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Nissen huts

  • 11-12-2018 11:34am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,531 ✭✭✭


    My father's cousin used to have a galvanise hut on his property that he grew up in, they later moved into a cottage on the site. I believe they were common enough in Ireland around WWII and were called Nissen huts, does anybody else have memories of them, or maybe even lived in one for a while?


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    I associate them only with military use. Nearest thing (residentially) to them in my memory are holiday home 'bungalows' in Co. Cork made from old packing cases from Fords.


  • Registered Users Posts: 25,907 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    The market was flooded with cheap army surplus Nissen huts after the war, and they were used for all kinds of things. Christian Brothers clerical students in what is now the Radisson hotel lived in Nissen hut dormitories until well into the 1950s, for example.

    Their merit were that they were cheap to buy and easy to erect. They didn't last very long - it was difficult to keep them weatherproof for more than a few years - and they had zero insulation qualities - incredibly cold in the winter, and even in an Irish summer they were hot and stuffy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,630 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Bord na Mona bought nissen huts and used them as offices and sheds. There is at least one location where some are still standing, albeit in a derelict state.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,531 ✭✭✭Seanachai


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    The market was flooded with cheap army surplus Nissen huts after the war, and they were used for all kinds of things. Christian Brothers clerical students in what is now the Radisson hotel lived in Nissen hut dormitories until well into the 1950s, for example.

    Their merit were that they were cheap to buy and easy to erect. They didn't last very long - it was difficult to keep them weatherproof for more than a few years - and they had zero insulation qualities - incredibly cold in the winter, and even in an Irish summer they were hot and stuffy.

    I've come to the conclusion that Irish people like being cold so they can complain about it :rolleyes:, it never seizes to amaze me how cold our houses are, even new builds.


  • Registered Users Posts: 15,630 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Seanachai wrote: »
    I've come to the conclusion that Irish people like being cold so they can complain about it :rolleyes:, it never seizes to amaze me how cold our houses are, even new builds.

    Shortage of money for decent materials can account for a lot of that and less skilled builders. An English friend of mine noted how much of his MIL's house was bodged together with nails where screws should have been used.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 14,229 ✭✭✭✭ednwireland


    Is that the ones with a round corrugated steel roof loads of the across the border from me in tyrone mainly used as farm sheds.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,525 ✭✭✭gaiscioch


    A few years ago I was walking along the gorgeous Ramparts of the River Boyne between Navan and Slane and I came across a couple of these, which I learned from this website are WW II huts.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,943 ✭✭✭tabbey


    Is that the ones with a round corrugated steel roof loads of the across the border from me in tyrone mainly used as farm sheds.

    That is correct.

    The military wing of Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast had Nissen huts well into the 1970s and probably later. It was kept busy at that time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 398 ✭✭DanMurphy


    I lived in those huts off and on for years while in the Army. Our military class-rooms were also Nissan Huts as were some offices .
    I've a good photo of what life was like inside one but unable to post on this site.
    Will send it to the OP if he wishes?


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,531 ✭✭✭Seanachai


    DanMurphy wrote: »
    I lived in those huts off and on for years while in the Army. Our military class-rooms were also Nissan Huts as were some offices .
    I've a good photo of what life was like inside one but unable to post on this site.
    Will send it to the OP if he wishes?

    Cheers, that would be great


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  • Registered Users Posts: 398 ✭✭DanMurphy


    i had trouble uploading that Picture in a p.m. to seanachai.
    If the Mod could p.m. me with an email address I could send it to, via that means, and the Mod could then send it on to seanachai in a p.m.

    Thanks, Dan


  • Registered Users Posts: 398 ✭✭DanMurphy


    Or maybe not...


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,360 ✭✭✭Technique


    There were a lot of them in Derry during the war, mostly housing US troops. The most well known were in Springtown, where the locals moved in when the troops moved out due to the almost non-existant housing available for local people. There were people living here until 1967.


    gLJvib


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,107 ✭✭✭enfield


    I remember one in the 'back' field, beside McKee Road, Finglas, Dublin in the 1950's. It was owned by the Dublin Corporation.


  • Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    In far away Orkney, Italian POWs made a thing of great beauty from Nissen huts

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Chapel

    and on this site, you can see the shape clearly

    https://www.secret-scotland.com/Attractions/italian-chapel.html


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,525 ✭✭✭gaiscioch


    Seanachai wrote: »
    My father's cousin used to have a galvanise hut on his property that he grew up in, they later moved into a cottage on the site. I believe they were common enough in Ireland around WWII and were called Nissen huts, does anybody else have memories of them, or maybe even lived in one for a while?

    Coincidentally, I came across this when looking at the history of a Comhaltas branch in Monkstown, Dublin:
    Piaras taught traditional music, dancing and games, through the medium of Irish, to the children of the area. Over the years he introduced hundreds of children to traditional Irish music, usually on the tin whistle. Quite a number of today’s well-known musicians began playing with Piaras as their teacher, either in their own homes or in the Nissan hut in which he founded a branch of Conradh na Gaeilge in 1955.


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