systems but are of considerable toxicity, linked to the occurrence of cancers, and are banned under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants 2001.

Boland’s Mill was one of several properties that were managed by the property management company Versus, which went into receivership in October 2010, at which time its assets were transferred to NAMA. Versus had a longstanding plan to develop the Boland’s site into 67 apartments, two houses and 13,284 square metres of office space, as well as the usual retail and leisure facilities that are supposedly a given of any such developments adjacent to the river.

The collapse of the property markets put paid to this ambition, as the value of the mill fell by 84% in just two years, a stomach-churning plunge from an estimated worth of €61 million in 2007 to just €9.9 million by 2009.

Since NAMA acquired the property in 2010, it has been handed over to Savills Commercial Property Management, who told NewsFour “There is no construction activity currently taking place at the site.”

In July of last year, the IDA (Industrial Development Agency) announced that a lack of prime commercial property in Dublin could harm investment prospects in the future. The same month, NAMA announced its collaboration with Oaktree Capital Management, one of the world’s leading firms in distressed asset management.

However, since Savills acquired the property in June 2012, the ultimate fate of the site is still a matter of speculation.

OUT FOR COFFEE WITH DIARMUID GAVIN

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By Liam Cahill iarmuid Gavin joins NewsFour for a coffee on the Ringsend banks of the Liffey. The once self-confessed loner turned gardener extraordinaire has been a staple of the horticultural scene for the past 20 years, appearing on prominent TV programs such as BBC’s Home Front and RTE’s I Want A Garden. Inspired by his dad to pursue gardening, Diarmuid talks about how he went from a shy boy to considering leaping into the pond at Buckingham Palace naked.

LC: Where did your interest in gardening come from?

DG: When I was a kid I was a bit of a loner, a bit of a daydreamer. I was fascinated with design and gardens, maybe not as a kid but as I grew up. I always remember watching my dad and uncle creating the first garden outside our house; it was a real achievement for our parents, who had come from innercity Dublin.

LC: Where did you go to school and how did that lead to gardening?

DG: When I left school I started off in a restaurant in Temple Bar. I was going to be a chef, but after four or five months I went into gardening and worked in a gardening shop on Merrion Street, called Mackey’s, for three years, and then started working in the Botanic Gardens.

LC: What was it like to work there?

DG: As a 19-year-old, I was beyond shy. I was paranoid, very reclusive. My brother had been killed in a car accident when I was younger. Going into Mackey’s, I just entered another world of people from the city and the country, and people who all loved this gardening thing which I was drawn to, but wasn’t too sure why. It was a place where I made friends for the first time. I loved it!

LC: What was your first break?

DG: We built a garden inspired by Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean: slabs of glass in a lawn that lit up when you stood on them. Nobody understood it, but it looked good on television. Alan Titchmarsh (gardener and BBC presenter) came along. He didn’t understand it, but they featured it on the Chelsea Flower live show, and the following day my world had changed. Within a couple of months I started making television programmes.

LC: You worked on Home Front; what was that like?

DG: There was an interiors programme called Home Front, with a whole roster of designers.

I did a pilot and it was a massive hit, and three years in we took over the main programme with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.

LC: Obviously it was a successful time for you. What are your favourite memories?

DG: I remember being at Buckingham Palace at a party, with a bottle of champagne in my hand, about to strip off and go swimming in the pond; it was that mad! I rearranged the Blue Peter garden at Television Centre with Primal Scream at 3am.

The owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, closed down Harrods one night to give a party for me, and I’ve no memories of that party, but I know it happened.

LC: Tell me about your involvement in the Our Town initiative?

DG: I had done the RTE programme Dirty Old Towns and I wanted to continue working in the area of community regeneration. I was really taken by the idea of a community working together. I knew Felim Dunne (an architect) and asked him if he would be involved, and he brought the Ringsend project to my attention.

LC: What’s the aim of the project?

DG: The aim of the project is to work with the community and see what the community needs.

LC: Have you figured out what the community needs?

DG: We’re in the process. It’s really important that we feel we’re speaking for the community and that we’re accepted as a voice of the community. Our work in the last six months has been to listen and try to understand, and to see if people will engage with us.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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RINGSEND AND IRISHTOWN COMMUNITY CENTRE NEWS RICC 6th Annual May Day Parade It was with great pride that we had a fantastic turn out to the 6th Annual RICC May Day parade this year. Our biggest yet!

We were delighted to welcome the Dublin All Stars Marching Band and the Finglas Concert and Marching Band this year, and we thank them for their participation.

Also, sincere thanks to Dylan Clayton, Ger McGuinness, Darragh Connolly, Brennan’s Bread, The Sandymount Hotel, An Garda Síochána, Jennifer Betts, all the RICC staff and all the groups, organisations and

individuals who marched and participated; we hope to see you all next year!

New Lord Mayor of Ringsend and Irishtown We would like to congratulate Alice Foley, who has been elected as the new Lord Mayor of Ringsend and Irishtown. We would like to thank our previous Lord Mayor, Brian Betts, for his tireless work, and we have no doubt that Alice will continue on the fantastic work in the community and will add her own flair to the role.

RICC Supporting CRY RICC held a benefit night in

aid of CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) at Lillie’s Bordello on May 16th. The event raised

some much-needed funds and created awareness of the fantastic charity, which we were very proud to be a part of.

Ringsend Rock School recorded their first single, Eleanora, with proceeds from the sale going to CRY. The CDs are €5 and are available from the centre.

Like us on Facebook Ringsend and Irishtown Community Centre and Follow us on Twitter @RICCD4 for news and updates in your community!

Clockwise from top: Alice Foley’s inaugaration as Lord Mayor of Ringsend and Irishtown, Cambridge Boys FC and Dublin All Stars Marching Band at the May Day Parade. Photographs

by Darragh Connolly.

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By Liam Cahill f you take a walk around Grand Canal Dock you may notice a giant portrait of a young lad in a hoody looking as if he’s just been told off. The mural, situated on the wall of a house just on the edge of the basin, is more than just some random painting, instead it’s part of a nationwide art project, called Our Nation’s Sons, run by Joe Caslin, an art teacher from Co. Offaly.

“The project is about how young men are reacting to society and looking at all the nega-

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

OUR NATION’S SONS

tive stereotypes that are out there and just wanting to change it,” Joe says.

Beginning at the start of 2014, Our Nation’s Sons is one of the nation’s largest art projects, with murals of hooded young men dotted all across the country, including at Achill-Henge in Co.Mayo, outside a shelter for homeless young men in the City, on the side of an old church, in Grand Canal Basin, and on the side of

the Nassau Street entrance to Trinity College. The project is speaking for young men, aged between 18 and 25, a group it sees as marginalised by current economic and social problems.

The paintings, Joe tells NewsFour, really touch some people and leave them pondering. More importantly, the project is about leaving a lasting social impact and creating awareness of a problem that was here even before the economic crash.

“The majority of kids are so good, the potential that’s inside them is so powerful, but it’s not being used, it’s not being showcased, it’s not even being respected,” says Joe. “They’re not even given the time to discuss what their possibilities are, and if you look at any press coverage, 99% is negative.”

The statistics for young men aren’t all that promising. A 2013 report by the Royal College of

Surgeons in Ireland, regarding mental health and young people in Ireland, found that young Irish people may have higher levels of mental disorder than in other countries. The report also found one in five young Irish people aged 19-24 experience a mental disorder, with mood and anxiety disorders the most common.

A 2013 report by the National Youth Council of Ireland on the topic of emigration found that the majority of those who emigrated in the past four years were aged 18-24 and cited limited employment options as one of the reasons for leaving. It’s no secret that these limited options are impacting on young men, with a 2013 report by the Men and Suicide Project concluding that suicide is five times higher in Irish males than females.

Those startling rates are the reason why Joe’s project is trying to be as inclusive as possible, re-

cruiting young people from bars, clubs and local schools to be a part of the project. Young men get a chance to travel around the country and learn from Joe and his colleagues, many of whom are video editors and sound production people, who provide a positive role model for young men feeling excluded.

“They learn so much, it’s not like they just come along and stick up any image on the side of the wall,” says Joe. “They get to work with all these different professions and pick up different skills.”

The project recently won the Arthur Guinness Fund Award, which will allow Joe to expand to include murals on a number of “iconic buildings” in the coming months. Our Nation’s Sons will also feature as a documentary at the upcoming Galway Film Fleadh later this year.

For more information, visit www.joecaslin.com. If you require more information on the Guinness Fund visit Guinness.com

Back row, Frances, Avril, Mary, Margaret, Claire, front row, Claire, Kathleen, Jennifer with a collection of cakes for sale at the Cambridge Court Coffee morning in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, March 28th.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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By Liam Cahill ne in five children has been bothered by something they have seen online in the past year, according to a new study.

The Net Children Go Mobile Study, which looks at a broad range of web-related issues such as online bullying, types of online activities, the number of smartphone users, how children access the internet, perceptions, risks and sexual messages, surveyed 500 9-16 year olds who were interviewed on a face-toface basis in their homes.

“Exposure to online risks appears greater among children who also use mobile devices to go online when compared to the 2010 EU Kids Online data,” says Giovanna Mascheroni, the head of the European-wide project, “As children go online more in a variety of contexts and from a wider range of devices, they also encounter more risks.”

The study found that 22% of children have experienced some level of bullying, while 35% of teenage girls aged 13-16 have seen some type of hateful con-

CHILDREN FACE ONLINE RISKS

tent. 47% of teenagers have seen sexual images in the past 12 months, compared to 11% of younger children. About half of the older children who did receive sexual images said they were disturbed by them. 10% of 13-14 year olds and 22% of 1516 year olds reported receiving sexual messages online, while

one in five children have had contact with people they have never met in person.

“Mobile devices have helped young people to intensify their Internet use but their concerns about content and risks of bullying are rising,” says Dr. Brian O’Neill, Head of Research at DIT’s College of Arts and Tour-

ism, a co-author of the report and the Chair of the Government’s Internet Content Advisory Group.

“More awareness of the risks and safety implications of mobile internet use is needed.”

The results of the survey show that smartphone devices are the most used within the 9-16 age category, with 35%, versus 29%

PAGE 11 gaining access through laptops, and 27% through tablet devices.

The study also stipulates that eight out of ten 15-16 year olds have a profile on a social networking site but also suggests some 82% of parents are actively involved in guiding their child’s internet usage. Educational institutions are also lending a helping hand, with 81% of teachers explaining why some websites are good and why others are bad.

“The whole thing about the mobile devices is that it’s much more personal and private, so it’s harder for parents to intervene or monitor what’s going on,” says Simon Grehan, Webwise Project Co-ordinator with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). “I think for parents you really want to be the person that your child speaks to when something goes wrong; it’s really about communication rather than rules.”

The report was published to coincide with the Safer Internet day in Ireland back in February and carried out by the statistic company Ipsos MRBI in December 2013.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

SANDYMOUNT SUMMER SNEAK PREVIEW

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By Rúairí Conneely ewsFour speaks with Sarah Staunton of the Sandymount and Merrion Residents’ Association (SAMRA) about upcoming plans for this summer. Sandymount, of course, has a particularly active and involved volunteer force of concerned citizens, many of them familiar names and faces to locals and regular readers.

Sarah, who works in PR, aside from her work for the residents’ association, explains that the ball gets rolling in late Spring with Easter weekend events, but the first major event of the Summer calendar is Yeats’ Day on June 13th (a Friday, but don’t let that put you off!), which sets the ball rolling on four days of festivities and activities.

Yeats’ Day will start around

12 noon at Sandymount Green and involve readings and performances of the great poet’s works. Saturday 14th is a Traders’ Day on the Green, showcasing local traders and businesses from the area. Sunday 15th will be the annual Community Day, now a fixture and something of a local favourite.

Sarah explains that “there will be face painting for kids and their parents, and fun activities

for everyone.”

Monday 16th is, of course, Bloomsday, the anniversary of the events of Joyce’s great novel. The usual Edwardian-garbed larks will be afoot.

Bloomsday celebrations begin with the customary Bloomsday breakfast, this year taking place in the Iris Charles Centre. Revellers and Joyceans can then walk the Guinness and kidneys off with a tour of Sandymount Strand and environs, which will culminate on Sandymount Green for readings and recitals. As ever on Bloomsday, period garb is encouraged, for the craic.

The following Saturday, June 21st, there will be a barbeque on the Green. The Saturday after that, the 28th, will be the Repair Café, as covered previously by NewsFour,

where you’ll have a chance to bring broken or malfunctioning household items to volunteers who are handy with a toolkit.

Events are planned for into July and August, some of the details for which are sketchier at time of writing. There will be a local dog show, and the Tidy Towns Committee are planning some mysterious Secret Garden parties. On a more solemn note, Monday 4th of August will be a commemoration day for the centenary of the Great War of 1914, and the week of the 23rd to the 30th of August will be National Heritage week. There will be historical talks and tours throughout this eight day stretch.

Keep an eye on www.samra. ie and www.newsfour.ie for more details.

WAR OF ATTRITION AT GREEN

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By Rúairí Conneely he Green at the heart of Sandymount Village continues to be a site of controversy as well as genteel recreation, following the latest alteration by Dublin City Council.

On April 15th at around 11.30am, a digger arrived on site at the Green, the driver having been instructed to remove and level the kidney-shaped flowerbed at the northern aspect of the Green. This is the latest development in an apparently gradual programme of alterations to Sandymount Green by the Council. In October 2013, DCC workers arrived unannounced and cut away the wrought iron gate on the eastern face of the railings that surround the Green.

This was a source of some outrage for many locals, who argued that the antique nature of the railings made them valuable local artefacts, which should be preserved on the grounds of heritage. The justification given for the removal of the gate at the time was one of safety matters: the old, heavy gate was argued to be an encumbrance and an obstacle to the elderly and the disabled, and a potential danger to children.

The reasons for this latest alteration are similarly practical, Dublin City Council Parks Department argue. The flowerbed was difficult to maintain, given the level of use the Green is routinely subject to and the fragility of some of the seasonal flowers.

Representatives of the Tidy Towns Committee noted that they were not consulted in advance of the removal of the flowerbed but, in conversation with NewsFour, Senior Executive Park Superintendent Michael Noonan explained that a meeting with TTC representatives had since occurred and it has been agreed that an action plan for the Green will be drawn up. Additionally, a Grade 1 Conservation Architect will be called in to assess the space, with an eye to possibly declaring it a Historic Park.

As he put it, the Council are “keen to find a balance with the needs of community.”

The flowerbed has since been restored.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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ST BRIGID’S MEMORY BOOK

By Maria Shields O’Kelly he imminent closure of St Brigid’s primary school in Ballsbridge brings with it a mixed bag of emotions for all concerned. St Brigid’s currently caters for boys and girls in Junior and Senior Infants, and girls only from 1st class to 6th class, and is planning to build a new coed school to accommodate the growing school population.

St Brigid’s has seen over a hundred years of history and generations of locals have been educated within its walls. It is readily agreed that the new building is needed in order to maintain the school as a modern and relevant educational facility, however it is equally important to preserve the memory of what has become part of the fabric of this Ballsbridge community.

A group of five teachers from the school are compiling a book of stories and old photos, which it is hoped will contribute to this effort. Moya and Mary are past teachers and a part of the group who meet regularly to discuss the contents of the book. They

speak fondly about their time at the school saying that it was never a chore. “There was an atmosphere of warmth and respect there. Parents confided in you and the relationship was never abused on either side.” Moya remembers developing attachments to her pupils. “They were fabulous kids. I can remember

finding it very difficult when it was time for them to move on.”

NewsFour asks about the age profile of the book’s contributors. “There is a lady in her 80’s,” explains Moya. “We have been able to gain valuable insights into the historical changes that have taken place over the school’s lifespan. For instance,

today St Brigid’s caters for around 250 students but in the 1930’s, when the lady in question went to school there, it was twice that. It was a very different place in those days, as were the methods of discipline.”

Through her research, Mary is noticing that the 1950’s tradition of Drill Display is an agreed

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favourite among contributors.

“The girls dressed in a gymslip with a green sash and wore a ribbon in their hair. The parents came to see the display where the pupils jumped through hoops in the P.E. event of that time.”

Another observation in a historical context was from Grand Canal Street, where there were four families to a building and each family had its own unique door knock.

The group that is compiling the book has already advertised for contributions and is now refreshing that call. Mary offers a sample from her personal experience. “I was in the middle of an Irish lesson with a class of six year olds when I noticed one young lad seemed to be totally engaged with what I was saying.

I was happy to see this until he sat back in his seat and suddenly spouted out, “Miss MacDaid?

Are all your friends old?”

For information on contributions, photographs or sponsorship email schoolhistorybook@gmail.com Pictured above: St Brigid’s drill display from 1969.

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By Craig Kinsella he Ringsend and District Response to Drugs Annual Event took place on Thursday 15th May in the Clanna Gael Hall on Sean Moore Road, Irishtown.

Main speakers at this year’s graduation included members of the HSE, board directors from the Ringsend and District Response to Drugs, and Dublin Port Company, which has sponsored the event since the Spellman

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

SPELLMAN AWARDS

Centre was founded in 1995. Father Ivan Tonge, of St. Patrick’s Church, Ringsend, officiated.

The organisation gave presentations for those who have achieved drug-free status on the programme. This was to reward those who have remained drug-free for a year, and is in accordance with the day to day

programmes run by the Spellman Centre, which include rehabilitation schemes, counselling sessions and care plans. The event saw 12 graduates from the project this year.

There was also an award given to the winner of the Alcohol Awareness Competition, an incentive that involved participation from local schools.

This year’s Spellman Soccer Tournament was contested between four local schools at Irishtown Stadium; Ringsend College, St. Patrick’s Boys School, St. Patrick’s Girls School and Catherine McAuley National

School.

Local Sports Development Officer John Sweeney handed out all sports-related awards, including the Daniel Lynch Player of the Tournament Award, Clanna Gael Player of the Tournament Award and the prize for Spellman Goalkeeper of the Tournament. Bettsy 7s were the winners of this year’s senior Spellman Soccer Tournament.

The event also recognised the role that families play in the recovery of Spellman Centre clients. Some of the families of those helped by the centre were given a presentation to com-

memorate the support structure they provide for recovering addicts. Families play a crucial role in the buddy system, which lends emotional support to people with drug-related issues who seek to achieve permanent drug-free status.

Pat Ward, of Dublin Port Company, distributed awards to family members, and he spoke of his pride in his company’s involvement with the Spellman Centre, while congratulating the families for their commitment to their loved ones.

“Family is the corner stone of support,” Pat Ward said, and added that “Teresa Weafer is absolutely fabulous in the work that she does in the community.”

The closing speech of the

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

evening went to Ringsend and District Response to Drugs director Tom Crilly, who thanked Pat Ward and Edel Curry of Dublin Port Company, Clanna Gael and all of those who received presentations on the night. He stressed how important participation from young people is in the RDRD’s project to raise drug awareness in the future. “Young people are part of the youth development,” he told those gathered. “You’re part of the network of friends that make up the Spellman Centre.”

The event concluded with a selection of musical performances from some young local talent. Singer Mark Maxwell sang a song entitled Day by Day, a tribute to Daniel Lynch and Dylan Lacey, who lost their lives in 2013.

Speaking to NewsFour before the event, Spellman Centre manager Teresa Weafer commented on how fantastic the response has been from the local community since the inception of the project 19 years ago, when there

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was very little support at the time in the area.

“I have always believed that if recovery is to happen in a community, it is the community that will do it,” she said. “We need everybody to be together on that.”

Over the years, the Spellman Centre has created a network of links with different services within the area, including the Ringsend Community Services Forum, local sports groups and Ringsend and Irishtown Community Centre. Weafer believes that such a network has enabled a positive message to spread throughout the community regarding the dangers of drug use.

The programmes run by the Spellman Centre have seen many success stories over the years, with an average of 10 graduates every year. “It’s wonderful to be a part of someone’s life, of someone’s success story,” said Teresa.

Teresa was also full of praise for her staff, who remain diligent

in the face of the effect that the economic downturn has had on the Spellman Centre. She saluted the work ethic and creativity shown by her staff despite cuts to programme costs, salaries, and training. “The staff here are unbelievable,” said Teresa. “I’m really proud to say that. The team are fantastic; they go beyond the call of duty.”

Pictured clockwise from top left: The staff from the Spellman Centre.

Open group discussions and counselling.

Katie and Sharon Weafer.

Reiki session in progress.

Catherine Meleady from Ashleigh House and David Marsh from Coolmine Therapeutic.

Garda Lorraine Wheatley handed out the prizes for the children from local schools.

Graduates of the Drug Free Programme presented by Fr. Ivan Tonge.

Volunteer of the Year award presented by Edel Curry.

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By Cory Hanson ocal history enthusiasts gathered at Elm Park Golf and Sports Club on April 10th for a much-anticipated lecture by Dr Beatrice M. Doran, author of Donnybrook: A History.

The author spoke of the popularity of her new book.

“The local bookseller said, as far as he could see, everyone in Donnybrook was getting a copy of Donnybrook: A History for Christmas whether they liked it or not!” The book has nearly sold out of its first printing and is now entering a second.

In her lecture, Dr Doran shared highlights from the book, as well as a number of photographs and stories collected since publication. In addition to the well-known and well-documented accounts of the Donnybrook Fair and Irish International Exhibition, the book and lecture covered many more obscure, but equally fascinating, Donnybrook stories.

Present day Beaver Row along the Dodder is named for a nineteenth-century beaver hat factory that operated

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

DONNYBROOK, MY HOMETOWN

on the site. The factory was built by three Wright brothers in 1813 and was staffed mostly

by Wesleyan Methodists from the north of England. For their employees, the brothers built cottages, a hall, a school, a footbridge and a Wesleyan Methodist church, all on Bea-

ver Row. Records are unclear as to when the factory closed, but by the end of the nineteenth century very little remained of what was once a large industrial centre. The Methodist Church still stands on private property on Beaver Row. An often overlooked but

unique building in Donnybrook is the Bus Garage.

When it was completed in 1952, it was the only building in the world to have a concrete shell roof lit by natural light along its entire length.

In 1955, a European Featherweight title boxing match

was held in the garage, and 10,000 spectators packed the building. The bout, between defending champion Ray Famechon of France and challenger Billy Kelly of Derry, lasted for thirteen rounds before Famechon was declared the winner by points. The attending audience was furious at the result and attacked the referee. Police had to intervene and escort the man from the building as the crowd booed and broke their seats.

Dr Doran is currently working on her next book, Donnybrook: Then and Now. The lecture was sponsored by the Ballsbridge, Donnybrook and Sandymount Historical Society, which hosts a variety of events of local historical interest. For more information about forthcoming happenings, visit their website at www.bdshistory.org.

Pictured, left to right: B.D.S. Historical Society Committee Members Angela O’Connell, Chairman John Holohan, Presenter Beatrice Doran, David Siggins, Brian Siggins, Hon. Sec Gail Wolfe. Picture supplied by Cory Hanson.

AIRBNB: CREATING THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE

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By Liam Cahill ack in April, Airbnb opened their new state of the art European Headquarters at the Watermarque building in Ringsend, and announced plans to add 100 people to their workforce. They’re coming into town, not just with a younger workforce, or a depressingly fashionable wardrobe, but with swanky new offices that have become the thing to have if you’re a tech company.

Gone is the boring cubicle culture, famously portrayed in the classic flick Office Space, and in is the ultra modern space, where bean bags are everything and if you don’t have a MacBook, you must be crazy.

Airbnb, a technology company that uses its website to connect people to available spare rooms or apartments in cities all across the globe, has come to town with a modern layout that takes some of its inspiration from Dublin itself and throws in some of its own quirky influences just for fun.

“The design of Airbnb’s new home in Dublin lives at the intersection of productivity and fun,”

says a spokesperson for the company, “with shared spaces for spontaneous collaboration and meeting rooms modelled after some our most inspiring listings from around the world.”

When you enter the offices, the first thing that hits you is the colour: lots of greys, whites and light greys with subtle hints of reds, greens and yellows. In allocated areas, such as the seating area on the ground floor, staff members can sit and have a meeting surrounded by coloured pillows. Meeting rooms, which look slightly like large cardboard boxes, litter the main intersections of the office and are inspired by Airbnb’s listings around the world. There’s even

a meeting room modelled after an Amsterdam apartment (it can be split into two different work spaces).

There are also a lot of references to the fact that they are based in Dublin, and what better way to say you’re in Dublin than to have a reception area that is modelled on an Irish bar.

“We wanted to capture the incredible spirit of Dublin by working with local architects and incorporating elements like a pub reception area and Irish telephone boxes,” says the spokesperson.

Workspaces take up most of the space, situated at the centre of the room; these areas act as the staple of the project, housing what

will soon be 200 staff. Heneghan Peng, an Irish architecture firm, worked in close proximity with Airbnb to incorporate the overall design, which is sleek, clean and open.

“The long-standing assumption of permanent, individual ownership of workstations by office workers is being replaced by appropriation by increasingly mobile office workers,” writes American architect John Worthington in his 2013 book Reinventing the Workplace. “Each of these multiple settings has specific environmental qualities appropriate to different facets of the office work but all of them are bound together by an invisible network of communications.”

Airbnb is not the only technology company to have smartly designed offices. Google and

Facebook (who will be moving closer to Grand Canal Basin in the coming months) also have their own creative spaces. New technology companies tend to invest in creative office environments in order to bolster a happier workforce, which it’s hoped will increase productivity in the long run.

It’s less about a swanky office than the creation of a different kind of office environment, one that promotes openness and creativity. It’s one thing to have a nice office, but does it actually increase productivity in the long run? Considering Airbnb’s recent investment in the Dublin 4 area, they must be on to something.

Photography by Airbnb.com and Ed Reeve.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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REDEVELOPMENT FOR ALEXANDRA BASIN?

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By Liam Cahill he Dublin Port Company has launched a planning application with An Bord Pleánala for the redevelopment of Alexandra Basin, at a cost of €200 million.

The plan, simply called the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project (ABR), would involve deepening of berths between East Link Bridge and the edge of Alexandra Basin, the expansion of land to allow cruise ships to dock, and redevelopment of the quay walls at North Wall Quay.

“Dublin Port Company’s ABR Project will give us the infrastructure, capacity and versatility needed to future-proof Dublin Port,” says Eamon O’Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of Dublin Port. “Dublin Port Company is committed to carrying out this project within our current footprint, re-developing and utilising existing port lands in the most efficient way possible, while financing the project from our own resources.”

The redevelopment, if planning permission is granted, will

happen over the course of five years, with the creation of 200 construction jobs and a further 320 annually throughout the totality of Dublin Port’s redevelopment projects.

The ABR project represents the first phase in an ambitious master plan, which outlines a number of broad objectives Dublin Port hopes to meet over the coming years, such as optimising existing lands currently owned and operated by the Port, the redevelopment of quaysides, extending water depth, achiev-

ing closer integration with the city, the promotion of pedestrian cycle routes and the preservation of the local environment and heritage.

“This is the kind of boost the city needs and the port community needs,” says Fine Gael Councillor Kieran Binchy. “There’s a community there that has always worked in the port. I do have one problem: the port is causing a huge nuisance in terms of noise and I think the plan should involve a solution to those problems.”

EMPEROR OF THE IRISH: BRIAN BORU AND THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF, 1014 THE LONG ROOM, TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY DUBLIN (APRIL – OCTOBER 2014) 2014 will see the celebration of an important medieval milestone in the Long Room of Trinity College Dublin: the one thousandth anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf. In the popular imagination that battle was the culmination of a long war between Viking invaders/settlers and the most powerful of all Irish kings, Brian Boru. The historical reality was not so simple, and both the history and the legend of Brian will be examined in a new exhibition: Emperor of the Irish.

Pride of place in this unique exhibition will be given to the only item known to have been in Brian’s presence, the famous 9th-century decorated manuscript known as the Book of Armagh.

The exhibition will include some of the Library’s greatest medieval Irish treasures such as the Book of Leinster and the Brian Boru harp. The display will incorporate large-scale graphics designed by Cartoon Saloon (producers of the Academy Award nominated animated film The Secret of Kells), which have been inspired by the exhibition’s themes.

Dublin Port launched the planning application, which under the Planning and Development Act can take up to twelve months to process, with An Bord Pleánala in March. In the meantime, Dublin Port have held a number of consultations with the public – including at Dublin Port HQ, in Clontarf, at the Sean O’Casey Community Centre in East Wall and Clanna Gael in Ringsend – which put the plans on public display.

“In principle, it is a good thing to expand the capacity of Dub-

lin Port with the prospect of increasing tourism and generating revenue for our city,” said Frank Kennedy, Fianna Fáil local election candidate for Pembroke/ South-Dock. “There must be ongoing consultation with local residents, many of whom have suffered greatly because of the enormous levels of noise generated by Dublin Port.”

If the plan gets the green light, it would be the most ambitious redevelopment of the Basin area in over 200 years. The finalised development would mean doubling the amount of cruise ship activity in and around the port, which would in turn help fuel the local economy in Dublin 4.

“We have engaged with government, business and industry stakeholders, customers and local communities over the past year to help shape today’s planning application,” says Eamon O’Reilly.

Submissions or objections by the public are now closed, however Dublin Port Centre on Alexandra road is open weekdays from 9am–5pm to facilitate queries.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

BAGGOT INN IS (BIT)COINING IT IN

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By Rúairí Conneely n March this year, the Baggot Inn of Lower Baggot Street became the first Irish pub to accept payments in the form of the world’s newest and most controversial currency, the BitCoin.

While the eyes and minds of pundits and politicians remain focused on the prospects, form and likelihood of economic recovery, the Internet has given rise to this curious financial innovation.

A valid currency, only a few years old and growing fast, not

issued by any government, bank or financial institution, BitCoin has already created millionaires and divided commentators, with questions raised in the business and finance world as to its validity, given that it issues from no recognised authority.

However, its electronic nature seems to give it an advantage over any other type of alternative currency. NewsFour speaks to Chris Healey, Sales and Marketing Manager of the Baggot Inn, about their early adoption of this very modern fiscal mutation.

“We have a customer who comes in quite a bit,” Chris explains, “and around December or January he asked us about it, if we would consider it. We looked into it and pretty quickly decided ‘why not?’ It’s another method of payment at the end of the day.”

We want to know about how a person buys a round of drinks with BitCoins. One of the most perplexing aspects for many is the fact that they have no concrete physical existence.

BitCoins are fixed but insubstantial: in principle, that is no

Paddle boarders make the most of a sunny day at Grand Canal Dock.

So, BitCoin... what is it?

itCoin is a new idea for most, and one that can be hard to wrap your head around if you have little knowledge of computation, let alone of finance and what determines the value of currency. Fortunately, NewsFour is here to help you, in straight-talking terms.

The controversy surrounding BitCoin at a political level is that it is a currency that is not issued by any central authority: no government, bank or institution determines how many BitCoins are out there. Instead, BitCoins are generated in batches by elaborate exercises in computer processing. Complex mathematical problems, which take a lot of processing time and energy to solve, are generated. Every solved problem generates up to 50 BitCoins over time. This generation process is known as mining. Currently, the advantage is with the most tech-savvy.

An ordinary laptop set to work on a mining operation could conceivably work for two years without generating a coin. As such, networks of computers tend to share a given mining problem, chipping away at it a little at a time.

It’s possible to buy USB memory sticks that carry the BitCoin mining software. These are effectively plug and play: you insert them into your device, actuate the programme and let it work away in the background. Those who are less computer literate can simply purchase Bitcoins like any foreign currency. A good starting place is somewhere like www.howtobuybitcoins.info, which presents a simple directory of exchanges where BitCoins are available to buy through PayPal, among other media.

According to current estimates, as of April 2014, there are more than 12.5 million BitCoins in circulation. One BitCoin is estimated, at time of writing, to be worth €359.83. stranger than having an email account but people are still used to thinking of currency as having at least some physicality. As it turns out, BitCoin payments allow you to line up your night’s dinner and drinks in advance, much as you might order a book on Amazon. “You can go on to our site, thebaggotinn.ie, select your drinks and set a table number, give us your details and make the payment that way,” says Chris. “We also have a tablet behind the bar with an app that allows people to make payments directly from their phone, instead of ordering in advance.”

Smartphone or tablet apps for carrying and transferring BitCoins are known, unsurprisingly as ‘wallets’ and they are the evidence that whatever the fate of BitCoin as an individual currency, eCurrencies are seemingly here to stay, just as personal communication tech is.

That said, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Dublin-based company Circle Internet Finance, recently expressed the view that BitCoin is in an equivalent state

of usefulness to the Internet as it was twenty years ago: promising but not quite there yet.

Chris explains that so far it is mainly tech-savvy customers who are paying for their afterwork drinks this way. “We have regulars who work in IT security, systems management, that type of thing. They’re very up on it obviously. Also some journalists, and another regular who is a car mechanic. Every day there are purchases in BitCoin here.”

As to whether BitCoin provides any particular advantages for businesses, Chris says “Basically, it’s another feather in our cap, another payment method for people who want to use it. From April, the Baggot Inn has hosted a BitCoin ATM, where people can download cash from their accounts onto their phone or tablet. In this bar at least, the future is now.”

Pictured above: Chris Healy from the Baggot Inn, Ireland’s first pub to accept BitCoin currency.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL’S VOTE AGAINST ELECTED MAYOR “SELFISH”

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By Liam Cahill ouncillors representing the Dublin South East area have strongly criticised Fingal County Council’s decision to vote against a Bill calling for a directly elected Mayor for Dublin.

Fingal County Council vetoed the Local Government Bill by 16 votes to six back in March in a controversial decision, which leaves the ongoing debate for a directly elected Mayor uncertain.

“The action of Fingal County Council was both cowardly and selfish,” Fine Gael Councillor Paddy McCartan tells NewsFour. “Fingal are totally out of step with the other three Dublin Local Authorities; all that was being asked of Fingal was to allow the people to decide whether they wished to have a directly elected Mayor for their city.”

“I believe the whole system was skewed against it, the Department of the Environment didn’t want it,” says Labour Cllr. Gerry Ashe, expressing an opinion shared by some of her

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colleagues from the South East Area. “There’s a disconnect between Fingal and the City; Dun Laoghaire didn’t have a problem but somehow Fingal did.”

The Local Government Bill, introduced by the Minister for

the Environment Phil Hogan last October, proposed one of the largest overhauls of local government in the history of the state. It will merge some County and City Councils, abolish town Councils (a process that has al-

ready begun), create municipal districts and allow for a referendum on whether or not to have a directly elected Mayor for Dublin.

The Department of the Environment left the Mayoral decision up to Dublin’s 4 Councils; Fingal, Dublin City Council, Dublin South Council and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, with three in favour and one (Fingal) voting against.

“I could not support something that was not detailed enough in my mind to put to a vote,” says Fingal Fianna Fáil Cllr. Darragh Butler, who decided not to vote on the measure. “Had we voted yes and it had been passed, Minister Hogan would have a totally free hand to decide what powers this Mayor would or would not have. I was not convinced that this was in the best interests of Fingal residents.”

The decision by Fingal County Council has left some puzzled faces on some elected representatives and on the faces of Council officials. In 2010, Dublin City Council launched the Your

Dublin, Your Voice online initiative, which asked should the city have a directly elected Mayor.

As NewsFour reported last summer, many mainstream politicians supported the idea of a directly elected Mayor, including Independent Cllr Mannix Flynn, Ciaran Cuffe of the Green Party and former Lord Mayors Oisín Quinn and Naoise O’Muirí, who remarked that “most modern cities have elected officials.”

“It’s a terrible shame that the people of Dublin won’t have a choice,” says Fianna Fáil Candidate for Pembroke/South-Dock, Frank Kennedy. “I understand that Fingal Councillors were concerned because there was little or no detail, but this was not a good enough reason to deny Dubliners a vote.”

“The manner in which they have blocked this is completely undemocratic,” says Fine Gael Cllr. Kieran Binchy, “It prevents the people of Dublin having their say on whether they want a directly-elected Mayor.”

The future of our city’s Mayor seems rather uncertain.

THE MASONIC HISTORY OF BEWLEY’S HOTEL

By Rúairí Conneely ewley’s Hotel on the Merrion Road is one of the most infamously grand buildings in Dublin.

Sumptuous and eye-catching to the passerby, the design of the building is also provocative to history students, and no doubt the odd conspiracy theorist, as it is distinctly marked by motifs and designs associated with the tradition of Freemasonry. A window in the shape of a hexagram, and the letter ‘G’ surmounted by a compass and a set square are especially prominent.

The building itself dates back to 1881 or 1882 (sources vary) but the construction was certainly completed by 1882. It was designed and built by the firm of McCurdy and Mitchell, an architecture and civil engineering partnership based in Lincoln Place.

The specific purpose was to house the Masonic Female Orphan School of Ireland. This unlovely, functional title masks a revolutionary social idea that Masonry introduced to Ireland.

The school as an institution was founded in 1792, to provide support and education to girls aged

10 to 15 who were orphaned.

However, as Morgan McCreadie explains, orphan then was not quite what orphan now would mean.

“In these cases, orphans were girls whose fathers had died while they were young,” McCreadie says. “Since the mother’s role was limited in society at the time, this meant the girls could effectively be reduced to destitution. They had no prospects.”

McCreadie is Assistant to the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. He explains that the idea of educating girls in the late eighteenth century was very radical, and was part of the overall agenda of Masonry, which has promoted public education since its inception. “There is also the fact that something had to be done to provide for the children of our brothers who had died prematurely.”

The school moved around from site to site over the first hundred years of its history. The records of the first 50 years are sparse, but it is understood that initially it housed and educated about 20 girls. The girls were instructed in what would have been regarded

at the time as ‘appropriately feminine pursuits’, so they might eventually make a living as governesses and teachers.

The school was moved to a property near Charlemont Street

around 1801, and again over the years to addresses in Ranelagh, Jervis Street and South Richmond Street.

The construction of the purpose-built site on the Merrion

Road was a cause of great celebration. The school persisted until 1970, at which point the change in educational and social standards presented the Irish Lodges with a problem.

The school would have to grow its population of boarding students considerably to remain sustainable. Several plans were discussed, including resorting to the form of a conventional fee-paying school, but in the end the property was sold to the RDS, who renamed it Thomas Prior House.

The Grand Lodge themselves constructed an office block near their Molesworth Street address and leased the space, to fund a charitable grant scheme for students in need of support, a scheme which continues to this day.

The connection to the building now owned by Bewley’s is a continuing source of pride.

McCreadie explains that the stained glass windows that once hung in the Drill Hall to the building’s left, representing allegorical figures of Faith, Hope, Charity and Prudence, now decorate their Hall in town, as proud reminders.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

RUNNING PROUD FOR OUR TOWN

I

By Maria Shields O’Kelly t was the first official weekend of the summer and the cloud and drizzle that loomed overhead was no match for the atmosphere that was generated by the people of Ringsend/Irishtown, who gathered for the highly anticipated community Fun Run. The Our Town initiative aims

to regenerate the locality by pulling in resources from community and corporate sectors with the spirit of cooperation that will nurture the culture of social progression. Celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin and architect Felim Dunne are lending their expertise to the plan, which promises to overhaul the Ringsend/Irishtown area.

Participants took on four laps of Ringsend Park, totalling 5km, in fine fashion. Beetlejuice, a manly nun, a group of Power Rangers and a not very well thought out scuba diver who tripped over his flippers as soon as the starting whistle blew, were among the sea of yellow t-shirts, certainly the predominant colour on the day.

Among a group of participants were Tina May, Audrey Plunkett and Donna Maher, who are all relatives of Ross Cummins and wore yellow Run for Ross tshirts. “We are doing this today in honour of Ross, the local DJ who tragically died in February of this year,” Tina May told NewsFour. “He was everybody’s friend, everyone knew him in the area,” another lady adds.

Alan, aka the King of Cambridge (Boys FC), was there to raise money for St. Vincent’s Hospital Neurology Dept. “We have raised over €1000 already through sponsorship,” he told us.

Although fun was the theme of the day, with many of the competitors happy to walk to the finish line, there were also many serious runners taking part. Thomas Tracey was the winner of the men’s race. Without taking a chance to catch his breath, he spoke to NewsFour.

“Really enjoyable, very good support along the way, particularly on the straight. It’s

always the same when there’s an event in Ringsend,” he says, “I’m back running now a few months and this has given me a real boost. I’m looking forward to the summer now and the marathon in October.”

Sharon Woods won the ladies’ race, having run with two fellow Crusaders, the resident athletic team, who all finished

in the top 10.

Diarmuid and Eppie, having pulled on their running shoes, both made impressive times, though Diarmuid admits he found it hard to keep up with his daughter. “Tough!

A lot of local competition, but what a great atmosphere today and they have organised it so well,” he told NewsFour when

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

PAGE 21

asked how he found the race.

“It’s a great start to the whole regeneration program. This has been a bit of a challenge to the community, to see if something could be organised, and they’ve certainly done that. It’s great to see everybody united in a great community spirit. It’s onwards and upwards now. This is the green light.”

Diarmuid Gavin and Felim Dunne would like to thank Clanna Gael, The Anchorage, NewsFour, BADRA, Serve the City, Intersevens, Ringsend Community Services Forum, Bridge Utd, Crusaders, Irishtown Stadium and O’Dwyer Auctioneers for their involvement in organising the event.

A gallery of images will be available to view on ourtownfunrun. com in the next few weeks.

MAY DAY PARADE

Page 20, clockwise from top: Local residents turn up in fancy dress to take part in the Our Town Fun Run. Thomas Treacey the fastest man at the Fun Run. Diarmuid Gavin races alongside the other entrants in the Fun Run. This page, clockwise from top left: Lee Weaver Joyce who ran the whole race in diving gear and flippers.

Three medal winners from Crusaders Ladies, from left to right Joanne Dalton (7th ) Sharon Ward (1st) and Joanne Blaauw (3rd) all qualified for medals in the Fun Run. The fastest woman Sharon Ward crosses the finish line.

T

By Maria Shields O’Kelly he community spirit continued, from where it left off at the Fun Run at Ringsend Park, to RICC, where the May Day Parade got underway on a Bank Holiday Monday to remember.

The sixth annual May Day Parade welcomed many newcomers, among them Ringsend Rock School, who have just recorded their first charity single, Eleanora, in aid of Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY), with the support of Crusaders, Irishtown Stadium and O’Dwyer Auctioneers.

The thumping drumbeat of the Dublin All Stars and Finglas Festival Marching Bands brought smiling families out onto the balconies that line the route. There they were greeted by colourful

stilt walkers, music and the splendour of the Lord Mayor’s carriage, occupied by newly appointed Lord Mayor of Ringsend, Alice Foley, on her debut appearance sporting the gold chains.

“Each year we hope to make the event bigger and better, and I think we have

surpassed our expectations this year, launching our own future rock stars and supporting a very worthy charity too,” said RICC manager Lorraine Barry. “The smiles are literally smeared on every face I see. This is what being a community is all about.”

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

DODDER ACTION

“I

By Maria Shields O’Kelly t’s a metaphor for life.

You get out what you put in.” That’s what Victoria White, spokesperson for Dodder Action, tells NewsFour at this year’s Dodder cleanup when asked why this initiative is so important.

Dodder Action was formed three years ago by Kevin Dennehy, and the first ever cleanup day, from source to sea, happened two years ago. Although previous attempts were successful at local level, it became apparent that unless a river-long campaign was launched, the source of the problem would continue to resurface further down the river.

White gives an example of this. “In Firhouse, there is an old dump that has been filled in.

At times of high tides or flooding, the level of the river rises and waste seeps into the river from this dump. Fly-tipping is also a problem in this area.”

The cleanup took place on Saturday April 12th at locations along the river, and approximately 200 volunteers worked

in local groups under the umbrella of Dodder Action.

NewsFour asked Darren Gorman, from this year’s sponsor, Royal Bank of Canada, what brings him here today. “I can’t think of a better way to spend Saturday morning than to get out and give something back,” he replies. Today’s cleanup was part of the group’s Blue Water Project, which also takes part in the London Thames cleanup.

“Dodder Action will be campaigning for South Dublin County Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council and Dublin City Council to have no arguments about whose side of the river a shopping trolley is in.

All that matters is getting it out,” White says. “We have had great support from the Council for today’s effort. They will be returning to collect the rubbish and have provided much-needed resources.”

On hand at all times throughout the day was the Irish Underwater Rescue Service Unit, whose members weren’t afraid to take the plunge, quite literally, and immerse themselves

in the task of helping out. “You just have to go with the flow,” says Reggie Tester, of the Unit.

Representation from the US was present, with Cory Hanson from Iowa, an avid angler who can fully appreciate the

value of the river as a resource and amenity for all. As refreshments were later served in Donnybrook Scout Hall, he stood with Councillor Gerry Ashe, comparing war wounds as the group recounted notable stories

of the day. “Someone lost their trousers,” laughed Ashe as she described the curious debris pulled from the water. Another woman spoke of pulling rubbish from beneath layers of silt, which had been laid down over decades, melting the debris into the riverbed.

Underneath the fun and humour of the day, the urgency of the message was never lost and activist Victoria White propelled the activities with her pep talks on the disgrace of river pollution, but also aired her ideas for the solution. She welcomed plans to build a cycle track along the riverbank, as she noticed that the worst hit areas were less densely populated and least used.

Reports are that there has been a marked improvement for wildlife, flora and fauna since last year’s clean up, with a reappearance of the kingfisher and the otter.

More details can be found at www.dodderactiondublin.com Pictured: Connor Finnegan from the Irish Underwater Search and Recovery unit wades in to clear out the river bed.

AN EXCERPT FROM PADDY PIGGOTT’S MEMORIES OF A LIFETIME

The following is taken from a filmed interview shot and edited in 2010 by Pat Larkin. Here Paddy discusses his time working for the Gas Company.

I

was born in 1928 at 19 Hanover Street East. There was a controversy over my name.

People think its Picket but ya can spell it with a French accent ‘Pigg-ott’.

My first job was in Tonge and Taggart at age 14. I was there four years, then I walked into a job in the Gas Company and I stuck it for 18 years. I served me time feeding furnaces; the furnaces were stoked all day and all night. It takes a month for a fire to go out.

There was pure gas went straight up to the atmosphere and all the pigeons used to come in their thousands to breathe in the heat. There were no electric lights, they were gas lights that were square and all dirty so ya worked from the lights of yer fires. Each man had eight fires.

The coal was brought from the coalboats to the retort house. A retort house was where we made the gas. There was four sections

in a retort house and ya went through the four every couple of years.

At that time the unions were terrible and we worked in very dangerous conditions. It was feckin slavery; we worked 48 hours, seven days a week. There was a six o’clock and a two o’clock shift. Each man had to tell the next shift the read. “Watch that retort, there’s danger at that hanger, that’s a dropper, that’s a scorer.”

One morning the shift before

us, Larry Doyle, God rest him, was pushing the skip and above him the solid casting with the doors broke and about two hundred ton of coal came thundering down. The place was in darkness for three or four hours. Larry had just pushed the skip out of the way. We made our complaints and the Company said, “We will give yis a double shift, anything ya want.”

There was a casual list of twenty men outside the gate every morning. If the Gas Company

needed any men they took them there. The harder ya worked the more rest ya had for a game of cards or a few large bottles in yer locker.

They gave us a thirty-six hour shift. No, we said, we wanted the retort house demolished. They offered us spotters. A spotter was a man with a flash lamp who shined his light up to the castings to see if they were cracked. We worked for six months because we had to clear all the tons of coal left in the hoppers. It had to be burned before they could demolish it.

The other condition was that the 20 men on the list outside the gate be hired as a fourth shift.

They agreed and Jake Gilmore was one of them and Larry Doyle. We didn’t accept any money.

We used to call them the ghost shift because they were the fourth shift and ya never seen them.

We worked under dangerous conditions in them days. Then we got a substitute for steel, it was really light and then we got protective clothing; clogs, shirts, different gear, winter and summer. The clogs had steel around them and there would be sparks

flying out of them. Ye were allowed half an hour, ten minutes to walk to Morronies, ten minutes to have a few pints and ten minutes to walk back. Ya had to guzzle the pints.

Sadly, Paddy passed away on June 8th 2011.

You can read more about the Gas Company and other Ringsend stories in Pat Larkin’s book, The Coalboat Kids, available to purchase at Sandymount’s Books on the Green.

Left: Stoking the furnaces.

Below: Paddy Piggott in more recent times. Pictures supplied

by Pat Larkin.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

PAGE 23

GOOD TIMES AT IRIS CHARLES CENTRE DANCE

Clockwise from left: Sean Ralph takes the mike. Lily Cunningham gets up to sing a song accompanied by the band Past Times. Phil Keogan and Marie Clerkin dance the afternoon away. Lily Cunningham, Maureen Robinson and Marcella Jackman sing along to the band.

PAGE 24

‘MEET ME AT THE ROSIE’

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

ST BART’S BELLS CHIME AGAIN

C

“T

By Donna Dunne he words came into my head while I was cycling along after a meeting.” Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey is putting politics aside for a moment to tell NewsFour about a song he composed, titled Meet Me at the Rosie. “When I went home, I stayed up all night with a pen and paper, a glass or two of Jemmy, and then I wrote the song,” says the Councillor. “The song is a tribute to the working class people who make this city great, and Rosie Hackett is a symbol of that.”

The song has been released as a charity single for ALONE, who support older people by providing a befriending service, a long-term housing service and dealing with any crises that arise within the elderly community. ALONE doesn’t receive any government funding for the day-to-day running of their services, so Meet me at the Rosie donations towards the We courted “at the Pillar”, single will make a real then under Clery’s Clock, difference to the lives Now it’s time for a new tradition, of the older people they Where Dub’s young lovers can take work with. stock.

It would have been a So meet me at “The Rosie”, surprise to everyone for will be our new refrain.

Cllr. Lacey to sing the As we remember Rosie Hackett, song he wrote; instead, And her claim to fame.

Geraldine Finn put her vocals to the track, while (chorus) Martin Tourish composed So sing a song for Rosie, the music. Geraldine is a a hero of our town, singer from Co. Galway Worked all her life for Ireland, who has sung and toured Fought the bosses and the crown. extensively with the band RíRá, and sings in a Working for the Workers, number of different styles Striking for their rights, including Irish traditionPrinting drafts for Connolly, al, soul and jazz. Martin Through Liberty Hall’s long nights. is a Dublin-based accorShe led the Women’s Union, dionist, composer and Delia Larkin by her side producer, originally from Putting on those Red Hand pins, Co. Donegal, and has just that they wore with pride. released his latest album, Under a Red Sky Night, (chorus) to critical acclaim.

Dermot and the gang As we stroll now across the Liffey, recorded the song in Bringing people South and North, Silverwoods Studios in Remember that great Woman, Wicklow with Gavin Ralwho showed what we were worth. ston on April 16th. It was So three cheers for Rosie Hackett, released for download on And Dublin’s brand new bridge, iTunes on May 20th, in sing a song for love and freedom, time for the opening of And of our Labour heritage. the new Rosie Hackett Bridge. (chorus x 2) Above: Rosie Hackett.

By Steve Kingston hurch Bells are something you might well feel indifferent toward; that is, unless you live nearby a church. If you do, then you may think they are either an important part of your local community or simply noise pollution.

Whichever camp you fall into, they are hard to ignore.

Bells were first used in Christian churches in AD 400. Their initial use has been credited to Saint Paulinus of Nola, whose remains lay at the church of Saint Adalbert, now Saint Bartholomew’s, in Rome. 1,600 years later, we are still divided by the “ding dong” in the distance.

St Bartholomew’s, a Church of Ireland parish church on Clyde Road in Ballsbridge, is a good example of what happens when two strongly held opinions about local soundscapes collide. The bells of “St Barts”, as the church is known locally, had chimed every 15 minutes and counted out the hour, every hour, for 130 years. Then, in 2009, Dublin City Council received two noise pollution complaints.

The Council informed the Church that they would face fines of up to €3,000 if they allowed the bells to ring at night.

When the Vicar of St Barts, Andrew McCroskery, was previously asked about inquiries from new residents about the chimes, he is quoted as saying, “We always asked them to see if they could live with them for a week and to come back to us if they couldn’t. No one ever came back.”

In an attempt at compromise, the Church’s solution was to consult with a specialist horologist (an expert in clocks and their workings), who installed a mechanism that silenced them from 11pm to 7am. There were problems with this however; the clock and “carillon”, which is the system where several different bells are struck to produce a melody, are a protected structure, so it was difficult to stop the chimes without damaging the clock, strikers and bells themselves. As a result, the mechanism failed repeatedly, more complaints were

received and in September of 2013, it was decided to stop the clock completely.

The local reaction was overwhelmingly in favour of re-instating the bells. ULSARA, the Upper Leeson Street Residents Association, and the Pembroke Road Residents Association, had previously been involved in the campaign to halt the original plans for the redevelopment of the Jurys Ballsbridge site. They were able to mobilise very quickly and raised funds for legal representation, gather signatures and lobby local representatives.

Members of the church themselves worked tirelessly to find a way around the problem, but to no avail. Then, just as all seemed lost, the Council

changed their position. Rev McCroskery said, “Out of the blue we got a very short email from the Council saying they were no longer pursuing action against us in relation to the clock, and we could turn it back on.” As it turned out, Dublin City Council had been given incorrect legal advice.

The matter had been thrashed out in court in 1882, so the ruling was in favour of St Barts.

Members of the church held a well-attended celebration after they were switched back on, and the general consensus in the area is that it was a narrow escape for something that is held dear by the community. When contacted by NewsFour, Rev McCroskery said he wished to “leave the matter there.”

CHURCH BELLS AND THE LAW

An American man, John Devaney, of Rhode Island, has filed a lawsuit in a US District Court personally suing Pope Francis, amongst others, over the noise from his local church. Devaney told the Providence Journal that the bells have so disrupted his life they even helped to bring about the demise of his marriage.

In most US States the laws around noise pollution do not cover places of religious worship, but the laws relating to noise here are very different. The law in Ireland governing this area is covered in Section 108 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 and the Environmental Protection Agency Act (Noise) Regulations 1994. It states that “noise such as that coming from other homes, workshops or local businesses that is continuous, repeated, loud and occurring at such times and of such duration that it affects the quality of life of the person” is covered in law.

While the law does not specifically mention an exact level or standard of noise that is illegal, if it is affecting the quality of life of a citizen, then you have a right to complain. The Citizens Information Board advises that “you should approach the person or business causing the noise and explain that it is a nuisance and try to come to a mutually acceptable solution. If this does not work, your local authority has the same power as individuals to bring noise complaints to the District Court”. The maximum fine for conviction on breach of noise regulations is €3,000, 12 months in prison, or both.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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DCC NOT ES Compiled by Liam Cahill

UCD Burst Pipe Causes a Stir The South East Area meeting of Dublin City Council was told UCD burst a pipe back in May. The burst pipe caused damage to some houses in Beech Hill and Airfield Drive, supposedly due to the fact the pipe was connected to pipes in other parts of the city, resulting in a backup.

“My motion is simply looking for a report on the incident and how it happened,” said Labour Cllr. Dermot Lacey.

Cllr. Lacey also said Dublin Fire Brigade failed to respond to the incident, an allegation disputed by Charlie Rowe, an official with the City Council, who said he had been in contact with DFB regarding the incident and concluded it was difficult to assume exactly what happened at this point.

Conservation and Management Plan for Merrion Square Park Broadly Welcomed A conservation and management plan for Merrion Square Park was broadly welcomed by South East area councillors.

The plan, which was drafted by Dublin architects Howley Hayes in conjunction with Dublin City Council, proposes a number of structural changes to the park, including the building of a new pavilion (which could house art and be used as a seating area) the creation of a cafeteria, and the inclusion of a new entrance.

“This is a pavilion in which multimedia can be projected onto screens; you would come through a central area over a pool, and then on either side you’d have screens and some benches

so people can sit and watch art,” said James Howley of Howley Hayes Architects, speaking about the new proposed entrance. “All of the Merrion Square cultural institutions could have three to five minute video, you could sit in shelter and get a cup of coffee.

Effectively, we’re creating a new front, instead of just having a bland back wall onto the park.”

Councillors broadly welcomed the plan, with Fine Gael Cllr. Paddy McCartan saying although in his opinion it is a “radical initiative”, he is “attracted to the proposal to bring the original path layouts.”

“I’m all on for the preservation and the upkeep of this park,” said Independent Cllr.

Mannix Flynn. “I’m confused and concerned in regards to the outdoor screens. I would like to see something along the lines with the Serpentine in London.

I’m delighted we’re placing a focus on this.”

“I think it’s important that we don’t over-commercialise the park,” said Fianna Fáil Cllr. Jim O’Callaghan, “obviously a café is a good idea; I would have slight concerns about screens.”

“This is a timely report, as it comes after the 250th anniversary of the square itself, and is a part of a process that has taken 12 months to complete,” said Michael Noonan, a City Council Official.

Freehill Complains About Gulistan Again Labour Cllr. Mary Freehill complained again about the Council’s lack of co-operation with her in regards to an issue

she raised six months ago.

The issue regards traffic problems in and around Gulistan Terrace in Ranelagh.

“This is nearly six months, and I see it has fallen off the agenda,” said Cllr. Freehill. “Gulistan doesn’t seem to be anywhere now.” Fianna Fáil Cllr.

O’Callaghan seconded Cllr.

Freehill’s motion, and said there is a problem regarding large trucks.

“In regards to Gulistan, there are just insufficient resources to be on site for every request,” said Donal Breenan of Dublin City Council’s Traffic Division, “a recommendation is due shortly.”

Resurfacing in Donnybrook Cllr. McCartan asked the City Council to resurface the road at Victoria Avenue in Donnybrook.

The Council said the funds for resurfacing have already been allocated and Victoria Avenue was not included.

“Victoria Avenue is in reasonable condition at present and would not be considered for resurfacing at this stage. The road will be kept under review if its condition deteriorates signifi-

cantly,” said the Council.

Cllr. McCartan also asked for the roads on Nutley Avenue in Donnybrook to be resurfaced.

The Council replied, saying the road didn’t need a resurfacing at this time.

€11,000 Secured for Traffic Speed Reduction Cllr Lacey and Fine Gael Cllrs Kieran Binchy and McCartan have secured €11,000 in order to reduce speed on the Strand Road.

The money will be used to help build “speed reduction measures”, although the nature of these measures is unclear at this point.

It was also agreed to seek a 30KPH speed limit on the road in order to eradicate or significantly reduce the speeding problem.

Residential Units in South East Area Cllr. Lacey welcomed the government’s allocation of funds in order to fill over 100 empty residential units in the South East Area.

The funds will be used in order to re-open and maintain the structures and make sure they are habitable for families.

According to the Councillor, a further 350 units have been identified for immediate action.

The allocation of funds comes in the wake of a new report by Daft.ie, which shows Dublin is in the midst of a serious housing crisis, with average rent prices rising by 14% in the last year in Dublin City alone, and demand for suitable housing outpacing availability.

Grants Allocated for Community Groups in South East Area Grants totalling €60,000 were approved for community groups in the South East Area.

Some groups awarded were Scout Groups, Tidy Towns Committees and local Residential Associations throughout the area.

Spectators at the opera La Boheme held in Merrion Park last year.

PAGE 26

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

LOCAL PICTURE ROUNDUP

Pictures clockwise from top left: Emerald Girls Band, St Patrick’s Day 1950, left to right: Angela McKenna, Dympna Talbot, Phyliss McLoughan.

Fergal Mac Donagh and Willie Kearney at the Blessing of the Boats ceremony, Poolbeg Marina, May 18th. €500 was raised for Ringsend crèche in a raffle to win a fabulous dolls’ house wardrobe, made and donated by Billy Brophy. The crèche would like to thank Billy. If you would like something similar for your little princess’s room then contact him on 087 2706356. His work can also be seen at wifeslist.ie Left to right: Anne Marie Kenny, Erica Martin, Chloe Martin (winner), Billy Brophy, Mary O’Brien.

Our Jimmy Purdy with a mug his granddaughter Rachel Croke had made for him, with pictures of him receiving his Sean Moore Award and written on it is Sean Moore Person of the Year Award.

Photo by Karen Keegan.

Seafort School of Irish Dancing 1940, back row left to right: Bernadette Devlin, Carmel Ronan, Noel Kavanagh, Ann Mosley, Carmel Kennelly. Front: Dympna Purdy, Vera Devlin, Mary Teidt.

Ringsend Girls School playground, early 1970s.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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“A

By Maria Shields O’Kelly n Apple a day keeps Microsoft away” is the modern twist on a well-known saying. It may be a sign of the times, but, this September, the new first year students starting in Ringsend College will be reporting back on all the benefits and challenges of learning with the aid of the popular Apple device, the iPad. The pilot scheme will begin on the first day of term for the lucky 40 pupils, who come from the surrounding feeder primary schools, when they will each receive their own iPad. Head porter Paddy Maguire is looking forward to the new initiative and believes it will be a great success. He introduced NewsFour to Donnchadh Clancy, principal of the school, who told us, “The modern classroom is changing, and teaching methods need to change with the times.

Young minds are used to technology already. There are some fantastic educational websites available to us, as well as book publishers’ growing availability of e-books. It makes sense to utilize a mode that the student is already in, with which to teach.”

AN APPLE A DAY FOR RINGSEND COLLEGE

Tommy Browne, of the Dublin Port Company, is the person described as the brains behind the operation, which will be run

in similar fashion to the current book rental scheme. The parents pay for the iPad themselves and the Dublin Port Company will

provide upfront finance to enable this to happen. Charlie Murphy, of DPC, is mentioned by the principal as being instrumental

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014 in the operation.

NewsFour asked Clancy if he had any reservations. “Of course there will be challenges, as there are with any new departure. We are going into unknown territory,” he said, “Distracting websites, inappropriate content or any device with a camera can potentially cause problems and therefore we will have to be thorough with our appropriate usage policy. However, this will also empower the students with a sense of personal responsibility and prepare them for third level in a new way that can enhance their research skills and familiarize them with valuable methods for lifelong learning.

It will help second level to catch up with the modern education system and spark the whole thing up to continue to be effective. At all times we are aware of the pitfalls and it will be conducted on our terms.”

The school’s router will restrict access while on the premises.

Other benefits include reduced need for bulky lockers, improved health and safety through reduction in weight of school bags, information storage and no more excuses like “The dog ate my homework.”

GETTING A SENSE OF THE SENSOR CITY

D

By Rúairí Conneely ublin is set to become the test bed for what’s being called an Internet of Things, in collaboration with Intel Labs Europe. An announcement in early April by Intel and Dublin City Council marked the next stage in the much-mooted Smart City initiative.

The scheme will involve the installation of sensor gateways across the city, based on Intel’s Quark and Atom processors. The purpose of the gateways is to monitor environmental data, such as pollution and volume of use, to provide real time information on what is happening where.

One of the eventual aims is the development of apps for smartphone and tablet devices that will allow the public to keep track of information such as traffic flows.

This is the latest and most concrete development in the Digital Masterplan for the city. In June 2013, then Lord Mayor of Dublin Naoise Ó Muirí went on the record in a video address as saying he regarded the “digital agenda for Dublin” as being a huge priority for his term of office. One possibly surprising an-

nouncement at the time was that Dublin would become the digital twin with Guadalajara, Mexico, that country’s first Digital City.

The core virtue of a smart city is resource management. The relationship between city planning and management, the existing infrastructure and the human use of the infrastructure can be more closely monitored and supplemented with existing services, such as Dublin City Council’s traffic data and real-time estimates on the availability of parking.

The Gateway sensors will be part of Intel’s ongoing research into the applications of such technology, and it is hoped they will

contribute problem-solving data to city planning concerns such as the deployment of better cycle lanes, and incidental problems associated with areas of heavy traffic flow, like air and noise pollution.

The Intel Gateway sensors themselves were given their official launch in Beijing, two days after the announcement of the Dublin plan. The collaboration with Dublin City can be seen as a coup for Intel, who are competing with both IBM and General Electric for the imminent Smart Cities technology market. There has been no confirmation as yet on where in the city the gateway sensors will be deployed.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

POET IN PROFILE – MARY GUCKIAN

A

By Rúairí Conneely s mentioned elsewhere in this issue, this year’s One City, One Book is a break from the usual form of adopting an old favourite or reviving a neglected classic. Instead, the book is an anthology, If Ever You Go: a Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song, in which authors old and new, deceased or still kicking (and scribbling) are brought together to showcase the city as they and their muse are given to see it.

The promotional campaign involves a long series of literary events held throughout the city, and some of these are readings which are hosted at the Pearse Street Library under the auspices of the current Senior Librarian, Phil Scanlan.

NewsFour was in attendance at the library when Ringsend resident Mary Guckian, pictured right, read a selection of her own work to an attentive crowd, and we caught up with her afterwards for a chat about her art and how her locale feeds into the work.

Mary has been resident on Joy Street for 20 years and is a member of the Rathmines Writers Group, her involvement in which she credits as helping to make a real poet out of her, “not that I’m sure I can claim to be a real poet,” she adds modestly.

Mary explains that she grew up in Leitrim, on a farm outside Carrick-on-Shannon, and that the inspiration for her poems often begins with something in the city that triggers an association with the country. “I seem to be steeped in the country, still, to this day,” she says, “It is strange how something hits you. It might be something like - this happened to me - a guy feeding seagulls down by the docks. I was taking a walk at lunchtime when I saw him, and when I got home in the evening, the image just unravelled in my head and became a poem.”

Mary always had an impulse to write and feels it is somehow innate, the desire to become a poet. “Something in

PAGE 29 CRANES AND CROSSES

By Mary Guckian On St. Brigid’s Eve, Driving home from work Eleven long armed cranes Hang from fragile clouds Over homes in Ringsend.

Men relax, having climbed Down from their cagesAfter spending a long day Suspended between earth And sky, moving fixtures That have turned an empty Site into a living space.

The interweaving of stark Metal above my head takes Me out of the city and Away from chilling greyness Of cement and glass, where Apartments, hinged tightly Together, are modern homes For single people, sharing Alongside smart google Operators who puff smoke From cigarettes outside In the cool frosty air.

I am back in the last century, Walking on purl stitched soil Patterned by cattle footprints Where we pulled green stalks From damp earth, sucked dry Coconut flavour from inside Stems, savouring the vapid tang.

With a scissors we cut bundles Of the taller rushes, carrying Them to our homes, where we spent hours weaving fragile crosses for St. Brigid’s Eve.

me always wanted to write.

Even as a child, when I was tired after a day helping on the farm, and there was nothing new to read, I would keep a diary.” As a young woman, she wrote historical pieces for the Leitrim Guardian, but didn’t start to write poetry until her thirties.

Mary credits a stay in Australia, from 1973 to 1975, as helping to encourage her somehow, along with the Rathmines Writers Group.

“Every two weeks, we have to have something finished, to share, which is great, as otherwise I doubt I would have finished my first poems.”

Mary redrafts work fre-

quently. Is she one of those writers who hates to write?

“Well, I love the feeling of having finished a poem, you could put it that way.”

Talking about locations a little, she says that Ringsend has grown on her greatly, to the point where she now loves it, and its diversity as a place.

“It was very quiet when I first came here years ago. Now it’s such a mix of young and old, and the Google building has brought quite a lot of life to the Docklands. And I love the walk to Ballsbridge, for the canal.”

See www.dublinonecityonebook.ie/events-2014 for more events.

HAMMERING SOUNDS

By Mary Guckian Hammering sounds from Barrow Street hangs around my home in the morning as metal hits metal and the Metro Verde building rises to sixteen storeys.

Taking milk from the fridge for breakfast I see carts packed with creamery cans, horses and donkeys swaying side to side climb Mary Ann’s Hill.

Echoes of iron ring across the farm as cans are pushed across the platform of Kiltoghert Creamery, emptied into vats for buttermaking, shifted back on shiny dark stone and refilled with skim milk.

When my Father was in hospital I waited at the lane for a farmer to take our milk to the creamery.

Despite packed carts one kind person daily lifted a full can on to the cart to my childish delight.

TELESCOPIC GAS HOLDERS

By Mary Guckian In March I came to live in Joy Street, and took a picture of my house, and the engineering feat that crowned the street.

From this place men came home at sunset, blackened from the coal they filled the furnace with, to make the gas that ballooned into the crown each evening, In July the cranes move in.

I listened to the scream and crunch of contorting rusted metal, as they crushed Victorian grandeur into dust.

Now my house seems bleak without the treat enjoyed each evening, when patterned sunsets silently faded behind the stately Gasometer.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

New land and sea ticket

DODDER WALKIES

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By Liam Cahill ublin Bus and Dublin Bay Cruises have launched a new Land and Sea combo ticket. The new ticket means that visitors, or those wishing to take a day off work or college to discover the city, can now avail of Dublin Bus’s Hop-on Hop-off bus tour, a quick tour of the Little Museum and a tour of Dublin Bay on the St. Bridget cruise boat.

“Our Hop-on, Hop-off tour gives visitors an overview of the city,” says Miriam Brady, Manager of Dublin Bus Tours. “We are proud to team up with Dublin Bay Cruises to offer a new and unique experience to touring Dublin.”

Once you purchase your ticket, it really will be up to you where you want to go. Dublin Bay Cruises can be boarded in Howth, Dun Laoghaire, or on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, from which visitors can avail of the Dublin Bus Hop-on Hop-off tour at Cardiff Lane.

“Now, for the first time with the launch of this fantastic ticket, visitors to the city will be able to view Dublin’s beautiful bay and River Liffey as well as its many fishing villages, islands and wildlife,” says Eugene Garrihy, founder and owner of Dublin Bay Cruises.

The Dublin Bus Hop-on Hop-off tour operates from Cathal Brugha Street from 9am-7pm. Those partaking in the combo ticket will be transferred directly to Dublin Bay Cruises. Both trips cost €30 combined.

For more information see www.DublinBus.ie.

Pictured above: Aoibhin Garrihy poses with the new tickets for the Land and Sea tour.

Eircode is coming

By Maria Shields O’Kelly In the spring of 2015 this country will lead the way in an area of technology when Ireland adopts a unique postcode system called Eircode.

As it stands, 35% of Irish addresses lack a unique digit or defining name. With this progressive smart technology, every Irish address will be quickly and easily identifiable. It is hoped that the code will benefit public services, businesses and residential addresses, particularly rural, and that efficiency will dramatically improve in many areas.

Eircode will be a user-friendly system, employing a memorable code that can be used to easily access local services with smart phones and other devices, thus improving delivery of goods and, more importantly, making it easier to access locations in a medical emergency.

Eircodes will be appointed to all places where post is delivered.

There will be no need to change address, as the code will simply be added to current addresses.

The seven digit code will be broken into two parts: a three digit routing key and a unique four digit identifier. The routing key relates to a specific area, similar to currently used area codes in telecommunications, while the unique identifier pinpoints the exact address.

The project and website was officially launched on April 28th and there will be a high-profile public information programme in early 2015 that will lead up to the allocation of an Eircode to every Irish address later that year.

For further information see www.eircode.ie

By Maria Shields O’Kelly he problem of dog fouling on our streets can ruin the most pleasant of walks. As a response to this, some members of the Bath Avenue and District Residents Association (BADRA) are taking matters into their own hands, handing out biodegradable bags to dog walkers in the area as part of an awareness campaign on the issue.

They plan to meet every weekend on the Dodder Walk near London Bridge. On 26th April, NewsFour joined them and spoke to Paul Nugent and Septa Hopkins, who were the first two volunteers at the scene.

“Most people are responsible dog owners, I want to make that clear, but I think some people have simply become blind in acceptance of this and activities like today will hopefully succeed in sowing the seed in people’s minds. There are notices around the place but we feel it will be much more effective to actually go up to people with the bags. Today is about building awareness and the number of bags we hand out is irrelevant,” Paul explained.

“We want the locals walking their dogs to take pride in their community,” added Septa.

Local resident Frank Murray drove all the way from Cork to be part of the initiative. It was Frank who first mentioned the idea to Paul from the residents’ committee. “I was taking my own dog for a walk along the river and thought how unhealthy it was, particularly for people with strollers or children, and decided that something needs to be done.”

Leading by example on the day was Paul’s Weinheimer pup, Kai, who was impeccably behaved and posed for photos.

As more volunteers arrived,

NewsFour was told that they will be working in shifts throughout the afternoon.

Eibhlis Keating explained that she is liaising with Dublin City Council about the installation of bins for the dog bags. “It’s not nice for people to have to walk for long distances with the bags in their hands. I am awaiting a response from DCC on this.”

Pictured, from left: Frank Murray, Eibhlis Keating, Arlene McCarthy, Paul Nugent and Septa Hopkins.

THE HISTORY OF AN OLD CLUB

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By Liam Cahill ou might assume without reading Dominic Branigan’s historical account of the sporting club, Clonliffe Harriers (Original Writing €20), that it’s another bland historical book. Instead, what you get is a well-written and researched account of a club that began way back in the 1800s, a time when sporting organisations like the GAA were in their infancy.

Clonliffe Harriers began in 1886 as primarily a general athletics club, being founded by a group of teenagers, also known as The Lads, who met at Knott’s Cottage on the Richmond Road in Fairview.

As the author notes, the event didn’t exactly make the front pages at that time, it was the “beginning of the story of a sporting phenomenon which today sees the

famous Wasps at the pinnacle of Irish Athletics.”

The club soon grew in strength, accumulating a cult following amongst residents in and around Fairview where it was first based. It would later move to Phibsboro and develop a famous reputation as the home of quality sports-

manship.

Over this period, the club delivered a number of notable contributions to history: it was one of the first Irish teams to compete for the Olympics, it had teammates fight and die in World War I, it was one of the first clubs to be inclusive to women (this started in 1912 and continued in the 1950s and 1960s, decades that saw women broadly sidelined within society), and was home to Jean Folan, the first woman to complete a marathon in Ireland.

The book is split into easyto-read sections that detail the history of the club, and puts the events into historical context. The author obviously conducted his research; each piece is well placed and leaves the reader wanting more. His writing style is fluid and easy to understand.

Bland this is not.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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By Gavan Bergin he internet is great for research. As a sports fan and history nut, I love it. But there is another way, as I found when I began researching the history of football in our area.

I discovered the Dublin City Sports Archive. A jewel within a gem, stored in a palace, this archive is hidden until you look for it in the Research Library in Pearse Street Public Library.

Located in the heart of the city, the library building is stunning.

Completed in 1904 and fronted with Donegal stone, it is a true Irish building, constructed by local men from Ringsend. They built the grand steps, flanked by columns and arched windows, which welcome in the visitor.

From the din of the capital’s streets, you ascend into a calm temple of knowledge.

Then, one floor up from the public library, the level of studious energy rises as you enter the Research Library reading room.

The Sports Archive resides within and if you want to get close to the people’s history of Dublin, this is the place for you.

Here are real Dubliners, not two dimensional extras in the background of documentaries.

I have always wondered about the nameless, those who didn’t merit headlines in yesterday’s newspapers. Their lives were as real as those of the famous, who

ARCHIVE, ALIVE-O!

hold the spotlight and dominate the records of the times they inhabited.

The Sports Archive fills in some of the blank spaces within that record; it is a social and a sporting archive. Compiled by the library and the Council, and consisting of material contributed by the public, it could be said to be a history of the people, by the people.

The items contained in the

archive are tangible and real. It is history that can be looked at from close up; it can be felt both physically and emotionally. To hold old books in your hand, and flick through the faded and yellowed pages – to leaf through a scrapbook that was carefully put together decades ago – that is magic!

As you sit in the viewing room you are surrounded by more real history. Look up, and there is Nelson himself! The huge, battered head of his statue stands in the corner, watching the room, watching history march on.

The statue was at the top of Nelson’s Column, which stood on O’Connell Street until 1966.

In its time it was a main landmark of the city, like the Spire is today. It was said that no true Dubliner ever went up the pillar, it was only country people who struggled up the steps to the summit.

But that is no longer the case.

Now any Dub can see Nelson in the library and say “All right, head?”, and by consulting the general archive, you can find out how he ended up here.

In the Sport Archive, there are many, many stories contributed by both players and supporters who collected the newspaper clippings and photos, the scrapbooks, club registers, documents and letters. These are the people who made, and continue to make, the Archive into the living and flourishing record it is.

The invaluable documents in the archive are complemented by other, fascinating pieces online, such as the extensive audio recordings of interviews with Shelbourne supporters, from the club’s glorious history as the south city’s oldest senior club.

Some items of memorabilia present are of huge international sporting significance.

In 2011, Dublin hosted the country’s first major international football final, the deciding match in the 2010-11 Europa League. UEFA then presented to the archive the official match ball, signed by former European Footballer of the Year, French legend Michel Platini.

Last year, the Olympic Torch from the London Games of 2012 was presented to the Lord Mayor of Dublin by the Olympic Council. This was as a thank you to Dublin City Council for hosting the relay of the torch in the run-up to the Games. That

PAGE 31 occasion was the first time the torch had travelled outside of the host country and Greece, the home of the Games. Subsequently, the torch was added to the archive and remains here for everyone to enjoy.

The archive is constantly growing, and the curators are always seeking to add to it. All sporting material is welcomed and wanted. Football, GAA, cycling, golf and hockey already have their places, and there is room for them to grow and be joined by others. Any contributions from individuals, clubs, and organisations are always keenly solicited and gratefully welcomed.

The archive is a wonderful adornment to the city. It can be accessed by anybody in the Dublin City Library and Archive Reading Room in Pearse St Public Library from 10am to 8pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, excepting holidays.

To contact the archivists regarding any contributions to the collection, call 01 674 4997 or email: cityarchives@dublincity.ie Special thanks to Assistant Archivist Ellen Murphy for her help.

Clockwise from top: Ellen Murphy Senior Archivist and Dr Mary Clarke City Archivist hold the 2012 London Games Olympic torch.

The Football signed by UEFA president Michel Platini.

Pearse Street Library.

The Head from Nelson’s Pillar.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOK TOUR

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By Rúairí Conneely ll great cities have a literary heritage but there are times when Dublin seems actively haunted by its literary past. This year’s One City, One Book for Dublin is a break with the usual tradition.

Instead of nominating a classic (in previous years, Strumpet City, Dracula and Dubliners,

by O’Casey, Stoker and Joyce respectively, have all had their turn on the pedestal), this year an original work has been commissioned.

The book is If Ever You Go: a Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song, an anthology of poetry and lyrics featuring Dublin writers past and current. Published by the esteemed Daedalus Press and edited by Pat Boran and Gerard Smyth, it features a veritable hall of fame of writings about the city.

As well as those we might call the Usual Suspects, Joyce,

Swift, Synge et al, there is a generous range of more contemporary contributors such as Eavan Boland, Dermot Bolger, Paula Meehan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and the late lamented Seamus Heaney… and of course, no survey of Dublin lyric and verse would be complete without Patrick Kavanagh.

The promotional campaign for One City, One Book is always concerned with more than just posters and radio spots: literary events are critical in raising public awareness and enthusiasm, and it’s in this spirit that NewsFour proceeds to St Stephen’s Church, aka the Pepper Canister, starting point for a guided tour called Kavanagh Country, led by Paul O’Hanrahan. The tour consists of a two hour wander from site to site around parts of Baggot Street, the Grand Canal and roads around Dublin 4 which now bear the association with

the great poet and other literary greats, such as Paul Durcan and Brendan Behan.

The route of the walk leads down Herbert St, onto Baggot Street, across to the Canal for stops by the Percy French Memorial, then the bench that bears the statue of Kavanagh himself (undisturbed by the colourful alterations that students and

vandals sometimes like to introduce). Crossing the water to the other memorial bench, the group is then led back onto Baggot St, to the former site of Parson’s bookshop.

At each stop, Paul gives a reading. Speaking with NewsFour after the event, he explains that his background in performance came from his years as a

THE MICK HESLIN BAND

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By Donna Dunne ublin musician Mick Heslin has been impressing audiences in bars and clubs around the capital since he was 16 years old, so NewsFour heads off to see the bluesman live and in action.

The gig takes place in a barber shop called Abner Brown’s in Rathmines on Good Friday, and features top musicians from around the city. Although it’s a barber shop, come the weekend, Abner Browns turns into a soul fuelled music venue, packed to the joint with music lovers and musicians.

Mick arrives at the venue in style and wows the audience with his furious fingerpicking and soulful voice. Accompanying Mick on the night

is double bass player Tim Fernley, who also impresses the crowd with his quick, effortless way of playing such a cool sounding instrument.

The full line up of The Mick Heslin Band isn’t present at Abner’s, so the pair perform a duo interpretation of the original tracks from their up and coming album, which was recorded at the end of March at Charthouse Records in Drumcondra with Ian McNulty.

They start off the set with Cuckoo, a cover of an old folk song. The second number is an original song called One of These Days, which will also be the name of their debut album. The songs have a bluesy, gypsy, jazzy sort of feel and, with appreciation to his guitar playing, aren’t the standard

blues riffs; these songs take a lot of thought and passion.

Mick began writing songs when he was 15 and started performing live at 16. “I loved it from the start, even though it was nerve wrecking the first few times,” he tells NewsFour. “It still can be, but once you find your feet and get comfortable with your abilities, it gets easier.”

Mick has been performing

live solo for years but decided to get a band together when he wanted to release his first album. Several musicians have accompanied Mick during the last two years but he recently re-recorded the album with the band as it is now, which is Tim Fernley on double bass, Adam Steele on drums and Aoife Kelly on violin. “It worked out really well, as we had over a year of

student in Cambridge. As a student, he fell in love, as many have, with the writings of James Joyce, going so far as to take a show based on Joyce’s work to the Edinburgh Festival in 1983.

Currently, he is artistic director for the Balloonatics Theatre Company here in Dublin. His passion for the source material is obvious and his delivery is measured and engaging.

By the time the group is led to Upper Baggot Street, the locale seems charged with the significance of those writers who have lived there. We are treated to a rendition of The Hospital, which Kavanagh wrote about his time in the Royal City of Dublin Hospital. A few doors down, the façade of the Pembroke townhouse provides a natural stage for readings of Kavanagh. It’s at this point that a crane truck drives past, as if on cue, bearing the name KAVANAGH’S in large blue letters. Mentioning this to Paul, he is amused: “that’s more the sort of thing you’d expect on a Bloomsday walk.”

For more information on this and similar events, see www. dublinonecityonebook.ie Above: Paul O’Hanharan sits beside the statue of Patrick Kavanagh along the Grand Canal.

Left: Paul gives a reading.

solid gigging together,” Mick says. “I think gigging and getting out there playing wherever you can, and as much as you can, really speeds up the progress.”

The band hopes to have the album ready for the end of July. The date of the album launch has not been announced as of yet but readers can check for updates on their Facebook page. “I’m hoping to make a big show out of the launch and have as many musicians on stage as possible,” Mick says. “Until then, we will be happily gigging around the city and country, and who knows, hopefully abroad too, that would be the dream.”

For a musician in his twenties, Mick plays the blues with the heart and soul of a man far beyond his years.

Pictured: Tim Fernley (left) and Mick Heslin (right). Image supplied by Donna Dunne.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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By Maria Shields O’Kelly ewsFour happened to be at the meeting point of a collaboration of forces when the organizers of the annual One City One Book initiative came together with Dublin City Council’s Let’s Walk and Talk scheme at the Irish Waterways Interpretive Centre on April 8th.

Pat Liddy started the afternoon’s proceedings in Temple Bar before setting off to hit various points along the River Liffey, the traditional inspiration source for centuries of writers.

It is reported that the group of followers swelled at times to 200 people. With Pat’s unending sea of knowledge relating to the locations they passed, they made their way, finally gathering at Grand Canal Basin. There the congregation was handed over to Ifty Finn, from Waterways Ireland, who played host to guest speaker PJ Mathews, author and lecturer at UCD.

RECITAL AFTERNOON

PJ Mathews gave the audience an insight into this year’s One City One Book feature, If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song, which takes its title from a line of Seamus

Heaney poetry. Mathews opened with an observation that the book’s map adheres to “The old divide, as the categories are sectioned under their correct titles of North of the Liffey and South

GOOD TIME FRIDAY

of the Liffey.” He described this type of humour as intrinsic to Dublin, but also commented that the book “brings something of another place into our well rehearsed thoughts.”

PAGE 33 The various poetry and song styles; historical, contemporary, familiar and little known were looked at, with recitals and songs to illustrate.

On completion of his rendition of The Auld Triangle, PJ commented, “That’s the earliest in the evening I have ever sung that song.” Other tunes on the day included Kavanagh’s Raglan Road put to music, Dubliners style, The Dawning of the Day, and that haunting melody The Lonesome Boatman, which was made more poignant by the canal location.

Pictured, left to right: Grace McGuire (DCC), Elizabeth Cuddy (UNESCO City of Literature, DCC) PJ Mathews (Author, Lecturer UCD), Jane Alger, Director, UNESCO City of Literature), Ifty Finn (Manager, Waterways Ireland Visitor Centre).

Photo by Maria Shields O’Kelly.

THE BRÍ CHUALANN

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By Maria Shields O’Kelly wo things that should never be brought into a pub are Politics and Religion.” That’s the opinion of Peter, who is the man in charge at Sally’s on Thorncastle Street, commenting on the call from the restaurant industry to lift the Good Friday ban on the sale of alcohol. “We’re living in the dark ages by upholding this rule.”

When NewsFour suggests that even more alcohol is sold the day before Good Friday, Peter replies, “The older generation come here as a social outlet. The pub is about more than alcohol to them. Anyway, if it’s supposed to be about fast and abstinence, why are the butchers still open?”

Fr. Fergus from St Patrick’s

Church does not feel that a civil law is needed to keep reverence on Good Friday. “People will drink anyway and if they want to get locked out of their minds that’s their choice,” he says. “The Catholic Church asks that we observe this day of fast and abstinence, but we don’t need a civil law to do this, in the same way that people should know not to get behind the wheel of a car if they’re out of their minds drunk.”

NewsFour asks Mr Cabbage, who is drinking tea in Sally’s, if he welcomes the chance to have a break away from the pub for a day. “What, and have to spend the day with Mrs Cabbage?” he jokes. His friend Pat remarks that the tradition was to go to Donabate for the day, as it was

the first mainline stop from Connolly Station (alcohol was available to purchase on trains). “The ticket sales for CIE were always up on Good Friday.”

While the Easter traditions have gradually become an integral part of what it is to be Irish, we have to feel sorry for the foreign stag parties who have chosen Ireland precisely for its good time rep, only to end up walking the streets of Temple Bar with what can only be described as a bewildered look on their faces every Good Friday.

Left-right: Sally’s regulars Mr Cabbage and Pat Byrne with Peter Doyle, manager of Sally’s. Photo by Maria Shields O’Kelly.

By Jimmy Purdy alking along the beach recently, on one of my rambles to Bray, I spotted that the door of Bray Rowing Club was open.

This was in January, and I thought to myself that if they are out training already, Bray will surely clean up at the regattas. I looked to see, by any chance, was there a boat on the river, but no, nothing in sight. On I went and looked in to see who was about. My good friend Terry Keogh appeared from the back and I realised there on the stocks was the outline of a new skiff. Terry told me he was in the process of skiff building and I went on with my own journey towards Bray Head.

About a month later, on a Sunday afternoon, I saw the door of the club open. I rambled in and met two of the younger members of the club, Patrick and James. I was amazed at the shape of the skiff in such a short time; it looked to be ready for launching. My next trip to Bray was a family celebration and I was delighted to see the club doors open again. In I went and found Noel Mathews with the boat upside down, as he was putting the finishing touches with paint.

I am looking forward to seeing this skiff going into the water.

I wonder if Dublin Corporation, or the government, would bring back Skiff building to Ringsend. I am very happy to have seen the start of this skiff when I met Terry. Soon the crews will be out on the river training.

I would like to wish all skiff racing clubs the very best of luck for the coming season. My best wishes go to Noel and Anne Walsh. Noel is one of the old founding members of Bray Rowing Club. I’m looking forward to the new skiff season. I would also like to send my best regards to all my good friends at Bray Wanderers.

Don’t forget to read your NewsFour.

Pictured: Noel and Anne Walsh. Image courtesy of Anne Walsh.

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

Joan Murray RIP

oan Murray, of Bath Avenue, passed away peacefully on April 10th after a short illness and stay in hospital. She will be gratefully and sadly missed. Joan was a source of good to everyone who knew her and came in contact with her. She undertook many charities, naming but a few: Alzheimer’s, Our Lady’s Hospice, Cancer and Alone, and she supported the Church bingo.

She was also dedicated to her Church, Our Lady Star of the Sea, where she was a Minister of the Eucharist, and if someone was housebound or ill and unable to get to the Church, she would call to their home. She also collected the weekly Church envelope and cleaned the Church every week. She held coffee mornings in her home for the Alzheimer’s and Our Lady Hospice. She attended quiz games in aid of Alone. And if a person was lonely, vulnerable and needed a chat, Joan would take them under her wing and into her heart. Her kettle was constantly on the boil.

There was no end to her goodness and kindness. We extend our sympathies to her brothers, sisters, in-laws, nieces, nephews, neighbours and multitude of friends.

Sleep well. We will remember Joan.

Ann Marie

READ’S SHOP TO REOPEN

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By Austin Cromie ublin City Council has announced the reopening of the famous Read’s Cutlery shop in Parliament Street as a museum. Work is to begin shortly.

It is an inspirational idea and of particular interest to locals and tourists. The interior of the shop is full of atmosphere and a real throwback to times gone by. Many of the

display cases, drawers and counters are from the original shop, dating back to 1670.

Read’s also made swords and surgical instruments in the days when the surgeons from the college in Stephen’s Green were breaking new ground in their profession.

Reads got the job of making and designing the instruments from the surgeons’ rough sketches.

Photo of Read’s shopfront by Leeza Kane. Drawing supplied by Austin Cromie.

PATRICK O’CONNELL OF BARCELONA

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By Noel Twamley n the 1950s, my mother often spoke of Mrs Streake and her long-lost son Sean. In the late 1930s, Sean left for Spain to fight Franco’s fascists in that ugly civil war. Mrs Streake had shops in Richmond Street, Kelly’s Corner and Old Camden Street. She always said he would come home soon but, alas, Sean was one of many young Irishmen lost in battle.

This was the world Patrick O’Connell also lived in.

Patrick O’Connell was born in 1887 in Dublin and made a living playing football.

Around 1910, he played for Belfast Celtic. He was soon sold to Sheffield Wednesday and later moved on to Hull City. Patrick soon moved to Manchester United, where he became captain. He also captained Ireland between 1912 and 1920, when Ireland won the so-called “Home Championship”.

O’Connell wanted to come home but the Irish civil war was in full swing at this time, so he decided to go to Spain, where he stayed for 20 years.

On arrival in Spain he became manager of Racing Santander.

From 1931 until 1935 he was manager of Real Betis, where he won La Liga. This is the only La Liga title Betis ever won. Outside the Real Betis stadium there is a magnificent water feature and statue to Don Patricio O’Connell, as he was known. To this very day, O’Connell is a God to Real Betis fans.

He later moved to FC Barcelona, where he saved the club from extinction. Around this time the Spanish people elected a left-wing republican govern-

ment. This did not sit easy with the fascist army, under General Francisco Franco, and the Catholic Church, who received huge military aid from Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

So began the dystopian ugly civil war, with dreadful casualties on both sides, so vividly depicted in George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. Barcelona was the proud capital of Catalonia and got special treatment from Franco’s fascist thugs, including the murder of Señor Sunyol, President of FC

Barcelona.

Patrick O’Connell was tipped off that Franco intended to kill the entire Barcelona team and quickly got them on a ship to North America. They played two games in Mexico and four games in the US, where they collected $15,000, a very handsome sum in 1938. O’Connell banked this money in Paris for the future use of FC Barcelona.

When the civil war ended, Don Patricio O’Connell returned to Spain to manage Se-

ville and took them to second place in La Liga. Circa 1950 O’Connell left Spain for good and his life went down to the depths of poverty and despair.

He was yesterday’s man. In 1959 O’Connell died in his digs in St Pancras, London, a forgotten man, but not in Spain.

In the FC Barcelona museum there are many busts of club icons, including Messi, Cruyff etc. TG4 showed a film last year about O’Connell, in which we saw and heard the President of FC Barcelona say “We owe all this, our team, our Nou Camp stadium, everything to Don Patricio O’Connell” as he pointed to the handsome bust of Patrick O’Connell.

What about Ireland’s tribute to this sporting great? I shall tell you what the FAI and our loquacious sports fans have done in one word, and I shall say this one word in the three languages Patrick spoke: Aon Ní, Nada, Nothing! Shame on all of us.

Wherever you are Patrick, may you rest in peace.

Pictured: Patrick O’Connell (third from right) photographed during his time as FC Barcelona manager.

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

PAGE 35

THE CULINARY CORNER

which are made of crushed wheat. Normal bread rapidly spikes blood sugar, which can stimulate overeating. Quite simply, porridge bread is one of the best breads you can eat, and it’s easy to bake. Try it out!

Ingredients: 1 large tub of natural yogurt (500 ml) 2 tubs of porridge oats 2 tsp of bread soda 2 tbsp of oil (we used rapeseed oil) Optional: handful of sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds.

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Porridge Bread

By Donna Dunne aving a bowl of porridge in the morning is a good way to start your day. Unlike other sugary cereals, porridge contains a wide range of vitamins and minerals; it is high in fibre, can help lower cholesterol, and is ideal for losing weight. Porridge is a versatile food that can also be used to brew beer, thicken soup or to make pancakes, amongst other things.

A new healthy recipe that my mother has started baking is porridge bread. It doesn’t have the most appealing name but it’s tasty and, more importantly, it’s healthy, unlike most breads,

Method: Place bread soda, oil and the yogurt in a mixing bowl.

Using the same yogurt tub, measure two tubs of porridge oats and add to the bowl. Add your favourite seeds at this point. Stir thoroughly.

Place in a greased, standard loaf tin (2lbs/900g 18.5 x 11.5 x 9cm).

Cook at 180°C (try a little higher for first attempt 200°C and then lower half way through).

Cook for approx. 45 mins (depending on your oven).

Ten minutes before the end of cooking time, remove the bread from the tin, turn upside down and cook for remaining 10 mins.

Leave to cool on wire tray wrapped in a clean tea towel.

Photo by Donna Dunne.

NATUROPATHIC NUTRITION

Coconut Oil – the True Superfood

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By Nicky Flood here has been a lot of press recently about oils and more particularly, coconut oil. Coconut oil always had a bad rap as a nasty saturated fat but actually, due to its unique molecular structure, it stands alone from other dietary sources of fat.

The fats in coconut oil are primarily Medium Chain Fatty Acids, or MCFA’s, which are absorbed and metabolised by our bodies entirely differently to the usual Long Chain Fatty Acids found in Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated Oils.

Coconut oil has a non-exhaustive range of health benefits; it improves digestion, is hugely anti-inflammatory and is great for giving a quick energy boost pre / post exercise or at any stage during the day, as it is very easily digested and turned into energy. coconut oil is made up of the healthy fatty acids Lauric Acid and Caprylic Acid, which contain anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties to boost the immune system.

There has also been extensive research proving the cholesterol-

lowering benefits of the Lauric Acid contained in coconut oil.

Moreover, the MCFA’s in coconut oil produce energy rather than fat, thereby improving metabolism to aid weight loss, whilst also preventing fatigue.

What’s not to love?!

Aside from the numerous health benefits mentioned above, coconut oil is a fantastic moisturiser, hair conditioner, makeup remover, massage oil and nappy rash ointment. Make sure you use an organic unrefined oil (ie, should be solid at room temperature and state “extra virgin”) because processing and hydrogenation interfere with its health promoting qualities. coconut oil is also great to cook with, as it does not oxidise when heated, like most other vegetable oils.

You can add it to smoothies, healthy desserts and popcorn, or use it as a butter.

Nearly one third of the world’s population depends on coconut to some degree for their food and their economy. Among these cultures, the coconut has a long and respected history as both a food and medicine. Only recently has modern medical science unlocked the secrets to the coconut’s amazing healing powers.

In some parts of the world, coconut oil is a primary source of food that people have thrived on for many generations. The best example of such a population is the Tokelauans who live in the South Pacific. Over 60% of their calorie intake comes from coconuts and they are the biggest consumers of saturated fat in the world. They are also in excellent health, with no evidence of heart disease. No wonder the coconut tree is known in the South Pacific as the Tree of Life – Aloha!

Nicky is a Naturopathic Nutritionist practising in Dublin.

She writes, speaks and advises nationwide on all aspects of health, nutrition and wellbeing. See www.nickyflood.com for further info, upcoming courses and workshops.

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ACROSS 1) Good with their hands (both of them!) (12) 6) Atop (2) 9) Charming (11) 10) Keep things on the line with one of these (3) 11) Closest relative (4, 2, 3) 13) Speck (3) 14) Us (2) 15) Across & 16 Down) Author of The Twits and The BFG (5, 4) 17) More frightening (7) 18) Again (4) 19) Incisors and molars (5) 21) Pale (3) 23) Butter (as Gaeilge) (2) 24) Red jewels (6) 25) Dork (4) 29) Gory (8) 30) Homes of ice (6) 33) Gosh! (3) 34) Negative answer (2) 35) A rounded structure/roof (4) 37) The great blue above us (3) 38) Female hormone (8) DOWN 1) Speeding up (12) 2) Idea (9) 3) Not real or genuine (6) 4) One who reports parking & driving offences etc (7, 6) 5) Not believable (12) 7) Discussions aimed at reaching an agreement (12) 8) Skin (9) 12) Snake-like fish (3) 17) Stitch (3) 20) Become visible or apparent (6) 22) Thirteenth letter of the greek alphabet (2) 26) Regret (3) 27) Actions (5) 28) Frothy (5) 31) Branding symbol (4) 32) Slender woodwind instrument (4) 36) Alright (2)

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BOOK REVIEW WORLD FILM LOCATIONS: DUBLIN

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Reviewed by Eric Hillis ntellect Books began their World Film Locations series in 2011, with volumes based around heavy hitters like New York, Los Angeles and London. Since then, the series has branched out to take in what might be described as the outposts of the film-making world; cities like Vienna, Reykjavik and now Dublin.

Always considered first and foremost a literary city, film-making is relatively new to the Irish capital. As such, the oldest entry in this volume, which is edited by Jez Connolly and Caroline Whelan with contributions from writers based both here and abroad, is 1959’s Shake Hands with the Devil, a now forgotten drama set during the civil war and filmed mostly around Glasnevin. There are roughly as many entries from this century as the last, testament to

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014 the growth of the visual arts in Dublin.

Working your way chronologically through the book gives a sense of how the city has developed since the mid twentieth century. The 1960s saw adaptations of famous Irish literary works like Joseph Strick’s big screen version of Ulysses, updated from the novel’s 1904 setting to contemporary Dublin, and featuring many scenes filmed around the Dublin Four locale.

Thanks to the global recession of the time, films of the seventies are notably absent, though I would have included the Gene Wilder comedy Quackser Fortune has a Cousin in the Bronx, which, like 1983’s Educating Rita, made heavy use of Trinity College.

It’s only when you reach 1989’s My Left Foot that an indigenous film movement begins to emerge, with big hits like The Commitments, The Snapper and Michael Collins following through the mid1990s.

In the latter half of that decade we begin to see the influence of Quentin Tarantino, with a series of Dublin

It’s not until the mid-2000s that a truly local independent film-making scene develops, when film-makers like Lenny Abrahamson (Adam and Paul), Damien O’Donnell (Inside I’m Dancing) and John Carney (Once) begin to portray a Dublin that doesn’t conform to tourist board stereotypes.

Dublin Four locations discussed include the Docklands U2 Tower (The Tiger’s Tail), Poolbeg Lighthouse (Veronica Guerin) and Ringsend’s Millennium Tower (Goldfish Memory).

Unlike other volumes in the WFL series, Dublin only features those films set explicitly in the city. Over the years, Dublin has stood in for various other parts of the world.

No discussion of Dublin film locations seems complete, for example, without including Kilmainham Gaol, a site which has found itself disguised for everything from The Italian Job to The Young Indiana Jones Adventures.

crime dramas; most successful among them being John

Boorman’s Martin Cahill biopic The General.

World Film Locations: Dublin is available at most large bookstores, or can be purchased from www.intellectbooks.co.uk

West Memphis police instead turned their attention to three local teenage boys, Jessie Misskelley, Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols. The three had criminal records for minor offences but it was their love of Heavy Metal and occult imagery that made them targets, despite no evidence to connect them to the crime beyond the testimony of a young boy who years later would admit lying to the police.

Director Atom Egoyan focuses on the efforts of Ron

Lax (Colin Firth), a local private investigator convinced of the three suspects’ innocence.

Reese Witherspoon plays Pamela Hobbs, the mother of one of the victims. As the trial progresses, Hobbs comes around to Lax’s thinking and begins to suspect her own husband (Alessandro Nivola) of killing his stepson.

With critically lauded films like Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan was once the toast of the Canadian independent film scene. Recently, however, he’s been producing a series of tepid dramas that feel like run of the mill TV movies. Devil’s Knot continues this trend.

By dealing with a real-life subject, Egoyan is hindered in terms of how far he can push the dramatic potential of the story without finding himself on the wrong end of a defamation suit.

As such, Devil’s Knot plays out in uninspired fashion and never sucks you into its story.

Several documentaries have been made on this subject (Paradise Lost, West of Memphis) and I’d suggest checking them out over this.

FILM REVIEW DEVIL’S KNOT

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Reviewed by Eric Hillis n the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Western world found itself gripped by a moral panic concerning the threat of Satanism.

On this side of the Atlantic, the most famous incident occurred in 1991 when children on Scotland’s Orkney Islands were taken away from their parents, who the local council wrongly, and rather bizarrely, believed were involving the children in Satanic rituals.

No proof was ever found to support the allegations; the wrongly accused parents were simply victims of a maelstrom created by irresponsible tabloid hacks desperate for a juicy headline.

In the US, the phony Satanism scare was widespread and the main target was the then popular Heavy Metal musical genre. The British metal band Judas Priest famously found themselves in a US

court, charged with causing a teenager to commit suicide when one of their records was found in the young man’s possession.

Devil’s Knot dramatizes the most famous case of the Satanic scare era, that of the West Memphis Three. In 1993, three young boys were abducted and brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas.

On the night of the killing, an African-American man entered a local fast food restaurant covered in blood and

proceeded to clean himself in the restaurant washroom. The manager called the police, who seemed disinterested in following this lead. Four days after the bodies were found, two local drug addicts suspiciously left West Memphis for California, where they were arrested and subjected to a lie detector test, which they both failed. One of the men admitted that he might have carried out the murder while in a drug-induced haze.

Despite such leads, the

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

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CLANNA GAEL FONTENOY ARE FÉILE CHAMPIONS

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By Felix O’Regan ur U-14 players have given the club plenty to cheer about in recent weeks. They captured the Division 4 Féile title in football, and the club came close to making it a double, just losing out in extra time in the semi-final of the Division 3 Hurling Féile.

The Féile Peil no nÓg (Football) and Féile na nGael (Hurling) provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for U-14 players to excel in Gaelic games against the very best of other teams. Many of the players point to the experience of playing in the Féile competition as one of the most enjoyable of their careers, and those who hold a Féile winning medal are few in number.

Little wonder then that the footballers have been the toast of the club after successfully coming through a series of five tough championship-style games over a weekend to capture the title in early May. Along the way they recorded victories over such powerhouses of football as Ballyboden St Endas and Kilmacud Crokes.

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Caulfield, Louis Clarke, Scott Collopy, Ruarí Corrigan, Brian Barron, Des Duggan (captain), Ciarán Hendrick, Conor Hennessy, Aaron Lynch, Niall Madill, Seamus McCann, Cillian McCarthy, Kevin McGrath, Patrick MacNamara, Cian Morgan, Karl Morgan, Colm O’Briain, Colm O’Keeffe, Cian O’Regan, Conor Rimmer, Patrick Whelan, Conor Pugh, James Crowley and Stephen Deering.

Clanna Gael Fontenoy is generously sponsored by Dublin Port Company.

Congratulations to the boys and all concerned. Every one of the 24member squad played his part in this most memorable of achievements; it’s been some years since the club enjoyed a Féile success.

They played as a cohesive team throughout, sometimes quite brilliantly, and fully deserved their tremendous success. The celebrations back in the clubhouse were

fitting for the occasion.

A few weeks later it was the turn of our U-14 hurlers in the Division 3 Hurling Féile and the club was also proud to be the venue for the qualifying round of matches.

Teams from Crumlin, Skerries Harps and Craobh Chiaráin, as well as from Clanns, all played each other to claim a semi-final place. Our lads played with great

skill and determination to advance to the semi-final to face St Sylvesters, a higher-ranking Division 2 team, who came through from another qualifying group. This game provided skill and drama all the way, with a late Clanns goal in normal time forcing the game into extra time, only for the host team to lose out narrowly in the end.

Féile Hurling squad: Evan

Pictured: Clanns U-14 Football Féile Champions Squad: Shane Gallagher, Des Duggan, Conor Power, Cian O’Regan, Kevin McGrath, Ruairí Corrigan, Donal Byrne, Colm O’Briain, Conor Rimmer, Riain McDonald, Rory O’Kennedy and Evan Downey, Harry Murless, Karl Morgan, Conor Pugh, Cillian McCarthy, Conor Hennessy, Josh Tilson, Evan Caulfield (captain), Rohan Van den Akker, Ciaran Hendrick, Joe Thornton, Patrick McNamara and Patrick Whelan.

BOWLERS AND BATTERS BLITZ IRISHTOWN

By Craig Kinsella ollowing the success of the Irish Senior Cricket team at the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the sport has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the nation’s capital, and nowhere is that revival more evident than in the Dublin 4 area.

Exposure to the game, community participation and local success stories have ensured that cricket will play a significant role in the sporting development of the younger generation.

The Dublin City Council South East Cricket Blitz took place on Friday May 9th at Irishtown Stadium, and was a prime example of the resurgence that cricket has experienced. The Blitz was contested by fourth class students from four local schools; Scoil Chaitriona of Baggot Street, Star of the Sea of Sandymount, and Haddington Road Boys’ and St. Patrick’s Girls’ National School, both of Ringsend.

The Blitz took place between 10.30 am and 12.30 pm, and was an initiative funded by Dublin City Council in association with Cricket Leinster, in an attempt to promote cricket in the local area.

John Sweeney, Sports Development Officer for Irishtown Stadium, believes that grassroots level is the

place where cricket will really flourish, and that the Cricket Blitz was a great advertisement for the sport in the area. Sweeney says, “It’s important for kids to learn about cricket at a young age, the Blitz provides equal opportunities for young people interested in the sport.”

“They’re trying to start kids off early,” he says. “It’s a non-contact sport as well, so boys and girls can mix together easily.”

Sweeney recognises the challenge of trying to maintain the sport’s momentum in the area. “We

run these programmes for four to six weeks, but we want to make it sustainable,” he says.

Brían O’ Rourke, Cricket Development Officer for Cricket Leinster, states that the Blitz is the outcome of a number of coaching sessions conducted in local schools, organised with the incentive of students representing their school in the tournament. He says there is a great love of the sport in the community but that the next stage of forming cricket clubs in the Irishtown area may prove to be difficult due to the

presence of four cricket clubs in Sandymount; Railway Union, Merrion, Pembroke and YMCA. O’ Rourke says the initiative is taking great strides to help cricket become a mainstay in the local schools, and the teachers themselves have been very proactive.

“What we can do now,” he says, “is provide the schools with equipment subsidised by Dublin City Council, and also provide teachers with training to a certain level, to get them to do training sessions and then take them to matches.”

The Cricket Blitz also overlaps at this time of year with the Leprechaun Cup, a hardball cricket competition for the more established schools in the area, like Star of the Sea, who have played cricket since 1997.

O’ Rourke is optimistic for the future of tournaments like the Cricket Blitz, and states that the sport is a staple of the area, with a long cricket tradition and, more recently, the fact that the O’Brien brothers, members of the Irish 2007 World Cup team, both hail from Sandymount and are past pupils of Star of the Sea. He believes that the success of the national side has had an impact on the sport, but that community and grassroots level work has played a more pivotal role.

“I think it’s just a lot of lads getting their hands ready and going into schools,” he says, “the Irish senior team doing well in the World Cup in 2007 in the West Indies, and it’s followed on from that.”

Pictured, from left to right: Fintan Mc Allister and the pupils from Star of the Sea: Noah Scolard, Dominic Ryan, Dean Holmes, J.P Tiernan, Karl O Shea, Ronan Mc Namara and Sports Development Officer John Sweeney.

PAGE 38

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

ST PATRICK’S CYFC UPDATE DAMIEN DUFF TOURNAMENT

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By David Nolan ell that was close, panic over – for now at least, CY live to fight another day. Actually, in the end, survival in the top flight of the Leinster Senior League was secured with three league games to spare. On May 11th CY beat Wayside Celtic by three goals to nil, which secured our place in the Senior division, but it was a fantastic run of results, all after a horrible defeat in the Intermediate cup 2nd round replay, which really did the trick! As we go to print, the Y sit proudly in fourth place, a far cry from our position just three weeks earlier when we were perched in a precarious fourth from bottom, just one

place above relegation. The players and management deserve tremendous credit for their efforts, in particular since returning to action after the Christmas break.

At that stage, with only eleven points to show from the opening half of the league campaign, it was very much in the balance, but victories over Tolka Rovers and Glebe North in January set the club on a path to safety, while we also enjoyed a wonderful adventure in the Intermediate cup, reaching the semi-final for the first time ever, going to UCD AFC after a replay.

Of course there was some collateral damage along the way; a much smaller squad, along with strong cup runs,

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meant our Saturday side suffered, meaning they will drop back down to the Major1 Saturday division for the 2014/15 season. It was, in the end, a bridge too far to keep both sides at the top with such limited resources. The team run by Ray Doyle and Wayne Byrne battled bravely, losing mostly by slender margins, but from this disappointment we hope to rebuild next season.

So what happens next? Well, our immediate thoughts will turn to the Metropolitan Cup, where we face Dublin Bus in the last eight. The winner from this encounter will enjoy home advantage in the semi-final.

Next up, on June 6th,we have the small matter of taking on Irish champions St Patrick’s Athletic in the Ford FAI Senior cup. The match will take place at Richmond Park with a 7:45 KO. We hope to bring a large travelling support from the Ringend/Irishtown area. After this, we will all take a wellearned break, reflect on what was a very tough season for the club, and begin planning for the 2014/15 season. As always, new players are welcome.

Finally, thanks to all our sponsors and supporters: Sally’s Return, Fannigan’s and countless other sponsors. Our job would be next to impossible without their continued support.

Photo supplied by David Nolan

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By Liam Cahill he Damien Duff and Y-Big 7’s seven-a-side soccer tournament will kick off on Saturday June 28th at Irishtown Stadium.

The tournament, organised by InterSevens Charity Sporting Events (ICSE), is being held in a bid to raise €15,000 for two children’s charities: Aoibheann’s Pink Tie and Heart Children Ireland.

“The plan is that we will have 16 teams – we have the capacity to take 20 if we need to – and each team just has to raise the funds through sponsorship cards or doing an event themselves,” says Emmet Switzer, Managing Director of Give ‘n Go, the company behind ICSE. ICSE runs events and tournaments in Blanchardstown, Irishtown and Sandymount. In the past, Emmet has helped to organise events for the ISPCC and earthquake relief in Haiti. Most of the tournaments, which are separate to the charity events, are inexpensive (usually in the area of €6) and last for 14 weeks.

“These are kids who are really sick; I’ve met them and it’s heartbreaking,” Emmet says. “That €15,000 is going to go a long way for those charities.” Although the tournament is fittingly named the Damien Duff Tournament, according to Emmet, Damien is unlikely to participate in any of the events, but he will be present, possibly making a guest appearance at Slattery’s in Dublin 4.

For more information visit www.inter7s.com.

‘A Social and Natural History of Sandymount, Irishtown and Ringsend’ which was first published in 1993 is available to buy from the NewsFour office and Books on the Green, Sandymount for €13.99 Phone 6673317 for details.

Also available on eBay

NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014

PAGE 39

RAILWAY UNION RUGBY

Railway’s Fourteen Trophies in Two Seasons

By Kirstin Smith here were big celebrations at Railway Union’s Annual Ball on May 10th when 170 people gathered in the Davenport Hotel to cap a fantastic season.

Railway have won an amazing 14 trophies in two seasons, 10 of them Leinster Pennants. Even more amazingly, every single team in the club has won at least one trophy.

“It’s a record we’re very proud of,” said outgoing President Francis Roche, “every team – the Men’s 1sts, 2nds, 3rds, 4ths & U20s, the Women’s 1sts & 2nds, and the Girls’ U18s – have won their leagues, cups or both in the last two seasons.”

“One of our core values is that all players in Railway are equal, regardless of which team they play on, their ability, their back-

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RAILWAY UNION HOCKEY Dooley inspires Railway Union to big win over Atasport in Holland at Easter.

Mat ch Report co u r t e s y o f Stephen Findlat e r / H o o k Hockey ailway Union produced Ireland’s first win in the top tier of European women’s club hockey as they saw off Azerbaijan side Atasport 5-2 in their seventh place Club Champions Cup playoff in Den Bosch at Easter.

The Irish club raced into a 3-0 lead courtesy of a Sinead Dooley double and another effort from Kate Dillon before the Azeris bounced back, making it 3-2 with 14 minutes to go.

Kate Lloyd, however, nabbed two quick goals in response to see Railway over the line in some style. It built further on their

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ground or their gender,” Roche continued. “There is no hierarchy, all teams and players mix together freely, and all teams get equal support from the club to achieve their goals.”

It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the Sandymount-based club, which now boasts seven senior sides, an age-grade set-up, a match-standard floodlit pitch, Leinster interprovincials and Irish internationals, a pioneering Schools 7s series, and a vibrant club scene.

“My three-year Presidency has been a wonderful journey,” said Roche. “When I started in

hugely encouraging draw with German side Berliner. That was the first time an Irish side had picked off a result in the new format of the competition and will go a long way to helping the country retain top-tier status for 2015.

Railway got off to a flyer against Atasport, a side that famously used to be home to a large number of Korean-born players, but now are predominantly homegrown.

They were behind on seven minutes as, after a bright opening, Orla Fox’s sweep was touched in

by Dooley for 1-0 and there were plenty of chances coming.

Dillon had a drag taken off the line from one of four corners and put another close range effort over the bar but she was on the mark from a stunning break-out. Dooley instigated it, robbing the ball on her own 25, tore away from three players around the outside and found Dillon, who finished off to double the lead in the 25th minute.

That pair created the third with Dillon laying on for Dooley to

2011, we had barely one Men’s side and only 16 active players.

Since then, our growth has been phenomenal. We’ve registered over 150 adult male players in three years, and over 100 adult female and 140 age-grade players in just 18 months. The IRFU and Leinster Branch have been hugely supportive and their guidance has been invaluable. I also had a fantastic committee and team of people behind me that have allowed us to achieve what we have.”

“Our Director of Rugby, John Cronin, has been instrumental in the turnaround,” Roche added. have Railway well clear a minute into the second half but, despite a couple more corners for the Dublin side, Atasport were back in the frame by the end of the third quarter.

Anastasiya Tsiganska broke out and rounded Rachel Barnett in a one-on-one chance as the Azeris took to launching lengthy overheads, and it bore plenty of fruit.

Things got more nervy when Khatira Aliyeva fired home a drag-flick with 14 minutes to go to make it 3-2, but Railway finished strong with Kate Lloyd scoring with eight and six minutes left on the clock to put the tie beyond doubt.

The first came on her open side after a crash ball bounced her way, with the latter a simple affair as Emma Smyth beat a couple of tackles before setting up the striker to land the victory.

Amsterdam went on to win the competition on penalties ahead of Dutch champions Den Bosch – who were going for a 14th win in 15 seasons – after a thrilling 22 draw in normal time.

Railway Union: G O’Flanagan, I Joyce, K Dillon, H Jenkinson, J McDonnell, E Smyth, E Lucey, A Speers, S Hawkshaw, S Dooley, O Fox Subs: K Lloyd, Z Delany, K McKenna, C Joyce, R Clifford, R Barnett, E Dolan.

“He came in, set the vision for the club and went about developing the players, coaches and management teams to achieve that vision.

He has installed a culture of success and belief across the whole club that we just didn’t have previously, and that’s been reflected in these club-wide results.”

“It’s not just about winning either,” Roche continued, “due to our one-club philosophy, we’ve a very vibrant social scene. We tour as a club, be it overseas or our annual trip to the Kinsale 7s, and there is generally an organised social event at least every month, in addition to the usual ad-hoc nights out.”

Roche said the club are continuing to develop and build.

“Our Player Welfare focus, led

by Leinster Team Doctor Professor John Ryan, is second to none.

We spend a huge amount of time working on the well-being, physical development, and functional fitness of our players. We’re moving that on a level now and are in the process of building a state-of-the-art rugby-specific gym and medical room. This will

RAILWAY UNION CRICKET

Will you be the Last Man Standing?

By David Carroll ailway Union Cricket Club Under-15 team travel to the Manchester area in July to play a series of matches, and to help defray the cost of the tour are organising a Last Man Standing competition based on the FIFA World Cup. The competition is designed to test the ability of contestants to forecast winning countries

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allow our players to become fitter, stronger and faster athletes and, therefore, better rugby players,” he said.

“All our teams want to kick on next year. Our Women’s 1sts are in AIL Division One next season and will be aiming to make an impression there. Our Men’s 1sts have jumped two divisions in three years in the Leinster League and want to continue their progression up the divisions. We have a number of very talented players coming out of our Men’s U20s and Girls’ U18s who’ll be looking for places in our senior sides and they’ll continue to drive success across all teams there.”

“And our doors are always open for new members,” said Roche. “We have players from almost every school in Dublin and every county in Ireland. It’s a very friendly, welcoming and open club and a great place to find your feet. If you are moving to Dublin, leaving school and looking for a club, or simply looking for a new challenge, you’ll find a home in Railway.” throughout the forthcoming FIFA World Cup which starts on June 12th 2014 and culminates with the Final on July 13th.

The players are seeking support from the wider D4 sports community and know that this participation will add to the enjoyment of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup and the Last Man Standing will enjoy a trip for two to Old Trafford in the autumn.

All contestants will be entered into a raffle that will take place at Railway Union on the night of the final on July 13th.

To take part please email ruccsoccercomp@gmail.com

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NEWSFOUR JUNE / JULY 2014