Memories of Dublin
Share your fondest memories of Dublin with us here:
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"In the fifties, one could cycle into the City, throw the bicycle against the O'Connell Monument, go to the cinema and find the bike intact. My favourite memory is cycling down the quays late at night, with Dorothy Miley, to Sandymount without a care in the World. Happy days !"
Leo Mahon
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"My favourite memory of Dublin is on All-Ireland Sunday in September. The place is swamped with people wearing the county colours. I have been to a few finals and it's always a great day. I was there when Clare won their first final and we all ran onto the pitch at the end. It was fantastic to be there and see Anthony Daly lift the McCarthy Cup. After that we went into town and celebrated for the night. A great All-Ireland Sunday."
Philip Monks
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"My Favourite Memory of Dublin would have to be December the 8th. Going to Dublin to do the Xmas shopping. It was great. My Parents would bring us there. And buy our Christmas outfits and and Christmas things. I just loved all the Christmas Decorations on the streets in the shop windows. We would always go into Arnotts and have something to eat. I use to love going up Grafton Street and looking in the Switzers Window, with all the bears and Santa Claus and the Reindeers, which is now Brown Thomas. Those were the days. Going to see Santa, oh my god, I was so afraid of him. Listening to the Christmas carols on the street, and all the musicians were out earning their bob or two.
And we could not forget Moore street, I just loved going down there, and watching all the woman on the stalls. It is nice to look back at that, and having fun with my parents and having fun in Dublin. It is nice to reflect on how things were good back then not like they way they are now. I don't think many go shopping now on December the 8th?"
Lorraine Maguire
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"Bus conductors! Many's the time I remember being on the 19 bus and the conductor whistling as he went around collecting the fare. If you didn't have the full fare, he might let you off out of the goodness of his heart. They'd always be on hand to help the women on and off with their buggies and shopping, not to mention keeping a stern eye on any troublemakers. The buses aren't the same without them and Dublin lost a valuable character when they did away with them."
Barbara Dunne
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"You remember the time, in a warm summer night, you´ve been out and your dream came through, a swim with the mermaid in the O`Connell Street. I really miss that woman and the romantic scene."
Beatrix Bauer
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"One of my favourite memories as a child was the Sunday afternoon ceili in the Bandstand in Fairview Park. During the summer there would be a ceili in the Bandstand and all my friends, and cousins and their families would gather there. We would have great craic doing the 'Walls of Limerick' etc. I know it would be laughed at now but it didn't cost a penny and the enjoyment it was for children and adults alike was enormous"
Pauline Mooney
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"I remember the day Nelson's Pillar was blown up and my mother arrived home from town on the bus with a big lump of it in her shopping bag!"
Noelle Byrne
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"I remember as a small child looking forward to the days when the coal man would make a delivery. He had a horse and cart. His horse had a lovely horse brass on the reins which were always well polished. He had a young lad helping him and he was always covered head to toe in coal dust. I thought it must be lovely be allowed to get so dirty without being given out too. I was allowed to feed the horse a piece of apple. My mother got a treat if the horse made a deposit on our road. She would scoop it up and use it as fertiliser in the garden. This is my earliest and fondest memory"
Lesley Keogh
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"I remember collecting newspapers and bottles to get money for the cinema. My brother brought the bottles to Harry Lipman in Grangegorman and my friends and I brought the newspapers in an old pram down to the paper mills in Smithfield. It was hard work for very little money but it was possible to earn the money for the pictures and other treats. It filled the summer and kept us busy."
Maureen Dalton
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"June 2003 World Special Olympics Summer Games. Dublin was transformed and buzzing with excitement. 7000 athletes from all over the world. Rebeca Bourke, Team Ireland, won gold, silver and bronze medals for table tennis at the RDS. Previous medal wins in USA and Holland, but nothing could top representing Ireland in Ireland. It was the best Games yet."
Ann Bourke
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"One of my first Dublin memories was at 8 years of age coming from a small town in Co.Wexford and walking down Moore Street and hearing for the first time "GET YOUR RIPE BANANAS HERE" and "IF YOU DONT WANT THEM DONT MAUL THEM". I stood looking at the ladies selling their fruit and was enthralled with their gift of the gab."
Margaret Cooney
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"My fondest memory of Dublin's fair city, is that of a beautiful summers day walking through Temple Bar. As soon as I walked through the arch I could feel the buzz, there were people everywhere; a book sale in the square, a comedian abusing an innocent passer-by and the afternoon drunks trying to sing along with the buskers on the side of the street. aahh.......memories."
Gill McGrath
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"My favourite Dublin was Monday's in the summer, sitting in Toners Pub, listening to people discussing the matches played on the Sunday and deciding who was going to win Sam or McCarthy. You would have a different winner every Monday but the craic was good."
Peter Jones
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"My first memories of Dublin from when I was aged 10 and my mom, brother, sister, nana and granddad and I were going to Dublin Zoo so we got the train from Kerry. When we got off at Heuston Station there was a terrible smell from the Liffey. Like Liam Reilly's song it stank like hell and my Grandad said to me that that's what Guinness is made from and no matter where you go in the world it never tastes the same. I believed him and thought that's why it is so black, but he was right, I always think of the story whenever I'm in Dublin and see the Liffey.
Jane Treacy
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" I remember spending long hot summer days in the 1970s in the Crescent, Marino. It was then a closed derelict park, but that did not stop us from using it as our own private sanctuary from the mad world outside the old walls. Many an afternoon was spent climbing the Eagle (a very old and elegant tree) and swinging from a rope swing, or even sittin up a tree and reading a book waiting for friends to come. When evening came we would watch the bats fly out of the belfry in the pld Protestant Church beside the Crescent. Its no wonder Bram Stoker had a fixation with bats! They would fly low over the park , hunting insects in the gloom. On sunny days we would lie in the tall grass and watch the clouds drift by. Who needed the countryside? We had our own little bit of country right there between Howth Road and Malahide Road. A little piece of Heaven.
While the Crescent is now open and available to all, I still have very fond memories every time I pass by on my way to work and wonder if kids today also use the park as we did. I doubt if they have the freedom we had and I feel sad for them.
Pauline Byrne
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"My fondest memories growing up in Dublin was when I lived in East Wall. Every year we had the East Wall Festival. My Ma would put the bunting tied from the bedroom window to the garden railings those little pieces of material blowing in the slight wind, it was always July when we had the festival and the whole of East Wall would be a burst of colour. The highlight of the festival for me was the trolley race down 'Johnny Cullen's Hill' (as we knew it then) that was the hump back bridge that separated East Wall from North Wall. We would all line up our trolleys made from old pallets of wood with our steel bearing wheels, and then the race would start. I can still remember the sound the wheels made as we descended the hill. East wall always seemed to have hot sunny days when I was 12...how things have changed."
Chris Shelley
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