I was 5 yrs old when this film was made. I would go back, back in a heartbeat! We may have been poor, but I loved my Dublin, and still do. It's a travesty the way our city is now.
I was born in Dublin in 1954 and moved to Germany in 1977. This is a record of a lost world. It evokes emotionally charged memories in me. No Hollywood movie could achieve this.
FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN WHERE THIS IS: The camera rolls around a small area around Dublin's Grand Canal where Dublin 2 meets the edge of Dublin 4 on the Southside of the City. The opening has us on Baggot Street Lower, crossing Fitzwilliam Street Junction, and moving Southward down the road toward Baggot Bridge. After crossing the bridge, the car moves right down Mespil Road alongside the canal (but pointing the other way). From there the camera jumps... but not very far. At 2.09 it is suddenly coming down Leeson street south of the canal... but moving Northwards back toward Stephens Green and the City Centre. Again, instead of moving straight on, it turns right just before crossing Leeson St bridge on the Grand Canal. So now it is coming back down the Mespil road, back down the road we just came up... but this time facing the canal. At around 4.00 the camera jumps again: We are back doing the exact same stroll Northwards on Leeson Street again. (It looks slightly different because the camera is pointing more forward this time.) On this occasion, the camera car crossed over the Leeson St. Bridge... and immediately turns right onto Wilton Terrace (the road on the far side of the same Grand Canal). Where it stops on Wilton Terrace is somewhere close to where Paddy Kavanagh's Statue is Today (but on the opposite side of the road). And if the camera car kept moving forward at the end... it would arrive at the Junction at Baggot Street Bridge again. Almost the exact point where the video begins. So all in all: the video travels almost a complete square around two bridges on the Grand Canal. ✌👍
Thank you so much for this. I was convinced it was Thomas st at the beginning (only street I know really well in central dublin) and was getting aeriated at how many beautiful georgian terraces had been knocked……. How kind of you to take the time to document this. ❤
My first memory of Dublin, is as child in the early 1950s... at age 2-3! my Mother took me along with her to visit her sister and family in a one bedroom ( immaculately clean) 2nd floor flat in Gardner Place.The outside looked like a slum but the tenants were decent people who cleaned the stairs etc. I still remember being woken up one night by the quite chatter between mum and my auntie, but most of all (to me) the then unfamiliar aroma of fish and chip served in old newspaper. I think that I scoffed more than my fair share. My other memories are the ladies of Moore St! I wish that I could stroll around Dublin just once more.
My mum was born in Cabra st Attracta st - left Dublin when she met my father who was trying to trace his ancestors before emigrating to America having survived serving in Europe in WW2 and instead they ended up moving to Oxford.My mum is now 90 and unfortunately suffers from dementia however as is the way her memory of Dublin it's sounds and smells is still vey sharp and this is something I will be showing her on my next visit so thank you for the lovely video it is excellent
Truly wonderful how we managed to keep the character buildings of Dublin alive. Must admit , I was all for filling in the canal in the '60s. Mea culpa.The flipancy of youth. Tnx for the pics.
Oh thank God Sean you weren't running the show then! I was just thinking how lovely the trees are sling the canal and marvelling that it's all still there. Then I saw your comment. Phew !. 😅
@@peternolan5632 leave him ...he says he loves Ireland ...so perhaps he may become very Irish...Yes, I know there are too many immigrants in Ireland now ...but at least this guy wants to be Irish and maye he's even Christian...🤞
There were more kids because the catholic church control every aspect of a persons life, including forbidding basic family planning. Its easy to get overly nostalgic, but there was a lot of poverty back then.
Great video and great music. It was around this time in the 1950s that it had become obvious that the economic policies adopted by the young Irish state had failed. Young Irish were then emigrating in huge numbers to start new lives in England and America. Our revolutionary heroes who were then in political power were the right people to break the union but subsequently as political leaders they guided Ireland on a self destructive path which would last for decades.
MMMmmm I think it was around that time that things turned the corner with Lemass and his industrialisation. By the mid 60's things were starting to change dramatically.
I lived in that area from 2006 to 2014. It's a lot more congested these days but surprisingly hasn't changed all that much - most of the streets and buildings looked very familiar to me. Its known as a fairly well-to-do part of the city.
They did not go to the real slums like Summerhill and around there i was born in Summerhill in the 40s and it was down right slums the people whefe great but the tenamennts where a shocking state
@@qwertasdcfghjklmo24z hi Sean yes the North Starnd that was bombed in 1941 was the lower part it left it looking like a slum ..it was just the ground thats where it had to be demolished because after the bombs hit
I've viewed this video hundreds of times, and it still makes me emotional...1957, the year I was born, into a beautiful, beautiful city. Thank you again, Memory Bliss. Would love to know the name of the music, and who wrote it.
The Dubliner of 1950s had a certain dignity. Poor but proud and resourceful. The auld dub of that era was articulate and a great ability to converse, and was coherent. Not so sure if the supports which were put in place bred a class who demanded and got too much for free. Of course the drug scene put an end to the Dublin In The Rare Auld Times . The track suit brigade indeed proudly control such a large swathe of communities, it is sad when compared with innocent times
Wonder who filmed this, any ideas?? Looks like it starts off at Larry Murphy pub at the side of esb head office then heads past the Henry grattan pub, it's now a shop, then up Baggott Street around by the Wellington pub up the canal, great video, is that James Joyce waving at the end on his bike??
Nice to see no litter,and bicycles left at the kerb.I was three when this was filmed,me Da's Ma lived in Bluebell,we were just leaving for Litterpool.M.Gaskell,(birthname O'Donovan.)
The camera rolls around a small area around Dublin's Grand Canal where Dublin 2 meets the edge of Dublin 4 on the Southside of the City. The opening has us on Baggot Street Lower, crossing Fitzwilliam Street Junction, and moving Southward down the road toward Baggot Bridge. After crossing the bridge, the car moves right down Mespil Road alongside the canal (but pointing the other way). From there the camera jumps... but not very far. At 2.09 it is suddenly coming down Leeson street south of the canal... but moving Northwards back toward Stephens Green and the City Centre. Again, instead of moving straight on, it turns right just before crossing Leeson St bridge on the Grand Canal. So now it is coming back down the Mespil road, back down the road we just came up... but this time facing the canal. At around 4.00 the camera jumps again: We are back doing the exact same stroll Northwards on Leeson Street again. (It looks slightly different because the camera is pointing more forward this time.) On this occasion, the camera car crossed over the Leeson St. Bridge... and immediately turns right onto Wilton Terrace (the road on the far side of the same Grand Canal). Where it stops on Wilton Terrace is somewhere close to where Paddy Kavanagh's Statue is Today (but on the opposite side of the road). And if the camera car kept moving forward at the end... it would arrive at the Junction at Baggot Street Bridge again. Almost the exact point where the video begins. So all in all: the video travels almost a complete square around two bridges on the Grand Canal. ✌👍
In the late 50s Ireland the country wud have been dominated by priests, schoolteachers and police with little or no immigration problems , emigration was a problems as little work about and many left for England or the states. The majority of those who left were young people. England offered many opportunities in construction in the post-war period; the NHS offered free training and employment for large numbers of Irish nurses and midwives. Seeking work in America was more difficult as it was necessary to get sponsored by somebody already living there. This strengthened links with extended families of the Irish already settled in the US. Vocations continued to be high during this decade and there were Irish religious working in the missions across the world, especially in the education field. In Ireland, schools were run by religious orders (all denominations) and there were no State-run schools. Secondary school was fee-paying, so the majority left formal education after the Primary School Certificate, aged fourteen. The total attending secondary school in 1950 was 47,000 but not all those students stayed for five years. By 1950 girls at this level had parity with boys - although girls did not have access to the same range of subjects. Only 4,500 pupils sat the Leaving Certificate that year. During the same year 7,900 attended university in Ireland with a quarter of those being women
Still a few cars from the 1930’s and one that might be from the late 1920’s! I was five when this was filmed. Everything looks so much older than in the USA, but of course it was older!
Hi Ciaran, I found this footage on the Pathe website, there's a tonne of video on Ireland there, if you would like to use it, its probably best to try there first, all the best of luck with it.
What I remember from that time as a young child was the way almost every car you saw was black. You would NEVER see a blue, green or a red car. This video is nice because this is an upper class part of Dublin. The working class inner city areas were total slums and truly horrible places for people to live. I remember the blocks of flats and how there was railings all around them. You would see endless little kids all holding the bars and looking out on the world through bars. Very sad to see. Some people would say that most of them were destined to end up in Mountjoy anyway. So this was just getting them used to looking out through bars from an early age. There was no Dublin in the rare aul times. That is all total bull shit. Times were extremely hard for all working class people then.
Don't think it was the north side some of the slums are still with us more the pity some people are still finding it very hard it's not because of covet a thought it's not helping how ever a lot of houses been built the prices going though the roof how ever would not live anywhere else up the dubs north side o course
Thanks so much for what I'm so glad that I didn't have the capacity to take in. A City/Country depressed is what this Portrays....why didn't you play!!! ,""Our House""?????
So drab looking , depressingly gray and not because the film is black and white. I when I was growing up in the 60s/70s and eighties . It was worse because of the dereliction of hudge parts of Dublin especially the inner city pluss the poverty of family's of ten and more you get the idea. Tinted glasses of, reality glasses on.
