Bunch of jackeens, really

February 5, 2012 3:16 AM

So, you want to know the secret history of Dublin? Well, Come Here To Me, boy, and I’ll tell it ya. League of Ireland fanatics and music fans they may be but above all else, former UCD students Jay, D Fallon and hXci are history buffs, and on their blog they uncover much that is obscure and fascinating in this history of their native city, starting with The Dublin cinema manager who became the only Irish prisoner of Dachau and including....

'Stompin’ George’ Verschoyle, the Irish rockabilly

The longest pub strike in Dublin history

A list of a few celebrated April Fool’s pranks that gripped the city

The carcass of the Celtic Tiger in Sandyford

The Oldest Graffiti in Dublin

The UVF Man buried at Glasnevin

George Bernard Shaw honored by his dustman

The mechanical zoo at Cleary’s

And much, much more. Whether or not you share their soft spot for radical history, the boys will be happy to take you off onto the beaten path and into the hidden byways of this city (quite literally: their series on the Lanes of Dublin highlights all the shortcuts and allyways known to the native but left of the tourist’s maps, such as Dame Court).

But perhaps the most important public service they perform is their pub crawls, which have so far sampled and reviewed the pints at 93 of the capital’s fairest houses and should give even the greenest tourist a pointer toward a few hidden gems worth uncovering on their visit.

posted by Diablevert (10 comments total)

Great post - I've been living in and near Dublin for 15 years so this is a great read.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:16 AM on February 5, 2012

Has some great pictures of The Swastika Laundry

The fact that people still talk about the laundry today is, for the most part, based on the fact that a swastika was used for their logo. As you can see from the title and picture above, the laundry was founded in 1912, eight years before the German Nazi party decided to formally adopt the symbol.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 4:22 AM on February 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thats a great find. Im sure Clearys must have changed by now but growing up there in the 70's/80's it was still the exact same. Sort of related, a friend recently sent me this Dublin Library link to Football pics of the 70's for GAA fans ..
posted by duffers5000 at 4:30 AM on February 5, 2012

agreed, great post, dubliner born and bred, there's some great stuff here. I live near the old swastika laundry, and work right beside the hollow unfinished apartment blocks in Sandyford.
posted by kev23f at 5:02 AM on February 5, 2012

For some reason this post got me thinking about the James Joyce challenge about crossing Dublin city without passing a pub. A quick google tells me that it was solved in a very thorough fashion here, it's also a neat read...
posted by kev23f at 5:12 AM on February 5, 2012

Great find! The Dachau article was really interesting, as I've been there and never knew who the 1 Irish inmate was. I also used to live around the corner from the old Swastika laundry, and it always made me do a double-take.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 5:28 AM on February 5, 2012

I'm glad people are digging it. I tried to pick a few posts that give a sampling of some of the stuff they cover; they really hit on an astonishing range of things. I couldn't even find a couple that I quite liked --- they did one on the "Animal gangs" of Dublin in the 1930s and one on an IRA revenge murder of around the same that I couldn't immediately find that were also quite interesting. (D. Fallon was later on the radio talking about the Animal Gangs but I couldn't dig up the original post that went into their history.)
posted by Diablevert at 7:10 AM on February 5, 2012

Burhanistan - how long are you there for? Grab a taxi into town, go to one of the many pubs showing the Ireland-Wales 6 Nations game, and enjoy the atmosphere!
posted by kev23f at 8:22 AM on February 5, 2012

I usually don't do this, but I'm stuck at a hotel near Dublin airport right now! Maybe if I get a chance I'll take a cab downtown.

You could make the Gravedigger's fairly easily from the airport, Burhanistan. It features in Ulysses.
posted by Diablevert at 8:24 AM on February 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wow, what a goldmine of neat stuff! Thanks!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 8:41 AM on February 5, 2012