Mad Mick the barber

aligator_am

Hey, just wondering if anyone remembers the barbers that was on the quays, down near Bargain Town I think?

I remember the barber was called Mick, he would go off on a rant waving his arms around while holding an open razor! I used to go there as a kid with my Dad, I didn't really understand all the political talk that was going on but my Dad would be in tears laughing at him.

I'm nearly certain that the building that the shop was in has since been knocked down, I think there's apartments there now, shop must have been knocked down in the mid 90's.

Years later I was working in the Redbox / Pod nightclubs and found that Mick was working there as one of those people who hand out paper towels, after shave etc. in the toilet.

So like I say, just wondering if anyone else here remembers him or used to get their hair cut in his shop?

markodaly

I had an older brother that used to go to him, I think. Must ask him if he remembers any of his rants.

subpar

He used to cut hair with a knife and fork.

LionelNashe

Is it the one near the bottom of this article? Michael Rynne on Ellis Quay. The photo caption says it's a few hundred yards from his previous shop.

http://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-photographs-1515545-Jun2014/

aligator_am

LionelNashe wrote: »

Is it the one near the bottom of this article? Michael Rynne on Ellis Quay. The photo caption says it's a few hundred yards from his previous shop.

http://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-photographs-1515545-Jun2014/

Great find! yeah that's the place, as far as I remember the original building was an old tenement and started to collapse.

Birdie Num Num

The Ellis barbers?

pablo128

I went in there as a teenager around 1990. He was dirt cheap at the time which left more money for cans at the weekend. There used to be a few bohemian lads in smoking joints while waiting to get their hair cut.

I stopped going in after he cut the neck off me one day with the fcuking cut throat thing!:mad::pac:

aligator_am

pablo128 wrote: »

I went in there as a teenager around 1990. He was dirt cheap at the time which left more money for cans at the weekend. There used to be a few bohemian lads in smoking joints while waiting to get their hair cut.

I stopped going in after he cut the neck off me one day with the fcuking cut throat thing!:mad::pac:

Yeah now that you mention it, he didn't have any electrical hair trimmers, he'd use ones that you pressed together to cut the hair, they looked like mixture of pruning shears and the business end of an electrical trimmer!

I was lucky in that I never got sliced (as far as I can remember) with the open razor, he'd use it to tidy up / square off your locks and hair at the back of your head, it was all good until he'd start roaring about something

Like I said before, I was only a kid so didn't understand the political talk but from talking to my Dad, he was saying there was another fella there that lived above the barbers I think, he was in to either Fine Gael or Fine Fail and Mick was in to whichever was the opposite, so they'd end up slinging political barbs (no pun intended) at each other all day.

I do remember that Mick would get worked up in to a frenzy going off on some political speach, he would be literally be spitting / frothing at the mouth as he was so wound up, seem to remember that when he made a point he would start roaring NOW YE KNOW, NOW YE KNOW!

Would love to be able to go back and see the conversations as an adult because I'd say I'd be in tears laughing, my Dad used to be in knots at the time.

JupiterKid

Was this Mad Mick the head barber of The Ellis barber on Ellis Quay? My grandad went there and my Dad took me there once when I was about 12. I thought it was very "old world" and basic.