tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349064402024-03-18T00:34:05.542-07:00Dublin taxiSurviving Dublin a city with more taxis than New York.
Dublin is a passengers paradise and a taxi drivers hellJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.comBlogger1629125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-55276685833845923512024-03-17T11:48:00.000-07:002024-03-17T11:48:52.994-07:00The Irish of Montserrat, West Indies 1976<iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/PzxRuSh4bXo?si=iG2rZN41AqgILBEr" frameborder="0"></iframe>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-81796590218596319242024-03-16T16:15:00.000-07:002024-03-16T16:15:13.542-07:00Happy St. Patricks Day<span style="font-size: medium;">Well tomorrow will be St.Patricks day. A day to be celebrated all over the world.</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;">There is a wealth of stories of how the Irish were sent there as slaves to work in the sugar plantations. Slavery was widespread. The singer Riana is of that stock.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I see that the Black Irish was downloaded and that song of the migrant.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The song was written by a Garda who was travelling on a bus when the song came to hin. He had a pen and note book, so he wrote it down. Bing Crosbie the famous American singer had an international hit. The royalties paid for his house. Then it features in the Quiet man movie the income put his kids through collage, then it appeared again in Stephen Spielberg's movie ET. Which paid for his retirement home in Spain.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">One interesting point is that he wrote this fantastic hit song. It came just like that and he never wrote another one.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I found out that they are going to knock down an iconic Dublin pub The Brian Boru on Prospect Ave to make way for the construction of the new metro railway.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The story about this pub that is stuck in my mind concerns a pub across the way The Gravediggers. Just at the back of the cemetery. Well the story goes that one of the Dubliners folk group had died and all the best of Irish talent had gathered in the pub to celebrate his life.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The owner of the pub was (I forget his first name ) Kavanagh and he was very fixed in his ways. After a while a banjo came and when the first chord sounded the owner shouted.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">"There is no music in this pub, if I let you sing today that lot over there will be singing tomorrow. And they can't sing a note" </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Everyone to a man finished up their drinks and walked over to the Brian Boru where they sang all night and nearly drank the pub dry.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">By the way The Gravediggers is one of Dublin's best pubs.</span></div>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-17012869937484992732024-03-16T15:34:00.000-07:002024-03-16T15:34:44.876-07:00The Isle Of Innisfree<iframe width="480" height="360" src="https://youtube.com/embed/OE66t5rrxd0?si=X2HBVmRTNgxjTV0S" frameborder="0"></iframe>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-12728587303182493822024-02-28T14:08:00.000-08:002024-02-28T14:08:53.610-08:00As darkness falls good night<p><span style="font-size: large;"> As most of you know I have retired and my son David has taken over the job. He is very nervous about it but I suppose we all were at the start. He has people to meet and places to go for sure.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So the main reason that things came to such a sudden stop was my wife's illness. It is nothing fatal like Cancer thank God, but I have to be htre.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So here is a story which hinges on a remark made by a passenger.(Chuck Feeney)I would love to be a taxi driver if I was starting my life again, you hear so much. It only takes one idea to turn you into a millionaire. Chuck invented duty free shopping and became a billionaire. But unlike most people becoming rich he gave it all away.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Look up the book about him "The billionaire who wasn't by Conor O'Cleary. I stayed in touch with Chuck for more than 10 years after we met. Such a great guy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So on with the story.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Outside London there was a railway station with a car park. People used to commute to London from there. It was busy enough.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">If it was raining there was potholes and with the bad lighting people would walk through the puddles. So one day signs went up giving notice about work starting over the next 4 weekends.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Lighting went in, followed by1/2 the car park having drainage done and a fine tarmac top. The following week the other side was done and lines were painted, so People knew where to park. Then came the parking ticket machines. Cheap enough at the beginning, offenders were clamped but things settled down through the years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">One day when the commuters came they found that the ticket machines were all full, they went into the station master who rang the contact number, no reply. He rang the railway company who rang back to say that they had no record of the car park. Locksmiths were called and the parking meters were drilled out, emptied and new locks fitted. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some guy had spotted the situation and took it over for more than 20 years. He bought his house, sent his kids to university, he probably bought a house in Spain as well before walking away.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">He did no harm to anyone.</span></p><p><br /></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-64086831351415146742024-02-13T13:48:00.000-08:002024-02-13T13:48:12.882-08:00Happy St. Valentines day<p><span style="font-size: large;">Did you know that there is a relic to St.Valentine</span> <span style="font-size: large;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It can be found in the Carmelite church on Whitefriar St.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is a post box inside where you can drop in a note to tell him exactly what you want. "That last fella you sent was no good, he didn't want to work at all"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Anyhoo I should be on my way to Blackpool tomorrow morning, but I have to stay here to take care of my wife. Nothing too severe sciatica.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It has been going on for more than 12 weeks now. All that time with no taxi work. I passed to taxi to my son. But I really do miss the outing every day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">To get back to Blackpool. What's on. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Worlds biggest magic convention, thats what's on.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">100 +magic dealers selling things to preform the smallest magic trick in your hand to something to make a car vanish and everything in between. Then there are lectures where great magicians share their secrets with keen listeners.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some magicians are really friendly and Paul Daniels was a great example. I met him a few times and I went to a few of his lectures.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">He was coming to Belfast and I sent him an email telling him that I was coming. On arrival Paul was talking to a group of magicians in a corner of the hall. I walked in and Paul shouted over.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Gentlemen take a look at this fine man who has just come in. Take a good look and you can plainly see that he is very wealthy. After all he won't spend money on good clothes." I don't know where it came from, but I said "Or wigs Paul" to which he replied "Touché". Then I came back with "Toupee"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">He ran across and gave me a big hug.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Debbie McGee was at some function as a special guest and she spoke of Pauls death. No matter where we were we drove back home if we did not have another show in the area. Paul would drive and then one day he asked Debbie to drive, then there was headaches, when he finally went into hospital he had a massive brain tumour. But he passed away with no pain.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Magic is so accessible now with the internet.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Look for</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Bill Malone. Harry Cardines Santos, Harry Lorayne, Eugene Burger.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">All of them do DVDs and soon you will have your party piece.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">My favourite one is to take a €5 note and in full view fold it once, twice, three times and then blow on it and it has turned into a €50.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I have a deck of cards and all the faces are different but the backs are the same. A prediction card in an envelope is placed on the table.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I deal face down cards until the person says stop.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Then I deal the other cards from the bottom face up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There is a prediction in this envelope, I know that it is right.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">You open up the envelope and it doesn't match. Front or back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">After a pause you turn the chosen cards over and they match. Front and back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Rene Levant was in Blackpool and after the show I saw him with a group of people. He was standing at the top of a small curved staircase, near the edge. I went over to congratulate him on his performance. I was waiting for my moment when someone came over from the other side. He stepped back and came tumbling down the stairs. (He only had one arm)I remembered that before I grabbed him in a bear hug and shot back down the stairs backwards with him in my arms.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Was he grateful ? He roared at me in Spanish and he and they all thought that I had pushed him down the stairs. In many ways looking back there is a saying.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">No good deed goes unpunished.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps next year</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-70937300895016551672024-01-31T15:54:00.000-08:002024-01-31T15:54:25.139-08:00Romeo and Juliet<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Love and passion hit the paper on Tuesday.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Constance Marten a British aristocrat had a baby and fled from their folks in freezing weather with their new born baby Victoria. Her lover is coloured, so perhaps this is the reason why they panicked. The police found them sleeping in a tent that they bought from Argos in the freezing weather,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A couple of days later they found the babys body in a plastic bag under a pile of branches.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A situation of unbearable pain for everyone.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Today near Boston a lady sleeping in a wheelie bin was tipped into the bin lorry and crushed by the compactor.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The poor are always with us but when you see that Elon Musk wanted to pay himself over 50 billion, but it has been blocked on behalf of his shareholders.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A great bumper sticker seen on a Tesla.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I bought this car before I knew Elon Musk was mad</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-85805100237510677242024-01-17T15:26:00.000-08:002024-01-17T15:26:05.957-08:00The worst thing ever<p><span style="font-size: large;">Like many people we do not buy the paper, on line is so much cheaper and quicker. Today in the London Times there was a story of a father and infant son found dead in a house. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The dad was 20 and the child was 2.</span> </p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The father had died of a heart attack and the child died from starvation and dehydration.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Social services were on the case and they went to the house on the 2nd of Jan and got no reply. They reported it to the police who gained access to the house on the 8th and found the bodies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When I went back to check on the facts the story has been removed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I have no faith in the police whatever. I tried to report a guy who was sexually molesting a mentally handclapped girl.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Unless we saw him doing it there is nothing we can do."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">That letter went to the Garda commissioner</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I wrote to 4 care homes in the area, none of them would reply.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Another time I had 2 guys who were looking for a guy to shoot him.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Honestly (Its in the book)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Garda station in Tallagh told me "Don't come in here telling us fairy stories"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">One last story from my past. There was a ram raid on an off licence beside the International telephone exchange on Marlborough St. One of the lads called the boys in blue. But they had skidalled before the Garda arrived. A police car waited for the owner to come.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"Thank God I have CCTV said the owner"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So long ago that they didn't know what CCTV was.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When the tape was played back the Garda car was shown to have stolen more than the robbers. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">But we all know he was just holding it for safe keeping.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-56213361929699538362023-12-31T03:59:00.000-08:002023-12-31T03:59:06.889-08:002024 The future<p> <span style="font-size: medium;">I have 3 sons, one of them lives near Belfast. He had been down before Christmas and on St. Stephens day he landed back. Then after a cup of tea he went away and when he came back he was upset and told us about his distressing news.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One of his friends from Mount Temple school had killed himself on Christmas day. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A married man with young kids.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Remember the Samaritans 116123 there 24/7</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Try and close down TicToc and Facebook and listen to the people around you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is a story from history</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A taxi driver used to pick up a regular client at Howth around 3 am. A job to the at the airport. He was a piolet and a good guy to talk to. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He pulled up to the car park at the summit and took out his blanket to take 20 minutes rest.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He heard a car drive up and saw the rights sweep around, then the car went away. Just as he was about to close his eyes again he saw a woman in a nightdress walk past his car and head for the cliffs. He jumped out and grabbed her while she protested. He dragged her into the car while she burst into tears. "Let me die, Please let me die" He covered her with a blanket and told her that he would bring her to the Garda station. She protested wildly and in the end she told him to drive her to John Of Gods hospital in Stillogan.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Talking to her all the way he realised that by her accent that she was no ordinary common person. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When they got there the staff refused to take her in, she was discharged yesterday.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It was a cold night so he had to keep the engine running to keep her warm. Around 8 am the day staff started arriving and the driver approached a well dressed member of staff who when he saw who she was was appalled by the situation. In 10 minutes she was gone and the driver had to ask for his blanket back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He went home and told his wife and she asked him if he had lost his mind. A nights work and a full tank of fuel and you get paid nothing. He went back to the hospital and they paid him €20!!!!! The brother of the taxi drivers wife was a detective Garda and when he got wind of the story he went over to try and unravel the tale.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"This was attempted murder"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Someone came to him and gave him an envelope with €200 "For the taxi drivers time" </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">His superintendent then told him that this case would be going no further, lucky for her that there was a taxi driver there on that day.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-60908389416699363412023-12-21T15:04:00.000-08:002023-12-21T15:04:49.146-08:00 story never told<p><span style="font-size: medium;">When I drifted into this game things were different. There was a huge shortage of taxis and you could rent one on a part time basis. After I passed the PSV test I went looking for someone who was renting a taxi out at night time. The conditions and the cost nearly put me off.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Someone suggested that I could have my own car passed out and a radio company called Metro would install a radio and this is how the work would come. As far as it went it worked well.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One night just before Christmas I got a call to go to Crumlin children's hospital accident and emergency and ask for a doctor by name. A young couple came out and they were in bits. Rafters road was the destination. Their 9 month baby had died. She just got sick and by the time help came the little girl had slipped too far and died.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The doctor had forbidden them to drive home, now the problem arose that they would be stranded in the morning. I said that I would go back to the hospital and bring the car home for them. They gave me the keys and I walked down the road where I caught a taxi. I told the driver the sad story and I got the ride for nothing. A real gentleman. I used the remote car key to find the car and then I drove it back to Crumlin. I parked the car and popped the keys through the letter box and went home. I never was paid money for the job but at this time of year I feel their prayers.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I never even told my wife but Metro cabs did not charge me for the job.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-29709630742748751592023-12-06T10:47:00.000-08:002023-12-06T10:47:37.587-08:00There is a God !<p> After being asked for €50 by the NTA I wrote a letter and a week later a very polite lady rang me and she told me to Present the taxi and they would put the new sticker on. "There will be no charge for this procedure"They have a thousand teeth to trap you. I sold a taxi once and I did not remove the stickers from the front and back windows. I was told that I had to bring them back or there would be a £60 charge, I contacted the new owner and she had taken off the stickers. But she found one in the bin and I drove up to her house to collect it. So I drove to the test center the next day and he said that as one of the discs was missing I would have to pay £30. He would then destroy both discs and re issue new ones. </p><p>You couldn't make it up.</p><p>I could take you out for an evening and show you at least 20 un documented drivers, but that would mean that the officials would have to come out late at night.</p><p>A few years ago I had a girl from London in the car. She told me that her parents were going to Heathrow and they went to the railway station. After a while a railway porter told them that on Sunday there were no trains to the airport. They rushed down and took the only taxi and she called an UBER. When he arrived she noticed that he was going in the opposite direction. The driver fobbed off her protests. She sent a text to her friend. Her friend told her to jump out when the taxi stopped in traffic.</p><p>When her chance came the doors were locked !</p><p>He friend told her by text to open the window and say that she is getting sick. When she did the taxi stopped and she jumped head first out the window. She landed on her face scraping her head as well. The Police were called and she was told to contact UBER.. After a few weeks she contacted the Police again. They contacted UBER and they said that they had no booking at that place or time and so the story ended. She was so happy to have a friend to talk to that night.</p><p>UBER is everywhere here in Dublin and coming soon we will have rickshaws for christmas.</p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-11707055332678760092023-11-22T15:10:00.000-08:002023-12-06T10:05:44.872-08:00Quote of the decade<p> My poor wife is suffering from Sciatica. A severe pain in her back. </p><p>We went to 4 hospitals and quite a few doctors then she had an operation in the Blackrock clinic. (Very Posh). There was a lot of problems and the drugs she was put on and some were Opioids. </p><p>I tell you for sure that your health is your wealth. </p><p>She rang the clinic daily with her problem side effects until one day a nurse told her quite bluntly.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"We are not a hospital we are accident and emergency only"</span></p><p>We used to have a recording device on the phone. I would love to play that back to the radio programe.</p><p>Anyhoo as they say in Canada I am a nurses aid now and have not worked in 7 weeks. </p><p>Wow but its tough.</p><p>No Mon, No fun, Your son.</p><p>No Mon ? Too bad Your dad.</p><p>My lad passed his test to drive the taxi so I am putting it in his name on the books.</p><p>But is anything simple? My taxi passed the suitability test in an electrical blackout at the time and they couldn't print out the disc. Now the NSAI wants another €50 to print out the discs even though they have been paid for it.</p><p>Greedy power hungry people</p><p><br /></p><p>If you read here is one for you</p><p>George J Mitchell The negotiator,</p><p>He brokered peace in N.Ireland and the Middle East</p><p>My book is available on Amazon. Just like my book The Steering Wheel University</p><p><br /></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-29581815268800616682023-11-13T02:35:00.000-08:002023-11-13T02:35:53.333-08:00A big wind<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">So today there was a storm. But in Irish history there was The big wind,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Here is a report from the Irish Times </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><header class="page-header custom-slim" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; font-family: "Noto Serif JP", serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; position: sticky; top: 0px; width: 1333px; z-index: 9;"><nav aria-label="Sections Menu" class="default__StyledNav-sc-1uwf6hf-0 dpMCRT dark" id="main-nav" style="-webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: star-font, Roboto, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; position: sticky; top: 0px; width: 1333px; z-index: 1;"><div class="news-theme-navigation-container news-theme-navigation-bar logo-center " style="align-items: center; background-color: black; box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-shrink: 0; height: 56px; justify-content: space-between; padding: 8px 20px; position: relative; transition: all 0.5s ease 0s; 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box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 1119.75px;" width="1600" /></picture></div><figcaption style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #9a9a9a; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.25rem; margin-top: 0.5rem;"><p class="ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-1gn0vty-0 kEZEMR image-metadata" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline; font-family: star-font, Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9rem; line-height: 1.25rem; margin: 8px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Estimates of how many died vary from 300 to 800, a remarkably low figure given the ferocity of the storm</span></p></figcaption></figure></div></div></div><div class="container-fluid row custom-slim-bleed" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; box-sizing: inherit; column-gap: 1rem; display: grid; flex-flow: wrap; grid-auto-flow: dense; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr; 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color: #191919; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;">Turtle Bunbury</span></div><div class="byline-date " style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.9rem;">Mon Oct 16 2017 - 13:35</div></div></div><div class="social_share_bar flex padding-xs-top " style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; margin-left: 166.667px; padding-top: 0.5rem; width: calc(100% - 333.333px);"><div class="flex flex_col" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-flow: column;"><div class="main_section flex flex_row" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-flow: row;"><a class="social_share_btn social_share_btn_facebook button unstyled flex margin-sm-right " href="https://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-calm-before-the-big-wind-of-1839-was-particularly-eerie-1.3257684" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; display: flex; margin-right: 1rem; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" title="Share on Facebook"><svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" height="24" viewbox="0 0 512 512" width="24" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.78 90.69 226.38 209.25 245V327.69h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.31 482.38 504 379.78 504 256z" fill="#2c5472"></path></svg></a><a class="social_share_btn social_share_btn_twitter button unstyled flex margin-sm-right " href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-calm-before-the-big-wind-of-1839-was-particularly-eerie-1.3257684&text=The%20calm%20before%20the%20Big%20Wind%20of%201839%20was%20particularly%20eerie" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; 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font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The Night of the Big Wind was the most devastating storm ever recorded in Irish history. Known as Gaeilge as “Oíche na Gaoithe Móire”, the hurricane of 6th and 7th January 1839 made more people homeless in a single night than all the sorry decades of eviction that followed it.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The calm before the Big Wind struck was particularly eerie. Most of the eight million people living in Ireland at the time were preparing themselves for Little Christmas, the Feast of the Epiphany.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The previous day had seen the first snowfall of the year; heavy enough for some to build snowmen. By contrast, Sunday morning was unusually warm, almost clammy, and yet the air was so still that, along the west coast, voices could be heard floating on the air between houses more than a mile apart</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">At approximately 3pm, the rain began to fall and the wind picked up. Nobody could possibly have predicted that those first soft raindrops signified an advance assault from the most terrifying hurricane in human memory.</p><div style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="custom-divider border border_solid border_color_themes_light-grey single-divider clear_both" style="border-color: rgb(218, 218, 218); border-style: solid; border-width: 4px 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin-bottom: 1rem;"></div><span class="section-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; font-family: star-font, Roboto, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;">READ MORE</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></div><div class="top-table-list-container layout-section wrap-bottom" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: inherit !important;"><div class="top-table-list-section top-table-list-section-small row" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; box-sizing: inherit; column-gap: 1rem; display: grid; flex-flow: wrap; grid-auto-flow: dense; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr; 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-webkit-line-clamp: 3; box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; display: -webkit-box; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Remembering the Troubles review: “a vicious and vengeful time”</a></h2></div><div class="promo-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex: 1 1 0%; position: relative;"><a aria-hidden="true" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/remembering-the-troubles-review-a-vicious-and-vengeful-time-1.3246833" rel="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" tabindex="-1" target="_self"><picture class="Image__StyledPicture-sc-8yioqf-0 iKCNis" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><source media="screen and (min-width: 992px)" srcset="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/2yLbkgv2pARzey4sTrqCYhV9mT0=/600x400/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NVY2SC3TJONPIXDVDBYQJMCB74.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"></source><source media="screen and (min-width: 768px)" srcset="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/wjVcIY0W2zKpdDb2lRTasgNrMos=/800x533/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NVY2SC3TJONPIXDVDBYQJMCB74.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"></source><source media="screen and (min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/2yLbkgv2pARzey4sTrqCYhV9mT0=/600x400/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NVY2SC3TJONPIXDVDBYQJMCB74.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"></source><img alt="Remembering the Troubles review: “a vicious and vengeful time”" height="400" loading="lazy" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/2yLbkgv2pARzey4sTrqCYhV9mT0=/600x400/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/NVY2SC3TJONPIXDVDBYQJMCB74.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: middle; width: 75.8281px;" width="600" /></picture></a></div></div><hr class="" style="background-color: #dadada; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: 1px; margin: auto 0px 1rem;" /></article><article class="top-table-list-small-promo small-promo col-sm-12 col-md-4 col-lg-4 col-xl-4 horizontal" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex: 0 0 auto; grid-column-start: span 4; margin-top: 0px; max-width: none; min-height: 5rem; width: 251.469px;"><div class="promo-container row horizontal sm-promo-padding-btm" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-flow: wrap; gap: 1rem 1.5rem; grid-auto-flow: dense; grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr; margin-bottom: 1rem; padding-top: 0px; width: 251.469px;"><div class="promo-headline headline-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex: 2 1 0%;"><h2 class="primary-font__PrimaryFontStyles-o56yd5-0 jtdjEJ sm-promo-headline" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; box-sizing: inherit; display: -webkit-box; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><a class="sm-promo-headline" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-hell-fire-club-the-perfect-setting-for-a-great-horror-story-1.3253741" rel="" style="-webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-line-clamp: 3; box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; display: -webkit-box; font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.5rem; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">The Hell Fire Club: the perfect setting for a great horror story</a></h2></div><div class="promo-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; flex: 1 1 0%; position: relative;"><a aria-hidden="true" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-hell-fire-club-the-perfect-setting-for-a-great-horror-story-1.3253741" rel="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #191919; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" tabindex="-1" target="_self"><picture class="Image__StyledPicture-sc-8yioqf-0 iKCNis" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><source media="screen and (min-width: 992px)" srcset="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/fXqqpWRe_OZ5nYlVZiQ1KnLZI3A=/600x400/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/CN5D37AUVRDG5F2MHPHWPHEQGU.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"></source><source media="screen and (min-width: 768px)" srcset="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/SVxz2Ywf6w8mCJSxNMgeLSjWmL4=/800x533/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/CN5D37AUVRDG5F2MHPHWPHEQGU.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"></source><source media="screen and (min-width: 0px)" srcset="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/fXqqpWRe_OZ5nYlVZiQ1KnLZI3A=/600x400/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/CN5D37AUVRDG5F2MHPHWPHEQGU.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"></source><img alt="The Hell Fire Club: the perfect setting for a great horror story" height="400" loading="lazy" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/fXqqpWRe_OZ5nYlVZiQ1KnLZI3A=/600x400/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/CN5D37AUVRDG5F2MHPHWPHEQGU.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: middle; width: 75.8281px;" width="600" /></picture></a></div></div><hr class="" style="background-color: #dadada; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: 1px; margin: auto 0px 1rem;" /></article></div></div><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">By 6pm, the winds had become strong and the raindrops were heavier, sleet-like, with occasional bursts of hail. Farmers grimaced as their hay-ricks and thatched roofs took a pounding. In the towns and villages, fires flickered and doors slammed. Church bells chimed and dogs began to whine. Fishermen turned their ears west; a distant, increasingly loud rumble could be heard upon the frothy horizon.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">At Glenosheen in Co Cork, a well-to-do German farmer called Jacob Stuffle began to cry.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">At Moydrum Castle in Co Westmeath, 78-year-old Lord Castlemaine decided to turn in early and go to bed.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">In the Wicklow Mountains, a team of geographic surveyors headed up by John O'Donovan, finally made it to their hotel in Glendalough; they had been walking all day, often knee-deep in snow.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Sailing upon the Irish Sea, Captain Smyth of the Pennsylvania studied his instruments and tried to make sense of the fluctuating pressures.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">By 10pm, Ireland was in the throes of a ferocious cyclone that would continue unabated until 6am. The hurricane had roared across 3,000 miles of unbroken, island-free Atlantic Ocean, gathering momentum every second.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">It hit Ireland’s west coast with such power that the waves actually broke over the top of the Cliffs of Moher.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Reading contemporary accounts, the impression is that if Ireland did not have such magnificent cliffs forming a barrier along our west coast, the entire country would simply have been engulfed by water.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The noise of the sea crashing against the rocks could be heard for miles inland, above the roar and din of the storm itself. The earth trembled under the assault; the ocean tossed huge boulders onto the cliff-tops of the Aran Islands.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of the hurricane was that it took place in utter darkness. People cannot have known what was going on. The wind churned its way across the land, extinguishing every candle and lantern it encountered. The darkness was relieved only by the lightning streaks that accompanied the storm and the occasional blood-red flicker of the aurora borealis burning in the northern sky.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">All across the country, hundreds of thousands of people awoke to the sound of the furious tempest, their windows shattered by hailstones, their brick-walls rattling, their rain-sodden thatched roofs sinking fast.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">As the wind grew stronger, it began to rip the roofs off houses. Chimney pots, broken slates, sheets of lead and shards of glass were hurtled to the ground. Rather astonishingly, someone later produced a statistic that 4,846 chimneys were knocked off their perches during the Night of the Big Wind.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Many of those who died that night were killed by falling masonry. Norman tower houses and old churches collapsed. Factories and barracks were destroyed. Fires erupted in the streets of Castlebar, Athlone and Dublin.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The wind blew all the water out of the canal at Tuam.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">It knocked a pinnacle off Carlow Cathedral and a tower off Carlow Castle.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">It stripped the earth alongside the River Boyne, exposing the bones of soldiers killed in the famous battle 150 years earlier.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Roads in every parish became impassable. All along the Grand Canal, trees were pulled up by the roots and hurled across the water to the opposite bank.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Thousands of timber cabins were destroyed by the storm. Surviving inhabitants had no choice but to flee into the pitch-black night in clothes that were presumably soon utterly drenched by the intense rains and snows which accompanied that cruel, piercing wind. Many sought shelter amid the hollows and hedges of the land.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Farmers were hit particularly hard. Hay-ricks in fields across Ireland were blown to pieces. Wooden fences and dry-stone walls collapsed, allowing fearful livestock to run away. Sheep were blown off mountains or killed by tumbling rocks. Cattle were reported to have simply frozen to death in the fields.</p><h4 class="heading__StyledHeading-r87mu4-0 hgGngB paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 2.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Day of Judgment</h4><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The next morning, one of Jacob Stuffle’s neighbour recalled seeing the distraught German standing high up on a hillock looking with dismay at his haggard farm, his comfortable well-thatched stacks swept out of existence.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Suddenly, he raised his two hands, palms open, high over his head, and looking up at the sky he cried out in the bitterness of his heart, in a voice that was heard all over the village “Oh, God Almighty, what did I ever do to You and You should thrate (treat) me in that way!”</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Stuffle was not the only man who believed the hurricane, occurring on the night of the Epiphany, was of Divine origin. Many saw it as a warning that the Day of Judgment would soon be here. Some believed the Freemasons had unleashed the Devil from the Gates of Hell and failed to get him back in again.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Others maintained this was simply the night the English fairies invaded Ireland and forced our indigenous Little People to disappear amid a ferocious whirlwind. (Irish fairies, of course, are wingless and can only fly by calling up the sidhe chora - the magic whirlwinds).</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The well-to-do did not escape; many mansions had their roofs stripped off.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Lord Castlemaine was fastening his bedroom window when the storm blew the windows open and hurled him “so violently upon his back that he instantly expired”.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">His brother-in-law, the Earl of Clancarty, later reported the loss of nearly 20,000 trees on his estate at Ballinasloe. Similar figures came in from other landed estates in every Co; one landlord declared his woods were now "as bald as the palm of my hand". At the Seaforde estate in Co Down, an estimated 60,000 trees were lost.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">On January 6th 1839, timber was a valuable commodity. 24 hours later, so many trees had fallen that timber was virtually worthless. Millions of wild birds were killed, their nesting places smashed and there was no birdsong that spring. Even crows and jackdaws were on the verge of extinction.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">In his hotel room in Glendalough, John O’Donovan was fortunate not to share Lord Castlemaine’s fate. He was struggling with the shutters when “a squall mighty as a thunderbolt” propelled him across the room. When he viewed the damage next morning, he described it as if “the entire country had been swept clean by some gigantic broom”.</p><h4 class="heading__StyledHeading-r87mu4-0 hgGngB paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 2.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">A sacked city</h4><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Dublin resembled “a sacked city …the whirlwind of desolation spared neither building, tree nor shrub”. The Liffey rose by several feet and overflowed the quay walls.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The elms that graced the main thoroughfare of the Phoenix Park were completely levelled, as were the elms at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The trees on Leinster Lawn outside the present-day Dail were uprooted and scattered "like prostrate giants on their mother earth".</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The back wall of the Guinness Brewery collapsed killing “nine fine horses”. A witness next morning described how “the noble animals [were] stretched everywhere as if sleeping, but with every bone crushed by the ponderous weight of the wall”. Military sentry boxes were blown off their stands and “scattered like atoms”.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">A glass shop on Nassau Street became "a heap of ruins". On Clare Street, a chimney collapsed on a woman who had only just got into her bed, killing her instantly.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Police stations and churches opened their doors for thousands of terrified citizens who brought their young and frail in for protection. Even churches could not be trusted on this night of Lucifer. The steeple of Irishtown chapel caved in and the bell from the spire of St Patrick's Cathedral came down like a meteorite; mercifully nobody died in either instance.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Phibsborough Road was a bombsite of exploded windows and fallen chimneys “as if by shot and shell”.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">One of the 40 female inmates at the Bethesda Penitentiary on the north-side (where the National Wax Museum formerly stood) took the opportunity to ignite a fire that destroyed the building as well as the surrounding houses, school-house and chapel. Two firemen died trying to extinguish the flames.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The hurricane did not stop in Dublin. It pounded its way across the Irish Sea, killing hundreds of luckless souls caught at sea.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">It killed nearly 100 fishermen off the coast of Skerries.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">It killed Captain Smyth and the 30 people on board the packet-ship Pennsylvania. Ships all along the west coast of England were wrecked; dead bodies continued to wash up onshore for weeks afterwards.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">At Everton, the same wind unroofed a cotton factory that whitened all the space for miles around, “as if there had been a heavy fall of snow”.</p><h4 class="heading__StyledHeading-r87mu4-0 hgGngB paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 2.25rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Bankrupted by the disaster</h4><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Estimates as to just how many died that night vary from 300 to 800, a remarkably low figure given the ferocity of the storm. Many more must have succumbed to pneumonia, frostbite or plain old depression in its wake. Those bankrupted by the disaster included hundreds who had stashed their life savings up chimneys and in thatched roofs that disappeared in the night.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Even in those days it was “an ill wind that turned none to good” and among those to benefit were the builders, carpenters, slaters and thatchers who subsequently rebuilt the fallen buildings.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">The Big Wind also inspired the Rev Romney Robinson of the Armagh Observatory to invent his world-famous Robinson Cup-anemometer, the standard instrument for gauging wind speed for the rest of the 19th century.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">But perhaps the most unlikely beneficiaries of the Night of the Big Wind were those old enough to remember it when the Old Age Pensions Act was enacted in January 1909, 70 years after the event. The Act, which offered the first ever weekly pension to those over 70, was likened to the opening of a new factory on the outskirts of every town and village in Britain and Ireland.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">By March 1909, over 80,000 "British" pensioners were registered of whom 70,000 were Irish. When a committee was sent to investigate this imbalance, it transpired that few births in Ireland were registered before 1865. As such, the Irish Pensions Committee decreed that if someone's age had "gone astray" on them, they would be eligible for a pension if they could state that they were "fine and hardy" on the Night of the Big Wind.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">One such applicant was Tim Joyce of Co Limerick. "I always thought I was 60," he explained. "But my friends came to me and told me they were certain sure I was 70 and as there were three or four of them against me, the evidence was too strong for me. I put in for the pension and got it."</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">So, I guess we can thank our lucky stars that, even if weather forecasters don’t always get it right, we of the 21st century do at least get some warning before the next Night of the Big Wind comes along.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;">Hmmm, it seems so very calm outside just now. Time for a little stroll perhaps.</p><p class="default__StyledText-sc-1nhbny4-0 gVsmvl body-paragraph paywall" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.25rem; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 2.125rem; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Turtle Bunbury is a historian and author</em></p></article></div></div></section>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-882071500513182372023-11-09T02:33:00.000-08:002023-11-09T02:33:48.373-08:00The final curtain or a new career<p><span style="font-size: large;"> So my wife has been sick for around 9 weeks now and I have not worked as a result. I was thinking of buying a white coat and charging her €40 a visit. Its no joke. The wise man once said that your health is your wealth.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I suffer from reflux (heartburn)and was sent to a hospital to have tests done. Its a tube with a camera attached which they push down your throat to your stomach. The last time I had it done the doctor was very confused. He did not speak to me directly. "This is very strange, very strange indeed" So he went away and today an appointment came in to see him again in a different hospital and do another examination in May 2024. But my wife panicked with the first diagnosis and arranged that a doctor see me in private. He looked at the charts and he told me that the other doctor was concerned about a pinkish coating on the back of my throat. Its gone now. Any ideas?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Well I said, my dentures are loose and I use Fixodent to hold them in place, it is pink and I had nothing to eat or drink for 18 hours. Yes indeed he said, that fits the bill.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some doctors forget that they are dealing with people. It is like they are dealing with a horse who can tell them nothing, so they do not ask.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the next few days my son will be insured to drive the taxi and I will stand back. I hope he likes it as he is always telling me what to do. It is not uncommon for a passenger to tell you to go a different way, even when you point out that its a one way street !!!!! </span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-49504698664740443712023-10-28T16:29:00.001-07:002023-10-28T16:29:56.932-07:00Trick or treat ???<p><span style="font-size: large;">It is a strange custom Halloween.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">An Irish thing that has gone worldwide.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I will be turning back my clocks tonight. The reason is that it will be brighter for the kids going to school.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">But when I change the clocks I always remember a journey from the Hilton at Earlsfort Terrace to the airport.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I was reading the newspaper and the porter came out and blew his whistle like a madman, I moved forward but before I had stepped out of the car he threw the suitcases into the back. "Airport" came the order, no please or thank you. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">3 minutes later the woman screams out. "Wars your fucking game? I want to go to the airport not a sight seeing tour" </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The proper way to deal with this situation is to go to go down a side street and throw them out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I will be happy forever that I held my course.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">They were arguing like 2 dogs growling at each other.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">We arrived at the airport "That will be £19.00" I hope you left enough time for your flight sir.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Corse I av ya fuckin moron. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Its just that change in the hour really fucked up my whole day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Wats ya takin about? The clocks went forward an hour last night.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The look on his face was like I had hit him, His expression went through the whole range.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some call is Karma. But whatever it is it is great.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-17157481002817281712023-10-26T14:22:00.001-07:002023-10-26T14:22:55.048-07:00Israeli war<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> That war Israel is really tragic, children dying and homes destroyed.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now don't get me wrong , there is right and wrong on both sides.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But nothing could ever justify what is going on.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Palestine and Israel are the absolute centre of religions and there has been wars for 2000 years. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is another thing that I came across in the paper. Fashion scouts were looking for beautiful black models and they found tall slim girls in the African refugee camps and brought them to Paris and Milan. Beautiful, slim. Wow. Then when they looked more closely it was noticed that they were skeletons. Only 6 Stone weight. What to do? Well if was up to me I would feed them up for a few months.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The fashion trade is cruel. They sent them back to the refugee camps to suffer.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There was a French lady living around the corner, I had not seen her for a while. I saw one of her neighbours tonight and asked about her. "Did you not hear? She died and her body lay undiscovered for weeks" In this day and age how can this happen? Just to go off the airwaves like that and no one asked where she was.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Then there was the case of a man who went away from his house, no one knew where he went. The house was boarded up as a derelict building. 10 years later they went into the house and there he was lying dead for more than 10 years.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I just can't wait to get back to work.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-80549150679271717372023-10-19T15:37:00.000-07:002023-10-19T15:37:16.506-07:00Your wealth is your health<p><span style="font-size: large;"> My wife is still sick</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> Sciatica is the problem and we now enter week 8 with not much relief. We have been to 5 different hospitals and she is now on very powerful pain killers.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Still the end is in sight but I cannot work, I am her butler.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I would like to tell you some more about Chuck Feeney. There is a book called "The billionaire who wasn't by Colm O'Cleary. Worth a read.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A friend of mine went to San Fran Cisco and when he came back he called me and said. John I have 2 questions for you. Do you know everyone in the world? Not yet I said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">How the hell do you know Chuck Feeney? I was having dinner with the great man and he put down his fork. Do you know a taxi driver in Dublin called Paul Malone?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I said that I knew you well and he asked me how you were keeping. He sends you his warmest best wishes. Its a small world for sure.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One thing he told me and this is the time of year. Do your taxes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Death and taxes, you cannot avoid either.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I see that my book "The steering wheel university" was in the Amazon sale.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many successful people connect with the ordinary man man to man. Chuck Feeney for one </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Arnold Clarke the biggest independent car dealer in Europe, Stephen Spielberg went to great lengths to disguise his identity. The guy who founded Google (Before we knew what Google was)He was an interesting man .I should have twigged as he had a private jet waiting for him at the airport. There was many more that I missed.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-31838959751100121702023-10-10T13:42:00.000-07:002023-10-10T13:42:38.958-07:00Chuck Feeney RIP<p> <span style="font-size: medium;">My most interesting passenger has died.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Chuck Feeney got into my taxi around 2005. I brought him to the Berkley court from the airport and we had a conversation that was an education.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I would love to be a taxi driver he said. Any city I go to and I have a problem I go to the taxi rank. They will know or they will know someone who can solve my problem. Look you are not tied 9 to 5 and if you listen to the people in the back you might come up with a great idea.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He came up with a great idea and became a Billionaire, so simple. He invented duty free shopping. He had a vast fortune of over $8 billion and he used his entire wealth to help people around the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He built Limerick university and the school of hotel management in Shannon. He pays the wages of one professor in every university in the 32 counties. He financed a research project for dementia. He built a 200 bed hospital in Vietnam and he paid the running costs until it came on line. Like me he wears a $10 watch. As long as it tells the time who cares how much it cost.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I will pass on one very valuable lesson that he gave me. If you earn €100 per week or €1000 per week. That is your limit, keep your spending in line with your income.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If you go to the States and you visit Costco, Wall Mart or any of the bid stores there are people in their 70s and 80s packing groceries, they lived beyond their means and to hold on to their re mortgaged homes and other loans, they have to work. But when they die the bank will clear out and sell their homes. Burn your credit card only use a debit card.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I stayed in touch with him for over 15 years. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">God bless you Chuck and tell God that I was asking for him.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-66336855641568811082023-10-01T15:10:00.001-07:002023-10-01T15:10:16.141-07:00October is here. Yippee<p> <span style="font-size: medium;">Well Christmas is almost upon us, a few of the big stores have Christmas displays on view and I see the high end perfume people are advertising on the TV.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was at the recycling depot</span> <span style="font-size: medium;"> and I saw a high heel shoe made of glass. I went back to my car to get a photo of it when one of the workers told me that he had seen one of them one day and he brought it home to show it to his wife. She sniffed the perfume and she just had to buy it. €80 on the internet. He was mad, but she was happy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Its all the rage this Christmas</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So my wife is still ill and I am running up and down the stairs with tea and boiled eggs etc. It is very slow though not fatal. I have not worked for 5 weeks or so,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">David my son has passed his PSV test, the Garda have vetted him, the money for the licence has been sent in and he is still waiting.<br />I was told by a Garda superintendent years ago that the Nigerian embassy will not vet prospective taxi drivers and that the government tells the carriage to pass them out unchecked. I told the union and they said. "There you are "It is upsetting to say the least.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In Spain for example you have to be resident there for 8 years, have no criminal record, be able to speak Spanish. Then you can apply for a PSV licence.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A couple of weeks ago I lost all my credit cards, driving licence etc,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Did you ever hear of a doomsday book?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">An American couple 4 years ago showed me their plan. The husband carried the key to his wife's cards and she carried his code,</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A list of the credit cards, the numbers, the help numbers just in case and they were covered.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I pointed out that if someone got the notebook they could clean out their account.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"Ah no you see every 5th digit has been increased by 1."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They were very bright.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I hope that you go to Grenada some day.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-37975854711544029412023-09-20T15:24:00.002-07:002023-09-26T14:30:42.915-07:00The tip like a kick<p> So I got a job to the airport with 2 gals from New York. They seemed normal enough except when it came to paying. It was around €25.40. No the payer said. Presenting her credit card. I want to give you a tip. Round it up to......€26.00 a 60 c tip. There is no way to counter this. Did I insult you?</p><p>They seemed normal enough, on business expenses. The other put down is to say. No if you are that hard up you can keep it. It cost me more to process the card than the tip was worth.</p><p>I loved Cuban music and the Buena Vista social club opened my ears to their magic.So we went there, no kids at the time. If you love vintage cars they have them all over Havana. The second week of the break took us to the Valadero beach resort, really 5 star hotels and great food. Now to get to my tipping problem. There was a girl who cleaned the room and on the Wednesday she said that she would be off when we were going, so could she have her tip now. I really thought it was odd but I gave her around €20, which was a good tip in Cuba. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday she never came back to the room. When we were moving out the leader of the chamber maids arrived and asked me for a tip. Why was our room not cleaned for 4 days? Why were you not doing your job supervising your staff? Now I have spoken to the manager a few times during our stay and he asked me to report directly to him if I saw anything amiss. Which I will be doing in 10 minutes.</p><p>I really did not want her sacked as the Cuban people live in dreadful poverty. </p><p><br /></p><p>My wife has been ill for 10 days or so and I have been going over to the Blackrock clinic most days.</p><p>You don't know when she will be let out so you have to wait. You would be mad to wait in the grounds so I waited in Cross ave. This avenue has really Wow houses. I walked to the estate agents on the corner and asked him about the house below he really could not tell me more. So I googled it.By the way the house has been extended !!!!!The tragic thing is that the house was built just before the Irish potato famine.</p><p>You cannot really see it from the road.</p><p>Time to bring in helicopter thing and take a good look </p><p><a class="wsite-menu-item" href="https://www.youwho.ie/grandhouses.html" style="background-color: white; display: inline !important; font-family: Raleway; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0px; padding: 10px 14px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">PROJECT</a></p><div class="bg-wrapper" style="background-color: white; color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; padding-bottom: 100px;"><div id="navigation" style="font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: auto; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 40px; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; width: 960px;"><br /></div><div id="content-wrapper" style="margin: auto; width: 960px;"><div id="content"><div class="wsite-elements wsite-not-footer" id="wsite-content"><div><div class="wsite-multicol" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><div class="wsite-multicol-table-wrap" style="margin: 0px -15px;"><table class="wsite-multicol-table" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; table-layout: fixed; width: 990px;"><tbody class="wsite-multicol-tbody"><tr class="wsite-multicol-tr"><td class="wsite-multicol-col" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 15px; vertical-align: top; width: 465px;"><div class="wsite-image wsite-image-border-none" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><a style="color: #5199a8;"><img alt="Picture" src="https://www.youwho.ie/uploads/1/6/2/8/16286522/editor/capture-for-web.jpg?1571219289" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px !important; border: 0px; max-width: 100%;" /></a><div style="font-size: 13.5px;"></div></div></td><td class="wsite-multicol-col" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 15px; vertical-align: top; width: 465px;"><div class="wsite-image wsite-image-border-none" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-top: 10px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><a style="color: #5199a8;"><img alt="Picture" src="https://www.youwho.ie/uploads/1/6/2/8/16286522/glenvar_orig.jpg" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px !important; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; width: auto;" /></a><div style="font-size: 13.5px;"></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div class="paragraph" style="color: #2a2a2a; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0.5em 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Glenvar</span></div><div class="paragraph" style="color: #2a2a2a; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0.5em 0px;"><strong>NAME Churchview, D'Acort Ville/Glenvar</strong><br /><br /><strong>AREA LOCATION</strong> Cross Avenue<br /> <br /><strong>MAP LOCATION </strong> OSI map 1898-1913 place it in the townland of Merrion<br /> and it is annotated as Glenvar.<br /><br /><strong>GENERAL </strong> Originally called Churchview. A large house was built circa 1856 on<br />the site for George McMullin initially called D'Court Ville, later Glenvar. In 1921 it was<br />described as a detached residence on 11 acres. It has a concave roof with bracketed eves<br />which gives it an slightly Oriental look, the high chimneys are an unusual feature but very<br />typical of one of Mulvany's styles. It had two gatelodges (one on Mount Merrion Ave and<br />another on Cross Ave). One mirrored the architecture of the main residence with a quirky<br />belgcast/pagoda style roof very similar to the one Mulvany designed for Kilmacud House,<br />no image of the other has been found to date.<br /><strong> </strong> <br /><strong>YEAR BUILT </strong> 1856 for George McMullin<br /><strong> </strong><br /><strong>VALUATION</strong> In 1879 the valuation was 115 pounds and on the 1901 census it is<br /> noted as having 17 rooms occupied by family.<br /><br /><strong>ARCHITECT</strong> <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/mulvany.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"> John Skipton Mulvany</a></strong><br /><br /><strong>SOURCES </strong> Thom’s directories, OSI maps, Griffith's Valuation, NAI Census & Wills<br /> contemporaneous newspapers.<br /> <br /><strong>OCCUPANTS</strong><br /><br />1834 - 1837 Henry Higginbotham<br />1840 Col Jones<br />1845 - 1848 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/hopes.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Charles Hopes</a></strong><br />1855 - 1856<strong> <a href="https://www.youwho.ie/macmullen.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">George Reade MacMullen</a></strong><br />1862 - 1866 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/barringtonj.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">John Barrington</a></strong><br />1867 - 1886 <a href="https://www.youwho.ie/garratt.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"> </a> <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/garratt.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Joseph Garratt</a></strong><br />1886 - 1916 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/garratt.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">William Arthur Garratt</a></strong><br />1916 - 1920 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/dove.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Mr & Mrs William Dove</a></strong><br />1921 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/devalera.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">De Valera</a></strong> arrested here<br />1921 - 1926 (House in Mrs McGarry's name - purchased by The Dáil as their headquarters)<br />1939 Houses built on the land<br />1947 Edward Kearon<br />1950 - 1952 Mrs Evelyn Hornidge<br />1952 - 1989 The Wall Family<br />2013 Sold for €5,250,000<br /> <br /><strong>STAFF<br /></strong>1848 Murtagh Ennis – gatekeeper<br />1882 - 1883 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/williams.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">John Williams</a></strong> - Gardener<br />1900 - 1901 <strong> <a href="https://www.youwho.ie/rennix.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">James Rennix</a></strong> - Gardener living on site<br />1900 <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/longs.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Elizabeth Anne Long</a></strong> - Cook<br />1901 Charlotte Foote - Housemaid<br /> Ellen Moore - Kitchenmaid<br /> Sarah Allingham - Parlourmaid<br /> Johanna O'Brien - Cook<br />1911 Emily Bray - Parlourmaid<br /> Maria Johnston - Cook<br /> Ellen McKay - Housemaid<br /> <strong><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/abbott.html" style="color: #5040ae; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Lucy Abbott</a></strong> - Kitchenmaid<br /> <br /><strong>CURRENT </strong>Extant<strong> <br />STATUS</strong> <br /><br /><strong>CONTRIBUTOR</strong> ©<span style="color: #222222;"> June Bow &</span> Karen Poff<br /><strong>DATE </strong> August 2019</div></div></div></div></div><div id="footer" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #8e8e8e; font-family: "Open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; padding-bottom: 45px; padding-top: 45px;"><div id="footer-content" style="margin: auto; width: 960px;"><div class="wsite-elements wsite-footer" style="clear: both;"><div class="wsite-multicol" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><div class="wsite-multicol-table-wrap" style="margin: 0px -25px;"><table class="wsite-multicol-table" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; table-layout: fixed; width: 1010px;"><tbody class="wsite-multicol-tbody"><tr class="wsite-multicol-tr"><td class="wsite-multicol-col" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 25px; vertical-align: top; width: 564.938px;"><blockquote style="border-left: 5px solid rgb(208, 208, 208); margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.youwho.ie/" style="color: #5199a8; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">RETURN TO HOME PAGE</a><br /><br />We welcome additions and corrections with supporting proof. P</span><span style="color: black;">lease<br />note that this is a work in progress. The authors acknowledge the significant<br />contributions to this body of information. Not all could be cited because of reference limitations. Source information for non commercial genealogical projects supplied on request. <br />email June Bow & Karen Poff <strong>youwho@2020.ie</strong></span><strong></strong><br /><em style="position: relative;">Copyright © 2015-2023 YouWho (June Bow & Karen Poff) All rights reserved.</em></blockquote></td><td class="wsite-multicol-col" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 25px; vertical-align: top; width: 345.062px;"><form accept-charset="UTF-8" action="https://www.youwho.ie/ajax/apps/formSubmitAjax.php" enctype="multipart/form-data" id="form-535713661813728125" method="POST" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="form-535713661813728125-target-1695248070156"><div class="wsite-form-container" id="535713661813728125-form-parent" style="margin-top: 10px;"><ul class="formlist" id="535713661813728125-form-list" style="margin: 0px; min-height: 100px; padding: 0px;"><h2 class="wsite-content-title" style="color: #484848; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0.3em 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">To receive updates on a particular page</h2><label class="wsite-form-label wsite-form-fields-required-label" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="form-required" color="rgb(255, 40, 37) !important" style="display: inline;">*</span> Indicates required field</label><div><div class="wsite-form-field" style="clear: both; margin: 5px 0px; max-width: 400px;"><label class="wsite-form-label" style="font-size: 14px;">Your email address MUST BE followed by the page URL. <span class="form-required" color="rgb(255, 40, 37) !important" style="display: inline;">*</span></label><div class="wsite-form-input-container"><input aria-required="true" class="wsite-form-input wsite-input wsite-input-width-370px" id="input-885702846316744535" name="_u885702846316744535" style="background: none 50% 0% repeat-x scroll rgb(255, 255, 255); border-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); border-radius: 2px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; font-size: 13px; height: 27px; margin: 8px 0px; max-width: 370px; outline: none; padding: 4px; width: 345.062px;" type="text" /></div></div></div></ul></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"><input aria-label="Submit" role="button" style="height: 1px; left: -9999px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 1px;" type="submit" value="Submit" /><a class="wsite-button" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #5199a8; background-image: none !important; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% -100px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; background: none 100% -100px no-repeat rgb(81, 153, 168); color: white; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-size: 14px; padding: 0px 15px 0px 0px;"><span class="wsite-button-inner" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: inherit; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px -1px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: initial; float: left; height: 32px; line-height: 32px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 20px; text-wrap: nowrap;">Submit</span></a></div></form><div class="recaptcha" data-recaptcha="0" data-sitekey="6Ldf5h8UAAAAAJFJhN6x2OfZqBvANPQcnPa8eb1C" data-size="invisible" id="g-recaptcha-535713661813728125"></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-15210012367139860762023-09-10T14:48:00.002-07:002023-09-10T14:48:35.634-07:00Liverpool Lou<iframe style="background-image:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZDWfg3N4cRA/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="360" src="https://youtube.com/embed/ZDWfg3N4cRA?si=U-mOa2HhM6nT8E-e" frameborder="0"></iframe>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-33567739698890531262023-09-10T14:48:00.001-07:002023-09-10T14:48:12.798-07:00ANOTHER UNSOLVED CRIME.<p> I got another letter from the police telling me that there has been no action action taken to the report I gave them.</p><p>I saw a house in Clontarf at Christmas with the front door wide open and the kitchen door was also open with no action around.</p><p>Ten minutes later I rang the finest boys in blue to be told that there was no one available, but perhaps I could go in and take a look. I wonder if I had followed it up with. "Ah sure its a but late now there are 3 bodies on the floor"</p><p>You could be sure that I would be arrested. Like everywhere we need a police to monitor the police.</p><p>"The untouchables"</p><p>A Ferrari worth £4 million was stolen and it was recovered in a container heading for Dubai. (Nice one)</p><p>I was showing it to my kids and I said that the car should have had a tracker. "Think for a minute, if you were taking a car like that you would have a detector to find the tracker devices which is giving off a signal and then you disable it." Good thinking.</p><p>So a nice job the other day a Scouser (From Liverpool) heading over to the DPD depot in Walkinstown and then to the airport. He works on windmills and he wanted to collect his passport with that all important USA visa stamp on it. Apart from the Beatles and a great movie made in Dublin called Dockers. Full of passion that was. Then the Liver building where one bird looks to see if the pubs are open yet and the other one looks to see if there is a ship coming in .Last of all "Letter to Breisniev" A young girl meets a Russian sailor and trouble follows.</p><p>So then it hit me Liverpool Lue, with YouTube we had it playing with the author Dominic Behan singing it,</p><p><br /></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-29090446500137896982023-09-04T13:58:00.003-07:002023-09-04T13:58:59.791-07:00It feels like treading water<p>Boys and girls <span style="font-size: large;">slow down there has been deadly crashes nearly every day.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is strange how so many of the crashes result in fatal injury.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Still the postman has not arrived with my sons taxi permits. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Then it will be the armchair for me and cutting the grass not to mention the painting to be done.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Today I picked up a lady going to Abbey St. I sat at the lights turning right for 3 changes when I declared. "This is no good, trust me" we went the other way avoiding the heavy traffic. I dropped her off and then I heard a musical box sound. Her mobile phone, it took time to locate as it was wedged down between the cushions of the back seat. So I told her to go back where I dropped her off and I walked back to meet her. She was very lucky that she had a second phone to call the other one. Yes she was happy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I heard about a girl who dropped her phone in a taxi last weekend and when she contacted the driver he demanded €50 to bring it back to her. Well she took his details so what is to happen to him we might find out.Blackmail</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I think the swallows have gone on their 6000 mile journey back to South Africa and very soon the Barnacle geese will arrive from Greenland for the winter. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The kids are back in school as well.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Well the Christmas shop is open in the Brown Thomas store. Time flies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My sons delay in being passed out annoys me no end. A retired garda superentant who was working in the Garda carriage office told me that migrants coming in from Nigeria cannot be vetted. The embassy refuses to do it. But the higher up people tells the carriage office to give them the licence, while my son who has lived here for 30 years has to wait for months to be vetted. In Spain to become a taxi driver you have to have lived there for 8 years crime free, hold a valid driving licence, be able to speak Spanish and then you do the PSV test.</span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-15570415637878236142023-08-26T15:30:00.002-07:002023-08-26T15:30:34.446-07:00Fight the good fight until you hear the bell<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> I published the posts below from YouTube. They are shocking examples of what can happen when things are ignored.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Well the news over the week about the British nurse who has been found guilty of murdering 7 new born children in her care. This time her supervisor has been sacked as well this time as her colleagues had reported her, but nothing was done. She may have killed many more.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He was in my taxi this brave man and his story unfolded on the journey.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Are you OK ? I asked</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It was like I had fired a starting gun and he unloaded his tale.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I worked for Oxfam and though I was doing lot of good there was something going on in the background which I could not deal with. For example there was a doctor in one of the hospital who was raping the nurses. Yes! raping the nurses.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There was nothing that I could do.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Imagine how I felt when celebrities were brought in to stay in 4 star hotels, we would bring in reasonably fed children for a photo shoot and the celebs would be flown out at the charities expense.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I fought on and I got suspended from work until I met a small Jewish man on a flight back to New York.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He listened to my story and brought me to his office where he prepared a case against Oxfam, piece by piece dates and statements were taken. I really hated what I was doing but nurses lives were being destroyed with no sympathy. Yes Yes there were other things were also going on.<span> </span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: medium;">Our day in court came after much preparation. The world court of justice came down on them like a ton of bricks. Funding was withdrawn and heads rolled. All the people who refused to listen to me were held accountable.</span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-size: medium;">That was only last week and I could sleep for a month.</span></span></p>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-37350163569168123962023-08-26T15:01:00.001-07:002023-08-26T15:01:42.036-07:00Hidden camera investigation: Nursing home abuse, violence (Marketplace)<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/gk5iEo-s_6M" width="480"></iframe>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34906440.post-52828622819010471672023-08-26T15:01:00.000-07:002023-08-26T15:01:24.074-07:00Hidden camera reveals abuse by care home staff of dementia patient Ann King<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/p48pls0xYXA" width="480"></iframe>Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06871255696541030492noreply@blogger.com0