Old Greystones

anyone remember back in the late 70's early 80's there was an auld fella who cycled around Greystones from time to time on a bicycle which was cleverly adapted by having a sharpening stone driven by the pedals enabling him to sharpen scissors and knives ??

Remember the army used to accompany the cash delivery vans to the Bank of Ireland on main st. You would see the rifle toting soldiers crouched in the doorways just in case the IRA or some udder gougers would attempt a robbery !!

Remember the Pizza Mill had 2 motorcycle pizza delivery riders, can you name them ?

Anyone remember Dessie Redmond (RIP) who died in a road accident in about 1987 ?

Mrs Brennan who lived near Paddy's newsagents/tobacconists ?

Fairfield Park still there i wonder ? we used to live there in the early 1970's.

Remember Mr. and Mrs. Derry Kelleher who were a lovely older couple back in the late 1980's and used to frequent the Burnaby lounge from time to time sporting these russian type bear skin hats and sturdy winter coats in the colder winter months, i remember branding them 'russian dissidents' on one occasion to which they both heartily laughed. I believe their son(s) were the 'Soul Bats' musical duo ???

I too remember the 'strange movements' flyers/posters from the late 1970's which was advertising a local band, was Dennis McGrane Jnr. a member ????


Anyone else remember Kenneth Farrell from New Road(1986 RIP) and the lovely Tom Chapman from Windgates (RIP 1994), Alan Behan from Blacklion (RIP circa 2004/5) ??


Remember Dowlings butchers that was next to a cafe and Frank Clarkes on the main st. ??? a good golfer Oliver Whyte (RIP) worked there for years. I was the apprentice butcher there albeit only from 1986-1988 ?

Before that i worked in the fish factory (Irfish) with Gareth Nolan from the Boghall road in Bray!

Mrs. Coughlan that lived by the train station ???

Remember Martin O' Donohue and his wife (off supermarket fame) used to go to Cabanas quite regularly despite being 'a tad older' than everyone else frequenting that den if inequity, Mrs. O' Donohue used to dance with her hand bag around her neck in case it 'upped and walked away by itself' ???

Tony Farrelly (butcher from Delgany) working down the Woodlands Hotel serving cheap cider and yer complimentary sausage n' chips !!

I can remember what must have been the Orchard Inn ladies football team (circa mid to late 1970's) being transported onto the Bog pitch in the back of John Connelly's (of Grattan Park) lorry where he then tipped them out onto the grass !

I definately remember the donkey rides in the field next to Joe Sweeneys amusements...

Amos Lennon playing games in the Anchor and shouting at the top of his voice which used to annoy the living daylights out of Joe !

Bru Mooney (RIP) wandering into Bitz disco bar late one sat. night by himself and smiling at us as he ordered a drink, i always remember the long coat and boots he'd be wearing !

The chippy at Sharavogue i remember as a kid right enough, aswell as Baldy Redmond's lumber yard at the rear of Killians Hall ?

The scouts trip to Germany in 1981 or was it 82, Yep i was there too.

Liam Whiston, Al Nolan (1976/7 yellow Honda 400/4), Catherine O' Toole, Paddy Nolan, etc etc all giving up their time to run the cubs and scouts back in the day.


Pat Carthy and his slaughter house at the bottom of Applewood Heights, I wonder what ever happened to Pat ?



Remember the phone box at the crossroads in Killincarraig which was reputed to be 'the most vandalised phone box in all of Ireland' !!! ???


Remember in the early to mid 1970's the end bar (which is now still called Danns i suppose ?) in the Beach House was open for business and had a pool table ???

The Horse and Hound bar was deemed a dangerous place in the 70's and 80's !

remember the large house which was practically across the road from the pizza mill which contained a family and the father had a Ford Sierra Cosworth back in 1991/2 when nobody else really had money for an expensive sporty car yet this guy had a 'rip snorting ride' ! !

John your spot on regarding the Greystonians that have passed on as i remember the last time i saw Ken Farrell (Foddler or Fiddley) as we called him in school and shook his hand in Bitz bar, a few weeks later he was gone on. Tom Chapman (Chappy) used to pull wheelies on a Honda H100s or was it a Yamaha RXS100 outside the beach house during the seaside festival when he was only 16 or 17 years old and what a gr8 laugh he was, i was in the USA when the phone rang one morning in 1994 delivering the bad/sad news, after all of Tom's bike crashes and two wheeled lunacy he ended up dying in a car crash ! I used to booze it up with Alan Behan and worked with him for a while too in AO Smiths in Bray, the last time i spoke to him and shook his hand must have been 1999 or 2000, another good man from Blacklion gone on too soon.
Dessie wasn't alone that fateful night as i remember but the young trainee accountant or solicitor by his side perished too.


Adrian Kelly and Eggy White, names still lodged in the memory banks. I think Adrian has lived in London for years now.

There was a chap that lived up in Kindlestown near Vincent Byrne called Cedric back in the late 70's early 80's, he had a sister too but alas i cannot remember their family name.

Rodney Quinn, anybody remember him and his family which lived in Fairfield park and Kindlestown park many years ago, i think his dad worked on the railways. I believe they ended up in London.

Alan Hayden snr. a lovely man who was a mechanic and lived up in Kindlestown, he was the first ever black person i met if memory serves me correctly, and what a gent, I think his people hailed from Nigeria possibly. (RIP).


Remember Angie / Angela who lived in the flats..... which i think was called Rivendell Grove, she was how shall i say ? 'a right character' !!

Jackie Murnane the politician used to be 'a parker' too till they upped sticks and moved, Anthony his son was nearly 'the big kahuna' winner on Sunshine 101 radio back in the late 80's, instead he's had to settle fer reading the news on RTE !

Remember Mr. Morrisey from Grattan Park, a sound ole boy he was. He lived near the McGraines and Coffeys, i think his daughter was a cub scout leader way back when and she went be the name of .......?? now i'm struggling to remember !!!

Carol Coffey and 'Washer' Mark Gorman RIP.

Freddie Cox from Kindlestown anyone ??? A blind man that wore dark glasses and a white suit and hat if i remember correctly ?

All the Bealin clan that possibly lived in Fairfield pk. then Kindlestown? Think they were from Tottenhan in London, Daithi was one of them at CBS.


can ya place names to the pic of the ladies football team above ? edit; is Missy Hayden in there ?

Just remembered old Mr. Lindsay, i think he was a retired doctor and Louise (RIP) was his daughter and she in turn had a daughter. Mr. Lindsay used to come into Dowlings butchers with his then very young granddaughter, God she must be in her late 20's by now !!! Louise did marry at some stage but i think her husband passed away prematurely too.

Remember some poor old soul passed away in the Orchard Inn one night.

Remember Bray cabs had an office at the train station for a short while.

Jeffrey Pegman bombing around 'stones in his loud, immaculate white mini till he rolled it near Killincarraig with co-pilot Pat Brady.

Thanks John ! i recognise Vickers but whose d'udder fella ?



remember Brendan O Carroll appearing at the La Touche Hotel and doing a filthy stand up routine !


now i'm going to throw a curve ball, does anyone remember an asian family that lived in Fairfield park in the 70's, i'm fairly certain they were from Vietnam or Korea perhaps and the story goes the father was or had been in the military? The lads name was Brendan Chow (spelling ?) and he had a sister but thats all i remember of them.

white haired man with glasses is a Greystoner i recognise but don't know. Lady sat down in black top looks familiar too but again i don't know her by name, and the lady on the LHS is she or was she a Ban Garda....... Lohan ???? well and truely broken now i am.

basically i don't know any of them !!

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Tom Evans in black beside his wife. White haired guy is Bobby Carroll and his partner on extreme left, I think she is a Lindsay I don't know the other guy or the lady sitting.
Surely you remember those 2 girls who were always down at the little field behind Joe Sweeney's with the Evans and the horses

no i'm afraid not, they are alot older than me as i only came to be in 1968

Brendan Chow was in my class in the Brothers - would have been maybe '74 or so but he left. Would love to know what happened to him. He was a bit of a handful for the teachers. Story went around that he arrived home one day to find his mother dead. Don't know if that's true or not.

it is indeed a gr8 thread.

Now opposite the new fire station there is that line of cottages that runs from the cinema down towards the arch, there used to be a scruffy old boy that lived in one of those cottages on his own i think, was he called Bill Doyle and does anyone know anything about him, he'd be dead a long time now?

anyone remember nick names like Seve, Gitner, councillor, Ni@@er, (i had to doctor that word as it's offensive to black people!), 'the red nettle' was a strange nick name i heard mentioned a few times.

anyone ever heard of 'the red nettle' now theres a nickname.... !! ?

bido wrote: »

Are you talking about Nettle Keegan?

LOL was he ever a mechanic in Hills on de main street ???:cool:

Great thread! Brought back loads of happy memories! Moved out of greystones in my teens but still have links there. There was a short time in the late 80's when the IWC (irish wildbird conservancy) had an office on the main street, it was over a building, but I can't remember which one? Anyone know?