2018 – Looking back

As 2018 draws to a close I thought I would recall just some of the events which have featured in my life and on this blog over the last twelve months. On January 3rd, after making an official complaint at the local hospital three weeks previously about the apparent misdiagnosis and lack of proper treatment of his broken ankle, Michael finally got to see the relevant specialist and was put on the emergency list for an operation asap. That took place just three days later when he had a bone graft and a plate and a couple of screws inserted to bring the broken bits together, followed by six weeks in plaster. His recovery was long, and certainly very painful in the early stages, but he finally went back to work ten-and-a-half months after he first broke the ankle.

Early February saw me succumbing to the much-talked-about-at-the-time Aussie flu virus and taking two weeks off work ; it was the first time in my life I’ve ever had flu of any sort and I’d never felt so ill before. The up side though, if you can call it that, was the opportunity to catch up on some reading and I got through several books in the time I was off work. Late in the month my washing machine gave up the ghost and after trying in vain to get someone to repair it I ended up getting a second-hand-but-almost-new one from a local shop ; it was in absolutely mint condition and is still working well. After several weeks of wet and often cold weather the last few days of February turned out dry and gloriously sunny so the end of the month saw me taking the dogs for a walk along one of my favourite routes through a local golf course and the Last Drop Village. It was a very pleasant and enjoyable walk and just rounded off the month nicely.

The golf course pond

The Last Drop Village

Early March saw the return of the sparrows which, the year before, had taken to perching on the outside window sill of the spare bedroom. I hadn’t expected them to come back so it was lovely to look through the glass and see them less than 3ft from where I sit when using my pc. In mid March, after several months of searching on the internet and in various camping stores, I finally ordered a new tent to replace my much-loved previous one which had sustained an irreparable tear in its roof the previous year. It wasn’t quite the same as my old one but it was near enough, it satisfied all my criteria and came at a good price with free delivery so I was more than happy. One evening late in the month saw part of my street turned into a river when a main water pipe burst and sent a substantial amount of water flooding across the road – it took two days for United Utilities to fix the problem but not before many gallons of fresh water had gone to waste down the drains. The end of the month saw the start of the Easter weekend and my 4-day break in North Wales, a break which wasn’t the best for many reasons and one in which the word ‘break’ could be taken literally.

One of my feathered friends down in the garden

My new tent

A river in the street

The month of April certainly didn’t get off to a very good start for me. It rained on and off for most of the Easter weekend and put the kibosh on many of my plans, and on the Monday I woke to find that during an unexpected overnight snow shower which had turned to ice my brand new tent had collapsed on top of my belongings ; two of the three poles had broken completely and the end where I would have been sleeping had been totally flattened – thank goodness the dogs and I had been in the van. Fortunately the two broken poles were the only damages my new tent suffered and back at home a few days later I took them to my nearest camping store to get the broken sections replaced. The rest of April passed fairly uneventfully with the only other highlight being a visit to the animal sanctuary spring open day later in the month, and with Michael still being off work he came too – the first time he’d ever been there and he quite enjoyed it.

My brand new tent – what a disaster!

Disney at Bleakholt sanctuary

The beginning of May saw Michael finally going back to work on a phased return just over ten months since he first broke his ankle in June last year. It also saw a dramatic change in the weather with the rain of the previous months gone and the start of what was to be a very long and very hot summer. The first bank holiday weekend of the month saw me suggesting (very unwisely) that we go to a car boot sale on the Sunday and then on to St. Annes – the weather was extremely warm, the world and his wife were out on the roads and we ended up getting stuck in nose-to-tail traffic, going miles out of our way and missing the car boot sale completely. It took ages to find somewhere to park at St. Annes but once we did we had a very enjoyable afternoon with a good meal and a couple of dog walks along the beach. On the middle Saturday of the month I went to Hornby Castle gardens, somewhere I’d never been before and where I got some lovely photos, then the following day I managed to burn my foot with scalding water from a recently-boiled kettle. Silicone dressings prescribed by the doctor helped to ease the pain and promote healing, and after resting it as much as possible for a week I couldn’t ignore the continuing good weather any longer so the final weekend of the month saw me taking the dogs for a local walk to Smithills Hall and gardens.

St. Annes promenade gardens

The walled garden at Hornby Castle

Smithills Hall gardens

My planned 11-day holiday on Anglesey at the beginning of June was shortened by several days due to circumstances beyond my control but I managed to get six days out of the eleven and with the continuing good weather I really made the most of them by exploring as many places as I could in the time that I had. The highlight of the week just had to be finding and photographing the old abandoned brick works at Porth Wen – it was difficult to get to and involved a long walk with a couple of hairy moments but it was an amazing place and well worth the effort for the photos I got. The rest of the month was fairly uneventful but then the 28th saw the start of a wildfire up on the moors not far from home, a fire which would eventually cover more than five square miles, mean the closure of several local roads including the one running past the end of my street, and would involve more than 30 fire crews while it was at it worst.

Porth Wen old brick works

Porth Wen sea arch

Part of the Winter Hill fire on the west side

Part of the fire on the east side

At the start of July Michael and I had a lovely day out in Southport then for his birthday in the middle of the month he went over to Ireland for a few days, where he encountered a coach driver who didn’t know the route from Dublin airport to Roscrea and had to be directed a couple of times. The highlight of the month though just had to be the tour of the new outdoor Coronation Street tv set ; with great weather, a very knowledgeable tour guide and the freedom to take as many photos as we wanted it was a great tour and one I would certainly do again.

Southport promenade

Lord Street gardens, Southport

This needs no explanation

Our official photo

Although most of the Winter Hill fire had been extinguished by the middle of July and the number of fire crews reduced there were many hot spots still burning under the surface so it wasn’t until early August that it was officially declared to be completely out after a total of 41 days. On the 9th of the month I took my first walk up there the day after the land was reopened to the public and was shocked and saddened to see the large scale devastation the fire had caused. Two days later the highlight of the month came when, at the town’s central fire station open day, I got the opportunity to go up in the air on a fire engine hydraulic platform – from 100ft up the extensive views all round the town were brilliant and I got some great photos.

Fire ravaged land on Winter Hill

The hydraulic platform going up

On the way up

Winter Hill from 100ft in the air

The highlight of September came early on in the month when, during a Heritage Open Day, I got the opportunity to climb the 180ft bell tower at the local parish church and also try a bit of bell ringing. Although the weather wasn’t the best – the long hot summer had finally ended locally the day after my fire station visit – I still got some good photos from the tower roof and the bell ringing was quite an interesting experience. A very sad time came in the middle of the month when I accompanied my friend Janet on the day she had her dog Aphra put to sleep, then later in the month I had my second short holiday on Anglesey, with an impromptu visit to my blogging friend Eileen on the way there. The weather wasn’t the best to start with but it got better as the days went on so I still got out and about and had plenty of sunshine for my photos.

A view from the parish church tower roof

Aphra

Benllech beach, Anglesey

A Llanddwyn Island beach looking towards the Snowdonia mountains

Apart from when Storm Callum hit the UK towards the middle of the month October was really nice weather-wise and still quite warm for the time of year so I went on long walks with the dogs as often as I could, both to local places I’ve often been to and some I hadn’t even known about. In the process the lovely autumn colours gave me lots of great photos and I even had one featured in an online edition of the local evening paper.

Farnworth park

Firwood Fold’s hidden lake

Close Park, Radcliffe

A dull day in early November saw me taking a photography trip to Preston Dock (now known as Preston Marina) after reading the very interesting history about it, then on brighter days I continued my autumn dog walks in the local area. The highlight of the month though was a dazzling light display which lit up the front of the local town hall on two consecutive evenings – unfortunately it was very poorly advertised and I think I may have missed some of it on both occasions but what I did see was amazing and I still got some reasonably good photos.

Preston marina

The town hall light display

My short holiday in Ireland at the beginning of this month was very enjoyable and a day of exploration round Dublin city centre was so interesting that it left me determined to go back in the future and for much longer, as there’s so much to see that it can’t be done in just one day. Just over a week ago I developed a nasty sore throat, cough and cold which came from nowhere and robbed me of my appetite so Christmas in the Mouse House was rather a non-event, although as there was only me and Michael anyway it didn’t matter too much. I’m feeling much better now though and tonight we’ll probably drive up to the moorland road near here and watch the fireworks going off all over town.

So there it is, just some of the highlights of my year, and all that remains now is to thank everyone for visiting this blog over the last twelve months and to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year – cheers!

Not very happy with the Post Office

After getting into a new hobby with Postcrossing in October last year I’ve been sending out postcards regularly almost every week except the weeks when I’ve been away, but early on in the hobby I found that the young man in my local post office would insist on printing out parcel labels and sticking them on the cards instead of using normal stamps. As I only use postcards of regular size these larger labels have often covered up some of the writing or the unique identification number, something I’ve not been happy with, although if the older guy in there served me he would use, or give me, the proper stamps. So to avoid getting printed labels I’ve used other post offices in the town and never had a problem, I’ve always been given the stamps.

Just before Christmas I went to my local post office as it was more convenient at the time, the older guy served me and I got the normal stamps for my cards, however just this morning I went in again with two more cards and even though I specifically asked for the stamps the younger guy insisted on printing out the parcel labels – it very much seemed as if he was just too lazy to get the book and take the required stamps out of it so I refused the labels and brought the cards back home. As it’s only this post office I have a problem with I was so annoyed that I emailed Customer Services with a complaint –

I wish to complain about a particular service at the ***** post office at *****Road, Bolton, BL***

I am a member of Postcrossing and send out 2 to 4 postcards every week to various people in other countries at a cost of £1.25 each but when I use this post office, which is the nearest to my home, the young man who serves in there insists on printing out a parcel label for each one instead of sticking on or giving me the normal stamps. Unfortunately the labels very often cover the cards’ unique identification numbers or other writing, or they are doubled over and left sticking up at the top, all of which I’m not happy with.

The older man in this post office has always given me the stamps on previous occasions so I know they are available, but only today I went in and *though I specifically asked for the stamps the younger one wanted to print out the labels* – this seems to me like he is just too lazy to get the required stamps out of the book. I have used other post offices in the town and never ever had this problem, I always get the proper stamps, so surely printing out labels is not the norm?

As this is the nearest post office to me I use it regularly but if this is the sort of service which is given then I will be taking my custom elsewhere in the future.

I didn’t expect a reply for a few days but I got a return email only an hour or so later –

Thank you for your email about your experience at the *****Post Office branch. I’m sorry to hear that you’re unhappy with an aspect of the service you receive in the above branch as here at the Post Office we take great pride in providing excellent care and service to all our customers.

I can confirm that if a branch doesn’t have specific values of stamps available to cover the postage cost of an item they would be expected to produce a postage label instead. *As an alternative, customers can purchase specific value stamps and apply them to their items themselves*. It may be worth mentioning this next time you visit the *****branch, as if they don’t have the stamps required in stock they can order them at any time to replenish their supply.

Thank you again for taking the time to bring this to our attention and please accept our sincere apologies for any frustration or concern you may have been caused.

Kind regards,

**** ******

Now although this reply does explain why postage labels are sometimes used instead of stamps, and I can understand that if it really is the case, I feel it rather ignores the main issue, in that even when I ask  for the stamps I still get printed labels from the one particular person in that one branch – I’ve put the significant part of my complaint and of the reply in asterisks as I feel that the matter has been completely glossed over. I would have at least expected to read something along the lines of  “this matter will be brought to the attention of that branch’s staff” but this seems to be more of a stock reply rather than an assurance that my complaint will be dealt with appropriately.

Maybe I’m expecting too much but to be honest this situation has occurred so many times in the past that today was the last straw, and no matter how close to home that particular post office is I’ll be going elsewhere every time from now on.

Merry Christmas everyone

A very Merry Christmas

and a happy and prosperous New Year

to all my blog readers old and new, from me, Michael, and the pets x

From Roscrea to home

My final morning in Roscrea saw me getting the 9am coach to the airport ; my flight wasn’t until 1.50pm but I would have been cutting it a bit fine if I got the next coach at 11am, especially if it was late, so I was better being on the safe side. Michael wasn’t coming home until two days later but he came up to the bus stop with me to see me off and for once the coach was bang on time. With a slight delay going through Dublin city centre I arrived at the airport at 11.20 with a good couple of hours to kill, and once I was through the security check (with no problems) I spent some time looking round the shops before getting a sandwich and a drink and whiling away some more time in a quiet corner.

As I’d been walking through the airport building I’d noticed a run of large back-lit pictures on the walls, advertising Skoda cars – the pictures were based on several Irish myths and legends and though each one prominently featured a car I thought they were lovely enough to take a photo of. Luckily that section of the airport wasn’t too busy just then so I got my shots without anyone getting in the way.

St. Patrick

The Children of Lir

Cu Chulainn

The Salmon of Knowledge

Tir Na Nog

Although the plane from Manchester a few days previously had been packed the one going back wasn’t ; I’d pre-booked the same window seat but with no-one sitting in the two seats next to me I could have spread myself out if I’d wanted to. There was no-one in the two rows of seats behind me or across the aisle and only one person in front of me – that’s the first time I’ve known a flight to or from Manchester not to be full.

As we got over to the English side of the water I tried to make out where we were but though the day was cloudy and I didn’t recognise anywhere I still took a few photos. It’s only since I’ve been back home and done a lot of studying of the map book and Google Maps that I’ve realised exactly where we were – passing a part of North Wales which I’m very familiar with.

Turning towards the Dublin coast

Right : Anglesey and the Menai Straits – centre : cloud over the Snowdonia mountains – centre foreground : Conwy estuary, Great Orme – moving left : Llandudno, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay

Right : Barkby beach – centre : Talacre beach

The Dee estuary – right : Talacre beach – left : Mostyn Dock

The River Mersey – right : Birkenhead – left : Liverpool

Approaching Manchester airport

It was 2.40pm when the plane landed at Manchester and by the time I’d got through the airport and walked all the way to the station I’d just missed a train and had to wait half an hour for the next one. Although it wasn’t ideal it was only a minor irritation and I could live with it, but what I didn’t know then was how many things would go wrong in less than 24 hours. But regardless of any disasters to come I’d still had a really nice time in Ireland – and my day in Dublin had inspired me to want to go back to see more in the not-too-distant future.

A walk to Mount St. Joseph Abbey

Although Roscrea is only a small town and is surrounded by countryside there are no really good dog walks anywhere unless you take a long walk out of town or drive to somewhere so the only place I could reasonably go to with Trixie was Mount St. Joseph Abbey, two miles along the country road from the bottom of Nellie’s street. I’ve been there a couple of times before and in spite of the frequent passing traffic it’s a pleasant walk past open fields.

I wasn’t far from the monastery grounds when I experienced the second great coincidence of the holiday. Houses along the road were few and far between and as I got close to the last one a man suddenly appeared through the gate onto the road, startling Trixie and making her bark. He spoke to her in a friendly voice and apologised to me for startling her, we got chatting and I mentioned that Trixie wasn’t actually mine. When I said who she belongs to he told me he knew the family and Michael’s dad and said he knew a young lad from the family also called Michael – and he was really surprised when I told him that’s my son. That was so unbelievable – two miles from town in the middle of nowhere and out of the blue I meet someone who knows Michael!

Wandering round the monastery grounds I noticed that the church door was open – I would have loved to go in and look round but I didn’t know if it was allowed and there was no-one around who I could ask so I wandered past the guest house and round to the back and discovered a lovely peaceful apple orchard with a couple of benches set alongside the paths. One of the paths led through an archway to a courtyard beyond, it looked a bit like a farm yard and as I didn’t know whether it belonged to the monastery or was private I didn’t go any further.

The monastery grounds

The guest house

Part of the apple orchard

Back on the main path I made my way round to the stream with the man-made waterfalls, and though it was in shade just like last year the full sunshine did make things a bit brighter. From the stream I made my way through the woods back to the main path then with the last three shots taken I set off on the 2-mile walk back to Nellie’s.

Some local residents across the stream

Back at the house, and tired out from her long walk, Trixie curled up on her cushion and didn’t move much until later in the evening – two miles each way is nothing to me but obviously she isn’t used to walking so far all at once. Later on I popped up the road to take some photos of the Christmas lights in the garden of the house a few doors away – they add something new every year and this time it was penguins and lights on the ground – then I settled in to watch tv for the rest of the evening.

Before I went to bed I packed my case and backpack ready for the morning as I had a reasonably early start and I didn’t want to be on the last minute. It was strange though – compared to here at home Roscrea is such a small quiet town that I wouldn’t want to live there permanently, but over the last few days I’d got so settled that somehow I felt reluctant to come home. Michael’s dad may no longer be around but it’s nice to be part of his home and the Roscrea life for a short while, and I know it won’t be long before I go back there again.

St. Cronan’s Church, Roscrea – a feast of stained glass

My last full day in Roscrea arrived with sunshine and blue sky and after breakfast my first task was to find some nice artificial flowers to replace the ones I left on Michael’s dad’s grave last year. Although I really wanted a single large arrangement I couldn’t find one so I settled for six small bunches, three red and three white, and back at the house I filched a length of Nellie’s green knitting wool and tied them all together into one arrangement before taking them up to the grave. While I was up there I noticed that the lantern and plaques that Michael and I had left at the time of the funeral were looking a bit grubby so I took them back to the house, gave them a good clean then went to return them to the grave. I took my camera with me too as I’d seen that the church was open so I went in to see if I could get some photos of the stained glass windows which I didn’t get shots of on a previous occasion.

The construction of St. Cronan’s RC Church started in 1844 just before the Great Hunger and in spite of the best efforts of the parish priest and the local community it proved impossible to complete during the famine years. After various fund raising efforts both in the community and in America the church was finally opened for worship in 1855 although it still didn’t have a roof at that time. In the 1870s the towers flanking the west end of the building were added, and before his death in 1902 John Francis Bentley, the architect of Westminster Cathedral, said that the hand carved altar pinnacle and screen was the most beautiful piece of church architecture he had seen in Ireland. In 1913 lightning seriously damaged the apse so restoration and redecoration was carried out on the whole church, then in the 1920s the statue of St. Cronan was added, which now stands above the main door.

It seemed like I was the only person in the church at that time so with no interruptions I wandered round freely and managed to get shots of every stained glass window in there. Someone belonging to the church must have been there somewhere though as only a few minutes after I’d gone out I heard the main door being closed and locked from the inside – it seemed I’d got my photos just at the right time.

St. Cronan’s RC Church, Roscrea

Back at the house Nellie made me a coffee and a couple of sandwiches then I got ready for the next part of my day ; earlier in the holiday I’d promised Trixie that I would take her for a good walk and as it was still a lovely day weather-wise that’s just what I was going to do.

Dublin to Roscrea – I survived the coach ride

Over the last two-and-a-bit years I’ve travelled to and from Dublin and Roscrea enough times to know that the coach service doesn’t always run on time, especially when it’s coming from the airport, so I was a bit surprised when it arrived at Dublin’s main bus station bang on time at 4.30pm, and with only a handful of people to get on we were on our way within minutes. All went well as we went through the city and its outskirts but once we left civilisation behind and got onto the open motorway things began to change.

Although it had been a reasonably mild day in the city the temperature must have dropped as darkness fell and the front windscreen of the coach misted up ; the driver put the heater on to clear it and it was okay for a while but then he turned the heater off and within minutes the windscreen misted up again. He drove for several minutes with it like that then instead of putting the heater on again he leant forward out of his seat and cleared a small space with the back of his hand – and for the rest of the journey he drove with a misted up windscreen and just a small space to see through which he constantly cleared by hand. This wasn’t a good situation at all, and it was made worse by the fact that every time he leant forward to clear the windscreen the coach would drift to the left and go over the lines onto the hard shoulder before he corrected it.

As if all this wasn’t bad enough the whole of the coach had to listen to a football commentary on the (rather loud) radio – and whenever we drove through a dead spot where the radio went off tune the driver would lean down to his left and try to retune it, which again caused the coach to drift over the lines onto the hard shoulder. The only time he turned the radio down was when we stopped at Portlaoise – it was obviously only for his own benefit as once all the passengers were on board he turned it up again louder than before. I’m not even remotely interested in football in any way but I can tell you who won the Merseyside Derby that day, who scored the winning goal and which minute it was scored in.

I was sitting in the front seat across from the driver so I could see everything he did and the sequence went like this – drive for a bit, lean forward, clear windscreen, drive, lean down, fiddle with radio, drive, lean forward, clear windscreen…etc. If I could have got some photos or a video of his antics I would have done but unfortunately it isn’t allowed. The coach should have arrived in Roscrea at 6pm but it was 50 minutes late – since leaving the last stop in Dublin it had only made one other stop, the one in Portlaoise, so there was no real reason why it should have been so late getting to Roscrea. I can only assume that the driver was going a bit slower than usual because he couldn’t see out of the windscreen properly.

This was the first time I’ve ever witnessed such appallingly bad driving from someone who is supposed to be a professional driver and needless to say I was so glad to get off that coach in Roscrea – it was going on to Limerick from there so I only hope the rest of the passengers made it to their destinations without mishap. I refused to let the experience put a damper on my day though – I’d had a lovely time exploring Dublin (or parts of it at least), I’d seen some things I knew about, many I didn’t, and got lots of good photos, so apart from that dreadful coach journey I considered the day to have been a great success.

North of the Liffey – Part 2

From Sunlight Chambers I walked along to the next bridge, the O’Donovan Rossa, and crossed back onto the north side of the river to get a shot of the Four Courts building. Built between 1786 and 1802 by architect James Gandon, who also designed the Custom House, the Four Courts houses the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and Dublin Circuit Court and is the Republic of Ireland’s main courts building. Its large round tower with its colonnaded top and pale green dome is one of Dublin’s main landmarks but the whole thing was surrounded by scaffolding and shrouded in sheeting, presumably due to some major restoration/repair work – unfortunately it all looked quite ugly and would spoil the shots I wanted to get so I limited myself to just one of the main front entrance.

The Four Courts building

Close to the end of the Ha’penny Bridge, and sandwiched between a couple of shops, was a closed and shuttered 3-storey building which, according to the name, had been the Bondi Beach Club. Built around 1830 as two separate houses they had been converted to a single unit around the year 2000 and turned into a bar and nightclub. With palm trees and sand in strategic places, walls full of painted beach scenes and bikini-clad girls, and a dance floor lit up with colour-changing lights it was a very popular place but had closed down in 2011 and remained empty ever since.

There was nothing special about the shuttered ground floor of the building but it was the lettering on the above facade which intrigued me enough to take a photo. Planning permission has recently been granted to demolish some of the buildings to the side and rear of the old club and turn the whole plot into a large aparthotel, and though the front facade is a protected structure and will remain the lettering will no doubt be removed.

The old Bondi Beach nightclub – this makes you wonder what went on in there

Checking the time on my phone I realised I’d been so busy exploring and taking photos that I’d had nothing to eat and drink since breakfast time. A coffee was long overdue so assuming that any cafes along the riverside would have over-inflated prices I took myself off down the side streets in search of a reasonably priced one, and I was glad I did as I unexpectedly came across a brightly painted gable end wall which was worth a photo.

It didn’t take long to find a pleasant looking cafe with coffee at a reasonable £2.25 so in I went and ordered a toasted sandwich to go with it. I was only in the cafe just long enough to eat the toastie and drink the coffee but when I went out again I found that it was raining hard. Dashing into a nearby indoor shopping centre I spent some time looking round there in the hope that the rain would soon stop ; it did but the blue sky of earlier had been replaced with yet more grey cloud.

The door I used to come out of the shopping centre wasn’t the door I’d gone in through and I came out into a completely different street ; following my nose I made my way back to the riverside and found that I’d emerged just beyond the Millennium Bridge so I had to walk back along the same bit of the riverside I’d walked along a bit earlier, but at least it gave me the chance to get another photo of the Ha’penny Bridge with not too many people on it. The next bridge along was the O’Connell Bridge leading into the big wide O’Connell Street, and just before the corner I came to the Abbey Court hostel with its brightly painted floral front facade – I’ve photographed it before through the coach window as I passed on the way back to the airport but I thought it looked so nice it was worth another shot.

The Ha’penny Bridge from the north end

With time getting on and the daylight gradually getting less I made O’Connell Street my final port of call. Although there were several buildings along there which would be architecturally interesting fading daylight and the damp weather limited my photo taking to just two things, The Spire and the O’Connell Monument.

The Spire of Dublin, alternatively named the Monument of Light, was commissioned in 1999 as part of a redesign of the street layout and was constructed during December 2002 and January 2003. Consisting of eight hollow stainless steel cone sections it has a diameter of 9.8ft at the base and narrows to just 5.9ins at the top, with a height of 390ft  ; the base section is lit up at dusk and a 33ft section at the top is illuminated by LED lights shining through 11,884 holes.

Born in Co. Kerry in 1775 Daniel O’Connell, often referred to as the Emancipator or Liberator, became a major political leader at the beginning of the 19th century best known for campaigning for Catholic emancipation, and in the early years of the Great Famine he led calls demanding increased aid for Ireland. In February 1847, as the Irish nation faced one of its worst years of hunger and even though his own health was failing, O’Connell travelled to the House of Commons in London to make one last desperate plea for aid to save the people. His words were mainly lost on the politicians however, and though the British Government opened soup kitchens which did alleviate some hunger they were closed again in September that same year.

A month after his plea to the government O’Connell left England in March 1847 on a pilgrimage to Rome, however he died after reaching the Italian port of Genoa in May that year. In line with his own instructions his heart was taken to Rome while his body was returned to Ireland for burial in Dublin’s Glasnevin cemetery in early August. The monument to O’Connell was commissioned by Dublin Corporation and initially designed and sculpted by John Henry Foley, being finished by Thomas Brock after Foley’s death. Although the foundation stone was laid in 1864 it took nearly twenty years for the monument to be finished and erected in 1882 at the end of Sackville Street overlooking the river and opposite Carlisle Bridge ; Sackville Street was renamed O’Connell Street and the newly-widened bridge was renamed O’Connell Bridge in honour of its main focal point.

Looking up O’Connell Street

Looking back towards the river

The O’Connell monument

Situated where it is at the junction of a wide road with two busy crossing points the statue isn’t the easiest thing to photograph without someone walking past it or standing in front of it so I had to exercise a great deal of patience before I got the opportunity to grab a quick photo of it. By that time the daylight was fading rapidly so I made that my last shot then made my way back to the bus station for the 4.30pm bus back to Roscrea.

South of the Liffey – Temple Bar

Across the road from St. Stephen’s Green main entrance were four horse-drawn carriages so as I love horses I went over to say hello to them. The ponies were all standing patiently waiting for customers ; the black one obligingly lifted his head and posed for me while I snapped his photo and the one at the back made me smile as he was dressed for Christmas complete with reindeer horns on his head. A bit further along the road I came across two large bright yellow-and-blue amphibious tour vehicles belonging to Viking Splash, and although the prices aren’t exactly cheap it looks like a fun way to see some of the city.

From the park the next place I wanted to see and actually go into was the Natural History museum ; built in 1856 as a ‘cabinet-style’ museum the building and its animal collections haven’t changed much since Victorian times and it’s often described as ‘a museum of a museum’ and referred to as ‘the Dead Zoo’. Unfortunately though I couldn’t seem to find it ; I’d turned down a street off the road past the park as I knew it was in that area somewhere, and though I found the archaeology museum, which I had no interest in, there was no sign of the natural history one. It was only much later, while studying a map of the city, I realised that if I’d gone just one street further from the park I would have found it, but at least now I know for another time.

Having given up on the museum I made my way back towards Trinity College and past a hardware shop with a name which amused me enough to take a photo of it. Past the big Bank of Ireland building I came to the maze of side streets known as Temple Bar, a busy neighbourhood just behind the riverside. Promoted as being the city’s ‘cultural quarter’ and centre for nightlife many of its pubs and bars host live music events and among its cobbled streets are quirky boutiques, contemporary art studios and galleries and many many cafes and eateries – it’s even possible to go on a ‘musical pub crawl’ for an evening of songs, food and drinks in three different pubs. Several buildings are painted in bright colours and there’s street art everywhere ; I could have spent at least half a day just wandering round all the streets but with limited time I didn’t go too far.

A great name for a hardware shop

A colourful mode of transport outside the Temple Bar Hotel

ThunderRoad Cafe and party restaurant

One of the area’s best known pubs – the musical pub crawl starts here

Another popular place

Down a narrow side street and on a corner I came across the brightly painted Icon Factory, a cafe and art gallery, and in an effort to prevent unofficial and senseless graffiti the walls of the adjacent alleyway had been painted in bright patterns and designs. About halfway along were painted boards depicting some of Dublin’s humorous references to the various statues situated around the city, and though I’d previously known about a couple of the sayings featured I didn’t know about the others so I photographed them all.

Retracing my steps back along the alleyway I went past the colourful Icon Factory and down to the end of the street which brought me back to the riverside not far from the pedestrian-only Ha’penny Bridge. Officially named the Liffey Bridge it was built in 1816 using 18 cast iron sections made by the Coalbrookdale Company in Shropshire and shipped over to Dublin. Before the bridge was built there were seven ferries which were used to cross the river at that point but they were in such bad condition that their owner was told to either fix them or build a bridge – he chose to build the bridge and was granted a 100-year right to charge anyone crossing it a ha’penny toll which matched the previous charge for using the ferries which it replaced – hence it became know as the Ha’penny Bridge. While the toll was in operation there were turnstiles at each end of the bridge but the toll was dropped in 1919 and the turnstiles were eventually removed.

Fast forward to the 21st century and in 2001 the number of people using the bridge on a daily basis was counted as a staggering 27,000 ; a structural survey showed that some renovation was needed so the bridge was closed for repairs and reopened in December that year. In 2013 Dublin City Council removed over 300kg of love locks from the bridge and signs were put up asking people not to put any more padlocks on it. It’s such a popular bridge that I hadn’t a cat in hell’s chance of getting a photo of it with no-one on it but I took one from a distance and luckily only a few people were crossing at the time.

The Ha’penny Bridge looking west

One of the fancy lamp fittings above the bridge

Looking east from the Millennium Bridge

A couple of blocks along from the Millennium Bridge I came to an unusual-looking and rather elegant four-storey building on a corner ; this was Sunlight Chambers, currently home to a firm of solicitors, and it was decorated with picture friezes above the ground floor and first floor windows. I couldn’t really make out what the friezes signified but they were so unusual I took photos of what I considered to be some of the nicest ones.

Sunlight Chambers

The building and its friezes intrigued me so much that once I’d got settled back here at home I decided to do a bit of research, and what I found out really surprised and amazed me. Designed by Liverpool architect Edward Ould the building was constructed in 1901 to be the Irish headquarters and offices of Bolton-born William Lever (later to become Lord Leverhulme) of the well-known Lever Brothers soap company.

Sunlight soap was one of the first soaps to be made on an industrial scale from vegetable oil and using architect Edward Ould William Lever built Port Sunlight, a manufacturing base and model town on the Wirral in Cheshire. When he needed a name for his new Dublin headquarters a variation of the Sunlight theme was obvious so the building became Sunlight Chambers. The friezes were designed and crafted in 1902 and actually tell the history of soap and hygiene, with some of the features being symbolic representations of how Lever Brothers made and exported their products.

As I photographed Sunlight Chambers and various parts of the friezes I had no idea then that the building in front of me would turn out to have such a connection to my home town – and now I know about it I’ll certainly make a return visit in the not-too-distant future to take some more photos.

South of the Liffey and St. Stephen’s Green

As I crossed the Samuel Beckett bridge I stopped in the middle to take a couple of photos of the river in both directions then continued along the south quayside, and with not many people about that part seemed to be a lot quieter than across the river. Heading west the sky lost its blue colour and became dark grey and heavy although the sun was still shining so I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn’t actually rain. Almost opposite the Jeanie Johnston ship I came across something which I didn’t expect – set back off the road and surrounded by modern office buildings and commercial premises was a row of 3-storey terraced houses which looked like the lower level was all basement flats with the actual houses up above. A highly commercial area seemed a strange place for a row of residential dwellings but they actually looked quite nice and they certainly had a good view of the river.

Looking east with the MV Cill Airne – the Blue River Bistro Bar – in the foreground

Looking west

The Jeanie Johnston

On City Quay and just past the Sean O’Casey bridge I came across The Linesman, a life-size bronze sculpture by Irish artist Dony MacManus. The winning entry in a public art competition in 1999, it commemorates the tradition of docking in the area and is a tribute to all the dockers who worked at Dublin port throughout the years. A few yards further on and across the road I descended from the sublime to the ridiculous when I came across a closed down cafe with a roller shutter displaying its daft name and picture which rather amused me.

The Linesman

I wonder who thought of this name?

The Custom House and Talbot Memorial Bridge

The next bridge along was Butt Bridge and just up the road on the left my eye was caught by a brightly coloured building so I went to check it out. There was nothing which gave any clue as to what the building actually was but later research has told me that it’s the Tara building, a co-working hub with a gallery and cafe, and the outside was painted by the Irish street artist Maser ; it was certainly very eye catching and worth a photo.

The Tara building

Past another couple of bridges and opposite the wide O’Connell bridge I took a left turn and went in search of a couple things I particularly wanted to find. This area was much more central and compared to the quietness of further back along the quayside it was heaving with people and extremely busy. Although I hadn’t planned it the first major thing I came to was Trinity College ; there seemed to be a lot of people going through the gates so I decided to take a quick look. Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth l it’s a sister college to Cambridge’s St. John’s College and Oxford’s Oriel College ; it’s also one of the seven ancient universities of Britain and Ireland and is Ireland’s oldest surviving university, with the ancient Book of Kells being kept in the library there.

The campanile (bell tower) in the college’s main quadrangle

The Graduates Memorial Building

Next on my list was the Molly Malone statue which I found outside St. Andrew’s church in one of the narrower shopping streets. A group of buskers were singing on the nearby corner so there was quite a crowd gathered, and as is often the case with famous statues it seemed that everyone around wanted to have their photo taken with this one and I had to wait quite a while to be able to get a shot with no-one else in it, though unfortunately I couldn’t do anything about the information kiosk behind it.

St. Andrew’s Church

The Molly Malone statue

Having previously studied a small map in a free booklet about Dublin’s attractions I followed my nose up to the top of the nearby pedestrianised shopping street to St. Stephen’s Green, a decent-sized park with a couple of lakes and oodles of green space. Surrounded on all four sides by blocks of offices and other commercial buildings it was a lovely peaceful, and obviously very popular, oasis and it was nice just to wander at will and take photos here and there.

Park map at the main entrance

The first lake

The second lake

Even though it was now winter there was still some autumn colour left in various parts of the park and it looked so nice that I could imagine it would be really lovely in spring and summer. I could have spent much longer in there but there was somewhere else I particularly wanted to find so reluctantly I headed back through the main entrance and off on my next quest.