Billy in the Bowl, the Stoneybatter Strangler

Above: "Billy in the Bowl" by Shota Kotake, part of the @DublinCanvas series of painted traffic-light control boxes

One of Dublin's most infamous killers is surely Billy in the Bowl, aka the Stoneybatter Strangler. He's a local ledge in our hood, as the young ones say.

But this being eighteenth-century folklore, bear in mind that the following facts might get blurry here and there...

The Barbers pub, Grangegorman

A quick update on the pub on the Lower Grangegorman road that I wrote about in 2014, when it was still known as The Grange.

Slack space #3: Block T and The Complex

Locksmiths can tell you a thing about the ups and downs of an area, the comings and goings in the neighbourhood, new homeowners, fledgling businesses, a spate of burglaries, squatters, break-ins, you know the kind of thing.

The Grangegorman masterplan

This "artist's impressions" video from 2012 gives a really good idea of the enormous scale of the Dublin Institute of Technology's ongoing development at Grangegorman. Apologies for the "plucky" soundtrack...

The pebbledash homes of Dublin 7

"Beyond Pebbledash"  is a sort of architectural installation in Collins Barracks, which is part of the National Museum of Ireland.

I've just been checking it out for research on my next novel.

It's a full-scale reconstruction of  the facade of one of those "typical" pebbledash-fronted houses built by Dublin Corporation in areas on the southside such as  Crumlin and Ballyfermot from the 1940s to the 1960s. And Cabra on the northside, just up the road from Stoneybatter and Grangegorman.

DIT's new Grangegorman campus

Here's a few of my snaps from last week of the new DIT campus in Grangegorman. Lots of building work still going on, and the first batch of students don't arrive until next week...

Grangegorman: 'Personal Effects'

Spilled out onto the floor are boxes and boxes of handbags and small canvas sacks. Photographs of family and loved ones. Rosary beads. Tickets. Silver spoons. Sets of keys, presumably for the hall door. Seashells, lipsticks, mirrors, combs, vanity compacts, birth certs, travel visas, letters, cutlery, cards, false teeth, prayer books and diaries. More letters, case notes, hospital management records.

Taking away someone's handbag and other personal possessions was part of an institutional process of "depersonalising" the person. What does that remind me of? I can't help but think of the trains to concentration camps, the gulags.

Yet this isn't crime fiction from a faraway country. It's a real slice of Ireland's dark history, which took place just around the corner from where I live.

Grangegorman: a bit of a timeline

Grangegorman on Dublin's northside is rich in history from pre-Viking times onwards. By the start of the 17th century, along with Stoneybatter the area was still a remote village, separate from the city.

Before that it had functioned as a home farm and orchard for the priories, with its manor in Stoneybatter (hence Manor Street).

The Grange Inn and the 'DIT effect'

At one time the Grange Inn at 19 Grangegorman Road Lower was a cosy, quiet, great little local working-class bar. It was originally going to be a key location for my third book in the 'Moss Reid' crime series, Ghost Flight. Then the recession dragged it down.

The Liffey Quays by motorbike

Here's a slightly unusual motorcyclist's-eye-view of Dublin. It's a journey along the Liffey quays to Stoneybatter and Grangegorman, and concentrates on the day-to-day problem of getting through the traffic rather than leisurely sightseeing.