Old Greystones

MegFi wrote: »

- The Burnaby on Christmas Eve

Smashy smashy. Heading down in a while..

Some good greystones history in these links also...

http://www.greystonesahs.org/web/home

http://www.chaptersofdublin.com/books/Neighbourhood/chapter8.html

http://petermcniff.com/kennedy/kennedy_frame.htm

D.

Sagat, you started a wonderful thread, good luck for 2009

mikechiswick wrote: »

Tinas wedding date 14/09/1970 according to your great aunt Pearl cheers

It was actually the 9th of September but you got the year right - I was only a few weeks old when she came down from belfast to be chief bridesmade at Phil's wedding:)

AJ1 wrote: »

Does anyone remember my grandfather Tommy Gaskin and my grandmother Margaret? Tommy was the only tailor in Greystones. He was also on the door in St. Killian's hall in the 50's & 60's. He took the money which was sixpence at the time and my Grandmother gave the bottles of orange out.

Yes Tommy worked in Mc Birneys as a tailor. He served on the committee of St. Killians hall for years. A gentleman.
Margaret used to sell Bray Silver Circle tickets, she was one of the Quinns of Crow Abbey. Patrick was her father, he used to sell fish from a horse drawn flat van in the 50s. They owned a field where part of Kindlestown Park is now built. It was always known as "Quinn's Field". Both were parents of Austin who was and still is a well known character in horsey circles, who supplied horses for many a film that was made in Ireland in the past.

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Do you remember Jerry Fallon on the wheel of fortune at St. Davids garden fete. " Roll up roll up everyone's a winner "

Is that the same Jerry Fallon from Fallon's newsagents/fish shop down the town who, God help him, had a hare-lip which resulted in him being nicknamed 'Nelp'
This Jerry Fallon fell in the harbour as a youngish teenager and while he was shouting "help, help, save me" , nobody could do anything for laughing because it came out as "nelp". It didn't take much to earn a nickname in those days.
A few more for oldies :- Sap, Blacktap, Square, Beezie, Munger, Crump, Wonder Man, Earwig, Scraggs, Baldie, Slut, the mole, the minister, the senator and the Pontiff - and that's just the men

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Another one.

You've heard of the Garden of Ireland,
For proudly of Greystones we boast,
Greystones Greystones you are the loveliest of all,
Greystones Greystones you lavish my heart and enthrall.

The Grand Hotel, The Grand Hotel,
Does all things well, does all things well.
In Greystones by the rolling sea
You'll find good cheer and company.
As happy as Larry you'll surely be
at the Grand Hotel ! .................. (to the tune of Three Blind Mice)

For Christmas dinner at the Grand there was always a table reserved for Fr. Fennelly and party (a freebie, I think). I worked during school holidays there as a sort of waiter (Stephen Pye was head-waiter), and one Christmas drew the short straw and waited on the priest's table (apart from the horror of being face-to-face with the PP, he never gave a tip). I managed to spill a bottle of red wine all over him and the table, and while PP's face began to take on the colour of the wine, it was only through a swift act of diplomacy by the manager David FitzGerald, a courteous and charming man, that the situation was calmed.

When Brendan Behan was found rotten drunk in the middle of Church Road, he had been drinking in the Grand. He had a difference of opinion with Charlie Reynolds in the bar, and I believe David Fitzgerald was forced to eject him. Charlie was a retired Guard, and Behan claimed to hate all Guards.

Charlie Reynolds managed the petrol station on the corner of Church Road opposite Brady's shop, and had as his assistant a lad named James Joyce (for some reason he was always James, never Jimmy) and those two never stopped bickering from opening to closing time. James used to be 'sacked' three or four times a week, but just turned up the next day again.

James Joyce and his best mate Joe Malone just upped and disappeared to England one night, and I wonder if anything has ever been heard of them since.

When did the Grand become the LaTouche ?
I know it was when the ditties were being pushed, because we learned the words as Grand Hotel, then had to change them to LaTouche

pixbyjohn wrote: »

I got a few, can you fill in who the others were?

Blacktap (Kinsella) was the father of Sap & Crump. How he got his name is a story in itself (later).

Crump was Jack Kinsella who was a greensman at the Golf Club, and in the Fifties, Jack Crump was a writer who had a golf column in the Evening Mail or Herald.

The Wonder Man was Jack Sweeney, and although he was able to to walk the length of Danns bar on his hands, when he was in his sixties, which was a wonder in itself, almost every time you met him he would say " I saw so-and-so doing so-and-so this morning, I wonder what they were up to" or " I wonder where he's going, or I wonder why they're painting that colour"

Earwig is Brendan Sweeney, and he got that name from Munger Doyle. He and Munger fished together for a while, and naturally it was an uneasy relationship - the smart-arsed teddy boy and the God-fearing traditional. Just one of Munger's put-downs (which never worked with Brendan).

The minister was Joe Ryan, the father of Larry (the senator). I don't know how he got the name - I always knew him as the minister. He was a lovely man ; he lived at Arch villas between Peter Byrne and the Sweeneys. He was in the British army in WW1 and was gassed and wounded at the Dardanelles. The lower half of his face was badly damaged, and despite his handicap, he could tell some yarns about the 'Danniels' as he called the Dardanelles. I only wish that I had listened more closely at the time.

Square was Square Byrne. He lived in Blacklion cottages, next door to Lure/Luhr ? Leggett ( Sean & Gerry Gorman's grandfather). Square had a club foot, so never really worked , and I suspect that 'Square' was originally 'squire' - a man of leisure.

More later, but some extra that I recall :-

The Bagman (or Lifter), Nipper, Scarce, the Bat, Spolliam, the Ringer.

pixbyjohn wrote: »

Scarce Mitchell , Nipper Glynn. Is there a Whiston in there too ?

Do you remember Jarvey Evans outside the railway station with his horse drawn phaeton.

The Bagman (or Lifter) Whiston lived in Blacklion cottages. His older son John was generally known as Young Bagger.

Michael (Mick) Whiston lived in the Grove, and was better known as Beezie. He was the finest cox (cox'n, coxwain) ever to sit in the stern of the Colleen Bawn and Shamrock. He only ever coxed the senior crew, the members of which included his brother Christy and Slut Redmond. Beezie was a stalwart of the previously mentioned Sunday poker school at Kilian's. There used to be a Solo table there as well, but few played Solo.

The Bat Doyle was (is ?) Ned Doyle who used to work with John Brady in the Forge ...... from Brigid's Park.

The Ringer Reilly trained greyhounds around the East coast tracks, and as the name suggests, he gained an 'unfortunate' reputation, and moved from his origins to a house on Jinks' Hill.

Between Ballygannon Point and Kilcoole station there used to be a mishmash of houses, prefabs and smallholdings set away from the line, and one of them belonged to a family named Scraggs - house & family many year gone, but the position of the house was still known by that name. Tommy Redmond, oldest of that generation of Redmonds, (and reputedly a better boatbuilder than his brother, Willie), always walked the line from Greystones southwards in the Summer to look for signs of fish (trout, mackerel, pollack), and would always tell that he went no further than Scraggs.
Incidentally, it was in another of the houses there by the railway, that JP Donlevy wrote his famous 'Ginger Man'

I knew the Jarvey Evans by reputation, but I can't picture him. Well I remember Cruise Doyle and his horse and carriage. He lived at Redford.

You will remember The Bare-Arsed Bandit, and can you tell me how Boots' Hollow got that name ?

Well known Harbour residents of the past

EIGHTEENAGAIN wrote: »

I'd have to crank-up the old mental cogs a notch for that one, but I'd say you are right about that particular Doyle dynasty.

Paddy Doyle had an excellent tenor singing voice. I was at a talent contest in the Woodlands one night, and Paddy won with 'Rose of Tralee'. By the way, Broz (Eamon Brosnan) was there singing his rock'n'roll version of Down by by the Glenside, I Met an Old Woman. No sooner had Paddy collected the couple of quid for winning, when Josef Locke, who had been in the bar, got up to sing. From all his vast repertoire, Locke chose to sing 'Rose of Tralee' just to upstage poor Paddy, which I thought was a lousy trick.

Boots' Hollow

The road from Redford Cemetery to Blacklion is straight now, but before that it used to bear slightly left at the small gate, down into a dip, across a small, walled bridge over the stream and up past Pat D'arcy's gate to rejoin what is the present road. That old road was where they called 'Boots' Hollow'
Legend had it that it was the haunt of a Banshee, and as a kid I knew a few people (elderly women mostly) who claimed to have seen and heard the Banshee on the night before they received the news of a death in the family. It was the main road then, and people from Redford and Windgates couldn't avoid using it - no lights, no footpath, ghostly reputation - no wonder imagination ran riot.
I think (and I'm open to correction) that this same bit of road was the first in Greystones to have the then new-fangled 'cats -eyes' in the middle.

I don't know what's there now - I haven't seen it this many a year - and looks like I'll never find out the origin of the name.

Very good, I remember Paddy Doyle well and his good friend Willie Evans from Blacklion. Paddy sang "My Lagan love" beautifully. Eamon Brosnan also sang another great song, "O me name it is Sam Hall, chimney sweep".
You have educated me on Boot's Hollow, I know exactly where you are talking about. There is a shopping centre there now in fields that were belonging to Fox's farm with Lidl and various shops. And on the other side of the road is the entrance to Redford Park.
I remember Pat Darcy in his old black Austin car, and his brother Tom further up Windgates in the white house called Ashfield. He had a green truck which was driven by Corny Salmon. They used to go to all the pig fairs. Remember Tom Darcy's Ford Consul, BNI 98 was the reg number.