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044 Foley Street

044 Tenements, Foley Street (1978)

This photograph is from the Dublin City Council Photographic Collection of 146 images of ‘Vanishing Dublin’. This unique collection is an educational resource and provides a basis for original research on the history of Dublin in the second half of the twentieth century.

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I played in that street when

I played in that street when I was a very young boy. I did not live there. My granny, Maney Lynch lived there with her son and his family. I think Sean O'Caseys mother lived there before moving to Summerhill, I do not remember the poles at the entrance to the Buildings. By leaving Foley Street at the Buckingham Street end; was like entering another world; but Dublin was like that There has never been another city in the world like Dublin. I was a laundry boy (Phoenix Bag Wash) we roamed from Russell Street to Donnybrook/Ranelagh/Crumlin/Kimmage all the way over to the Union (St Kevins Hospital) Some of the areas and housing designs seemed very strange to me. The street where I was born (Fitzgibbon St and the schools I attended are now gone. No regrets over Fitzgibbon St. it was a vermin infested slum. I was glad to escape from there. The rent for a back parlour room in number ten, was six shilling a week. Nothing could touch that rent money; not even hunger pains.Like another expat, I carry the sights,sounds and smells of Anna. Seamus O'Dorain

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