How grim we were.

Gadjodilo

Some day, if you’re in the vicinity of Upper Main Street in Cavan town, have a saunter up to the Crúiscín Lán pub. It’s on the right hand side as you’re facing towards Connolly Street. There’s a photo in it of Barry McGuigan standing at that Y-junction leading into Connolly Street and up to the Half Acre. It was obviously taken at some point in the mid-1980s because in the photo, he’s only a young lad.

Anyhoo, after pondering his Farneyesque features and mullet hairdo, have a look at the surrounding environment. It is grim. Grim. Grim. Grim. Grim. Grim. There is litter on the streets, the houses look dirty and burnt out. There’s graffiti on the walls and an über-grim Sinn Féin office in the background. It reminds me of one of those Bosnian towns in the 1990s after the Četniks had called in to demonstrate their ideas about Yugoslav Socialist Brotherhood.

I know I’ve moaned about some of the architectural monstrosities that have been erected around the town over the last few years. But they’re still a huge improvement on what went before.

flanum

and if you notice in that picture that there is no dublin road!!!! it didnt exist!!

also look at the photo on the wall near the bar of new york and the twin towers.. and notice my.. ahem.. addition to it... tee hee!

Gadjodilo

There must have been a Dublin Road. You can't see it in the photo because of the angle and maybe it was called the Killygarry Road back then and maybe it was two blades of grass short of being a country lane. But there had to be some sort of path there that eventually developed into the magnificent thoroughfare it is today.

I’ll check out that photo next time I’m in – although I don’t go in too often.

Ellechim

Ah, Cavan town in the eighties, it was very grim.........not somewhere you'd want to visit at all, it is hugely improved. I haven't lived in Cavan since 1989 but am impressed now whenever I go back. There was a Dublin road then, and it was called the Dublin road and it was a country lane..... I grew up in Ballyjamesduff, can't actually say the same for it now however, the place is desolate.......

Gadjodilo

The big breakthrough came when they started gently twisting arms to get people to adopt the old style shopfronts. Sorting out the Market Square made a huge difference too. It used to be a chaos of fruit and veg stalls and randomly parked cars.

flanum

yep, we used to have a veg stall there! do ye remember when the post office was orange!! and what is now an indian take-away, used to be Mariettas!

Gadjodilo

flanum wrote: »

yep, we used to have a veg stall there! do ye remember when the post office was orange!! and what is now an indian take-away, used to be Mariettas!

I remember it well. God, it looked vile.

I remember Marietta's too! A big plate of chips smothered in salt and vinegar from thete on a Saturday afternoon was LUXURY in those days. I used to be allowed into Cavan town (we lived way out the country) on the odd Saturday. The chips were the highlight. You'd walk past and the smell coming out of the place would make you drool.

JupiterKid

I think it's pretty safe to say that with rare exceptions, most of urban Ireland was in bits in the 1980s. I remember as a child going through grey town after grey town, with closed and boarded up shops and grimy, grim streetscapes.

Dublin was the biggest dump of all - anyone remember the Liffey quays in the 80s? Half of them were derelict, with collapsing abandoned buildings and gaps where buildings had been demolished but nothing built in their place. Parnell Street/North King Street in particular was a complete wasteland.

Thank God for the Celtic Tiger and urban renewal - they transformed Irish towns for the better.

Ellechim

it was grim - Temple Bar was a effectively a ghetto.......I wouldn't walk through it in the dark (not much has changed, eh?)!