Things you miss about Dublin the most

Japer

Spiritoftheseventies wrote: »

1. The old granny buses
2. The Adelphi Cinema.

Keep going folks

The Carlton cinema. When I was growing up in Dublin I loved it and always looked forward to it.

BO-JANGLES

I miss the ice rink in dolphins barn

Roller rinks in olympic, fiesta and the tv club,

The roma grill,on O'connel street,

The dandelion market,

Frank the man with a mobile shop R.I.P.

Being a kid and feeling safe. Playing out late and playing nick knack,
Kids playing with a rope on a street lamp and skipping and playing donkey on the road cause there was far less cars.

The smell of cabbage and bacon boiling away, the whole street would smell of it.

Days when the whole road would rent buses and head of to Glendalough for the day.

Walking down the street and everybody knew everybody.

flanzer

The gang fights in Temple Bar.... they just contract kill each other now

Also: When men were real men .... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055949685

Jellybaby1

And.......Releevy...io........who has the ball?

One potato, two potato, three potato, four!
Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more! (What came next?)


Plainey packet of Rinso!
Over packet of Rinso!
Downy packet of Rinso!
Diggy packet of Rinso!
Under packet of Rinso!.....etc, can't remember any more.

This - is - the - house - that - Jack - built!

Pussy four corners (innocent then.......sounds rude now!)

caseyann

tricky D wrote: »

Bus conductors.
...

So many times our regular bus conductors didnt make us pay bus fare And they knew everyone on their route by name

Mute wrote: »

Roller Skating at the Olympic

The free meal with your ticket in all nightclubs

Lamp-post swinging

Skipping in the streets

Ah roller skating every week Saturday and Sunday so much fun,
And ice skating in dolphins barn. So much fun
A hot dog or curry in the harp and tin pan alley
ANd all the bouncers knew you,also lol getting caught for been in the harp by a neighbour who knew we were still 17,Very funny.Everyone knew everyone lol
Blooms nightclub same thing bouncers knew everyone and were all Irish and could speak english and Irish girls were treated with respect.

cosmic wrote: »

Switzers window at Christmas

One of the nicest things about Dublin and famous all over for was switzers window:( My mother worked there was so nice and santa was cool there

I cant remember the name of it now,the arcade on o connell street,in there for summer playing pool snooker and arcade games.The buzz of town so friendly.
Kids playing hop scotch.Skipping kick the can.
I recently heard the kids here playing statues and bulldog
During summer also sitting on the hoor in the sewer :P

penana

Just being there ... at home.

MediaTank

A time before roadworks had 'Apologies for the Inconvenience' signs!

Butch Cassidy

MediaTank wrote: »

A time before roadworks had 'Apologies for the Inconvenience' signs!

How about just a time before Dublin wasn't awash with cranes and it didn't look like a building site

Butch Cassidy

caseyann wrote: »

Kids playing hop scotch.Skipping kick the can.

I haven't seen a kid play hop scotch in years! Or kick the can.

Nowadays kids are either roaming the streets dressed like hookers and pimps or they're locked up inside chained the to television! The other day I saw a father go bloody mental when his daughter went out of his site for a minute. This was in a little housing estate like and she was outside their house. The road sort of curves so when she walked down a bit she was out of view. The guy went absolutely ballistic!

It's rare actually that you see kids playing at all in the street
Tabloids have terrified parents into thinking there's a paedo lurking around every corner.

lord lucan

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

It's rare actually that you see kids playing at all in the street
Tabloids have terrified parents into thinking there's a paedo lurking around every corner.

I was out for a walk last week and i stopped dead in my tracks in amazement. In front of me was a kid climbing up a tree. I haven't seen a kid around my way do that in years. It was something that gave me and my mates hours of amusement as kids. When we got older we progressed to building tree houses. Haven't seen one of them in years!

caseyann

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

I haven't seen a kid play hop scotch in years! Or kick the can.

Nowadays kids are either roaming the streets dressed like hookers and pimps or they're locked up inside chained the to television! The other day I saw a father go bloody mental when his daughter went out of his site for a minute. This was in a little housing estate like and she was outside their house. The road sort of curves so when she walked down a bit she was out of view. The guy went absolutely ballistic!

It's rare actually that you see kids playing at all in the street
Tabloids have terrified parents into thinking there's a paedo lurking around every corner.

We have like about 5 12 to 13 year old boys on our road,Then younger ones who are their brothers.And they arent allowed to the green around the corner to play foot ball.They have to play on car filled street every day.
Problem also is,a neighbour of mine let her 12 year old son and his friend call to other friends,and two lads age about 14 or so mugged them.So how can you let your kids go anywhere with little sumbags roaming streets.

caseyann

lord lucan wrote: »

I was out for a walk last week and i stopped dead in my tracks in amazement. In front of me was a kid climbing up a tree. I haven't seen a kid around my way do that in years. It was something that gave me and my mates hours of amusement as kids. When we got older we progressed to building tree houses. Haven't seen one of them in years!

Not allowed climb trees anymore

penana

Grafton Street when it was a street and not a concourse.

Spending Saturday mornings with a group of friends at Robt. Roberts in Grafton Street, after going to the haridressers that was above the shops at the top of the street, just opposite the Green. [Roberts had the most fantastic rock buns!]

Sharing a garden flat in Rathgar Road, where the elderly Jewish couple who owned the chemist shop on the opposite corner would remain open at Christmas and Easter to serve their Christian neighbours.

Wimpy Bars

Living in Rathmines

Bewley's, Grafton Street

Grocery shopping in Moore Street ["Sixpence the pound of bananas" or was it a bob?].

Chemist's Shops before they became "Pharmacies," lifts that weren't "elevators," flats that weren't called "apartments," and the time before all the other "Amercanised" revision to the lexicon.

Evening jazz sessions in the City Centre, when my husband [RIP] would be asked to join the performers, making his humble tin whistles sound like mellow flutes playing "Sweet Lorraine," "Take the A Train" and other standards.

Dress dances followed by the dawn "Garda Mass" at Adam and Eve's on the Quays.

Milk and bread roundsmen when they still had horses and later, electric vans ... and when they just existed.

Unwrapped, unsliced fresh batch bread in the baker's

Living in Dublin ... even with the multiplicity of changes time has wrought.

CCCP

Jobs

when people had "straighteners" instead of gangland shootings

when you could go to a pub and spend an evening without seeing someone get a glass in the face

shy young men and women, innocence

knowing every neighbors name, strong community

when adults in neighborhoods could open the door and send any kid on the street to the shop for them in return for 10 p for sweets, nowadays that could get them arrested!
"yun-fella! will ya go the shop for us, ill get ya a packet of sweets???"!

When teenagers liked rock, not hip hop, (I cant stand the idea of young teens learning life lessons from 50 cent)

the soviet union...no wait wrong country:P

When busking with an electric guitar on grafton street was still allowed, now its all classical, little variation is nice for a street which is world famous for its buskers

the PUNT! when 50 quid was alot of money!!

the previous 80's recession, as it was still possible to get a job !

when you didn't need a bunch of abbreviated certificates for every job you applied for.

to be fair there are many things which are better now then they were then.

Faith+1

CCCP wrote: »

when adults in neighborhoods could open the door and send any kid on the street to the shop for them in return for 10 p for sweets, nowadays that could get them arrested!
"yun-fella! will ya go the shop for us, ill get ya a packet of sweets???"!

My god that takes me back. I remember I went the shops for 5 neighbours in one day and made 2 pound. Bought myself a ton of sweets with it, wham bars, roy rover, dan bar, fruit salad sweets, apple jacks, Coola Pops etc.....Good times!:)

CCCP

I have no idea what those black things were in dan bars but my god, I love them!

Faith+1

CCCP wrote: »

I have no idea what those black things were in dan bars but my god, I love them!

I'm amazed I still have teeth after my sweet binges! I think those black spots were liquorice??

Bill2673

Hey Penana......thats a nice post, thanks for sharing it. It sounds like you just miss Dublin, as well as things about Dublin.....Do you not live in Dublin? A few of the things you mention are definitely still around: like my local bakery does a super batch white bread, it really is good, and there are queues out the door on a Saturday morning, which is a problem in the winter when its freezing outside. But its well worth it. Whenever I bring my two year old there they always give him a little gingerbread man with a smartie button and chocolate hair. We got a different gingerbread man for him recently, from a packet, and he was all worked up about there being no button on it. And moore street still has the fruit stalls and the fish stalls, though some of them are run by Chinese now.

A few times recently I've seen a horse and trailer pottering around the city. I was driving through the fruit markets behind capel st at around 7am one week day last winter, and this old guy pulled out in front of me driving a horse drawn cart with fruit boxes on the trailer. It looked really dramatic, even though he was going very slowly. it was one of those dark drizzly mornings, but the fruit markets were all action at that time.

I was in Bewleys Grafton st recently and I was surprised that it was not that different to how it used to be. i had assumed it was all changed and didn't go there for the past 7 years or so, but its not that much different.

The Cafe I miss the most is the Winding Stair. I used to love that place. There was nowhere else like it. But there's lots of new places I like, plenty of them.

Not

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

That closed in May-ish 2002 as far as I remember. I think that kinda qualifies as a long time now unfortunately
I miss it too.

Ah darn ! Seriously ? I still have an IR£20 voucher to spend in the Virgin Megastore :eek::o:(

Buses that made you deaf with the rattling, and leaned over alarmingly on corners, and which you could slipstream on a push bike as they pulled away if you could stand being gassed by the fumes.
The wonderland of the Dandelion Market,
Free parking.
The mad smogs.

Loopy

Punks.
I used to be fascinated by them as a kid, they were all over Grafton St and the Green..

CCCP

Butter vouchers, well I dont miss them but what a memory!
those things were cold hard currency!

unknown13

The old Dundrum, even though I'm 18 I can recall some memories before it got changed into South Dublin's shopping District.

Jellybaby1

Unknown13, as you are only 18, now is the best time for you to get out there and take photos of the Dublin you know. I'm in my 50's and many years ago when I was your age I took my instamatic camera out around my fair Dublin and took a few photos. I am so glad that I did that then.

penana

Hi, Bill2673!

Thank you, so much, for your kind words about my post; how thoughtful of you!
Yes, I do miss Dublin dreadfully and am living way, way too far away. It's a long story and one which I'm reluctant to post for fear of sounding melodramatic and like someone seeking a "pity party."

Anyway, it is essentially this: my husband and I were both made redundant in the mid-1970s, so we planned to spend about a year earning a bit of money in America, where we had relations. Our two pre-school sons and I travelled ahead, with my husband to follow. However, he was killed in a car crash on the Naas Road and, lacking insurance, the boys and I were stranded in the US, living from pay period to pay period and unable to amass any real savings.

In recent years, thanks to generous family members, there have been visits home and so, I am up-to-date on the vast changes with have taken place.

Yet, despite the length of time involved, I do remain painfully [absurdly?] homesick. If know that if it is God's will for me to live again in - or near to - Dublin, it will happen. But, I also know that sometimes His answer is "no" when our wishes, despite what we may feel, are not what He knows is best.

So, how's that for a "Poor Little Me" rant? Perhaps a sound kick where it will do the most good is in order!

humberklog

penana wrote: »

So, how's that for a "Poor Little Me" rant? Perhaps a sound kick where it will do the most good is in order!

Certainly one of the most touching I've heard/read:). And welcome to Boards by the way.

Did you have a browse through this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055264714 penana? It very long but there are a lot of real gems in it (info, pics, vids etc.).


Oh I miss playing tennis on the road. Too many cars these days.

GizAGoOfYerGee

Dublin keeps on changing, and nothing seems the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T7OaDDR7i8

Faith+1

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

when I was your age I took my instamatic camera out around my fair Dublin and took a few photos. I am so glad that I did that then.

Can you upload them on Boards??? Would love to see them!:):)

Jellybaby1

Will need to do a bit of digging to find them. I'm in the middle of a couple of home projects at present but will get back to you on the photos.

Diddler1977

spurious wrote: »

Downstairs in Roches Stores - all sorts of interesting things for sale.

Haberdashery in Roches.

Come to think of it I miss all the haberdasheries that used to be in Dublin.

Diddler1977

Lux23 wrote: »

Those fellas that used to hang around Parnell Square, Molesworth Street who looked after the cars. I used to think they were employed by the corporation but they just hung around there of their own accord, some even had uniforms.

"Lockhards"