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Issue #
145
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| This was a terrible
disruption of people's lives. For example,
a guy I worked with was telling me - his
mother was moved from the Marsh up to
Cathedral Road in Gurranabraher and she
could not understand how she had so many
rooms to work in; she actually had three
bedrooms. She came from a tenement where
she had one room for the whole family. In
the tenement there was one toilet and one
cold water tap out in the yard for
everybody. Here she had a bathroom
indoors! If she had a fire lighting she
had hot and cold water. She had a sitting-room
separate from her kitchen, and worse -
the thing that puzzled her altogether
– and she was living in the house
about three years before she ventured out
the back door, because while over time
she understood that the front garden was
hers, she couldn't understand how she
could have so much room and a back garden
as well. The culture shock was enormous.
Nowadays we take it for granted that as
houses are needed the Corporation will
build them but this was the first time it
was done on a big scale. There were
smaller schemes, like Maddens Buildings.
It's almost impossible in the context of
the present day to understand how most of
Ballyphehane and most of the Northside
were filled out of a couple of streets
inside in the marsh. Of course, the same
trend was being experienced in other
parts of the country at that time,
particularly in Dublin. When work began
there were c.35,000 people living in the
Marsh. Moving them transformed the city
beyond all recognition. Behind Gurranabraher, as we'd say, is the area that was called Fahey's Well and I often wondered why the singular is used. The older people around will tell you that along the length of that road alone, there must have been a dozen spring wells flowing down there. Of course, the wells are all gone now but the name of the place always amuses me because it 'twas Fahey's Wells I feel it would make more sense as there were so many of them there.
The social life of the
area was catered for by St. Mary's Hall
located at the junction of what is now St.
Mary's Road and Cathedral Road. There was
a dancehall there, 'twas a dancehall-cum-cinema-cum-whatever
they needed at the time. That was a great
local venue for people, a great amenity
for that time. I remember my older
sisters talking about the "Oratory".
The Oratory building is still there, but
of course, it isn't used now, but it was
a dancehall; 'twas inside St Vincent's
convent, on St Mary's Road. It was a
little chapel inside St. Vincent's
convent grounds, outside the buildings of
the convent. I suppose it was
deconsecrated and used as a dancehall for
many years. It has since been returned to
its original purpose as a chapel – I
know that because I was employed in
converting it as it happens. |
 page 24 |
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