William Murphy

LUKE KELLY’S HEAD AT GUILD STREET

April 30, 2023 by infomatique

THIS IS A FAVOURITE OF MINE

The Statue of Luke Kelly is a large marble sculpted head of Irish folk singer Luke Kelly, with metal wire for hair. The statue is located at the north end of Linear Park, near the junction of Sheriff Street Upper and Guild Street, Dublin 1.

The statue, designed by Vera Klute, was unveiled along with another statue of Luke Kelly on South King Street on 30 January 2019 by President Michael D. Higgins.

It was unveiled to mark the 35th anniversary of the death of Kelly on 30 January 1984, after calls to memorialise the singer in his hometown and specifically near where Luke Kelly grew-up on Sheriff Street.

The statue has been vandalised numerous times since it was commissioned. In July 2020, the 7th incident of defacement resulted in a 40-year-old man being charged with vandalism. These repeat incidents have raised questions regarding the statue’s location and accessibility, which have included suggestions to relocate it to a more public area. As far as I am concerned it is best that it remains where it is.

The statue was designed by Vera Klute and is circa 220 cm x 170 cm x 170 cm excluding the stone base. Treated marble was used for the formation of the head while treated metal wire was used to form the hair and beard. The hair is attached through the use of a metal mesh wig while the moustache is made of individual pieces of wire which were drilled into the face of the statue.

An initial model with hair was made in smaller near life sized form. A secondary larger statue was then created from plaster but without hair. This second statue was then used for 3D scanning to create the final larger sized version replicated in marble via a 5-axis cnc milling machine in Italy.

The appearance is based on a distinctive pose of Luke Kelly with his eyes closed while performing and is said to be taken from a still from his performance of Scorn Not His Simplicity on a show hosted by Jim McCann in 1974 called ‘McCann Man’.

THE CORTEN STEEL SIGN LOOKS LIKE A SHIP

April 30, 2023 by infomatique

DUBLIN PORT COMPANY

In some of my photographs you may notice a large pool of water at the side of the road. As I was photographing this sign a middle aged woman redirected her car to pass through the water in order to splash me and that is what happened … I had to return home to change as a result.

Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rust-like appearance after several years’ exposure to weather.

Dublin Port is the seaport of Dublin, Ireland, of both historical and contemporary economic importance. Approximatively two-thirds of Ireland’s port traffic travels via the port, which is by far the busiest on the island of Ireland.

The port is operated by the semi-state Dublin Port Company (DPC), incorporated on 28 February 1997 (formerly the Dublin Port and Docks Board, and successor to the Ballast Board founded in 1707), the headquarters of which are located just beyond the main port entrance on the northern side of the Liffey. In 2017 the area around the headquarters was rebuilt with the installation of a heritage crane and creation of a maritime-themed garden. The company is responsible for infrastructure of the port, with individual operations run by tenants such as State authorities, notably the customs service, ferry, freight and oil companies, terminal operators, and stevedores.

The port company is responsible for pilotage services within Dublin Bay, and manages the three port lighthouses (but not those of Howth or Kish Bank). It also formerly operated two drydocks, which were closed in 2016.

According to DPC, the port handled 23.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2003, as well as 1,426,000 passengers. That year 7,917 ships docked in the port, including 54 cruise liners carrying 54,000 visitors. In April 2010, the company announced its “busiest week ever”, following restrictions placed on European airspace because of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland. Some 72,118 passengers were reported to have travelled through the ferry terminals during the week of 15–21 April that year, and that week saw the culmination of increased trade in Dublin Port, as the company’s figures for the first quarter of 2010 would eventually reveal. March 2010 saw a 13.5% trade increase when compared with March 2009, and that month was declared by the company as the fourth consecutive month of trade increase[6] since the economic downturn. The figures of imports and exports declined during the depression of 2010 but then increased during the decade and in 2019, 38.1 million tonnes of cargo was handled and there were 7,898 ship movements of which 158 were cruise ships.

WORKERS’ MEMORIAL DAY EVENT

April 28, 2023 by infomatique

AT THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE 28 APRIL 2023

A national commemorative event has been held in Dublin by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) to mark Workers’ Memorial Day, an international day of remembrance for those who have been killed or seriously injured in work-related incidents.

In Ireland, 481 people were killed in such incidents over a 10-year period from 2012 to 2021, and so far seven people have died in incidents at work this year.

Workers’ Memorial Day, also known as International Workers’ Memorial Day or International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured, takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work. In Canada, it is commemorated as the National Day of Mourning.

Workers’ Memorial Day is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace incidents and ill health and to promote campaigns and union organisation in the fight for improvements in workplace safety. The slogan for the day is Remember the dead – Fight for the living.

Although April 28 is used as the focal point for remembrance and a day of international solidarity, campaigning and other related activities continue throughout the year right around the world.

THE GREEN SPACES AT WINDY ARBOUR

April 26, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED USING A SIGMA QUATRO DP1

Windy Arbour, historically called Glassons, is a small suburban village in the Dundrum area of Dublin, Ireland. Situated between Dundrum and Milltown, along the banks of the Slang River (also Dundrum or Slann River).

The River Slang (Irish: Abhainn na Stéille), also known as the Dundrum Slang or the Dundrum River, a tributary of the River Dodder, is a stream which rises on Three Rock Mountain, County Dublin. It is in the jurisdiction of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

From Three Rock Woods on the northern slopes of Three Rock Mountain, the Slang flows down through Ticknock, passing Ballinteer north to Dundrum, where it (sometimes known this far as “Ticknock Stream” or “River Ann”) receives the Wyckham Stream, and then loops east, north, and west, coming to a mill pond north of the Dundrum Town Centre retail complex. The Slang then runs north via Windy Arbour and subsequently joins the River Dodder at Milltown, near the Nine Arches viaduct, now used by the Luas.

The small Wyckham Stream, joining from the west, is a natural tributary, visible on early maps, but was later connected to the Little Dargle River, further west, to take some of the flow of that river into the Slang, to increase the supply for powering of mills.

Today there is a walk made by the County Council from south Dundrum to Marlay Park, along part of the Slang, the Wyckham Stream, and part of the Little Dargle.

THE CLOCK TOWER IN GRANGEGORMAN

April 24, 2023 by infomatique

ORIGINALLY THE RICHMOND PENITENTIARY

Originally opened in 1816 as the Richmond Penitentiary, this iconic tower is one of the most well-known of the 11 protected structures on the Grangegorman site. Built to the designs of Francis Johnston, also known for the Lower House on site and for the GPO on O’Connell St, the Richmond Penitentiary was the first of the penitentiary style in Britain and Ireland. The front facade, which overlooks Grangegorman Lower and the western side of the site, is all that remains of the original structure. The Grangegorman Masterplan shows the building’s final use as academic space for the College of Engineering & Built Environment.

The Richmond General Penitentiary was a prison established in 1820 in Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland as an alternative to transportation. It was part of an experiment into a penitentiary system which also involved Millbank Penitentiary, London. Richmond and Millbank penitentiaries were the first prisons in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to specialise in reform rather than punishment. The building was designed by the architect Francis Johnston and decorated by George Stapleton. The building ceased to be a penitentiary in 1831, and later became part of the Richmond Asylum.

In 1810, the Governors of the House Industry situated on North Brunswick Street were instructed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to purchase land for the construction of a penitentiary. The purpose of the penitentiary was to provide a custodial and rehabilitative alternative to the transportation of prisoners to Botany Bay, Australia. It was hoped that through solitary confinement, hard labour and religious instruction that prisoners might be reformed. They obtained a three half acre site from Lord Monck in Grangegorman which was at that time planted with apple and pear trees. Given that the Governors already had responsibility for the management of several prisons, including the Female penitentiary in Kilmainham, the House of Correction, Smithfield, the penitentiary in James’s Street and a prison ward in the House of Industry, they were assigned the task of overseeing the building of the institution that would be known as the Richmond General Penitentiary. The architect appointed was Francis Johnston. The building was completed in 1816, but it served as a fever hospital in that year and was subsequently completely refurbished. It received its first prisoners in 1820.

Upon committal prisoners were placed in solitary confinement in cells towards the rear of the building and, if their behaviour was seen to warrant it, after a period of at least one week they were removed to cells closer to the front of the building where they were allowed a greater degree of interaction with the other inmates.

The penitentiary was used as a transportation depot to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) between 1840 and the 1880s. Over 3,200 women and children passed through the Grangegorman Transportation Depot as it was then known, before being sent on ships to Hobart, Tasmania. This was the largest number of transportees of any place in Ireland at the time. The Cascades Female Factory in Hobart where these women ended up is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1897 ownership of the building was transferred to the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum and it was thereafter referred to as the “annexe” and used to house patients and for administrative functions. The building now referred to as ‘The Clock Tower’ is used as offices for Technological University of Dublin and the Grangegorman Development Agency. It forms part of the new TU Dublin campus being developed on the former hospital grounds.