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 I spotted this old advert this afternoon. It is not my drink of choice, but I would dearly love an opportunity to make friends with Murphy. Oh! For this lock-in to end………
I was walking down Princes Street today and saw that the builders working on the former Clancy’s Bar had formed holes in the timber shopfront to partially reveal what looks like a very decorative old sign. My guess as to the words revealed was ‘Wholesale’ and ‘Shop’. The Guys Directory of 1916 (p. 503) notes that Edward Geary, Wine Merchant operated from 15 & 16 Princess St. – so maybe that is the ghostsign to be revealed. I hope that Paul Montgomery retains the old sign in his redevelopment of the building.
 Yesterday, in Tralee, I asked the three teenagers with us if they knew what the building was before it was a hairdresser. They all missed the ghostsign on the pelmet detail of the shopfront. They were looking face on and did not see the cross on the end faces – that was their excuse. Once the mortar and pestle was ponted out, they knew it had been a chemist. I cannot recall many such ghostsigns. I wonder how much longer it might stay.
 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
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.
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. 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.
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.
 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
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.    In the early 1980’s, the Grosvenor Bar was a regular haunt for those in my final years of school – a time before strict i.d. for underage drinking.
I took to alcohol later in life so was only in the Grosvenor on a small few occasions but its name, and particularly the silent ‘s’, are part of my history. The Archive magazine has a piece where the owner of the Grosvenor said that the gardens of the Trinity Presbyterian Church were used for overnight grazing by drovers (p23). For many years now, Brú Bar & Hostel has operated from the premises with a white frontage. But driving home this evening, MacCurtain St brought me back thirty-plus years as the ghost of The Grosvenor Bar has reappeared. It is probably beyond hope that the will retain this ghost…… 
Cork still manages to throw up a surprise or two…
 Chester
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