The Royal Canal

The Royal Canal is the second of the canals that reach the Shannon River from Dublin, and was opened in 1817 some thirteen years after the Grand Canal. Work began in 1790 and the total cost of construction was £1,421,954.

It is 90 miles long and there are 46 locks to navigate. On its way from Dublin it passes through Maynooth, Enfield, Mullingar and Ballymahon. At the Dublin end it passes by Croke Park, where the terrace close to it is called the ‘Canal End’ before it reaches Spencer Dock then the Liffey, and the Dublin Bay beyond.

Brendan Behan memorial at Whitworth Road

The canal was constructed for the dual purpose of freight movement and passenger transport to-and-from the centre of the country. It was very popular and profitable for many years before being slowly undermined by the introduction of the railway, and later by road haulage. And by the 1970s it had fallen into disuse and plans were considered to fill in sections of it and construct a road. These, thankfully, were challenged, and work by the Royal Canal Amenity Group and Waterways Ireland saw the canal fully reopened in 2010.

Broome Bridge, near Castleknock, has a special place in Irish and scientific history. For it was here, on the 16^th October 1843, that mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who lived in Dunsink Observatory, in a moment of inspiration, realised the solution for quaternions, a problem he had been working on for some time. Excited by what he had discovered, he scratched the solution on the bridge with his penknife. This moment is celebrated annually at the bridge on the 16^th October, now known as Broome’s Day.

The canal has featured in a famous song from the play The Quare Fellow by Brendan Behan. It is set in Mountjoy Gaol where Behan had spent some time, and refers to the metal triangle that was beaten to waken inmates.

And the auld triangle went jingle-jangle

All along the banks of the Royal Canal

(Photo: Dennis Fisk)

May Day

The first of the month, I walk by the bay

Weather is glorious, oh do try and stay

Gentle breeze embraces

My heart now races

Feeling lucky, on this beautiful May Day

Scotsman’s Bay, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin

April – Springtime Is Here

April’s here, the days grow and  run

Brighter now, under a warming sun

East Pier for a walk

A long friendly talk

Gentle breeze whispers, let’s have fun

Walk On….(East Pier, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin)

Grand Slam Glory

Another Grand Slam, let’s rejoice

Sing it out loud, be in great voice

Andy Farrell’s our man

With a glorious plan

Racking up points, yeah, that’s nice!

Flann O’Brien

Brian O’Nolan, author, poet, columnist, and better-known to many as Flann O’Brien, was born on the 11^th October 1911 in Strabane, County Tyrone. His father, Michael, was an officer in the Customs and Excise Service and this necessitated much moving about from one post to another as he proceeded to rise to more senior positions. The family lived in Glasgow, Dublin, Tullamore and the children were educated at home by a tutor or correspondence course.

Flann O’Brien

He finally went into formal education at CBS Synge Street when the family were living in Herbert Place. The place didn’t agree with him, and he was much happier when they moved to Avoca Terrace and he was sent to Blackrock College. Although not a rugby player he made friends easily. Later, he studied English, Irish and German in UCD and graduated in 1932. He joined the Department of Local Government in 1935 and two years later he became the family breadwinner when his father died.

His book At-Swim-Two-Birds which was published by Longman, using the pseudonym ‘Flann O’Brien’, in March 1939. In 1967 The Third Policeman was published to great acclaim. From 1940 to 1966 he wrote the column Cruiskeen Lawn in the Irish Times under the pseudonym ‘Myles na gCopaleen’. This was very popular and allowed him to discuss topics of the day and take issue with of those in authority. He introduced us to The Brother (a real Dubliner), the Plain People of Ireland and the fantastic puns of Keats and Chapman.

In 1954 he was one of the six ORIGINALS who went on the first Bloomsday trip from Sandycove, but only managed to make it to The Bailey such was their inebriation. A verse from his poem The Workman’s Friend is due:

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night
A pint of plain is your only man.

He died on 1^st April 1966 and was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin.

James Joyce’s Houses

If James Joyce was familiar with anything he certainly knew what it was like to change address. From the time he was born – 2^nd February 1882 – he and his family lived a peripatetic existence moving from one house to another, sometimes only staying in a place for a few months. This downward spiral was due to his father’s misuse of money and his increasing consumption of alcohol.

41 Brighton Square, Rathgar

There are at least eighteen addresses recorded before James Joyce decided to leave Dublin in 1904 with Nora Barnacle, and begin a new life in Europe. Three addresses of note are: 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar; 7 St Peter’s Road, Phibsborough and the Martello Tower in Sandycove.

James Joyce was born at 41 Brighton Square, Rathgar, a new and fashionable neighbourhood in the southwest of the city. By 1884, however, the pattern of ‘upping sticks’ and moving on had begun with each subsequent house reflecting Joyce senior’s dwindling finances.

By 1902 the family arrived at 7 St. Peter’s Road, Phibsborough. And it was here that Joyce’s mother, May, died, something that troubled him greatly for the rest of his life. He uses it in Ulysses where Stephen Dedalus ponders the loss of his mother and the burden it is to him. A plaque on the front of the house says, ‘The Family Home of James Joyce, author of Ulysses, 1902-1904’.

In the summer of 1904 he was invited by a friend, Oliver St. John Gogarty, to share his new abode in Sandycove. Gogarty had just rented the vacant Martello Tower and needed another paying tenant to cover the bills. Joyce moved in on the 9^th September but left on the 14^th. Gogarty reckoned that Joyce’s departure was due to an incident that involved a loaded gun late one night. However traumatised Joyce was from the experience he still deemed the place important enough to set the opening scene of his magnum opus on the roof as Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus take in the view of Dublin Bay.

Martello Tower, Sandycove

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith, poet, essayist and playwright was born on 10^th November 1728 in Pallas, Longford. The years 1729 and 1730 have also been sighted as his birth year, but nothing definitive has been found. His father, Charles, was the local curate and the family lived in a grand house in Lissoy. He went to school in Pallas, Elphin and Athlone before entering Trinity College in June 1745. Sadly, he had already contracted smallpox which permanently scarred his face.

Oliver Goldsmith

After leaving college he travelled around Europe, busking to make money. Having visited France, Germany and Italy his funds were almost gone when he arrived in London in February 1756. He took on various jobs before he landed a position with Ralph Griffith’s Monthly Review where he wrote book reviews and translated others. In 1758 his first major work, An enquiry into the present state of polite learning in Europe, was published. It did not get great reviews; however the author’s style was favourably noted.

His essays in The Bee and other periodicals were popular as many enjoyed his writing was imbued with a graceful, lively and accessible style. Such a gift made him popular, and he was able to have an improved lifestyle, although his gambling and cavalier nature with money were habits that he never overcame.

After a few years in London his style had been spotted by many well-known locals, including Dr Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and Edmund Burke with whom he was a founding member of The Club. This was a group of distinguished individuals from all walks of life who met regularly over dinner to discuss the issues of the day.

By the mid-1760s he was writing poetry, with The Deserted Village being his most famous piece. His novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1770) and his play She Stoops to Conquer (1773), which premiered in Covent Garden, are still popular.

After a brief illness he died on 4^th April 1774 and was buried in Temple Cemetery, London.

Oliver Goldsmith’s statue (by JH Foley) in Trinity College

Sunshine

You fly like a zephyr, in the blue sky above

With the easy grace, of the whitest dove

Oh, do stay awhile

And make me smile

As I feel again, the sunshine of your love

Fly On…

For a special friend who, sadly, was taken from us much too early.

Halloween Night

It’s Halloween, and the magic is here

Laughter too, with much to cheer

Sparkling rockets will fly

Into the dark sky

Heavenly burst, as bright stars do appear

Heavenly Light

For Bobbie

Beautiful one, now gone too soon

Flying high, by the smiling moon

Inspiration to all

A friend I call

Fond farewell, to a special boon

Winner – Bobbie Connolly (Paralympian)