March 2023

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE ACROSS THE GRAND CANAL

March 31, 2023 by infomatique

DRIMNAGH TRAM STOP

Drimnagh was farmland until the mid-1930s, when some of the first tenement clearances brought city centre residents from one-room hovels to terraced and semi-detached houses in a series of roads named after the mountain ranges of Ireland. The suburb consists of one area close to Drimnagh Castle and Lansdowne Valley, with three-bedroom private housing built by Associated Properties, and another area (the larger part) built by Dublin Corporation and consisting of three-bedroom ‘Kitchen Houses’ and two-bedroom ‘Parlour Houses’ bordering the Grand Canal and Crumlin. The two areas meet at the parish church, the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in the centre of Drimnagh, built in 1943.

The Dublin Corporation housing area was originally considered part of an area known as North Crumlin from its construction in the mid-1930s until the introduction of the postal code system during the mid-1970s.

A MAGNIFICENT THREE MASTED TALL SHIP ARRIVED IN DUBLIN THIS MORNING

March 25, 2023 by infomatique

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT II

I last photographed this tall ship as she left Dublin 26th. August 2022.

Alexander von Humboldt II is a German sailing ship built as a replacement for the ship Alexander von Humboldt, which had been launched in 1906 and used for sail training since 1988. Constructed by Brennund Verformtechnik (BVT) in Bremen, the new ship was launched in 2011. Just like her predecessor, the Alexander von Humboldt II is operated by Deutsche Stiftung Sail Training in Bremerhaven which offers sail training for people between 14 and 75 years of age.

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt’s quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography. Humboldt’s advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring.

Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in the Americas, exploring and describing them for the first time from a modern Western scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in several volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined (South America and Africa in particular).

Humboldt resurrected the use of the word cosmos from the ancient Greek and assigned it to his multivolume treatise, Kosmos, in which he sought to unify diverse branches of scientific knowledge and culture. This important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity, which introduced concepts of ecology leading to ideas of environmentalism. In 1800, and again in 1831, he described scientifically, on the basis of observations generated during his travels, local impacts of development causing human-induced climate change.

Humboldt is seen as “the father of ecology” and “the father of environmentalism”.

Three-Masted, Sailing Ship, Tall Ship, Dublin, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay,Alexander von Humboldt, Alexander von Humboldt II, Brennund Verformtechnik (BVT), Deutsche Stiftung Sail Training, William Murphy, Infomatique, Fotonique, Apple, iPhone, 12 Pro max,

TheLinesmanSculptureBuDodyMacManusOnCityQuay25March2023
THE LINESMAN BY DONY MacMANUS ON CITY QUAY [THIS IS A FAVOURITE OF MINE]

This bronze sculpture, by Irish artist Dony MacManus, commemorates the tradition of docking in the area, which disappeared with the containerisation of shipping cargo. Located on City Quay, it was the winning entry in a public art competition organised by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to celebrate the new life of the quayside or campshires, along the River Liffey.

I worked for a shipping company back in the late 1960s and we employed people to do this sort of work but I not sure that we referred to them as linesmen and it may surprise many to learn that they were better paid than other dockers.

At the time we were in the process of switching to containerisation and reducing the number of casual workers which was bad news for many living in the area and it was especially difficult as nearly all the dockers employed by the company were, to some degree.family members [I was the only exception].

THE LINESMAN BY DONY MacMANUS ON CITY QUAY

March 25, 2023 by infomatique

THIS IS A FAVOURITE OF MINE

THE LINESMAN BY DONY MacMANUS ON CITY QUAY 004

THE LINESMAN BY DONY MacMANUS ON CITY QUAY 003

SUFFOLK STREET IS HOME TO MOLLY MALONE AND THE O’NEILL PUB

March 22, 2023 by infomatique

THE DAY AFTER ST PATRICK’S DAY 2023

For many the two attractions on Suffolk Street are the Molly Malone Statue and O’Neills Pub.

“Molly Malone” (also known as “Cockles and Mussels” or “In Dublin’s Fair City”) is a song set in Dublin, Ireland, which has become its unofficial anthem. A statue representing Molly Malone was unveiled on Grafton Street by then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ben Briscoe, during the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations, when 13 June was declared to be Molly Malone Day. In July 2014, the statue was relocated to Suffolk Street, in front of the Tourist Information Office, to make way for Luas track-laying work at the old location.

The song tells the fictional tale of a fishwife who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin and died young, of a fever. In the late 20th century, a legend grew up that there was a historical Molly, who lived in the 17th century. She is typically represented as a hawker by day and a part-time prostitute by night. In contrast, she has also been portrayed as one of the few chaste female street hawkers of her day.

There is no evidence that the song is based on a real woman in the 17th century or any other time. The name “Molly” originated as a familiar version of the names Mary and Margaret. Many such “Molly” Malones were born in Dublin over the centuries, but no evidence connects any of them to the events in the song. Nevertheless, the Dublin Millennium Commission in 1988 endorsed claims made for a Mary Malone who died on 13 June 1699, and proclaimed 13 June to be “Molly Malone Day”.

O’Neill’s is a genuine traditional Old Irish pub renowned for its friendly staff and patrons, its great atmosphere and world-famous food. It looks like a regular pub from the outside, but inside it’s a pleasure to drink in, with its various nooks and crannies, upstairs and down. Whether you want to enjoy the great pub atmosphere or find a quite corner for yourself, O’Neill’s have it all.

SUFFOLK STREET IS HOME TO MOLLY MALONE AND THE O'NEILL PUB 001

SUFFOLK STREET IS HOME TO MOLLY MALONE AND THE O'NEILL PUB 002

ARBOUR HILL AREA OF DUBLIN

March 15, 2023 by infomatique

10 MARCH 2023

Arbour Hill is an area of Dublin within the inner city on the Northside of the River Liffey, in the Dublin 7 postal district. Arbour Hill, the road of the same name, runs west from Blackhall Place in Stoneybatter, and separates Collins Barracks, now hosting part of the National Museum of Ireland, to the south from Arbour Hill Prison to the north, whose graveyard includes the burial plot of the signatories of the Easter Proclamation that began the 1916 Rising. St Bricin’s Military Hospital, formerly the King George V Hospital, is also located in Arbour Hill.