The Greatest Dun-Laoghaire-ite of them all

[spudseamus]

Me Da!

[Strum]

Me Da!

Me Ma.

[Rocker]

Listen you lot,
Now you have started it! The fight is on The very first thing I thought of was my da but I said "No girl" dont be so parochial. Think outside the four walls. Well I though and thought but, couldn't think of anyone better. So My Da :)

I could also nominate my Great Grandfather. I have been piecing together bits of his life and from humble beginnings in Avondale in 1850 his decendants (hundreds and hundreds) are a mixed bunch in Ireland, England, Australia, America, Portugal, Chile, Thiland. Little did he think when he eked out his humble life that today so many of us would owe everything to him.

[spudseamus]

Listen you lot,
Now you have started it! The fight is on The very first thing I thought of was my da but I said "No girl" dont be so parochial. Think outside the four walls. Well I though and thought but, couldn't think of anyone better. So My Da :)

I could also nominate my Great Grandfather. I have been piecing together bits of his life and from humble beginnings in Avondale in 1850 his decendants (hundreds and hundreds) are a mixed bunch in Ireland, England, Australia, America, Portugal, Chile, Thiland. Little did he think when he eked out his humble life that today so many of us would owe everything to him.

a good spake !

[Gulliver]

Listen you lot,
So My Da :) I could also nominate my Great Grandfather..

Do they have names? Apart from adding to world population what did they do to deserve the title?

[grammer]

ochhhhh =sucks breath in very deeply=====
time to hit the trenches

[Enviro500]

Grammer,

Edward Carson a Dub who loved Kingstown and sure din't he "discover the 6 Counties".....Yes definitely the top D-L'ite...now Grammer, which Trench did you say should I jump into ? !!!!!

[Sinead]

Enviro - where did Carson live in Dun Laoghaire? I think Fr. Willie Doyle and Fr. McCabe would have been the same individuals whether or
not they were priests. Both men were compassionate and caring.

Some more names for the mix - Cecil Nash, Siobhán McKenna, Barry Fitzgerald, Donnachda O Dea, Cyril Cusack, Hilary Freyne, Ronnie Drew.
Drawing on Rockers thought there is Pat Confrey, an amateur, who player Billards and Snooker for the Workmens and beat Joe Davis twice!

Now I'll have to put the thinking cap on.

Sinéad

[Enviro500]

Sinead,
Thank you, I actually crossed swords with Fr McCabe as did another member here, on a similar matter. I was dragged before Dan McHugh at the Tech because I went out with a Protestant girl...Also at the Tech..Both told me in no uncertain trems thay it was not the done thing...Left a flea in my ear...
Not forgotten...At least a verbal, when it was over the road at Eblana a Blackboard compass was deposited in the ear !!!!
Enviro500

[TCaroline]

Jim Dooge is disgracefully overlooked not just in and around the area but in Ireland in general. As an academic he was a leader in his field as a Professor at UCD and organised many of the early climate change initiatives. He was Chairman of DL Council and a member of the Seanad for years being one of the most important internal figures in Fine Gael. Afaik he is the only member of the Seanad who was ever appointed to the cabinet as Minister for Foreign Affairs. He also authored the report with led to the Single European Act! He was true a public servant in my book!

[Sinead]

Welcome Caroline

Good post don't be shy let us hear more from you.

Sinead

[Rocker]

Hello Caroline,

Welcome to the site.
Afraid to admit I don't know anything about Jim Dooge, but, I will find out more.

great to have you aboard..looking forward to your posts....give us something to talk about and shake us up.

[Rocker]

Caroline,

I googled Jim Dooge and am so embarrassed that I knew nothing about him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dooge

[TCaroline]

I was quite oblivious to him as well until I read his obituary a couple of years ago.

He was a very understated man afaik. He was one of Garreth Fitzgerald's best friends, from what I've read on him Fitzgerald wanted to appoint him another couple of times but Dooge refused because of his declining eyesight and his academic commitments. He also rejected becoming an EU Commissioner (and Peter Sutherland was subsequently appointed). From what I've read he seemed far too interesting and nice a man to get too heavily involved in full scale electoral politics and was perfect for the Seanad. It says a lot about him and his capabilities that he managed to get appointed to cabinet and to such a plumb job (given how cabinet posts are generally handed out), though I think it was Fitzgerald who said his wife told him he'd better appoint Dooge as he was the only man who Fitzgerald wouldn't interfere with in foreign affairs!

This is a pretty good interview with him from a few years ago, what is striking about him is how he is revered in so many different fields and abroad, if you do a google deep dive on him you will find articles about him from all over. He had quite a life. http://www.ingenia.org.uk/ingenia/artic ... ?Index=327

This part might be interesting to some-

It was always going to be an engineering career of some sort for Jim. He was surrounded by a family of engineers. His father was a ship’s engineer and his mother’s youngest brother was a civil engineer, as were his father’s two brothers. “I was interested in engineering from my early teens,” he explains, so much so that he persuaded his school to find someone to teach him applied mathematics.

He attended the Christian Brothers in Dun Laoghaire. As a tangent, I've found a couple of clippings from the Irish Times and Independent of some articles and photos of early meetings of the Past Pupils Union back then, which was called the PPU of the Christian Brothers Schools Dun Laoghaire and Monkstown. Over time the Dun Laoghaire part was dropped as the schools diverged and now it is just the Monkstown Park PPU. They used to host big annual dinners and debates with the Brothers and special speakers who were past pupils - Jim Dooge was one and another was Niall McCarthy was then a barrister but would ultimately sit on the Supreme Court. Interestingly the Monkstown Park PPU are having a 60th dinner this year celebrating the founding of the PPU CB DL&M in 1954. I have the articles copied down to my desktop and they go right through the 60s so I'm sure there'll be some familiar names in them for some of you. Not sure if I should post them because of copyright- I'd recommend taking out an Irish Times Digital Subscription for their Archives for a week or two, amazing the stuff you can find.

[Micheál]

His daughter Meliosa was a noted Barrister who specialised in Family Law before her untimely passing some years ago.

M.

[TCaroline]

Another couple of interesting DLites I haven't seen mentioned (or I missed, sorry) are of the acting persuasion.

Dan O'Herlihy who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_O'Herlihy

His papers are available from UCD http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collect ... y-dan.html

Another I'm not so sure about - the recently deceased Vincent Dowling. He won an Emmy Award, was credited with "discovering" Tom Hanks and upon his death in 2013 was revealed as the father of current local TD Richard Boyd Barrett. From what I can find he lived Rathmines and attended St Mary's College there but I from some searches on him I also saw he attended St Laurences Stillorgan and CBC Dun Laoghaire. I'm guessing he was a local at one point in time.

[TCaroline]

His daughter Meliosa was a noted Barrister who specialised in Family Law before her untimely passing some years ago.

M.

That's very sad, looked it up and it was a few months before her father.

[Rocker]

Great choices there Caroline and really interesting. I am googling furiously.

[Feshty]

Hi ,

I'm new to this site so apologies in advance if I'm posing to the incorrect board,I thought I saw I this thread something about a nurse Hammett and I would like to know if anyone has any information on her ? Thanks in advance

[skins]

Hi ,

I'm new to this site so apologies in advance if I'm posing to the incorrect board,I thought I saw I this thread something about a nurse Hammett and I would like to know if anyone has any information on her ? Thanks in advance

Mentioned by Sinéad back in 2012, though I myself don't recall the name.

[Sinead]

Nurse Hammet was a midwife, she was at my birth and probably the rest of my family. She lived in the avenue that was just above Convent Road. From my memory of her she arrived with her black case, delivered the baby had a chat and the left. She did have at least one son by name of Ollie (R.I.P.)who was a very good painter and decorator, he had a son called Alan (R.I.P.), a very nice man who sadly died young, he was a dog groomer and later a hairdresser. Is this what you want to know?

Sinéad

[Denis Cromie]

Welcome Feshty, hope you stick around. As you can see lots of knowledgeable Dun Laoghaire people on the site.

[skins]

Were midwives allocated to different parts of the town, or how did it work? I think the woman who"did" me was a Nurse Thompson, the birth being in Sandycove.

[jabra]

Not sure how it worked in those days Skins but the woman who delivered me was a nurse Garland. I was born in the Noggin
but she also delivered around Dunlaoghaire and the Farm so not sure if they had areas as such.

[skins]

Thanks, Jabra. "She delivered around Dun Laoghaire"...you make her sound like the breadman or milkman! Wonder what year they stopped operating. The women then had it fairly tough...no booking into Mount Carmel for a week in those days. Incidentally I became a Grandad for the first time on June 6th, didn't think I was ever going to see the day.