Urban Expression

REMEMBERING THOMAS DUDLEY 1906-1981 WHO WAS KNOWN AS BANG BANG

August 10, 2023 by infomatique

DUBLIN STREET ART ON CAPEL STREET 10 AUGUST 2023

This is located on Capel Street and as this was my first time to see it one can assume that it is recent as is the chair chained to the railings.

Thomas Dudley, better known as “Bang Bang”, was a well-known street character in Dublin in the mid-20th century. He was known for carrying a large church key around with him and pretending to shoot people with it. He would often shout “Bang Bang!” as he did this.

Dudley was born in Dublin in 1906. He was raised in an orphanage and had a difficult childhood. He was also blind in one eye. Despite his challenges, Dudley was a charismatic and outgoing person.

Bang Bang became a popular figure in Dublin in the 1940s and 1950s. He was often seen riding the buses and trams, pointing his church key at people and shouting “Bang Bang!”

EXAMPLES OF PAINT-A-BOX STREET ART

July 26, 2023 by infomatique

NORTH KING STREET

At this location there is a memorial to the victims of the North King Street Massacre. I did not include the memorial in my photographs as I have already published photographs of the memorial.

Almost 500 people were killed in the Easter Rising. About 54% were civilians, 30% were British military and police, and 16% were Irish rebels. More than 2,600 were wounded. Many of the civilians were killed as a result of the British using artillery and heavy machine guns, or mistaking civilians for rebels. Others were caught in the crossfire in a crowded city. The shelling and the fires it caused left parts of inner city Dublin in ruins.

A major major scene of fighting during the week was in the area of North King Street, north of the Four Courts. The rebels had established strong outposts in the area, occupying numerous small buildings and barricading the streets. From Thursday to Saturday, the British made repeated attempts to take the area, in what was some of the fiercest fighting of the Rising. As the troops moved in, the rebels continually opened fire from windows and behind chimneys and barricades. At one point, a platoon led by Major Sheppard made a bayonet charge on one of the barricades, but was cut down by rebel fire. The British employed machine guns and attempted to avoid direct fire by using makeshift armoured trucks, and by mouse-holing through the inside walls of terraced houses to get near the rebel positions.[95] By the time of the rebel headquarters’ surrender on Saturday, the South Staffordshire Regiment under Colonel Taylor had advanced only 150 yd (140 m) down the street at a cost of 11 dead and 28 wounded. The enraged troops broke into the houses along the street and shot or bayoneted 15 unarmed male civilians whom they accused of being rebel fighters. The youngest was 16 years.

There was no public inquiry into the massacre; the British Army conducted its own internal military inquiry and no action was taken. In fact, the General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Ireland, General Maxwell justified his troops’ actions, stating that such incidents, “are absolutely unavoidable in such a business as this” and “responsibility for their deaths rests with those resisting His Majesty’s troops in the execution of their duty.”

PAINT-A-BOX STREET ART AT WEAVER PARK

July 18, 2023 by infomatique

I SUSPECT THAT THIS IS YET TO BE FINISHED

Unfortunately I know nothing about this other than it is on Cork Street near Weaver Park. I will check it again in a week or two.

PAINT-A-BOX STREET ART

June 29, 2023 by infomatique

OUTSIDE JAMES ADAM & SONS

James Adam and Sons Ltd, trading as Adam’s, is Ireland’s leading Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers. Founded in 1887, it is situated in the heart of Dublin on St Stephen’s Green.

Over the last century the company has developed its expertise in many fields and currently offers specialist sales ranging from Important Irish Art, Fine Period Furniture, Silver & Object’s Of Vertu, Contemporary & Modern Art, Militaria & Memorabilia as well as Vintage Wine Sales and we are adept at the appraisal and sale of private collections.

STREET ART ON NORTH MONASTERY ROAD IN CORK CITY

June 18, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED IN 2022

I have delayed processing some photographs from my 2022 visit to Cork until now for a variety of reasons. The actual visit was a bit strange as the city had yet to recover from Covid-19 restrictions. For example my hotel had been block-booked by the Department Of Health up until a few days before I arrived. I also had problems with public transport as scheduled buses failed to arrive and as a result I ended up being stranded for hours in unfamiliar locations and in some cases had to walk long distance in order to return to the city centre.

In May 2023 I spent a week in Cork City and my hotel cost Euro 345 when I tried to book for a week in May 2024 I was quoted Euro 900 (the newspapers are claiming that hotel prices have increased by 18%) which I am not willing to pay. I had to cancel most of my 2023 city visits because of cost but I had a back up booking for a week in August 2023 in Cork so I will visit Cork for a second time in 2023. Going forward I will change my approach and will undertake day trips to locations that are closer to Dublin (an hour or two from Dublin).

Up until now I had the option to cancel or reschedule my bookings and I did not have to pay in advance … now the hotels are seeking non-refundable payments in advance and some are seeking no-damage deposits of up to 200 Euros (this is new to me). What really annoys me is that I have been a regular guest at many of the hotels for 15 to twenty years.

I was trying to locate the North Monastery when I came across some examples of street art. For various reasons I did not actually visit the North Monastery which is a school.

The North Monastery, commonly known as The Mon, is a co-educational education campus comprising Scoil Mhuire Fatima Primary School, North Monastery Co-educational Secondary and Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG[4] located at Our Lady’s Mount, Cork, Ireland.

The North Monastery was founded on 9 November 1811 when Brother Jerome O’Connor and Brother John Baptist Leonard were given charge of a school in Chapel Lane by the Bishop of Cork, Rev Dr Moylan. Seventeen students attended on the first day. In 1814, a 14-acre sloping site was acquired from a wealthy Catholic businessman, Sir George Goold, Baronet, and a new school was built. The North Monastery had found its permanent home. An outbreak of typhus fever in the city in 1816 saw the school being used as a temporary hospital.

Brother Griffin, a poet and novelist, became a member of the North Monastery in 1839. He died on 12 June 1840 in his 37th year. His remains are interred in the cemetery in the grounds of the school. It was shortly after the death of Griffin that Daniel O’Connell visited with the Founder of the Order, Edmund Ignatius Rice.

In 1857, Brother James Burke arrived at the North Monastery and under his guidance the students began the study of natural philosophy (science). At this time John Philip Holland (inventor of the submarine) studied under the guidance of Br. Burke. In 1879, Patrick J. Kennedy, a past pupil, was installed as Lord Mayor of Cork, the first of a long and distinguished list of past pupils to hold this office. In 1901 the Lord Mayor of Cork, Edward Fitzgerald, organised an Industrial Exhibition.

The school represented the Department of Education and Br. Burke and his students built an electric tramway which was the high point of the exhibition. Burke died on 23 March 1904 as the result of an accident and was accorded a public funeral with a procession through the streets of Cork city. He was buried in the cemetery at the North Monastery.

In 1911, the school celebrated its centenary and the Br. Burke Memorial Extension, was formally opened in 1913. On the advent of the First World War the British army confiscated lathes, drilling machines and other machinery from the school. They closed and sealed the wireless room and cut down the aerial mast. These precautions were carried out under the Defence of the Realm Act.

In March 1920, Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtain, a past pupil, paid an official visit to the school and addressed the boys in Irish. Shortly afterwards he was murdered at midnight by a gang of armed assassins. He was given a public funeral at which nearly 2,000 North Monastery boys marched in procession. Terence McSwiney, who was also a past pupil, was his successor. He died in October 1920 in Brixton prison after 74 days on hunger strike.

The school continued to flourish and produced many more past pupils who distinguished themselves in all walks of life including business, politics, sport, the arts and academia, including former Taoiseach and sportsman Jack Lynch who formally opened a new secondary school building in 1967.

AN INTERESTING ENTRANCE ON WESTERN WAY IN DUBLIN – STREET ART BY JULIETTE VIODE

June 18, 2023 by infomatique

SUNDAY 18 JUNE 2023

The minute I saw this I knew that it was by Juliette Viode.

Juliette Viodé who describes herself as follows:

“I am a mural artist and illustrator based and working in Dublin. I studied animation and illustration in Dublin and since graduating have been heavily involved in the street art scene. I was formerly the lead artist for the Dublin Canvas Project. Through this initiative, I designed and painted a series of small and large scale murals around the city. I am now working as a freelance artist and have continued to paint murals, in particular for disadvantaged communities, helping them re-take pride in their areas. I have also worked extensively with kids with learning disabilities, showing them new tools to communicate ideas.”

“Street art is not my only focus though, I have pursued my work as an illustrator through several commissioned pieces and exhibitions. I’ve most recently worked for the Sun-Pilot project at the Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research centre in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) as part of their education and public engagement program. In this project I designed illustrations to explain scientific concepts to children. The artwork I created will be used in schools throughout the EU as a teaching tool.”

“My work is vibrant, cheerful and character-centric.”

The Western Way may be unknown to most people but it connects Mountjoy Street to Constitution Hill and is therefore of some importance. There is not much to see except for this painted door.

Western Way was created as a circulation route c.1880, linking Constitution Hill to the south-west with Mountjoy Street to the east.

The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) developed a train station at Broadstone from 1841, and purchased the Royal Canal in 1845.

In 1877, the MGWR was given permission to close 150 yards of the canal branch line and to construct a new forecourt for the train station. The new approach road, Western Way, was built by way of Foster aqueduct, with Saint Mary’s Chapel of Ease, or the Black Church, as its eastern focal point. The road curves around the site of former Palmerston House at the north-west corner of Dominick Street Upper.

Dominick Street Upper was developed from the 1820s, but remained largely undeveloped until the Broadstone railway terminus was built.

Sites for villas and terraces were offered in the 1860s, and the north side was owned by the Palmerston estate, where they built Palmerston House north of the junction of Dominick Street Upper and Constitution Hill. The fine cast-iron railings and granite gate piers are indicative of the wealth of the MGWR as patron and high quality craftsmanship throughout the nineteenth century.