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MOST OF US are guilty of keeping our heads in our phones as we walk from A to B, and in turn we can miss out on the eye-catching things around us.
Emma Clarke from Dublin Ghost Signs is working to combat this by sharing the capital’s changing streetscapes on Instagram (@dublinghostsigns) and on her website.
“I’m fascinated by how the city changes and evolves around us,”she tells TheJournal.ie. “Often, we don’t tend to notice the traces of the past which are hidden in plain sight.”
Below, Emma rounded up five of her favourite hand-painted signs around the capital – as well as where you can see them for yourself.
Just last week, this amazing Brothers Merchants ghost sign was revealed under the railway bridge on Store Street. A search of old street directories indicates that the sign was for McGowan Brothers – iron, metal and machinery merchants who operated out of 14-18 Store Street.
Thomas and Elizabeth Maguire raised 11 children (and a horse, a goat, chickens and racing pigeons) at number 56 Clanbrassil Street. This sign was painted around 1950 by their son Terry Maguire with the help of his brothers George and Bob.
This sign on Mark’s Lane is an example of a palimpsest: a sign which has been written on top of another sign with traces of the original sign still seen.
Built in the 1890s, the facade of this building on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay is protected, which is lucky since there is so much development in this area. In the 1980s and 1990s Columbia Mills was a club and its bar was used in a scene in The Commitments.
Some of the best ghost signs are hidden in alleyways, which is probably why they’ve survived. This one is down a laneway between Abbey Street and Eden Quay. In the 1950s, it was home to an illicit gambling scam which was busted during a Garda sting operation!
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Hindsight should be this government’s manifesto.
@Will Roche: “Say the line, Bart!” “Lessons were learned.” “Yaaaayyyyyy!”
@JusticeForJoe: I am waiting for them to say, “Sure we are not as bad as the lads next door”
‘said that there was no evidence that they were bought for a celebration for that evening’
Would that picture not stands as evidence?
You and your departments seem to make a lot of mistakes if the job is to big for you resign. It seem you are not running your departments properly and you are only interested in what your E. U. masters to you
Yes you should’ve raised the issue with the Secretary General instead of raising glasses of bubbly
comments section must of been left open by mistake (:(:
Another great witch hunt about to begin fascinating that was not one gathering of journalists anywhere in Ireland during lockdown
So a wonderful virtuous and honourable industry
Or ………..Omerta as was the case with Irelands most famous cocaine snorting DJ
@Jerry Slattery: Holding people in positions of power and influence for valid and proven reasons is not a witch hunt. By your photo I assume you are old enough to remember the days in which Irish politicians routinely and blatantly paraded their indifference and even indignation to being held to account for their own actions (often corrupt). Coveney is no f-o-o-l and he knows this should have been dealt with differently.
@David A. Murray: Holding to account people……
@Jerry Slattery: Oh, won’t somebody please think of the witches! You seem to think the people who make our laws should be free to decide which of those laws they have to obey, themselves. Have I got that right?
Coveney should have become a whistle-blower…lol
These tribunals over nonsense ‘storm-in-a-teacup’ allegations are such a waste of tax payer money and government time when there is much more pressing business like the rising cost of living and housing etc. Seems like when one “scandal” dries up another one rears its head.. I’m all for accountability and standards in public office, but people need to see the big picture and get over it.. Have these public accounts or oireachtas committee appearances or internal investigations ever amounted to anything other than a headline that just fades over time?
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