THE 2016 PHOTO BLOG

Street Photography By Infomatique

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THE WAXIE DARGLE AS IT WAS IN 2016

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IT WAS EFFECTIVELY DERELICT FOR MANY YEARS

A year before I took this photograph the Waxie Dargle Pub was sold and it had been unoccupied or even derelict for a number of years. The asking price was only Euro 150,000 which very low as one might have expected it to sell at Euro 800,000 or higher.

“The Waxies’ Dargle” is a traditional Irish folk song about two Dublin “aul’ wans” (ladies) discussing how to find money to go on an excursion. It is named after an annual outing to Ringsend, near Dublin city, by Dublin cobblers (waxies). It originated as a 19th-century children’s song and is now a popular pub song in Ireland.

In the 19th century, during the Summer, the gentry of Dublin would travel out to Bray and Enniskerry with their entourages and have picnics on the banks of the River Dargle. The Dargle was a popular holiday resort, and the name in Dublin slang became synonymous with “holiday resort”.

The shoe-makers and repairers in Dublin were known as waxies, because they used wax to waterproof and preserve the thread they used in stitching the shoes.Easter and Whitsun were their principal holidays, Monday being the excursion for men and Tuesday for women. The original Waxies’ Dargle was said to be part of Donnybrook Fair, but due to riotous behaviour this fair closed in 1855. In any case, the waxies’ excursions did not go all the way to Bray, but only went as far as Irishtown which is located between Ringsend and Sandymount. In imitation of the gentry, they called their outing the Waxies’ Dargle. They drove out from the city to Ringsend on flat drays, ten or a dozen to each vehicle. It cost two pence per car-load and the usual cry of the driver was “Tuppence, an’ up with yeh!”. Those who wanted a more comfortable ride could take a jaunting car from D’Olier Street for threepence.

Their destination was a favourite resort for Dubliners, a grass-covered triangle near the sea-front at Irishtown. On Summer evenings fiddlers, flautists and melodeon-players played dance music (sets, half-sets and reels) until midnight. There was a roaring trade in porter, cockles and mussels and “treacle Billy”. On Bank holidays there were boxing contests.

THE YOUNGEST FAMILY MEMBER ASKED IF I BELIEVED IN FAIRIES

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SO I BROUGHT HER HERE TO THE FAIRY VILLAGE AT BLESSINGTON STREET BASIN

A very young member of the family asked us if fairies were real. I did not give here a direct answer but I brought her the Blessington Street Basin to see this fairy village. She was delighted and then asked me if Santa is real … maybe she thought that I might bring her to Lapland or the North Pole.

Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather!

In Irish folklore, the Tuatha de Danann were the one of the original inhabitants of Ireland – that is, until a warrior tribe, the Milesians (or Celts) arrived. The Milesians attacked and won a war against the Tuatha de Danann, eventually driving them underground. The Tuatha de Danann used their innate magic to become the Sidhe (pronounced Shee) – today known as the “fairies”, “little people” or the “wee folk”.

Like most folkloric events, the fairies and their magical, mysterious ways are often used to make sense of the indescribable or incomprehensible; Pre-Christian monuments are said to have been built by fairy folk, bad luck and illness a result of offending the fairies and people who disappear have been kidnapped by the little people. Even natural (and supernatural) phenomena can be explained by fairies. In general, it’s best to avoid angering the fairies, because who knows what they might do.

HOME TO THE TALBOT FAMILY SINCE 1185

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MALAHIDE CASTLE AND ESTATE

The estate began in 1185, when Richard Talbot, a knight who accompanied Henry II to Ireland in 1174, was granted the “lands and harbour of Malahide.” The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 12th century and it was home to the Talbot family for 791 years, from 1185 until 1976, the only exception being the period from 1649 to 1660, when Oliver Cromwell granted it to Miles Corbet after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland; Corbet was hanged following the demise of Cromwell, and the castle was restored to the Talbots. The building was notably enlarged in the reign of Edward IV, with towers added in 1765.

The estate survived such losses as the Battle of the Boyne, when fourteen members of the owner’s family sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, and all were dead by evening, and the Penal Laws, even though the family remained Roman Catholic until 1774.

The castle, along with its subsidiary attractions, was for many years operated as a tourist attraction by Dublin Tourism, working with Fingal County Council, which owns the whole demesne. The operating partner is now Shannon Heritage, which has in turn appointed subsidiary partners, most notably, for shop and café facilities, Avoca Handweavers.

The castle itself can be visited for a fee, on a guided-tour-only basis. In addition, it is possible to hire the famously Gothic Great Hall for private banquets. The castle’s best-known rooms are the Oak Room, and the Great Hall, which displays Talbot family history. In the courtyard behind the castle are a café and craft shop, and other retail facilities.

The Talbot Botanic Gardens, situated behind the castle, comprises several hectares of plants and lawns, a walled garden of 1.6 hectares and seven glasshouses, including a Victorian conservatory. Many plants from the southern hemisphere, notably Chile and Australia, are featured. The gardens showcase the plant-collecting passion of the 7th Lord Talbot de Malahide in the mid-20th Century.

The demesne is one of few surviving examples of 18th-century landscaped parks and has wide lawns surrounded by a protective belt of trees. It can be visited freely, with a number of entrances and car parking areas.

In addition to woodland walks, and a marked “exercise trail,” the park features sports grounds, including a cricket pitch and several football pitches, a 9-hole par-3 golf course, an 18-hole pitch-and-putt course, tennis courts and a boules area.

Adjacent to the golfing facilities, and containing access to them, is a pavilion which also contains a café and other facilities.

There is an extensive children’s playground near the castle.

A seasonal road train operates in a loop from the vicinity of the castle to the railway station and back. A Malahide Castle and coastal tour bus begins its journeys in Malahide Castle and continues to Howth, with two daily departures.

MALAHIDE RAILWAY STATION 7 MAY 2016

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AN ATTRACTIVE TRAIN STATION

Back in May 2016 we celebrated my mother’s ninety sixth birthday is a restaurant in Malahide has she has alway liked the coastal town as her best friend lived there. My mother will be 104 next birthday.

This is an attractive station Located in the centre of Malahide and close to Malahide Castle. A scenic road links Malahide to Portmarnock. One thing that I noticed is that while we, in Ireland, refer to them as Railway Stations the signage outside the station referred to it as Malahide Train Station.

The station opened on 25 May 1844 as part of the Dublin and Drogheda Railway. Earlier, on 6 January 1844, a special train for people including Lords Eliot and Talbot, their wives and other persons gave rides up and down a completed section of track near Malahide.

George Papworth created an elaborate design for the main station building in 1851, in the event this was not built.

A set of company amalgamations occurred in 1875-6 with the station first coming under the Northern Railway Co. (Ireland) and into the Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRI) on 1 April 1876. From 1 October 1958 with the break up of the GNRI the station came under the remit of CIÉ.

The main station building in the general polychromatic brickwork style of William Hemingway Mills has been attributed various dates from c. 1851 to 1905.

Malahide became the northern extent of the electrified Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) system in 2000.

Goods services were withdrawn in December 1974. In 2009, Malahide became the temporary terminus of all direct services from Dublin as a consequence of the collapse of the Broadmeadow viaduct.

The station has two through lines and two platforms, the major one being on the east side which is the southbound track to Dublin. Entrance is via yellow brick polychrome style typical of Mills although some features are Malahide specific, notably the ornate wood sliding doors to the platform.

The platform roof is supported by decorative ironwork. Access to the other platform is via a bridge with ironwork dating from the 1880s; this had to be raised high to allow for the DART electrification extension with disable-accessible lifts newly fitted to the south side.

The west platform retains a wooden shelter in mostly original condition. That platform has also been extended at some point but a standard GNR signal box has been retained, albeit boarded up.

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