DIFFERENT SIGNS DIFFERENT SPELLING
This diner is housed in a forty foot container and according to local legend the Deeke’s neon sign cost 3,000 euro. The owner is Tony McDonald, aka Deeke Rivers.
THE HEADLESS PHOTO BLOG
by infomatique
DIFFERENT SIGNS DIFFERENT SPELLING
This diner is housed in a forty foot container and according to local legend the Deeke’s neon sign cost 3,000 euro. The owner is Tony McDonald, aka Deeke Rivers.
by infomatique
PIGEON HOUSE ROAD – SEAN MOORE ROAD
I was in the area today as I was trying to find the USS Mesa Verde only to discover that it had docked in a restricted area.
The Poolbeg power station is situated adjacent to the now-decommissioned Pigeon House generating station, where electricity was first generated in 1903 (with the distinction of being the first in the world to generate three phase power).
The name “Pigeon House” comes from a caretaker’s lodge built there in 1760. At the time the site was a wooden platform known pragmatically as “The Piles”, at the seaward end of the Ballast Office Wall embankment. The lodge was intended to provide rest and storage facilities for workers as they built the Great South Wall, a massive sea wall project that began in 1761 and would take three decades to complete.
The first caretaker, John Pidgeon, was appointed in 1761. Pidgeon opened an eatery to provide refreshments for the workers and the growing number of travellers arriving into Dublin Bay. “Pigeon’s House” as it was known became one of the most popular restaurants in Dublin.
Around 1793, as the Great South Wall was nearing completion, a hotel opened at the site, the Pigeon House Hotel.
The hotel did not last long for after the 1798 Rebellion, the area was transformed into a military fort, the Pigeon House Fort. The hotel building was converted into the officers’ accommodation within the fort, which then grew over the next hundred years to include an armoury, a hospital, and trenches crossed by drawbridges.
Between 1878 and 1881, a sewage pipe was installed along the former Ballast Office Wall (now the landward half of the Great South Wall). In 1897, the military complex was sold to the Dublin Corporation and developed into a sewage processing facility, as well as the city’s first major electrical power generating station. It was used for power generation until it was decommissioned in 1976, and the Poolbeg plant is still known locally as the Pigeon House.
The modern Poolbeg station was named after the Poolbeg lighthouse which formed the outer end of the Great South Wall. The lighthouse, completed in 1767 when construction of the Great South Wall was just beginning, stood originally at the edge of a natural tidal pool at the entrance to Dublin Harbor known as “Poole Begge”, which was surrounded at low tide with sand bars.
The Poolbeg power station was constructed in two separate phases, beginning in the 1960s. The ESB decided to construct the station in 1965 and the initial development was completed in 1971 with the construction of Units 1 and 2 at a cost of 20 million Irish pounds. The original Pigeon House generators remained on standby duty until 1976. Unit 3 was completed in 1978 at a cost of 40 million pounds.
The combined cycle station was constructed in the 1990s. CG14 was commissioned in 1994, CG15 in 1998 and ST16 in 2001.
by infomatique
PHOTOGRAPHED 25 AUGUST 2023
Ringsend Public Library is an art deco style public library in Ringsend, Dublin designed by Robert Sorley Lawrie working in the city architect’s office under Horace O’Rourke.
This building was one of four similar libraries built by Dublin Corporation between 1935 and 1940 in the Dublin suburbs of Phibsborough, Ringsend, Drumcondra and Inchicore.
by infomatique
LOCATED ON DAME LANE OFF SOUTH GREAT GEORGE’S STREET
Emmalene Blake is the artist responsible for this mural celebrating the life of Sinead O’Connor.
Shuhada’ Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor; 8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023), known professionally as Sinéad O’Connor, was an Irish singer, songwriter, and activist. Her debut studio album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987 and achieved international chart success. Her 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, marked her greatest accomplishment, selling over seven million copies worldwide. Its lead single, “Nothing Compares 2 U”, was honoured as the top world single of the year at the Billboard Music Awards.
O’Connor achieved chart success with Am I Not Your Girl? (1992) and Universal Mother (1994), both certified gold in the UK, as well as Faith and Courage (2000), certified gold in Australia. Throw Down Your Arms (2005) achieved gold status in Ireland. Her career encompassed songs for films, collaborations with numerous artists, and appearances at charity fundraising concerts. O’Connor’s memoir, Rememberings, released in 2021, became a bestseller.
Consistently, O’Connor drew attention to issues such as child abuse, human rights, racism, organised religion, and women’s rights. During a Saturday Night Live performance in 1992, she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II to protest against abuse in the Catholic Church, sparking controversy. Throughout her musical career, she openly discussed her spiritual journey, activism, socio-political viewpoints, as well as her experiences with trauma and struggles with mental health.
In 2017, O’Connor changed her name to Magda Davitt. After converting to Islam in 2018, she adopted the name Shuhada’ Sadaqat while continuing to perform and record under her birth name.
On 26 July 2023, O’Connor was found unresponsive at her flat in Herne Hill, South London, and confirmed dead at the age of 56. The cause of death was not stated. The following day, the Metropolitan Police reported that O’Connor’s death was not being treated as suspicious. On 28 July, the coroner in London said that the date of her death was still unknown. Her date of death was marked as 26 July upon her burial at Dean’s Grange Cemetery on 8 August.
A private funeral was held on 8 August in Bray, County Wicklow. It was attended by the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins. O’Connor’s family invited the public to pay their respects at the seafront where the funeral cortege passed. Thousands attended bearing signs and tributes.
American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers wrote a tribute to O’Connor in Rolling Stone, praising her integrity. Celebrities including Janelle Monáe, Patton Oswalt, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tori Amos, Bear McCreary, Public Enemy, Amanda Palmer, and Toni Collette posted tributes on social media. English singer Morrissey wrote a tribute criticising the reaction from executives and celebrities, and wrote: “You praise her now only because it is too late. You hadn’t the guts to support her when she was alive and she was looking for you.”
Emmalene Blake (ESTR) is an artist based in Dublin, Ireland. Since graduating from Dublin Institute of Technology with an Honour’s Degree in Fine Art in 2012, Emmalene has been honing her craft as a street artist, first painting live at an event in 2013. Since then Emmalene has painted live at many events, as well as painting commissioned pieces throughout Ireland and abroad.
by infomatique
COAST ROAD
A well maintained brick cottage thatched with Oats (straw). Two chimneys. Rough cast plaster and part clay exterior. Uncoloured. Modern panelled door. Rectangular wooden framed casement windows.
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (Cladium mariscus), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed—trapping air—thatching also functions as insulation. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost local vegetation. By contrast, in some developed countries it is the choice of some affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home, would like a more ecologically friendly roof, or who have purchased an originally thatched abode.
Years ago, thatching straw was the by-product of the cereal production e.g. wheat, rye and even oat straw has been used to thatch roofs. Wheat as the toughest (and probably longest lasting as often Winter sown) became the norm but now it is no longer a by-product.