BIRD AVENUE CHURCH

08/07/2023

Most people refer to this as Bird Avenue Church.

I must admit that I was surprised by the number of electrical cables on view in my photographs.

I worked for Ericsson which was located nearby and sadly as many employees lived in the parish I attended three funerals services held in this church but the last one was about ten years ago.

The Church of the Immaculate Virgin Mary of the Miraculous Medal was built in 1965 but it has an interesting history. Back in 1954, a competition was held to design a Catholic Church in Clonskeagh. It had to be large enough to accommodate 1,700 people, and cost no more than £150,000. More than a hundred submissions were received which was a record at the time. All shortlisted proposals were modernist designs but, mysteriously, the building that was eventually selected by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid was not one of them.

FIRE STATION AT DOLPHINS BARN

07/07/2023

"Dolphin's Barn" is an area on the southwest edge of inner city Dublin, named for the Dolphyn family who had a barn there when it was not a part of the city.

The station at Dolphin's Barn has two fire engines, an emergency tender, an ambulance and a D/O’s vehicle with command unit, with 16 , an S/O and two Sub Officers, working with 13 members every day and 12 at night.

There are currently 14 fire stations staffed by DFB, 12 of which are full-time, the other 2 are part-time or "retained". There were formerly stations at Tara Street (now the adjacent Central Fire Station), Winetavern Street, Buckingham Street Lower, Thomas Street, Dorset Street Upper, Rathmines, Blackrock, and Dún Laoghaire - the latter three had been built by their respective councils before DFB started operating across the whole of Dublin County.

PORTOBELLO ROAD AT IT BEST

07/07/2023

Portobello Harbour was opened in 1801, becoming an important terminus for barges travelling along the Grand Canal. The harbour was originally larger in size and also served as a water reservoir until 1863. Portobello House, originally the Grand Canal Hotel, opened in 1807. The building was later used as an asylum for the blind and then as a nursing home where artist Jack B. Yeats, brother of poet W.B. Yeats, spent his final years.

I have experimented with the latest PhotoShop Beta to see if I could remove people from some of my photographs - not that I wish to do so in most cases. In general Generative Fill works very well but it can produce some really weird results and in order to use the feature one needs to be connected the Adobe's cloud service. In one instance I tried to remove a child who had walked into frame and instead of being remove he was replaced by a wheelie-bin and every attempt produced an item of street furniture.

Today I used a very old Canon 5DIII which I recently purchased still sealed in its original box. Apparently the owner won it as a prize many years ago put it on a shelf and forgot about it. Often if an electronic device is left unused for a long period of time it will will fail. I borrowed the camera for a week and was very pleased with it so I still have it but of course I had to purchase a few batteries and I also purchased a GPS unit which cost more than I paid for the camera.

THE DOLL SOCIETY AT 101 FRANCIS STREET

06/07/2023

The pink is overpowering to say the least.

I first noticed this in June but it was raining so I did not investigate I had assumed that it was a Dolls Hospital or a Toy Shop. I also considered the possibility that it could be some scheme to promote the new Barbie Film. Anyway, I now know that it is a replacement for the recently closed Anti Social cocktail bar.

I recently read that Warner's long-awaited Barbie movie has been banned in Vietnam. The film, which had been due to open in the country on 21 July, has been banned from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China's unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea.