Dublin Dossier

Pat Keenan on happenings in and around the capital

A tale of love and sausages..

Hafners advertised on an old Dublin tram

When my Aunt Kathleen went visiting relations in England and Scotland she would never leave Dublin without a few pound of sausages. Not sure if the sausages over there were somehow inferior or that the exiled Keenans preferred a taste of home. Odd thing was, those Dublin sausages most likely had German names - Olhausen (Olnhausen), Reinhardts, Hafners, Youkstetters (Jauchstetter), Mogerleys (Mögerle) Seezer or Speidel.

Today your average Dubliner will still love their Irish sausages but nowadays will most likely return from the supermarket with Spanish Chorizo, German Bratwurst or Frankfurter, Polish Cabanossi or put my poor departed aunty into a grave spin, with a English Cumberland or a Lincolnshire. And whatever happened to Dublin coddle? Most Dubs probable never tasted coddle, let alone know what it is, an anemic looking concocted stew of boiled salty bacon, sausages, potatoes and sometimes a carrot or onion - in fairness it tastes better than it looks. Something else has changed, that Cumberland and nearly all British 'bangers', Wall's, Bowyers, Richmond and Porkinson are now owned by an Irish company - Kerry Foods.

All in all it still comes down to local tastes. The sausages Aunt Kathleen took with her used Irish ingredients and recipes. During the latter part of the 19th century there was an influx into Ireland of people from Central Europe, Many were pork butchers, mostly from southern Germany's Hohenlohe region and they set up butcher shops across Dublin. Take young William Olhausen, a Bavarian master butcher, he arrived in Dublin in pursuit of the love of his life, young Margaret Hafner, daughter of one of Dublin’s already established German butchers. What with his fine German sausage-making skills and her pork parentage it was a perfect match. Soon the young couple marry and make beautiful sausages together. One of the wedding presents was a shop at 72 Talbot Street. It opened as Olhausens in 1896 making sausages, brawns and

The number 31 Howth Tram with 'Olhausen' advertised on the the front

puddings by hand behind the shop. A second shop followed in South Great Georges Street. They even get a mention in James Joyces Ulysses when Leopold Bloom ‘disappears into Olhausen’s, the porkbutcher’s, under the downcoming rollshutter’. A few moments later he emerges from under the shutter, ‘puffng Poldy, blowing Bloohoom. In each hand he holds a parcel.’ For William brand recognition was key, 'Olhausen' was advertised on the the front and sides of Dublin trams and Olhausen was the first ever to advertise on Radio Eireann, paying five pounds for five minutes.

There were native Dublin brands too, John Kearns made sausages in 1905 in Parnell Street. Terence Gormley had ten shops in Dublin, the sausages were made at the Dorset Street shop. Granby Sausages started in 1933 by John Kavanagh in Granby Place, off Parnell Square. There was also Byrnes, Donnelly, and Superquinn - Fergal Quinn got the idea on a trip to Nuremberg when he saw a supermarket that had its own sausage factory next door.

When Whistler came to Sutton

'Craige' was here on the Howth Road, Sutton (opposite SuperValu entrance) Whistler stayed here in 1900

Whistler’s Howth Head oil on board painted in 1900 -fetched $245,000 in auction at Christies

A long, long time ago when I had just left school, I was told of a strange man who once lived nearby at Sutton Cross. Locals called called him ‘the whistler’. The house was called Craige and this newcomer caused a local stir when he partially covered the front north facing windows with brown paper. Turns out he was the American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler most famously known for that much parodied painting Whistler's Mother.

Whistler spent most of his life in Europe - Paris but mainly London. His short Sutton stay was in 1900, he would have been 66, he died three years later. He came to Ireland accompanied by sister in law Rosalind Birnie Philip. His wife Beatrice died in 1896 and Rosalind acted as his secretary and in time would be his sole beneficiary. We know where he stayed, in a letter dated Aug.23 1900 to Ernest Brown, at the Fine Art Society, London he gives his address as Craigie, Sutton, nr.Baldoyle. Co.Dublin, The house was opposite the entrance to SuperValu. It was demolished to make way for the small triangular shopping area formed between the Howth Road and Greenfield Road.

Whistler did very little work during his stay. Apparently he claimed the house was on the wrong side of the bay and that the weather was wretched. During lockdown I found one of his paintings online titled Howth Head, near Dublin -a small oil on board. -there was a second listing, perhaps more accurate,'whereabouts unknown.' I would respectfully say sketch rather than painting. In his time, that observation might have landed me in court.

Self portrait of James Abbott McNeill Whistler ( circa 1872)

painting priced at 200 guineas— a huge sum at the time. In his review Ruskin said the gallery ought not to have admitted works in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of wilful imposture...but never expected to hear a coxcomb (conceited man) ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face’. Whistler won the case and was awarded a farthing in nominal damages. The court costs were split which added to his already existing debts and made him bankrupt.

Dublin Dossier Educating Rita in Dublin

Mchael Caine and Julie Walters in Educating Rita

Cocooned with my television I watched Educating Rita again. It was a journey back in time to Dublin the early 1980s. It wasn't supposed to be Dublin, it was thinly dressed up to be an English city, possibly Liverpool. They threw in a few red telephone boxes, blacked out Irish names and everyone spoke like scousers. For whatever reasons, probably financial, it was shot entirely in or close to Dublin. When Professor Frank Bryant (Michael Caine) sees Rita (Julie Walters) off to summer school at Pearse Station, the platform sign normally reading Ardán is simply covered black. Her summer school is Belfield Campus UCD.

The main action takes place around Trinity College, the tutorial room where Michael Caine lectures is the University Philosophical Society Irelands first President and Isaac Butt, Irish Nationalist leader. In his office (the College Historical Society) there's a bust of Irish classicist John Mahaffy.

Class divides are on view too, Professor Frank's swanky house is on Burlington Road, Ballsbridge while Rita and husband Denny live a peg or three down at 8 Hogan Avenue, in Ringsend. We get glimpses of the old gas works and a bleak street actually called Misery Hill, still there it is adjacent to the elegant glass and steel of Facebook headquarters.

Aughrim Street Church in Stoneybatter was also featurted

Later Rita bumps into her old husband Denny and his new wife in the same grim area, Penrose Street, Ringsend as it was then. Professor Frank didn't have far to go for his holidays in France, actually St Patrick's College, Maynooth and the L'Éperon D'Or restaurant is Castletown House, Celbridge.

Other places depicted include Aughrim Street Church in Stoneybatter where Rita's sister Sandra gets married. Frank goes to a lively lights flashing disco at Stillorgan Park Hotel. Who doesn't remember afternoon long lunches at Dobbin's Wine Bistro at 15 Stephens Lane, (sadly rooms. The wall portraits are a bit of a give away - Douglas Hyde,

it closed after over 30 years in 2015. Seeing Rita working as a waitress here brought back many happy memories.

Rita shares a flat another waitress Trish in Crosthwaite Park. And when Trish takes an overdose she is taken to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, Grand Canal Street, The hospital closed three years after the film was released. Magically in one scene, Rita walks into The Dame Tavern, 18 Dame Court and joins her family in a sing-a-long in another pub across the street, The Stag's Head. Near the end of the film the airport scene is shot at Dublin Airport, a British Airways plane is seen through the windows, prominently positioned to give the impression of a British airport ..but notice the Aer Lingus aircraft behind it.

A digital Bloomsday

The first Dublin Bloomsday Festival was celebrated in 1954 but this year it was different, our journey across the capital was a digital one.

On the plus side my Bloomsday breakfast was also digital. Unable to find 'nutty gizzards' and 'mutton kidneys' I decided to forgo that famous breakfast - the one with the ‘fine tang of faintly scented urine.’ Nor did I find the ingredients for the 'giblet soup'.

But I improvised, a Cashel Blue substitute for Gorgonzola and the Burgundy was real. To catch-up online there are many readings, songs and films of the day at www.bloomsdayfestival.ie/ and www.jamesjoyce.ie/

Irish Bucket List Tours

Have you ever said I am going to visit such a place when I have the time or you may have a Bucket List that you will start to work on someday?

Well now that we are told not to travel outside the Island, we have the perfect time to see this beautiful country and to do it without the hassle of driving or organising hotels. When I travel as a passenger on a coach, I see so much more, and we all get little gems of information from each other.

We are spoilt for choice when it comes to unique places to visit in Ireland and the many amazing places that are not as well known as those on the Bucket List Tour.

We at the Galway Tour Company Limited have been taking people to these top visitor sights for many years, collectively over sixty years of experience and we have shown thousands of International Clients the beauty of our Island.

In these strange times, we are looking for reasons to stay at home in Ireland; we have decided to give more of our attention/expertise to the local Irish Market. Thus we are offering two tours of Ireland which will take people to the many beautiful places of natural beauty, wonder and peace. Don’t worry we will also be visiting some of the very well known sites like Number one on the Bucket List, The Cliffs of Moher or Blarney Castle, The Giants Causeway, Dingle, Slieve League Cliffs, Boyne Valley, Carrick a Reed, and so much more. We see places that have grown in popularity since they appeared in films or television series like Game Of Thrones or Star Wars.

Over the years, we have listened to the guests that we care for and have gained a great insight into what they want and more importantly, don’t want. Some of us have also worked for other larger operators and gained valuable knowledge.

We have planned that our tours will have a gentle pace. We will stay mostly in 4 Star Hotels, which have a Leisure Centre. Also, we will not be moving to a new hotel every day, so less hassle with packing and unpacking and no worries about weight restriction. If like me you pack for all weathers, porters at our hotels will bring and take you bags from and to the coach and no extra cost to you like the airlines .

One of the most important features is that we will have limited numbers on our coaches. The largest group we will carry will be twenty-six on a fifty-two seater coach, i.e two seats for every guest. The same ratio will apply to our smaller coaches.

So what do you get on your Bucket List Tour? We have divided these tours up as a Northern Tour and a Southern Tour. Both tours are for seven days and six nights leaving Dublin on a Sunday morning from a central location. If we have a group from one area or club, we can arrange a meeting point to suit them.

The Northern Bucket List Tour On this journey around the north of our Island, we take in some of the most awe-inspiring natural and man-made sites that are known worldwide. On your Tour, we will visit the Titanic centre, the Giants Causeway, the Boyne valley, Ards Peninsula, Glenveigh National Park, Sliabh League, Drumcliff, Achill Island Croagh Patrick, Leenane, Cong. We also visit the large centres of population in the region Belfast, Derry, Galway with local guides taking us on a tour of these and giving a little more insight on the history, beauty and some of the local stories, the funny and the sad. We will see the set locations from the likes of The Game Of Thrones”, “The Field” and “The Quiet Man”. We have a few hidden gems to show you on this adventure around the Northern Tour of this magnificent Island.

The Southern Bucket List Tour If you decide that this is the Tour for you may pick up the gift of the Gab, that’s assuming you don’t have it already or see how to sheer a sheep, even adopt a lamb or bump into a Leprechaun. This Tour takes in such places as Glendalough, Avoca, Browne’s Dolmen, Holy Cross Abbey, Rock Of Cashel, Cahir Castle, National Heritage Park, Blarney, Moll’s gap, Slea Head, Muckross, Cliffs of Moher. We will have a local guide on our city tour of Waterford and the Galway city tour, as well as exploring Kilkenny, Killarney, Dingle, Cobh, New Ross, Ennis. You may now say that I want to see the entire Island and hopefully many of you will do this.

On our tours, we visit 16 out of the top 25 sites on the Irish Bucket List tour and maybe your special one is on the list?

What’s included in your Bucket List Tour?

• The services of a Fáilte Ireland approved Driver/Guide throughout your Tour • Local Guides at specific sites and city tours • Hotels on a Bed & Breakfast basis sharing. Five dinners or four dinners and one lunch. • Modern coach with air conditioning. • All entrance fees to the sites that we visit. • Hotel Porterage.

We look forward to meeting you and helping you to enjoy the Wonderful Natural Beauty, The Majestic Sites, The Traditions and above all the warmth and the craic that we are known for the world over.

For further details and departure dates contact us at: info@galwaytourcomapany.com or 091 566566

Tour cost €1075, P.P.S. Single supplement €180

For your safety and peace of mind, all staff have been upskilled in the use of the latest generation of equipment to keep our coaches safe and clean.