All above pictures scanned by Brand New Retro from the Illustrated London News, April 1966. (just a month after the bombing of Nelson’s Pillar) .
The article was entitled “Does Anyone Care for a Noble City?” Photos by Pat Maxwell, article by Andrew Causey.
The top pic is Mariga Guinness then the wife of Desmond Guinness (wikipedia link) the president of the Irish Georgian Society.
The traffic Garda picture was taken at the junction of Grafton St & Suffolk St. The building, now the home to Boyle Sports, was according to the article due to be demolished.
marycigarettes
15 Feb 2015wild pictures … you can easily sense the toughness of the times.
eamondelaney
15 Feb 2015Great post. Well done. Fascinating
Rob Jones
18 Feb 2015Thanks for posting this.
jaykay
20 Feb 2015Well, the former Hamilton Long building on the corner of Suffolk St. & Grafton St. has survived all right. The very unique sign “COMPOVNDING ESTABLISHMENT” (with its Roman V for a U) was still there until the 90s, when Irish Permanent installed their own sign – actually quite nicely done in stone, in fairness, but the original should have been left just for curiosity value alone. It’s now BoyleSports, of course, with a revolting blue faux-antique frontage (although I think Irish P. were responsible for that). It’s vile anyway.
The Guinnesses did great work, including rescuing Castletown House, but boy did they, An Taisce, the late Deirdre Kelly et al. have the odds stacked against them! In a way, it’s just as well the recession of the 70s – 80s hit, otherwise God knows how many Hawkins Houses and “Inner Relief Roads” we’d have. Again, I’d recommend Frank McDonals’s first book “The Destruction of Dublin” (1985) if you can get a copy now, for the story of what was going on between corrupt politicians and equally corrupt developers and the general gobshittery that afflicts this country. He had to pull his punches quite a lot, as many of the original miscreants were still around and would have swiftly lawyered-up for a lucrative date in the Four Goldmines if he’d told the full story. Pity he couldn’t update it now with the gory details, since most of the b****rds have snuffed it by this stage.
But I’m not bitter. Nah.
jaykay
20 Feb 2015The “COMPOVNDING ESTABLISHMENT” sign as it remained to the early 90s
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nassau_and_Grafton_St,_Dublin_1900s.jpg
jaykay
20 Feb 2015**** it, the link didn’t come out! Oh well, for what it’s worth, just do a Google Images search with “Nassau Street 1900s” and it’ll come up as the first image. Very atmospheric photo.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nassau_and_Grafton_St,_Dublin_1900s.jpg