Latest news with #Ranelagh
Irish Times
7 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
Picture This - Frank McNally on knowing your onions, the sophistication of French scammers, and journalism with legs
A reader had appealed to me as a 'last resort', seeking help in finding an old photograph. His name is Richard Evans, and he's writing a history of his family, the Irish branch of which began in the 1880s when his great grandfather – a Shropshire lad – moved to Dublin to become a butcher's apprentice. The apprentice later struck out on his own with shops in Baggot Street and Ranelagh, the latter beside where Humphrey's Pub still stands. When the building was redeveloped years ago, Richard salvaged the mosaic tiles on the footpath outside, bearing the name ' But he is now 'desperate' to find a photograph of the shop and has tried all the obvious places - including Susan Roundtree's book Ranelagh in Pictures - without success. If this column can't help him, he fears the quest is a 'lost cause'. On a tangential note, his email also notes that the butcher later transferred the business to his nephew, one Tom Onions. An aunt of Richard's, another Onions, tells him there were three shops in Ranelagh at one time owned by people called 'Lovely, Hamm, and Onions' respectively, although he doesn't remember that himself. READ MORE Alas, I can't confirm this either, although I dearly want to and have tried. But then, searching for a 'Lovely shop', or an 'Onions shop', or even a 'Hamm shop', tends to confuse search engines. As for asking AI to tell you more about 'Lovely, Hamm, and Onions' in Dublin 6, that's just a fool's errand. *** Also among my emails this week was one from a woman I'd never heard of before, and who didn't know my name. I immediately assumed it was spam, but it was in French. So before deleting, I mentally translated the opening sentences and was intrigued by their intellectual and philosophical tone. They began like this: 'In death, the family does not destroy itself, it is transformed, a part of it goes into the invisible. We believe that death is an absence, when it is a discreet presence. One thinks it creates an infinite distance, while in fact it suppresses all distance, restoring to the mind what was located in the flesh…' There was more in that vein, all of it sounding vaguely profound, at least in the original. Then at last the lady got around to introducing herself, stoically detailing the terminal illness with which she was diagnosed recently, and mentioning the €1.8 million she would now like to donate to a 'trustworthy and honest person'. Sigh. There are scammers everywhere these days. But it's extraordinary that even fraudulent attempts to get your bank details seem to be so much classier in French. *** Further to the theme of Connacht, Hell, and Longford (Diary Wednesday May 28th), regular correspondent Damien Maguire has written to point out that the Cavan panhandle was another destination from farther north. To this day, he says, there are families there – mostly from Donegal - known as 'Ultachs'. This even though Cavan itself is in Ulster (despite its GAA secessionist ambitions, circa 1915, to escape the baleful influence of Monaghan). Damien also mentions in passing that although everyone has heard of the famous 1947 All-Ireland in New York, not many people know Cavan also won in New York in 1958. This wasn't GAA, it turns out. It was a horse called Cavan, which won the prestigious Belmont Stakes that year, preventing the injured favourite Tim Tam, which had already won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, from completing America's Triple Crown. The 2025 Belmont Stakes is next weekend, June 7th, in Saratoga. And I'm delighted to see that favourites include a horse called Journalism, which has already triumphed in this year's Preakness. I may have to risk a few dollars. It's heartening to know that, even in Trump's America, Journalism in any shape can still win. *** On a more poignant note, this week marked the 30th anniversary of the demise of the Irish Press group, a milestone commemorated by a get-together of survivors in Wynn's Hotel. Disturbingly, that means the world has now been without Press newspapers for almost as long as it has had the Spice Girls, who have been the subject of 30th anniversary reunion tour rumours of late. Now I feel old. The last years of the Press coincided with the start of my career as a freelance journalist, which regularly involved pulling all-nighters, as they say. And seeking to get a jump in the competition, in those pre-internet days, it sometimes helped me to get the next day's papers as soon as they were printed. I was an Irish Times reader (although not yet working for it) by then. But having grown up with the Irish Press, thanks to a Fianna Fáil father, I still had a soft spot for that too. So, cycling into town circa 1am, I would first stop by Poolbeg Street, where bundles of the first edition Presses came rolling down a chute to the waiting vans. It was a bonus that the lads in the Press usually gave me the paper free. Atound the corner at The Irish Times, meanwhile, they always charged.
Irish Times
25-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Downsizing in Ranelagh: a sun-kissed slice of Provence in Dublin 6
A Ranelagh homeowner traded down to a house around the corner from her original three-storey abode, the smaller property a villa-style residence overlooking a large green space. It had, she explains, lovely period features including good ceiling heights, cornicing and ceiling roses, dado rails, architraves and timber floorboards. When she bought it, the reception rooms were upstairs, at entrance level, while the kitchen was downstairs, and ran the depth of the house. This lower-floor room opened out to the garden to the rear which, although south-facing, was relatively small. The homeowner brought in Mícheál de Siún of De Siún Architects and, in doing so, achieved a more balanced house, with all the living space on the same floor, now washed in light. She and her late husband had spent a lot of time in the south of France , and it was a painting, Paul Cézanne's Gardanne 1866, a view of the hill town of that name near Aix-en-Provence, that was the inspiration for the ambient renovation. Gardanne, 1866 by Paul Cézanne 'Light was also central to the brief,' says de Siún. By demolishing an outhouse and outside toilet, the architect explains, he gained space to the side of the house. This gave him the room to push the property out to its perimeter wall at entrance level. READ MORE The extension has added just 19sq m (204sq ft) of space, but it is the reorientation of the rooms to the left of the entrance hall, and the addition of glazing on three sides, that is transformative. Mícheál de Siún of De Siún Architects, who were behind the reinterpretation and renovation of the Ranelagh property. Photograph: Alan Betson Now, instead of a small and relatively enclosed back garden, the livingrooms overlook the aforementioned green, affording a front-row view of its trees, their colours changing with the seasons. The kitchen-diningroom now gives the impression of hanging above the boundary wall – the line of which follows the river Swan, which appears on maps dating from mid-1700s and now runs underground, de Siún says – and of being among those trees. 'It feels like you're floating,' de Siún says. The house plants too are thriving on all the sunlight. Exterior. Photograph: Alan Betson Extended area. Photograph: Alan Betson Kitchen area. Photograph: Alan Betson View to rear Renovation designed by De Siún Architects The glass is interspersed with timber upright fins to shield the space from the outside. These are finished in Owatrol oil in Weathered Grey. By inserting a long roof light into the centre of the room, areas that would have been discernibly darker have been illuminated. A beech dining set adds further warmth and is adjacent to a long built-in window seat. The olive-green colour used on the Teroco windows is RAL 6003, to which the steel, by H&M Ironwork, inside and out, was matched. The nature of this home's reinterpretation means the interior is washed in light from sun up to sundown. In the mornings the exterior fins are dappled with shadowplay from the leaves on the trees, backlit by the sun. Livingroom. Photograph: Alan Betson Window on to green space. Photograph: Alan Betson Hallway. Photograph: Alan Betson The elements of the bespoke kitchen, designed and made by Dean Cooper, have been 'scribed to fit', as de Siún puts it, meaning that the units have been constructed to specifically suit the period property's proportions and non-straight walls. It's subtly done and explains why the Nettle Soup-coloured cabinetry, a Colourtrend shade, looks so at home in the space. The Cézanne painting, which now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York, helped the owner select the serene shades that feature on the walls and woodwork. The kitchen island was also made to measure; it's 1m wide and 2.5m long, with ribbed ends to add texture and to echo the character of the architraves, de Siún explains. All this attention to detail knits together the kitchen area, in the old front room, and newly added dining-cum-reading nook. Behind a half wall is additional space housing a guest WC, cloakroom and side entrance via granite steps down to the front garden, all hidden from view from the cooking area. The wallpaper in the lavatory has a painterly quality too; this time it could be a Dutch master. WC. Photograph: Alan Betson Bathroom. Photograph: Alan Betson Exterior. Photograph: Alan Betson Across the hall the interconnecting rooms remain much as they were. Their large sash windows continue to wash the space in light from front to back. The painted cast-iron fireplaces endure, and the beautifully engineered set of original fold-back doors still sit flush with the walls. The blackened floorboards, which had possibly been covered in a bitumen paint, have been sanded back and are now stained a soft matt honey tone, a colour from Osmo oil tints. This helps bring this entire upper floor together. Here, there is a full-size burl walnut grand piano that belonged to the family of the homeowner's late husband and had to be winched up to the second floor of her former home, she recalls. 'They had to take out a window,' she says, delightedly reporting that there was no such drama when bringing it into this home. Her Aunt Molly's dining table is also in this room, and it is lovely to see such pieces with stories on show. Downstairs, the principal bedroom has an en suite bathroom that features microcememt tinted a bleached terracotta. The colour, Fleetwood Shell Coral, is a replica of the sun-warmed rooftops of the Cézanne. Microcement, de Siún explains, 'is worked on by hand and has a finish that feels like polished concrete. The colour is handmade per batch. The owner didn't want to use tiles and there are no seams or joins.' Now when the family gathers, they can wander between the reception rooms and the kitchen-diningroom. The grandchildren, who often excuse themselves after dinner, can jump over the wall with a ball and have a kickabout, surveyed, but only from a distance, by their parents. The work, which was executed by MSVI builders, was a winner in the home extension refurbishment, medium size, at this year's Building and Architect of the Year awards. 'It's very easy to manage,' says the owner. 'I have just 18 steps down to bed, rather than the 50 up to bed in the previous house.'
Irish Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Row of partially collapsed houses in south Dublin demolished
A row of derelict Victorian cottages in Ranelagh, south Dublin , that partially collapsed last week have now been demolished. They were owned by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). The roof of one property along the five-house terrace, which faced the canal close to Ranelagh Road, collapsed on May 12th, propelling the front wall out into the path and road. The houses were located at 2-6 Dunville Terrace. The row of houses, dating from the late 19th century, had been on Dublin City Council's Derelict Sites Register since June, 2023. It emerged last week the construction lobby group, which had owned the row of houses since the 1990s, had failed to pay more than €140,000 in derelict site levies it owed to the council . The CIF had earlier secured an agreement to sell the derelict houses to a developer as part of a deal on a wider site worth €23 million. An inspector from the council's Dangerous Buildings Section last week attended the site and directed the CIF to remove 'all deleterious materials from the public footpath and roadway', and to 'make safe the remaining structures adjacent the highly trafficked roadway'. READ MORE By last Friday, the mid-terrace house that collapsed had been demolished. The rest of the terrace has now been removed. Four years ago, the CIF and the Construction Workers Pension Scheme agreed the sale of the adjoining sites to international property developer Osborne + Co, for a sum understood to be in the region of €23 million. The sale was subject to Osborne securing planning permission for a redevelopment scheme. An application was made in October, 2022 by Rimor Fortis, an Osborne company, for the demolition of all buildings on-site, including the derelict terrace and another free-standing cottage used as a bike repair shop, and their replacement with an eight-storey office scheme. Planning permission was granted last September, but the sale had not completed ahead of the collapse of the cottage last week. The collapse of the roof, which had become heavily overgrown with moss and ivy, happened just after 8am on Monday of last week. An eyewitness said debris was scattered over the cycle lane and into the road, narrowly missing a cyclist and a pedestrian walking their dog. Until recently, the terrace was covered by a banner advertising a CIF construction safety campaign. The CIF said previous assessment of the buildings had determined they were 'structurally safe'. The CIF did not respond to queries in relation to its decision to fully demolish the terrace on Tuesday.
Irish Times
19-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Appreciation: Sr Eileen Brady
Sr Eileen Blathnaid Brady, who died on April 21st, was born in Dublin in 1934 to Sean Brady and Máire Ní Ghuairim. Mr Brady was a Fianna Fáil TD for 38 years in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown constituency. Ms Ni Ghuairim was an Irish teacher, writer, broadcaster and sean-nós singer. The family lived in Ranelagh and Sr Brady attended The Convent of the Sacred Heart, Leeson Street where her devotion to the Sacred Heart began. In 1953, Sr Brady entered the religious life at Mount Anville. She then trained as a teacher in the Froebel College, Sion Hill. In 1961, she made her final vows as a religious of the Sacred Heart. She taught in many schools; Craiglockhart School Scotland, Mt Anville, Armagh, Monkstown and Roscrea. Sr Brady was a gifted teacher greatly admired by her pupils; one of them said of her 'so dignified, serene, so genuine'. Her influence was a significant one in the formative years of young pupils. High principles and independence were the hallmarks of her family. In fact, her father was the only TD who suggested listening to the advice of the celebrated Irish-born US priest Fr Edward J Flanagan, who founded the Boys Town Home of Boys in Nebraska in 1917 on the organisation of the Industrial Schools in Ireland. All the other TDs rejected his criticism. Sr Brady was deeply contemplative and vigorously apostolic. Her classes were creative, introducing pupils to drama, music, nature studies, according to their level. Character formation was done with kindness and a warm heart. READ MORE After many years of teaching, Sr Brady was seconded to the diocese of Killaloe to work with the travelling community . A special interest and love of the community resulted in friends all over Ireland. During her retirement, Sr Brady began working in the Provincial Archives in 1994. She set up a much-appreciated professional research centre in Mt Anville House that can be accessed by academics, journalists, past pupils and others. It is a great historical asset. In 2022, the vast and meticulous research on the history of the Leeson Street Convent 1875-1967 was published by Sr Brady and edited by Máire Ní Chearbhaill. It was entitled The History of Two Dublin Georgian Houses 1750-1967. It is an account of the amazing work that was done for all social classes in an impoverished Ireland of the 19th and 20th centuries. Convent life went through many changes from the 1950s to the present day and Sr Brady adjusted well to the new styles of life. Wherever she lived she always created a homely atmosphere and accepted the vicissitudes of life. Sr Brady died at the age of 90 on April 21st, 2025. It was a privilege to know a person so loyal and kind to others. during a long and humble life. 'But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me, as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life....' George Eliot. – Joan Hutchinson
Irish Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Property dereliction is antisocial behaviour perpetrated by the rich – it can no longer go unpunished
The dysfunctional state of Ireland's housing market was perfectly illustrated by the recent collapse of a derelict cottage on Dublin's Grand Canal . As hard as it might be to believe, this property is owned by the very people who are supposed to represent Ireland's builders. Last week it was revealed that in the middle of a housing crisis , when every property should be occupied, the owner of a small terrace of derelict cottages on a prime site in Ranelagh was none other than the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). Let that sink in for a minute. The organisation that has presided over this episode of urban decay, allowing dwellings to fall into ruin, is the lobby group whose members are supposed to be building the country. Only in Ireland. This represents policy dysfunction on a monumental scale, laid bare in a micro-aggression against society at large. You might think the term aggression is over the top, but it's not if you regard dereliction as an antisocial behaviour that spreads from one property to another and from one street to the next. We are used to hearing the 'antisocial behaviour' label to describe a gang of young lads in hoodies hanging around a street corner threatening passers-by. It is considered antisocial because it detracts from the sociability and cohesion of the area. READ MORE Dereliction is similarly antisocial but it is perpetrated by rich adults rather than poor youths. Allowing homes and buildings to degrade to such an extent gives permission to other landlords to abuse their property, typically hoarding in the hope of future gain. Dereliction begets dereliction. The more hoarding, the less property available in the city and the higher the overall price of property. The hoarder is quids-in. This must be stopped. Property ownership is more than mere financial asset management: the owners of property are custodians of the urban environment. Apparent indifference is not a victimless crime. The area is the victim. Delinquent behaviour, ie allowing buildings to degrade, undermines the other owners who are acting responsibly by maintaining their properties. That the CIF is abandoning buildings a stone's throw from the city during a housing crisis underscores the lamentable state of the Irish property market. What is the Minister of Housing going to do about this? When an organisation with influence over housing and development policy can show such blatant disregard for the city, we know we have reached a new low in terms of bureaucratic incompetence and rank hypocrisy. We hear people talking on the airwaves about rebuilding Ireland, while at the same time allowing the delipidated buildings they own in Ranelagh fall down during morning rush hour. You couldn't make it up. It is clear that we need substantial fines imposed on reckless property owners Can someone take responsibility, please – if only for the credibility of the State that indulges such organisations? What does it take? A pedestrian, motorist or cyclist to be killed under the crumbling debris? Although it is particularly egregious, the canal episode isn't an isolated incident. GeoDirectory , the data company used by An Post , has estimated that 14,500 residential and commercial properties lie vacant across Dublin , with 4,000 of these occupying prime locations in the city centre. In the past year or so, dereliction has become substantially worse, with a more than 20 per cent increase on the 12,000 or so vacant properties identified by GeoDirectory in the capital in 2023 . Between the two canals are 4,082 vacant buildings. Half of these are commercial, roughly one-third are residential and the remainder are mixed-use. Dublin 2 is the worst offender, home to 41 per cent of vacant buildings, of which the vast majority (75 per cent) are commercial. The Victorian commercial districts of Dublin 1 (Parnell, Talbot, Capel and Dorset Streets) account for more than half (610) of the vacant flats above commercial units. The city is literally falling down in front of our eyes. And while dilapidation in Dublin is particularly acute, the same story applies across Ireland's urban centres, from Drogheda to Cork and Waterford to Limerick. [ Construction Industry Federation owes €140,000 in derelict levies at €23m site of Dublin 6 terrace collapse Opens in new window ] [ Irish Rail seeks 'maximum' number of homes for new Dublin suburb, despite Uisce Éireann warning on capacity Opens in new window ] Dereliction and vacancy are the result of choices made by individuals, companies and even lobby groups like the CIF. It is time to put a price on those choices because dereliction destroys not just the buildings themselves but also the streets. Allowing your building to become derelict must be called out as antisocial behaviour. It is clear that we need substantial fines imposed on reckless property owners, both to change their behaviour and to send a signal. Many of these people are hoarding their buildings in the hope of selling on at a higher price. Such behaviour must be discouraged with a penalty. For example, once a building is categorised derelict by the local council, the owners should face a hefty fine on their total income – not just their property income. Owners shouldn't be permitted to hide behind corporate trickery, allowing them to pretend a different corporate facade to escape the financial consequences of their social irresponsibility. In no time, the property market would be flooded with buildings that were previously hoarded As well as the big stick of punishment, the State might try something softer, at least initially. Realising that people react to incentives, why not incentivise bad owners to sell to good owners who will do something positive with the site? When it comes to vacancy and dilapidation, owners often claim penury, or some legal familial or inheritance dispute to explain why their property is allowed to degrade. So why not issue an amnesty to coax them to sell the properties within a year, after which point a draconian penalty is imposed to make them change their ways. The council might give these owners a chance to avoid a big fine by giving an amnesty – a last chance to sell. If they sell immediately, they can avoid the fine; if not, the council will come down on them like a fiscal ton of bricks. In no time, the property market would be flooded with buildings that were previously hoarded, driving down prices in the city where prices were, up to recently, thought to be only going upwards. This is doable at the stroke of a pen with a bit of political courage. Wouldn't it be great if our politicians tried to fix what's right under their noses as opposed to opining on the global picture, which they can do nothing about? As for the CIF, on behalf of your members – the builders of Ireland – have you no shame?
