Travels With My Camera

It must be the time of year but for some reason I find myself thinking a lot about my childhood lived in that wonderland I knew as Ringsend.

I'd like to share with you a few more images from that time before the construction of the toll bridge, the new roads, the bringing of the ships over to "our" side of the sea wall and the property developers' arrival changed the Ringsend landscape as we once knew it. It's all in the name of progress but I'm not that easily convinced.

Above, Pigeon House Road with Coast Guard Station and old ESB chimney stack. To the left of the picture you can just about see the two upturned rowing boats lying against the "slip" wall. Taken in 1969.

Below is the beautiful sea view from between the Coast Guard Station and the ESB (I would spend a lot of my time just staring out there, it was so calming). Taken in 1968.

Below is St. Catherine's Home, a one time convalescent home for TB sufferers as far as I know. I've been told it is a listed building so I guess it still stands. It's directly across the road from the sea view image above. Taken in 1968.

Below is an image that takes me right back into my early childhood. Here we would play cowboys and indians, yes, I also played with the boys. Many's the shoot out took place from those bushes! The houses you see are actually the back yards of the Cambridge Avenue houses where I lived. That image has dramatically changed over the years as many of the families have now built large extensions. Taken in 1971.

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Snowfall From Yesteryear

 Is it the fault of climate change or what that we no longer wake up to a blanket of snow every January? There are children in this country who have never seen snow, well maybe the odd flake now and then but nothing like we knew as children. It would take weeks to melt.

The great thing for us kids was that when we'd have to return to school after the Christmas holliers the pipes would be burst! Oh! how I remember the thrill of arriving at the school gates only to be told I had to go home again. I can still feel that excitement as we walked back along London Bridge Road gathering snow in our gloved hands to throw at each other, our screeches probably heard a mile away. (In those days we walked to school, about two miles in my case, getting the bus only if it was lashing rain).

(London Bridge Road image above).

Back then I didn't need a mobile phone to let my mum know I'd be coming home early because for the most part she'd be there. If she wasn't she'd just be out at ten o'clock Mass and would be back fairly soon. I could play in the avenue until then.

Getting back to the snow issue here are a couple of photos I took in January 1982 depicting the beautiful landcape that once was Willington Lane, Templeogue.

  

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