Reading the Signs - Blog

Search the site

The Yank

4/4/2019

‘It wasn’t that I was ungrateful to America because America had been good to me, and still is, but even the very bird prefers the area where it was hatched’
Tomás Ó Cinnéide – The Wild Rover
(trans. Pádraig Tyers)

Last July, heading for a weekend on the Dingle peninsula, I detoured at Cordal and took time-out, a few minutes of me-time in Kilmurry Cemetery. There, for the first time, I met with John O’Donoghue who had died 35 years earlier, about the time that I was receiving my Leaving Certificate results.

I have seen many nicknames on headstones on my rambles through cemeteries. The term ‘The Yank’ struck. Maybe it was because I had not long finished the book by another returned Yank, Tomás Ó Cinnéide. Maybe it sparked a memory of the tales told of Kruger.

As possibly the only returned emigrant in the area, use of ‘John O’Donoghue’ was likely to cause confusion in the area, whereas there was, most likely, just one ‘Yank’.

This morning, I spotted a tweet about a recently released book by Sinéad Moynihan on the ‘Returned Yank’ that will probably be requested of my local library in the near future.

It brought back that minute on two standing with John O’Donoghue on a lovely quiet Kerry morning.

What Is It About Limerick Lawns?

25/3/2019

Ghostsign: Limerick - Was: ??? Many Lawn?? Now: O & F Café
Limerick Lane (off Little Catherine Street)
Photos Taken: 23/3/19
Google Streetview HERE

Saturday was spent in Limerick where I spotted a few ghostsigns that will help my self-challenge of one ghostsign per day on twitter.

I spotted this on a gable on Limerick Lane, off Little Catherine Street and have been unable to read what it was. I have included all my photos below so would be delighted to hear of suggestions.

My guesses include:
Last Line: ???AGOOS?
Second Last Line: ??ANY LAWN

The rest remain a mystery

Listing of Ghostsigns uploaded to site to date HERE

Map of Ghostsigns viewable HERE

Details of other collections of items in the public space HERE

A Ghost of Itself

14/3/2019

Does a sign qualify as a ghostsign if the name does not change?

Cork City - Was McSweeney (painted sign) - Then McSweeney (plastic sign)

Douglas Road Photos taken: 25/01/16 & 27/02/19

Today is Day 73 of 2019. I am 73 days through the filing and cataloguing of a number of groupings that I have been photographing for years.

Since January 1, I have been tweeting one postbox; one item of street art; one roadside death memorial; and, one ghostsign. The filing and recording is definitely improved but there are still 292 days to go.

At this stage, I fear that I will not have photographs for 365 ghostsigns in Cork city – presently at about 230. I may need to expand into some of the county towns to keep the run going for the year.

Last week, I spotted a painted sign on a shop on the Douglas Road. The remains of the previous plastic sign had been removed to reveal an old painted sign. Cue, delight at another ghostsign for the catalogue.

However, when I went to compare with an older photograph that I had, I noticed that the shop remained as McSweeney’s.

Some may argue that a true ghostsign is a sign for a previous company/organisation that remains or is revealed when a new business operates. That has merit.

It is an old sign for a business that had been hidden and now revealed, so as I am struggling to get 365 Cork ghostsigns, it is being counted as a ghostsign in these quarters.

The builders are obviously in attendance so I am unsure as to how much longer the ghost will be free.

Listing of Ghostsigns uploaded to site to date HERE

Map of Ghostsigns viewable HERE

Details of other collections of items in the public space HERE

Archaeology Only 6 Inches Deep

10/3/2019

Pothole Reveals the Ghost of the old Blackrock Tram.

I received these two photographs this morning from KH. They are of a pothole on the Blackrock Road between Ashton School and the CRK0001A postbox a bit up the road. But this pothole proves to be a revelation.

As if I was not photographing enough groupings, I have recently started photographing some old railways tracks that remain visible – maybe not for long with the developments in Docklands. So when a railway track is revealed as a ghost from under the tarmac, it was a double win.

I travelled past on the way home from my Irish walk but the rain did not help my photographs. I will be back for more photos.

When tracks were revealed when they were doing the plaza works in Blackrock Village, it was decided to incorporate them into the development. I suspect that the Blackrock tram track will be recovered and not exposed as an item of archaeology.

And There It Was – Gone

8/3/2019

This afternoon, I was driving past and it was gone. I drove down this morning and did not notice it gone. But, gone it is, now.

2014.02.09

2019.03.08

The moulded plaster sign for the Rockboro’ Stores has been there as long as I can remember. Rockboro Road being on the other side of the city, it was not an area I frequented often when young so I cannot ever remember a shop operating from the premises.

Earlier this week, I was suggesting that it would be a good idea if all planning applications were required to include a photographic record. Be it methods of construction, particular details, or just the social history of the number of separate shops that existed in the days before the giant supermarkets, it would be a trove for future generations.

By the time the wall is rerendered next week and then painted, another record of the local shop will not be available to the younger generations.

I will miss it – particularly the apostrophe which I presume nodded towards the absent ‘ugh’ as in Rockborough.

2019.01.07

2019.03.08

What is the plural of ‘Staff’?

7/3/2019

I also assumed that is was ‘Staff’.

If the staff of one office merged with the staff of another office, the combined were staff. There might be 99 staff working in a building. Marketing and sales staff might attend a conference. The constant being the word ‘staff’.

I never had the inclination to question this – until I was taken aback on St. Patrick’s Quay. I would definitely have written as ‘Health Services Staff Credit Union’ – it is not as if the nursing staff and the physio staff become ‘staffs’ when together, or is it.

Chambers Dictionary does have a plural of ‘Staffs’, as does Macmillan Dictionary. Merriman Webster does have ‘staffs’ as a plural for some uses but ‘staff’ as plural in sense of ‘three full-time staff’.

I still do not like the look or sound of ‘Health Services Staffs’. I cannot see myself using the plural form anytime soon.

Chelsea – Down & Soon To Be Out

6/3/2019

Mosaic tiling has been one of the (many) items in Cork that I have been photographing over the past few years. I will get around to grouping together and uploading to the website – but not today or tomorrow.

This afternoon I was lucky enough to spot a mosaic for the first time. Lucky as the builders had the door to the site open as I passed. Extra lucky in that they even brushed the mosaic for the photograph. Extremely lucky as the mosaic is not much longer for this world - a new floor will be poured in the coming weeks.

The bar closed down a good few years ago. The building was subject to a blog post in 2016. Prior to its closing, it was the home of the Cork Branch of the Chelsea Supporters Club – hence the mosaic.

With digital photographs now easy and cheap to store, it has got me thinking that it would be a good idea for all planning applications to include a complete photographic survey to retain a snapshot of what was and what is to be no more – an archaeological time capsule of sorts.

If you need distracting for a while, you could do worse that try to name the locations of some mosaics around Cork.

I have yet to photograph the floor of the Honan Chapel at U.C.C.

Any suggestions as to other mosaics that are missing would be welcome.

Ghosts and Schools

5/3/2019

This Friday sees the official launch of Enda O’Flaherty’s book – The Deserted School Houses of Ireland. On Friday at 6.00, I do hope to be at the Nano Nagle Centre.

When the reminder popped up on my computer, it prompted concentrating this week on school buildings on my daily update for Ghostsigns.

Since the first day of the year, in an effort to get my photographs of Roadside Death Memorials, Postboxes, Street Art and Ghostsigns organised, I have been tweeting one of each every day. Today is Day 64.

Last week’s tweets included the Cork Model School which has been repurposed as Circuit Courthouse.

Today’s tweet is a crest in a terrazzo floor. It greeted me most school mornings for six years of my life so it brought back some memories when I spotted through an open door a while back – neither good, nor bad, just memories.

The ghost most likely has much better, and much worse, memories, for others.

The building was originally the Vincentian School until the transfer in 1888 of seminarians to Farranferris. The Christian Brothers opened the school in 1888. I do not know the date of the terrazzo flooring which from recollection goes all the way up the stairs from MacCurtain Street to above Wellington Road entrance

Cork City
Was Christian Brothers College - Now Residential
Wellington Road
Photos Taken - 18/2/1

Patrick Street, 1872
‘….On the right of the photograph is Carmichael’s drapery store, which would later become Cash & Co. On the skyline in the centre of the photograph is the Scott residence in Sidney Place that would in 1885 become Government House, the residence of the general officer commanding the Cork Military district. To the left below it was the Vincentian Schools building in St Patrick’s Place, later the Christian Brothers College.’

CORK In Old Photographs – Tim Cadogan (2003 Gill & Macmillan Ltd)

Thomas Murphy – Lest He Be Forgotten

2/3/2019

This is a confirmation year in our house, so the family attendance at religious induction has increased.

We are just back from St. Joseph’s Church in Mayfield. I am taking after the older men from my childhood. I stood at the back and read a few signs, plaques and stained glass commemorations.

This plaque was next to the exit door that we used but I did not notice anyone stopping to read and reflect on what happened 101 years ago today, when 29 or 27 crew of the Cork Steam Packet Company died when the S S Kenmare was torpedoed returning to Cork from Liverpool, including the son of Mr Murphy of Woodland View. Of the 29, only three bodies were recovered from the sea.

Century Ireland lists all who were aboard, many from Cork.

Roy Keane Nutmegs The Lads In Farranree

26/1/2019

Kid, Stor????

'‘...
and behind this poky interior

a dismal view of the countryside,

and beyond

this dismal view of the countryside

and a little to the right

the Cathedral of Minsk,

and behind

the Cathedral of Minsk

Stalin

Laughing’

Vision At Knock – Gerry Murphy

I was well impressed when I spotted some stencil art this morning on a utility box at the corner of Popham’s Road and Farranferris Avenue.

The image of Roy Keane was the first of the pieces that I spotted heading up the hill, resulting in an immediate left, and stop. There are other stencil pieces but it is the boy Roy that has had me searching the web for this blog post this evening.

The photo on the left below is from Farranferris Avenue. It shows Roy holding the head of a raven in his right hand over his right eye.

The photo on the right is from the Crawford Art Gallery and shows Roy also holding the raven’s head in his right hand over his right eye. The original photograph was taken by Murdo Macleod and the homepage of his website shows the image hanging in the Crawford – bird in right hand.

There appears to be no issue but if you look really closely you might sense an image of Keano, laughing …..

Hanging Out In Blackpool

25/1/2019

I was pleasantly surprised in Blackpool yesterday.

With the ring road, it is not often that I am in Blackpool but I was yesterday. There were a couple of Street Art installations that brought a smile.

Enough of a reason for today’s blog.

De Valera’s Hole

23/1/2019

To most, this may look like an alcove in a store room – but it is much more famous than that.

Yesterday, I was delighted to respond to an invitation to attend the screening of The Irish Revolution at the Cork Opera House next week. The book remains on my desk at home – I doubt if I will ever get through all of it but it great just to open any page and read.

Responding to the invitation reminded me of a visit to the Cork Opera House a few months back where I was shown that blocked up opening in the middle of the back wall of the store room.

President Éamon de Valera opened the current Opera House in October 1965. In the lead-up to the night of the formal opening, an issue was discovered with the design – the stage and the auditorium were separated. Access to the stage was from the rear of the building. Access to the auditorium was from the front of the building.

How Dev was to go from his seat in the auditorium to make his address on the stage was solved by the forming of an opening in the wall that separated the auditorium side from the stage side.

In the intervening years, door access has been created, and the need to use this access route no longer exists. The access passageway has been blocked up but it remains known by the title it received over 50 years ago – De Valera’s Hole.

Beckett in Cabra

18/1/2019

I am in the process of getting my thousands of photographs catalogued and uploaded.

One of the groupings that I am working on is Street Art so I have been going through different photos over the past while.

On Tuesday, I spotted a beauty on Connaught Street in Cabra – absolutely lovely.

St. Ita & Players No. 6

17/1/2019

The twitter feed on Tuesday morning revealed that that day, 15th January, was the feast day of St. Ita.

That morning, I was to attend a meeting at the St. Ita’s Hospital complex in Portrane, north County Dublin. I have been told that St. Ita’s Hospital complex is that largest land bank owned by the H.S.E. in the state. Having been there a few times, that does not surprise.

I have been in Portrane over the past few years for meetings but the co-incidence of the feast date did resonate a bit and it rattled around my grey matter as a distraction.

The first time, I visited was three or four years ago. The building we were to work on had been vacated and partially cleared out. I spent a couple of hours, alone, walking around a large empty three storey former mental hospital making notes and getting to know the building. The only company were a few startled pigeons. Whether they were more startled than me, I am not sure

The closing of doors behind me did sound louder than normal. My ears were alert to any noise. I was glad to return the keys to the maintenance crew and hit the road for home. But I was luckier than the Architect. He carried out his initial inspection on a different day but was locked in with the message to give a call when ready to leave.

This was an early lesson in the quality of mobile reception. The last person spotted knocking on the windows trying to get out was not a patient, but an Architect who spent two hours longer than intended with some remnants of the previous use to keep him company.

I never asked if he took any mementoes from his trip. I did. The final clean out had not yet happened so I pocketed some old cigarette packets that lay on the floor. A reminder of the days when there was more than health warnings on the pack.

Driving home on Tuesday, I detoured through Phibsboro and Cabra. I decided to stop and photograph the replacement Liam Whelan Bridge – the plaque has been repositioned in the new concrete structure.

Turning back to the car, I noticed an old Players No. 6 ghostsign on the end wall of the building on Connaught St.

Players No. 6 was one of the boxes that I salvaged from St. Ita’s.

Too many co-incidences not to warrant a blog post.

How difficult is it to spell Cabra?

16/1/2019

Thirty three years ago, our student accommodation comprised the top half of a terraced house on the New Cabra Road.

My lasting memory is of how cold it was and of three of us using an opened out sleeping-bag for warmth on the couch watching television.

Yesterday, I parked very close to the old flat and was struck by the streetsigns – something that I never pondered in those student days.

I was first struck by the font – the ‘C’ in Cabra looked bigger than the other letters.
Then the other letters did not look as if they had been lined up correctly – the ‘R’ in ‘BÓTHAR’ and the first ‘A’ in ‘CABRAÍ’
Only then did I spot that the ‘Í’ at the end of ‘CABRAÍ’ was a painted addition – similar to Sidney Park and Cahercalla.
Logainm does suggest that ‘CABRAÍ’ is correct but the answers as to who and when the amendments were carried out is possibly a matter of local knowledge and a need-to-know basis.