DART Station

PHOTOGRAPHED 30 AUGUST 2022

The Blackrock baths were provided for by the railway company in 1839 and were built beside the Blackrock train station. A special train ticket also permitted entrance to the baths. In 1887, the baths were rebuilt in concrete with a large gentlemen’s bath and a smaller ladies’ bath. In 1928, the Urban District Council bought the baths for £2,000 and readied them for the Tailteann Games. The baths, with a 50-metre pool, were well known for their swimming galas and water polo and could accommodate up to 1,000 spectators.”

Eddie Heron lived in Sandycove and is known for his achievement as 36 years undefeated Springboard and Highboard Diving Champion of Ireland. A plaque commemorating him is on the railway bridge that crosses over to the baths.

On 11 September 1891, Thomas Crean, while swimming with fellow students near Blackrock, helped rescue a 21-year-old art student named William Ahern. Crean noticed that Ahern was in trouble and together with a young solicitor named Leachman from Dundrum, he managed to bring him ashore. For his bravery, he was awarded a medal by the Royal Humane Society.

The decline in the use of the baths started in the 1960s when indoor heated swimming pools started to appear. Dún Laoghaire Corporation closed the Blackrock Baths in the late 1980s and by 1992, due to lack of maintenance, parts of the baths were dismantled.[ They have since been sold to developers Treasury Holdings.[18] In 2013, the baths were demolished due to safety concerns following a routine inspection by Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council. It was found that the diving platform had been significantly corroded and detached from the pool base.

PHOTOGRAPHED 30 AUGUST 2022

Today I used a Canon 5DMkIII coupled with a very old Sigma 12-24 lens. I originally purchase the Sigma 12-24 to use with my original Canon 5D back in 2005 or 2006 and I was somewhat disappointed because of distortion and unacceptable amounts of lens flare. I tried using it with my first Sony 7R and it performed badly so I more-or-less put it on a high shelf and forgot about it.

Today the lens performed much better than I had expected but lens flare was, without doubt, an issue but in most cases I was able to compensate in post-production.

Pearse railway station or Dublin Pearse is a railway station on Westland Row on the Southside of Dublin, Ireland. It is Ireland’s busiest commuter station and second busiest station overall (behind Dublin Connolly railway station) with 9 million passenger journeys through the station in 2016.

The station was renamed in 1966, when several Irish railway stations were renamed as part of the Easter Rising 50th-anniversary celebrations, after the Pearse brothers, Patrick and Willie. Probably due to confusion with the nearby Pearse Street, Dubliners often refer to it as “Pearse Street station”. My Grandmother always referred to it as Westland Row Station and it should be mentioned that I was baptised in the church beside the station.

Major renovation commenced in 2007 with publicity erected in the station for this in March 2008. As part of phase 1, automatic ticket validation machines were installed on platforms 1 and 2. The front entrance of the station was changed. The former Spar shop was completely taken out of the station and the old ticket barriers were removed. Platforms 3, 4 and 5 were removed. New signage and CCTV cameras were added on both active platforms and, on Platform 2, a larger waiting area for passengers was provided.

An additional Southbound entrance (Pearse Street and Trinity Bio Science) was opened 9 April 2013. At the official opening of the entrance by Minister Leo Varadkar the National Transport Authority used the term Pearse Street Station in the title of a page on its website although there was no evidence of any official renaming.

THE STATION AREA OF BLACKROCK VILLAGE

PEARSE RAILWAY STATION