Dunshaughlin Village: A Photographic Tour

CUCINA

A little pet project I had was to photograph all the ground level shop fronts in Dunshaughlin village. Finally got around to it last Sunday. One reason was just to have a record for posterity and the other was as part of a casual survey about the different types of businesses in the village.

(I had a more detailed post all typed up last night about this subject and when I went to post it it all disappeared, so I will just summerise my "findings" this time!)

There are 90 shop fronts, 70 active, and 20 empty.

There are 20 "one-off" shops (e.g., one newsagent, one furniture shop, one video store, one supermarket, etc.).

There are 8 duplicated shops (e.g., 2 banks, 2 betting shops etc.).

There are 3 of each solicitors, novelty shops, and estate agents.

Four pubs.

Six hair-shops/salons.

Eight clothes shops/boutiques.

Ten foodie places (cafes/takeaways/restaurants).

So too many of certain types of shops and not enough competition for others, while there are none at all of others, e.g., no bicycle shop, no bakery, no butchers, no clothes/shoe shops for men or children, no music store.

Aside from all that, the photos generally show the village in a very good light. I will try to up-load some of the 120 images I took in a separate post...

orlaithd

Interesting past time Cucina
I'm sure in years to come lots of people would be interested in this kind of a photographic record- similar to some of the old photos the Peters had enlarged and puton the Sibin walls are they had it renovated a few years back.

Its also interesting the shops you found lacking in the village. Some long standing residents will remember the shoe shop (not very good) that used to be in the village- as well as some other clothes shops- ones for men etc. (on a pedantic note there is a children's clothes shop ) as well as butchers etc and a choice of video shops, newsagents etc.

Its nice you took the time to record the village like this

PauloMN

Good work and interesting reading.

CUCINA wrote: »

So too many of certain types of shops and not enough competition for others, while there are none at all of others, e.g., no bicycle shop, no bakery, no butchers, no clothes/shoe shops for men or children, no music store.

I'm actually stunned by that though.

ibarelycare

Five pubs! Sibin, Lawlesses, Carberry's, Peters and the Arch!

There used to be bakeries and butchers, there's definitely an opening there . Supervalu butcher section is ok but not great.

Surprised at the amount of hairdressers/salons! I guess us women are vain, recession or no recession

TEN food places (plus Sibin and Peters doing food)....yet nowhere decent to go for a nice meal (Well Venice is good, but nothing special).

Looking forward to seeing the photos!

CUCINA

ibarelycare wrote: »

Five pubs! Sibin, Lawlesses, Carberry's, Peters and the Arch!

There used to be bakeries and butchers, there's definitely an opening there . Supervalu butcher section is ok but not great.

Surprised at the amount of hairdressers/salons! I guess us women are vain, recession or no recession

TEN food places (plus Sibin and Peters doing food)....yet nowhere decent to go for a nice meal (Well Venice is good, but nothing special).

Looking forward to seeing the photos!

Hoping to have the photos uploaded in the next few days!

Dostoevsky

I hope as many people in the village as possible turn out for the public meeting next Monday 26th April in the Community Centre at 9pm to get the NRA to put proper paths to and from the village (they removed all the hard shoulders and now kids and all pedestrians have to walk on the main road to get to the village)


Refreshing to see some activism in Dunshaughlin for a change. We badly need to elect a local politician and stop electing local councillors from other areas in Meath who don't care about stuff here.

http://www.m3roundabouts.org/

CUCINA

For anyone who might be interested, some technical problems uploading the photos (files too big) but should be resolved at some stage next week...

pullandbang

CUCINA wrote: »

For anyone who might be interested, some technical problems uploading the photos (files too big) but should be resolved at some stage next week...

Make sure you resize each one to 72dpi for uploading. Make the longest side no more than 700 or 800 px and make sure to save them as jpegs.

If you're still having trouble, why not open a Pix.ie account, it's free and makes uploading very easy. If you have a lot of shots, it might be easier to create an album there and just post a link.

CUCINA

Thanks very much for the tips, Pullandbang. As I mentioned before, I have posted numerous photos before on the M3 thread in the "infrastructure" forum, but with a different camera. And I did open a pix.ie account but still no joy.
The IT guy that looks after our computers in work says he will sort it out for me this week...he mentioned something about "Gimp" software etc, but it's all a bit beyond my knowledge. Anyway, thanks again, looking forward to overcoming this little hurdle sooner rather than later...

pullandbang

CUCINA wrote: »

And I did open a pix.ie account but still no joy.

Don't know why 'cos it's dead simple from Pix.ie. Once you've successfully uploaded your photo, you click "SIZES" and copy and paste the code here into your post.

CUCINA wrote: »

The IT guy that looks after our computers in work says he will sort it out for me this week...he mentioned something about "Gimp" software etc, but it's all a bit beyond my knowledge.

GIMP is basically the freeware version of Photoshop. It's for processing digital images. There are much simpler ones available as GIMP can be chunky and most people (including me) will only ever use 5% of it's capabilities.

CUCINA

TESTING

CUCINA

Another test...so far, so good!

CUCINA

Nearly ready to start the "tour"...because of the north/south axis of the main street, I took photos of the west side of the street in the morning, so as to have sunlight on the shop-fronts etc. I then returned later in the day to take pictures of the east side, for the same reason.

Also, I started from the southern end of the village, to the top of the town, then south as I took photos of the east side...

I will post the selection of photos (hopefully!) at differnt times, although I wont be including all of the two hundred that I took, obviously.

White and bright...the church collector here seems caught in the twilight zone between the dispersal of the previous congregation and the arrival of the next.

CUCINA

Road to nowhere...beside the church, large boarded up site, victim of the post-celtic tiger?

CUCINA

Impressive Pastoral pad...no excuse for being late for Mass

CUCINA

HSE offices...that horse and cart hasn't moved for (donkey's) years!

CUCINA

Original primary school, first photographed over a hundred years ago.

CUCINA

I wonder what these pillars were originally part of? Maybe a farm-house entrance?

CUCINA

Now!

CUCINA

A few colourful shop-fronts in actual sequence...one of the busiest of these at week-end mornings is Fidelmas, apparently the in-place to be for breakfast, popular with Mass-go-ers, bikers, and young people generally...

orlaithd

CUCINA wrote: »

Now!

Hey- pretty sure they were built when they did the entrance to Supple back in the late 80's/early 90s.

hmboards

CUCINA wrote: »

I wonder what these pillars were originally part of? Maybe a farm-house entrance?

Your captions are out of sync with the images CUCINA

It's a nice project. Many years ago, when in primary school, our class had a project to draw a map of every street in Navan and record every shop. I covered Watergate St. I wish I still had that. So much has changed there since then.

CUCINA

A few more images...hopefully the out-of-sync issue applies to just one photo.

The Sibin and the Fontana buildings were completely re-vamped in the last couple of years. I think there was a house demolished to make way for the car-park and the appartments between these buildings. Overall, a big improvement, I think.

CUCINA

Previously, a shop selling metal works. Notice the blacksmith above the shop-sign is just a shadow of his former self...

CUCINA

Finally for now, until sometime next week, a few more shots...Lidl's had a sign up a few years ago in Dunshaughlin saying "coming soon" but it never happened, more's the pity, the village badly needs a competitor to Supervalue.
Meanwhile, the busy Tara news occupies a very central position on the Main St, whereas shops at either end of the Main street tend to struggle to attract business.

EdgarAllenPoo

CUCINA wrote: »

one of the busiest of these at week-end mornings is Fidelmas, apparently the in-place to be for breakfast, popular with Mass-go-ers, bikers, and young people generally...

Don't forget your gardai, they're mad into the all day breakfasts.

CUCINA

Hoping now to upload some more images...

CUCINA

Continuing north along the westside of Main St...will try to upload a few more in next post

CUCINA

Seems to be taking only one photo per post at the moment...

CUCINA

Now coming to the top of the village...

CUCINA

Last unit on the west side....

CUCINA

Now on the east side, the Campus garage is the only other convenience shop in Dunshaughlin, apart fromTara News...

CUCINA

seen better days...

CUCINA

Peter's Pub...goes back a long ways...I have an old photo of this pub from the 40's or 50's and it shows petrol pumps on the pavement outside...

(Actully have five or six old black and white photos of Dunshaughlin from around this period. I got them in Fairyhouse market from a chap there who has thousands of old pictures from all around Ireland).

CUCINA

Moments away from the razzmatazz of Main Street, the sobering stillness of a Sunday morning cemetery...

Hope to add more photos in the next few days...

CUCINA

This used to be the butcher shop we had in the village up to about four or five years ago (Walsh'es)...now as a euro-shop, not bad relative to other shops of its type elsewhere ...

CUCINA

Continuing south along the east side of Main st....
The first shot is of the Toll House, an historical building, which was partially demolished when it had a close encounter with an articulated truck about six years ago, then it was re-built with the contrasting extension to the side.

CUCINA

Jenny's shop really sets the trend architectually, with its box design upstairs, built a few years ago. Not sure about the building next door as regards its history, I'm sure somebody out there knows something about it, though.

CUCINA

Last of the buildings on the East side of the Main St.
The library, now housed in the old church, is a gem. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, it is a real haven of tranquility.
Also shown here are the Fortuna shops, just off Main St, behind "Jenny's".
They are a little out of sight, but hopefully they will prosper, and help to keep the village alive, commercially.

CUCINA

Coming towards the end of the tour now (at last!), showing the mostly empty shops built as part of the Ivy appartments. The "chocolate Fringe" hair salon (love to know wherew the name came from!) seems to be doing well, very stylish in its lay-out. The photo shop, though, didn't last long, for whatever reason.

CUCINA

The "Venice" restaurant is also tastefully laid out, and is a welcome addition to the commercial life of the village....
So, that's it, I think...there have already been a few changes to the appearance of the village sinse I took these photos on 11th April.
E.g., "Classic Cuts" is now painted pink, the FRS letters above the AIB bank logo have been painted over, there is a new time/temperature display above the o'toole's pharmacy logo etc., etc., so already some of the photos represent an historical record!