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Dunshaughlin=Recession free zone?

EdgarAllenPoo

Seriously, the economic downturn doesn't appear to have hit this place, the only signs that I can find of the recession is that the short lived photo studio had to shut up shop and Brady's is gone.

Aside from that there doesn't seem to be any shortage of money or people willing to spend crazy amounts of it in the village, just walk into supervalu on a saturday and you'll see people spending between €100 to €250 on practically nothing.

Is it old money or just lack of common sense?

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endasmail

dsane1 wrote: »

More bad news it seems ,i hear the pet shop is closing /or is already closed ?

i was told it was closed and cleared out
he moving his operation to cavan
think the rent on that place is ridicolous

bonerjams03

dsane1 wrote: »

More bad news it seems ,i hear the pet shop is closing /or is already closed ?

What? I thought that place was doing good business....

dsane1

More bad news it seems ,i hear the pet shop is closing /or is already closed ?

daltonm

Stroke Politics wrote: »

Lots of empties still for sale in Dunshaughlin,

http://www.daft.ie/searchsale.daft?id=345985&search=1

these were at €315K in 2006

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article1083145.ece

Wow were they really that price - seems so expensive.

Mind you the property prices of some of the houses are unreal - I do think that Dunshaughlin is in a state of denial, particularly around housing.

Graphik60

Folks
I only saw this thread today and was fascinated by the various opinions. First of all, my credentials.. I am 59 and have been living just outside Dunshaughlin (Lagore Road) for past 22 years. When we came here the population was around 1100. Best pub was Gogans, small, manky, card playing on a Wed and Fri/Sat, food if necessary as it had a grocery. Then running a close 2nd was Murrays. Brendan Murry was the only person who sold plate glass in the villiage as Maddens or Lawless' did not even tho they were hardware shops and Murrays was a pub !!. Brendan Murray was All Ireland Draughts champion for a number of years. Does anyone out there remember the arrival of Santy at Murrays before Christmas ??
The Arch would probably be next. Lawless' was always a bit more manky but devoid of athmosphere.

SuperValu is very slow to reduce prices.. but as of this weekend.. 30th Aug 09, it is not too bad although their off-license is way overpriced. I would use Tesco/Aldi/Lidl and maybe Dunnes in Ashbourne...

The one thing that always struck me about Dunshaughlin was that there are essentially 3-4 main familys in the town, Blakes, Murphys, Delaneys and a range of smaller family groupings. These are true locals in that they all have cousins born and bred in the area. Anyone who is 'in from out there' is technically a blow-in.. however, because I am there so long and know a lot of the genuine locals for years.. I regard myself as an indigenous blow-in !

It always amazes me how some of the smaller shops ever survived.. and as someone said, look at all the unoccupied retail units off the main street. The issue there is a microcosm of the national problem.. ie who granted planning for them in the first place.. (massive thread potential but watch the libel laws !!)

Am I happy in Dunshaughlin ? I would say yes and give the town a thumbs up. It has it's drawbacks... but it is a good halfway between the city and the country. The issue for me is... dont expect quaint old country villiage type environment. Take it for what it is.. a city suburb with a bit of character. It is not Tallaght, it is not Glasnevin, it is not Foxrock.. however, city facilities are readily available via the good bus service.. Navan is not far away.. you are in the country in no time at all.. so like I say.. it is not a bad halfway house...!!

CUCINA

Well, Supervalue is certainly exercising a few minds here, provoking strong opinions. But if I may come back to the pub scene...as I mentioned before, I am not impressed with Lawless'es. I must admit that I would have a biased view about the place, going back to when I first moved to Dunshaughlin, where the owner, wearing his "hardware shop" hat, gave me the runaround with a lawnmower I left with him for repair, which took weeks to get back!
Some time later, my wife and I went to Lawless'es for an early evening drink after a walk. He was now wearing his "barman" hat and as I stood at the bar ordering the drinks, well, maybe my imagination was working overtime, but he appeared to give me a very steely-eyed look, not at all coming across as your friendly barmen. Anyway, we went back a couple of times after that, but somehow, we could'nt take to it. We have since settled for Carberry's whenever we have a few drinks locally, which would usually be on a Saturday night, but not EVERY Saturday!
Apart from Carberry's, we sometimes might gravitate towards The Arch Bar which, as a previous poster pointed out, does have a real pub atmosphere.
Overall, though, thanks to the smoking ban (which in itself I think is a welcome development) and the recession, "going to the pub" isn't the experience it used to be, which is a pity. Live music is the way to go, I think, to encourage the punters so a regular trad session (even in Lawless'es!) would be great.
Hopefully, the recession won't force the closure of any of the pubs in Dunshaughlin, it's always good to have a choice of places to go to...

EdgarAllenPoo

daltonm wrote: »

People do complain, if not vocally then they do it with their wallets and they do shop elsewhere - SV have discovered this and so reduced their prices.

Not by much they haven't some prices have gone down and others have gone up. Unless you eat like a student you can't by enough food to make a decent dinner for three people for less than €17.

daltonm

ibarelycare wrote: »

Outsiders??

BTW, Supervalu has come down in many prices over the past couple of months. I shop both there and in Dunnes and there isn't a huge difference in prices. Your claims that prices are "extortionate" are a slight exaggeration. If you don't like it then take your money out of the "local economy" and stop complaining.

The fact that Supervalue has come down in prices over the last couple of months is testament to the fact that it needs competition. My take is that it should have been reasonably priced all along. This time last year I had to suppress a scream at the till on being charged 50 euro for half a basket of shopping. It is extortionate and people paid for convenience. Prices were extortionate at least I felt so and there are good eals to be had now so imagine how much better the deals would be if we had an Aldi or Lidl in the town. People do complain, if not vocally then they do it with their wallets and they do shop elsewhere - SV have discovered this and so reduced their prices.

EdgarAllenPoo

Most of the staff live in the village or surrounding areas.

bonerjams03

I can name a good few staff who live in Dunshaughlin.

Not that it matters, in the slightest.

ibarelycare

Dáibhí wrote: »

So, now it's offensive - even "bigotry" it appears - to call people outsiders? I've lived in Dublin and abroad, and I was an "outsider" in those places. That is a statement of fact. There are hundreds of thousands of outsiders in Dublin, most of whom proudly proclaim themselves "culchies". What is your problem with such statements of fact? If Super Valu wants to advertise itself as a business which benefits the locality (a tactic which somehow is intended to ameliorate the obscene prices) it is right to question just how many locals are actually benefitting from it. In this case, 'locals' are those who lived in the village before Super Valu came, and 'outsiders' are those who came to the place (or didn't, for that matter) solely because of being employed by Super Valu. The jobs weren't exactly given to locals in these cases.

Yes, I think it IS offensive to call people outsiders! Who are YOU to say that just because someone hasn't lived in Dunshaughlin for a certain amount of time that they are an outsider? And your definition of an outsider is someone who came to the village just to work in Supervalu??!! WTF? Supervalu's been in Dunshaughlin for probably the best part of 20 years at this stage! If everyone had your attitude then no one would ever feel welcome anywhere. Thousands of people have moved to Dunshaughlin in recent years and I'm sure a lot of them consider it their home and are proud of where they live...are they outsiders?

You're speaking as if Supervalu specifically CHOOSE not to give their jobs to "locals" :rolleyes::rolleyes: And, as I said in my last post, how on earth do you know that most of the people working there aren't locals?? I doubt you do.

Dáibhí wrote: »

Indeed. The former is a truism. You seemed to have missed the part where I explicitly did not equate natives with locals. So much for the rant, eh.

What's your point here? I didn't suggest that you equated natives to locals.

Dáibhí wrote: »

If you actually think selling a 20 pack of Miller for €24.99 - as Super Valu's 'sale' price was last week - while the same product was available in Tesco for €17.99 does not qualify as extortionate, then the dictionary definition needs revisiting. This is the most recent in a long line of extortionate price charges. And believe me, I do shop elsewhere whenever I get the opportunity. It only takes my dropping in for a necessary last minute item to see how absurd its prices are. While they continue to charge these prices by virtue of their monopoly in the supermarket trade here, I have every intention of speaking about it. Sorry about that.

Ok, so you've used this example twice. I'm sure there are other similar specific examples that can be used, but this can be said for many supermarkets with many different products. But in the larger scheme of things, the average price of my shopping in Supervale doesn't differentiate hugely with the price of my shopping in Dunnes or other such supermarkets.

EdgarAllenPoo

Ok clarify something for me(boy has this thread gone OT since I started it), I've been living in the village for 5 years now and working locally for the last year, am I an "outsider" by your definition?

Dáibhí

ibarelycare wrote: »

Outsiders?? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Please, you sound like such a snob.

So, now it's offensive - even "bigotry" it appears - to call people outsiders? I've lived in Dublin and abroad, and I was an "outsider" in those places. That is a statement of fact. There are hundreds of thousands of outsiders in Dublin, most of whom proudly proclaim themselves "culchies". What is your problem with such statements of fact? If Super Valu wants to advertise itself as a business which benefits the locality (a tactic which somehow is intended to ameliorate the obscene prices) it is right to question just how many locals are actually benefitting from it. In this case, 'locals' are those who lived in the village before Super Valu came, and 'outsiders' are those who came to the place (or didn't, for that matter) solely because of being employed by Super Valu. The jobs weren't exactly given to locals in these cases.

ibarelycare wrote: »

Everyone family was an outside at some point, even your precious "natives" :rolleyes: That post makes you sound like a complete bigot and someone who's living in the past.

Indeed. The former is a truism. You seemed to have missed the part where I explicitly did not equate natives with locals. So much for the rant, eh.

ibarelycare wrote: »

BTW, Supervalu has come down in many prices over the past couple of months. I shop both there and in Dunnes and there isn't a huge difference in prices. Your claims that prices are "extortionate" are a slight exaggeration. If you don't like it then take your money out of the "local economy" and stop complaining.

If you actually think selling a 20 pack of Miller for €24.99 - as Super Valu's 'sale' price was last week - while the same product was available in Tesco for €17.99 does not qualify as extortionate, then the dictionary definition needs revisiting. This is the most recent in a long line of extortionate price charges. And believe me, I do shop elsewhere whenever I get the opportunity. It only takes my dropping in for a necessary last minute item to see how absurd its prices are. While they continue to charge these prices by virtue of their monopoly in the supermarket trade here, I have every intention of speaking about it. Sorry about that.

ibarelycare

Dáibhí wrote: »

Well, I define Mrs Duffy as a local because she has been here for years, long before Super Valu opened. She's not a native, but she is most certainly a local. There is nobody else there that I know of outside of Super Valu, except, now that I think of it, the Red Morgan's wife.

Most people working there (including the owner) today are, by any objective standard, outsiders. Which gets back to my point about shopping local, when there are few or any locals working in the place. It is no longer a 'local' shop but rather a business owned by an outsider, employing a primarily outside workforce, and taking money out of the local economy. This would probably not matter too much - at least to me - were it not for the fact that it is abusing its dominant position in the locality through charging extortionate prices to the local community.

In terms of its contribution to this local community, Super Valu just doesn't have anything going for it as far as I'm concerned, and offensively high prices going against it.

Outsiders?? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Please, you sound like such a snob. Just because YOU don't know all the staff in Supervalu, doesn't mean they're not "locals." A large proportion of the staff are teenagers. Now I don't know what age you are but do you know the background of every worker in Supervalu? I doubt it.

Get off your high horse ffs. Dunshaughlin has grown a huge amount in the last 10 years and it's full of people who have moved from outside the area but are now living here. Everyone family was an outside at some point, even your precious "natives" :rolleyes: That post makes you sound like a complete bigot and someone who's living in the past.

BTW, Supervalu has come down in many prices over the past couple of months. I shop both there and in Dunnes and there isn't a huge difference in prices. Your claims that prices are "extortionate" are a slight exaggeration. If you don't like it then take your money out of the "local economy" and stop complaining.

Dáibhí

daltonm wrote: »

I think the point is that one or two customers a day (maybe more) won't check, they are too busy or are distracted - and that's money in the till.

That is precisely the point, thank you. I've lost count of the number of times I've been overcharged, noticed the overcharging on my receipt when I arrived home, and had to go back and point it out to them. In Dublin, in contrast, on the rare occasion that I am overcharged (at least officially), I am given the product for free under some 'No Quibble' promise. It's a different quality of service, all inspired by something Super Valu Dunshaughlin does not have: competition.

Dáibhí

GDM wrote: »

How would you define a "local"?

Well, I define Mrs Duffy as a local because she has been here for years, long before Super Valu opened. She's not a native, but she is most certainly a local. There is nobody else there that I know of outside of Super Valu, except, now that I think of it, the Red Morgan's wife.

Most people working there (including the owner) today are, by any objective standard, outsiders. Which gets back to my point about shopping local, when there are few or any locals working in the place. It is no longer a 'local' shop but rather a business owned by an outsider, employing a primarily outside workforce, and taking money out of the local economy. This would probably not matter too much - at least to me - were it not for the fact that it is abusing its dominant position in the locality through charging extortionate prices to the local community.

In terms of its contribution to this local community, Super Valu just doesn't have anything going for it as far as I'm concerned, and offensively high prices going against it.

EdgarAllenPoo

Dáibhí wrote: »

PS: Aside from the always lovely Mrs Duffy, is there a single local woman (or man) employed by Super Valu?

How would you define a "local"?

daltonm

IRcolm wrote: »

I wonder if thats what had influence over the naming of the estate Cooksland...

I know that Supple Park was named after the Supple family who owned a pretty big estate where the Golden Phoenix, Supple Park etc. is today.

Also, I worked in Super Valu, the till people have no influence over the pricing or mis-pricing of goods, it'd be more wirth while talking to a manager.

I think the point is that one or two customers a day (maybe more) won't check, they are too busy or are distracted - and that's money in the till.
I hate shopping there but have to on occasion.

Great bit of history to the town thank you (newbie 2 years)....

Dáibhí

IRcolm wrote: »

I wonder if thats what had influence over the naming of the estate Cooksland...

Well, Cooksland existed in the village before this particular family of Cookes. At any rate, Mickey Kenny would often tell the story of the developers contacting him about the politics of calling the estate Cooksland. [.... (ahem)]

IRcolm wrote: »

Also, I worked in Super Valu, the till people have no influence over the pricing or mis-pricing of goods, it'd be more wirth while talking to a manager.

I've taken to avoiding that place as much as possible. It does still bother me that the tradition of shopping local, a tradition which is very strong among local women including my mother, benefits the person who owns that shop. But the talks we have at home - I've a large family - about the prices that store attempts to charge us (and overcharge us) is an omen for its future. It will not survive.

PS: Aside from the always lovely Mrs Duffy, is there a single local woman (or man) employed by Super Valu?

bonerjams03

I wonder if thats what had influence over the naming of the estate Cooksland...

I know that Supple Park was named after the Supple family who owned a pretty big estate where the Golden Phoenix, Supple Park etc. is today.

Also, I worked in Super Valu, the till people have no influence over the pricing or mis-pricing of goods, it'd be more wirth while talking to a manager.

Dáibhí

PS: You know the scariest family in the history of Dunshaughlin as far as surviving old natives are concerned is the Cooke family. The "ghost of Rowley Cooke" is legend. An 83-year-old was telling me the other day that his father had to put the blindfolds over his horse's eyes every time he rode by Cooke's on the way back to the village from Drumree. Cooke's was the first old house on the right-hand side as you leave Dunshaughlin for Drumree (after the v where you go straight on for Killeen/Dunsany). It was owned by one Colonel Newell in the 1980s. It's surrounded by trees and is haunted as bedamned. Don't know who lives there nowadays.

Dáibhí

IRcolm wrote: »

There was also murders in the house beside the Court House, with the big Christmas tree outside it. The "Croppies" from the 1798 Rebellion on not gaining much from raiding the barracks which was where Tara News is now, went into that manor, murdered the residents and looted it for weapons, even using the legs of chairs apparently.... is was pretty fruitless. There's a monument to them just past the GAA pitch.

I presume you are talking about Murphy's old house, the big long house in vernacular Irish style immediately to the right of the courthouse as you leave the court? I never heard that, or I vaguely did hear it. But I know at least 7 suspects to ask for a refresher course! Thanks.

Now that I think of it, I wonder who was in that house in 1798. I'm fairly certain going on Penal Law restrictions on Catholic ownership of property that it wasn't Murphys. Must check it out.

Yeah, I've never been down O'Reilly's Lane (next to the GAA pitch), although I smoked many a Carroll's No. 1 in the ditch between the College and the pitch. Must go down in someday to see that monument.

IRcolm wrote: »

They also planted an Oak Tree on the Gallows hill mentioned, which was dug up in the early 20th century. Terrible shame, would have made a great monument, a tree planted by actual United Irirshmen, or rebels at least...

Now that is news. Another question to put to they-who-know-these-things.

As an inkling of how nasty 1798 can still get in the village, a guy told me last year about a certain family in Dunshaughlin - names were given! - who were paid by the British to supply alcohol to the hundreds of insurgents on the Hill of Tara in May 1798, before the Brits closed in and took control of it.

Dáibhí

GDM wrote: »

That would serve no purpose other than to placate what is in all seriousness a small minority of the town's population. Really should have signs in English,Polish,Lithuanian and Portugese. That would be far more useful.

You must evidently wish it were a "small minority" but the attendance figures for Gaelscoil na Rithe tell a very different story about the views of, at least, a very large minority of Dunshaughlin parents - if not still a majority of parents. Aside from that most obvious demographic fact, there is the support for the language given by people like me who went to the local National School (there being no alternative), and more broadly by the local GAA and its supporters. "Small minority" indeed. Do you actually live here?

Nevertheless, seeing that you want to pit immigrants against Irish people here, it seems Super Valu has no problem linguistically "placating" Poles or Lithuanians in the village, if the existence of signs already in those languages in that shop are anything to go by. But amazing how some people are keen on linguistically "placating" newcomers to this society (a genuinely tiny minority in Dunshaughlin) but get all outraged when it comes to linguistically "placating" those of us who have been born and bred here in Ireland (and in my case Dunshaughlin) by putting signs up in Irish as well as English. Bend over backwards to accommodate the newcomers and their language, but explicitly exclude the native Irish and the Irish language. So the mentality runs. Maybe in some nether region of Irish society this mentality is considered "cool" - to most people it's just bigotry that makes a mockery out of pretensions to being open minded. Pathetic.

EdgarAllenPoo

Then there's just the entire culture of the shop. Goods offered at a 'discount price' are regularly charged at their 'normal' price when you actually go to the till. The staff then mumble something about "it should have been changed" blah blah blah. Every single thing you buy in that shop, check that the price you are paying is the price that was advertised. The amount of people who have experienced this is not funny.

You can't blame the people at the til for the pricing mess, there's nothing they can do about it, tis the muppets in the scanning office that need a kicking, yes the checkout people work for the store but it's not like there's anything they can do about it other than clarify the price so on behalf of all checkout operators can I just say - don't bother wasting your breath giving out to us, all that'll do is help you vent, we can't do anything about it and it's not like complaining to US will do any good, look for the guys in the shirts and ties and give them the lecture, we're just paid(very badly) to scan the stuff and we have to shop there too so we know it's a ripoff.

And then there is the simple but thoughtful things which are entirely absent in that shop entirely due to a lack of competition in the village. For instance, the Gaelscoil in Dunshaughlin was a few years ago bigger than the National School. Now, since St Seachnall's got its extension, both schools are roughly the same. In other words, an awful lot of parents in Dunshaughlin choose to send their children to Gaelscoil na Rithe. Across Dublin the major supermarkets acknowledge this by putting all their signs in Irish and English. Super Valu Dunshaughlin? No competition, and therefore no pressure to make the effort for its customers. Maybe the same people who insult our intelligence by putting those !! on their prices think we are not educated and cultured enough to appreciate Irish? Tá siad mícheart arís.

That would serve no purpose other than to placate what is in all seriousness a small minority of the town's population. Really should have signs in English,Polish,Lithuanian and Portugese. That would be far more useful.

CUCINA

Interesting to read above the snippets of info on the history of the village... Last year (or was it the year before, not sure) Mick Kenny led a group of people (around 25/30) on a walk to Trevet, a couple of kilometres outside the town, which was very enjoyable, it being a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. There are some ruins of a church and a graveyard beside it, now overgrown. He was telling us of a massacre that took place there a long time ago where the church, crowded with terrified people, was set on fire and those who escaped were attacked and killed with arrows. It was hard to imagine all of that actually happened, right where we sat around on old grave-stones etc.
Met a couple of other people on the tour who also had their own stories etc. One chap, a retired teacher, was telling me that he moved from Wexford to Dunshaughlin in the 70's, and he was telling me that there was very little happening in the town at that time, so lots of things seem to happen in cycles, boom/bust, nothing new..
I didn't realise that there are regular meeting of the Historical Society in the village, I thought that the trip I went on was a one-off so I'll check it out further 'one of these fine days"...

bonerjams03

Dáibhí wrote: »

There was also loads of activity (and bloodshed) in the village in the 1790s, hence the name 'Gallow's Hill' in the village (the little hill at the side of O'Briens linking the Trim and Navan roads. But that's a history for another day.

There was also murders in the house beside the Court House, with the big Christmas tree outside it. The "Croppies" from the 1798 Rebellion on not gaining much from raiding the barracks which was where Tara News is now, went into that manor, murdered the residents and looted it for weapons, even using the legs of chairs apparently.... is was pretty fruitless. There's a monument to them just past the GAA pitch.

They also planted an Oak Tree on the Gallows hill mentioned, which was dug up in the early 20th century. Terrible shame, would have made a great monument, a tree planted by actual United Irirshmen, or rebels at least...

Dáibhí

ibarelycare wrote: »

Funnily enough, the Macaris have some of PJ Murray's photos on display in the Village Grill restaurant! The Síbín also have a few of them blown up on their walls.

There's a great little shop on the northside of the quays in Dublin that sells photographs of every town and village across Ireland. You just walk in and look under the 'Meath' photos and then 'Dunshaughlin'. I'd say you could buy many if not all of P.J. Murray's old photographs in there.

A quick google and here is the shop in question, the Irish Historical Picture Company :

http://www.ihpc.ie/ihpc/Main/Home.asp

Actually, they seem to be in Lucan. But I am almost certain that is the same name that was on the shop on Ormond Quay that has photos of Meath towns.

Dáibhí

IRcolm wrote: »

I've also been told about how Murray's was a far better pub than anywhere around, and yer man just gutted it, every shred of character was taken away.

Yeah, when we were young you could go into Murrays and get bags of sweets off Bren from plastic containers. He poured the sweets onto a weighing scales until you were satisfied, or did a mix and match with sweets from loads of the containers. Originally he used to make the paper into a cone shape and pour the sweets into it, but then they got fancy and gave you little paper bags. Val O Brien in O'Briens (Mick's auld lad) also used to pour the sweets into a cone-shaped paper. They had Cola Cubes, Iced Caramels and loads of stuff. You could also get hardware stuff downstairs in Murray's pub; upstairs was the drapery. Inside Murray's looked like Toner's in Baggot Street with that old dark brown bar counter. You walked in the main, front, door, and in front of you up the stairs was the drapery, to the right was, I think, the living quarters, and to the left was the pub. You went in the pub door and on your right was that old dark brown bar counter like James Toner's, going around in a curve. On the left along the side walls was loads of paint for sale. At the front of the pub was a long seat and it turned and went along the side wall of the entire pub. There was then an old brown partition and you opened the door and walked up a couple of steps and the bigger lounge part of the pub was there. They used to have a horse shoe-throwing game on the back wall. A great pint, as was Gogan's, but Murray's had more character even if Gogan's often had more characters.

IRcolm wrote: »

Lawless' now has a trad session on every Friday, or at least advertises that, and I heard it coming from O'briens, it'd be nince to see it continue.

Great to hear. Must check it out, and the new paint job. Once a seisiún gets established the crowd will come to it. It's nice to know for certain that there will be a seisiún on in at least one pub on a particular day each week.

PS: There was a great tradition between Murrays and Carberrys every year. Old Willie Carbery owned Carberry's but never opened it. However, he apparently needed to serve one pint each year in order to keep his licence so in would come Bren Murray from next door, where Willie was a regular, and give Willie the pint and Willie, behind the counter, would serve it to Bren. That was the story all those years ago anyway.

ibarelycare

Funnily enough, the Macaris have some of PJ Murray's photos on display in the Village Grill restaurant! The Síbín also have a few of them blown up on their walls.

Dáibhí

Yeah, Mickey Kenny is the man to talk to about the village's history. He's a sound fella and has great passion for the village. He's very approachable.

The man who took those old photos of Dunshaughlin around 100 years ago was P.J. Murray, the owner of Murray's pub before he passed it on to his son, Brendan Murray. Bren is still alive and lives in the first house on the right after the car sales place (coming from the village). A very decent man, too. The Dunshaughlin branch of Conradh na Gaeilge used to meet for years in Murray's. Don't know where it meets now, but it would be great to join it.

In O'Brien's the other night there was a number of great photos of the town and community going back to the hurling teams in 1905 and 1923. I spent ages soaking them up. For another, older, history of the village try Patsy McLoughlin's and Jim Gilligan's Black and Amber, which was published in 1984 on the centenary of the GAA and has a fantastic number of photos of the village - again, many are from P.J. Murray's collection but they also went around interviewing everybody who was alive then and connected with the village and GAA.

There was a massacre in the village in the 1640s. You'll hear the old villagers talk about it. It has a huge presence in the local folklore with the story of the villagers who were taking in the harvest in Bonestown, being cut down by Cromwell's forces on the way back from Drogheda (Sept 11 1649) before they reached the sanctuary of St Seachnall's Church. However, the puritans rather than Cromwell were actually responsible and it happened in 1642, before Cromwell's forces arrived. But the massacre did actually happen:

http://books.google.com/books?ei=9TN_SszjBaP8yATKjenFCg&q=Dunshaughlin+massacre&btnG=Search+Books

It's odd that the only marker in the village to it is in the local folklore.

There was also loads of activity (and bloodshed) in the village in the 1790s, hence the name 'Gallow's Hill' in the village (the little hill at the side of O'Briens linking the Trim and Navan roads. But that's a history for another day.