The 'Pigeon House' of Stoneybatter

Pigeons of Discontent is a superb new documentary by Paddy Cahill about the pigeons of Stoneybatter. It was inspired by Cónal Thomas's report in the Dublin Inquirer two years ago about the birds that congregate around the "Pigeon House" on Manor Street.

Despite the film's title and a few dissenting voices, it's essentially a celebration of the wee flockers. Among those taking part is Mary Barnecutt from the band Mary and the Pigeons - who also provide the atmospheric music at the start.

For more on Paddy Cahill's brilliant work, check out this post on my other blog about Long Now, his Amanda Coogan documentary.

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...

Rainbows over Stoneybatter

Has Stoneybatter really become the "gay capital" of the Irish universe? Here are two possible answers...

Benburb Street art (another update)

Benburb Street in Stoneybatter continues to have its little stretch of open-air gallery, which is one bright thing amid all that dilapidation and dereliction.

Tommy May's and the Liffey Swim

The corner shop, that endangered species... One such local institution in Dublin 7 is - or rather, was - Tommy May's. Remember May's, near the bottom of Infirmary Road, on the wild western fringe of Stoneybatter, where Pat Kenny - the Pat Kenny - was born?

The Sheela-na-gigs of Stoneybatter

There's no general agreement on how to spell them (Sheela na gig, Síle na gcíoch, Síle na gCíoc...) or what they stand for.  But there are at least four tiny stone-like figures that might very well be sheela-na-gigs in Stoneybatter, making it the sheela-na-gig capital of Ireland.

A map of Stoneybatter (sort of)

As far as I know there's no official map of Stoneybatter, but here's one I made earlier (as they say on the best cookery shows). Click here for a much larger version.

As I explained in an earlier post, some of its borders are fairly clear-cut and uncontestable, others - particularly to the east where it meets Smithfield - are much less so.

The Infant of Prague, the Lady on the Rock

An earlier post deals with 83 Manor Street in Stoneybatter, with its magnolia tree and Austin Clarke connections and the work of master craftsman James Beatley. While James's instruments are beautifully handmade, the following two slices of popular culture are mass produced.

Next door at 84 Manor Street is a bed and breakfast. Pride of place in the fanlight above its front door is a statue, sometimes illuminated by an electric light. It's an Infant of Prague, also known as a Child of Prague.

The magnolias of Manor Street

"When the magnolia begins to blossom." It's almost like one of those much parodied movie moments in which the secret agents exchange their code phrases...

'Educating Rita', from Zoom to Mooz

Believe it or not, an upmarket new Italian grocer in Stoneybatter called Mooz was once a location for a very famous film from 1983.

A virtual tour of Walshes pub

Walsh's pub in Stoneybatter (or "Walshes" with an "e" if, like me, you go by the spelling on its splendid stained glass) is a frequent setting in the "Moss Reid" series. The following virtual tour from Google Maps gives a good idea of its interior layout; pity it can't give a flavour of one of the best pints of Guinness in Dublin...

The Floozie in the Jacuzzi (not)

Dublin humour can be playful, cynical, surreal and full of wicked wordplay. It's a bit like the kid at the back of the class who's asked to use the word "bewitches" in a sentence.

"Ah you go on ahead," he replies, "I'll be wid yez in a minute."

Dublin wit is also embodied in the nicknames of its statutes and monuments, particularly the more "modren" additions to our postcolonial streetscape. And one nickname stands head and shoulders above the rest: "The Floozie in the Jacuzzi".

Damn Fine Print

Damn Fine Print was set up in 2011 as Dublin's first "community easy access screen print studio".

Goodbye O'Devaney Gardens

It's known in the trade as a "wet demolition". Despite the fire hoses the dust is everywhere, thick layers of it on the nearby cars and trucks. Hydraulic excavators pull and claw, peck and pummel away, surrounded by piles of rubble. They're pulling down the flats at last.

Worldwide Discount Airfares, Arbour Hill

Ghost signs are a recurring motif in Ghost Flight, such as this one - an abandoned shopfront at 58A Arbour Hill in Stoneybatter. The book only mentioned it in passing, but it deserves far better, because since the start of the recession the building has become, well, a sort of lovable local landmark.

Hanlon's pub and Hanlon's Corner

Hanlon's pub gives its name to Hanlon's Corner at the top of Prussia Street. It's an old Dublin landmark; the bar features in an early chapter of Another Case in Cowtown.

Stoneybatter is not just beards and cake

NOTE TO MEDIA: There is more to Stoneybatter than Mulligans, Mi Thai and Slice. And this part of town does not consist solely of hipster beards cycling to cake shops with a freshly baked sourdough baguette under each arm. And what follows is a rant, about the media. But I'll try to back it up with hard facts. Statistics.

The Viking streets of Stoneybatter, and Dublin's 'Milluminum' anniversary

Many of Stoneybatter's streets have Norse-sounding names. In a literal sense, most of them came via the Artisans' Dwelling Company around the late 19th century. Many of these back streets, like their terraced houses and cottages, were brand new back then.

Christy Brown's coal lorry, Arbour Hill

Dublin writer and artist Christy Brown was born on this day in 1932. My Left Foot, Jim Sheridan's award-winning film from 1989, tells the semi-fictional story of Christy (brilliantly played by Daniel Day-Lewis), and this is a famous scene shot in Stoneybatter, around Arbour Hill.

O'Devaney Gardens: three videos

To some TV viewers, O'Devaney Gardens stands for a fictional block of dilapidated flats in Dublin where Ado (Mark Dunne) has a bolthole in Love/Hate.

To some politicians, O'Devaney Gardens is a real-life housing estate in Stoneybatter that shouldn't be knocked down just yet but should be temporarily renovated, then demolished: a €4.7 million sticking plaster for the housing crisis instead of a permanent solution. Talk about half-baked.