Thursday 9 March 2017

The Barbers pub, Grangegorman


A quick update on the pub on the Lower Grangegorman road that I wrote about in 2014, when it was still known as The Grange.

The Infant of Prague, the Lady on the Rock


An earlier post deals with 83 Manor Street in Stoneybatter, with its magnolia tree and Austin Clarke connections and the work of master craftsman James Beatley. While James's instruments are beautifully handmade, the following two slices of popular culture are mass produced.

Next door at 84 Manor Street is a bed and breakfast. Pride of place in the fanlight above its front door is a statue, sometimes illuminated by an electric light. It's an Infant of Prague, also known as a Child of Prague.

Tuesday 7 March 2017

The magnolias of Manor Street


"When the magnolia begins to blossom." It's almost like one of those much parodied movie moments in which the secret agents exchange their code phrases...

Wednesday 15 February 2017

A virtual tour of Walshes pub


Walsh's pub in Stoneybatter (or "Walshes" with an "e" if, like me, you go by the spelling on its splendid stained glass) is a frequent setting in the "Moss Reid" series. The following virtual tour from Google Maps gives a good idea of its interior layout; pity it can't give a flavour of one of the best pints of Guinness in Dublin...

Wednesday 8 February 2017

The Floozie in the Jacuzzi (not)


Dublin humour can be playful, cynical, surreal and full of wicked wordplay. It's a bit like the kid at the back of the class who's asked to use the word "bewitches" in a sentence.

"Ah you go on ahead," he replies, "I'll be wid yez in a minute."

Dublin wit is also embodied in the nicknames of its statutes and monuments, particularly the more "modren" additions to our postcolonial streetscape. And one nickname stands head and shoulders above the rest: "The Floozie in the Jacuzzi".