2008 WAS A MOST DIFFICULT YEAR FOR ALL

All Photographs By William Murphy

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MALAHIDE SEAFRONT IN 2008 NEAREST THE TOWN OR THE LESS ATTRACTIVE SECTION

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PHOTOGRAPHED 11 MAY 2008

About ten to fifteen years ago I had lunch almost every week in Malahide and frequently my mother would join me but she will be 103 years old next May.

The Irish Sea has played a major role in the development of tourism in the Malahide. The extensive Velvet Strand stretches to the horizon and is extremely popular with bathers, walkers and water sports enthusiasts.

Walking from the town centre along the beach you’ll come to the wide velvet strand along the Mouth of the Estuary, from here the beach leads to Low Rock, a popular swimming section of the beach. After this the beach gets more rocky as you approach High Rock, for a more challenging swim and eventually if you continue on you will find yourself at Portmarnock beach where the sandy strand opens wide in front of you once more.

From Malahide Beach you can also take the coastal walk on the footpath all the way to Portmarnock but beware, it’s 5km away and that did catch me by surprise back in 2008 … I was exhausted and had to get a taxi back to the train station.

VIKING LONGSHIP SEA STALLION FROM GLENDALOUGH AND AN APRIL FOOL JOKE

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PHOTOGRAPHED 11 MAY 2008

Havhingsten fra Glendalough (“Sea Stallion from Glendalough”) is a Danish reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships. The original ship was built around 1042 near Dublin. The original ship was built with oak from Glendalough, Wicklow, Ireland, hence the ship’s name. The reconstruction was built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde from 2000 to 2004. Havhingsten fra Glendalough is a reconstruction of the longest viking longship that currently is found. It is used for research.

A return journey to Dublin took place over the Summer of 2007. The ship left Roskilde Harbour on July 1 and arrived in Dublin on August 14. She was on display in Collins Barracks, the Decorative Arts & History building of the National Museum of Ireland from 17 August 2007 until her return voyage to Denmark in Summer 2008.

There was an April Fool Joke relating to this ship:

Viking Ship Museum: We are forced to give Sea Stallion away

In relation to a new EU-directive about the inviolability of the national cultural heritage Ireland has claimed the handing over of the Skuldelev 2-wreck, the remains of a 30m-long Viking ship, which today is on display in the Viking Ship Museum Roskilde. The background for this claim is the fact that Skuldelev 2 originally was built in the year 1042… in Ireland. About 30 years later the ship sailed to Denmark and ended her days on the bottom of the Roskilde Fjord as part of a fortification against enemies traveling on the water.”We are still shocked. The claim from Ireland came by a huge surprise for us. This looks like a revenge with a delay of 1,000 years,” says the director of the Viking Ship Museum, Tinna Damgård-Sørensen.

“Since the Skuldelev-ships were excavated in the 1960ies we have regarded them as precious stones of the Danish cultural heritage. But for Skuldelev 2 it is scientifically documented that she was built in the vicinity of Dublin. The new EU-directive, which comes into force on April 1st this year, gives the Irish the lawful authority to claim the wreck be handed over to its legitimate owner, this being the Irish Ministry for Culture”.

“We asked the European court of justice whether the fact that the ship was built by Vikings resident in Ireland would not turn the matter around. So to speak: the ship was built in Ireland but by people who had Nordic blood in their veins. But the EU-court turned down our complaint on the grounds that the oak timber the ship was built of came from the woods around Dublin and therefore is regarded as Irish timber. And the timber’s origin definitely plays a more important role than the nationality of the craftsmen,” continues Tinna
Damgård-Sørensen, who has kept the Irish claim a secret until now.

“We have also raised an objection against EU laws being valid for a ship that was built in 1042 – circa 900 years before the Rome declaration was written. This argument made no better impression on the judges of the EU-court than the others. In the end we raised the issue that the ship was excavated in the 1960ies when Denmark was not even a member of the EU (or EC, how it was called then). But the European court of justice holds to the directive being made retrospective… back to the Viking Age if need be”.

There are good reasons though, that the Viking Ship Museum may keep the wreck Skuldelev 2. The pieces of the wreck are so delicate that they would not survive a transport from Roskilde to Ireland. After long and secret negotiations between the National Museum in Dublin and the Viking Ship Museum both partners have now reached an agreement.

When Sea Stallion from Glendalough, which is a true copy of Skuldelev 2, sails on her historic voyage from Roskilde to Dublin this summer, the crew will hand over the ship to the Irish authorities at arrival in Dublin in mid August. “One has to admit, that the project suddenly took a different direction than what was planned. During 10 years we have dreamed about and made plans for Sea Stallion to sail to Dublin… and back again. Now the result is that we only need to sail to Dublin. There we will give her to the Irish and in return the original wreck can stay in Roskilde.

According to the National Museum in Dublin, Sea Stallion will be taken out of the water by Irelands biggest crane in the middle of August and from then on be on show at Collins Barracks, former military barracks and today part of the National Museum.

“The very day that was supposed to be a day of celebration – Sunday 1st July – has become a day of sorrow for we have to say good bye to Sea Stallion forever. It is a hard stroke for the Viking Ship Museum, but also a great loss for Roskilde, and for the whole of Denmark. Roskilde looses a symbol – it is like Roskilde Cathedral would burn down.
And Denmark has to depart from the world’s biggest reconstruction of a Viking ship, only one year after it became part of our ultimate cultural heritage in the so-called Cultural Canon”.

As Tinna Damgård-Sørensen says, the Viking Ship Museum is not going to admit to the will of the Irish for nothing. The National Museum in Dublin displays a number of axes and jewellery from the Viking Age, which the Viking Ship Museum now will claim to come back to Denmark. A recent ship find has also aroused the Viking Ship Museum’s attention.

“This wreck is probably not from the Viking period but from the Middle Ages. But it is clinker-built, a building method that originates from the Vikings. In our opinion this fact alone is sufficient to claim the ship back to Denmark as part of our cultural heritage, according to the EU directive,” finishes Tinna Damgård-Sørensen.

TWO CRICKET CLUBS IN PHOENIX PARK NEAR THE WELLINGTON MONUMENT

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PHOTOGRAPHED 11 MAY 2008

The two clubs in my photographs are both close to the Wellington Monument is Phoenix Park and I have not visited the immediate area again since 11 May 2008.

Cricket was introduced to Ireland by the English in the towns of Kilkenny and Ballinasloe in the early 19th century. In the 1830s, the game began to spread; many of the clubs which were founded in the following 30 years are still in existence today. The first Irish national team played in 1855 against The Gentlemen of England in Dublin. In the 1850s, the Englishman Charles Lawrence was responsible for developing the game in Ireland through his coaching. In the 1850s and 1860s, Ireland was visited for the first time by touring professional teams. Ireland’s first match against Marylebone Cricket Club (the M.C.C.) was in 1858.

The game gained popularity until the early 1880s. The land war in the 1880s resulting from the Irish Land Commission and a ban on playing “foreign” games, in practice, British, by the Gaelic Athletic Association set back the spread of cricket. The ban was lifted in 1970, and before then anyone playing foreign games, such as cricket was banned from the Irish games such as hurling and Gaelic football. Irish teams toured Canada and the US in 1879, 1888, 1892, and 1909. On top of this, Ireland defeated a touring South African side in 1904. Their first match with first-class status was played on 19 May 1902 against a London County side including W.G. Grace. The Irish, captained by Sir Tim O’Brien, won convincingly by 238 runs.

In January 2012 Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom publicly declared Ireland’s ambition to play Test cricket by 2020. Their desire to achieve Test status was in part to stem the tide of Irish players using residency rules to switch to England for the opportunity to play Test cricket. Deutrom outlined the ambition as he unveiled the new strategic plan for Irish cricket to 2015. The plan set out a series of stretching goals including increasing the number of participants in the game to 50,000, setting a target of reaching 8th in the World rankings, establishing a domestic first-class cricket structure, and reinforcing cricket as the fifth most popular team sport in Ireland.

Deutrom had already sent a letter to the ICC in 2009 stating his board’s intention to apply for Full Membership – a potential pathway to Test cricket – and to seek clarification on the process. Former Australian bowler Jason Gillespie said that if Ireland got Test status it “would be huge news in world cricket, and it would be a massive positive story for the world game”. Following Ireland’s victory over the West Indies in the 2015 Cricket World Cup, former fast bowler Michael Holding said that the International Cricket Council should grant Ireland Test status immediately, saying “they need to be recognised now”. The ICC said in 2015 that Ireland would be granted Test status in 2019 should they win the 2015–17 ICC Intercontinental Cup and beat the 10th ranked Test nation in a four-match Test series in 2018.

However, on 22 June 2017, after more than a decade of playing top-class international cricket, full ICC membership was granted to Ireland (along with Afghanistan) at an ICC meeting in London, thus making them the eleventh Test cricket team. In October 2017, the ICC announced that Ireland’s first Test match would be at home against Pakistan in May 2018. Ireland played their first ‘touring’ Test in India in March 2019 against fellow newcomers Afghanistan, where they lost by 7 wickets. This was followed by a four-day Test match against England at Lord’s in July 2019. According to the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2019–23, Ireland are scheduled to play sixteen Tests, but along with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, are not included in the first two editions of the ICC World Test Championship.

Phoenix Cricket Club is the oldest in Ireland and believed to be one of the oldest in the world having been founded in 1830. Prior to 1834 the Club members met and practiced in the Phoenix Park but in 1835 the Club moved out of the Park and played its matches in open fields south of the Canal behind Upper Baggot Street. In 1838 the Commissioner of Woods and Forests granted permission for a 150 yards square near the Wellington monument. At that time a temporary rail had to be erected as several players were injured as the ground had been cut up by wandering animals. Permanent rails were subsequently erected of an agreed thickness and painted white so as to be clearly visible to horsemen.

In 1846 when Chesterfield Avenue, the main road through the Park was widened the Club had to move again. A new ground in an adjacent area was recommended and in view of the expense already incurred by the Club the move was financed by the Board of Works at a cost of £73 and Phoenix have remained at the present ground ever since.

The decades, 1950 – 1970 were without the glory of the previous years due to an aging team. Despite 2 cups in the 1950s, the next decade was without a major trophy during the whole of that decade. In the later 1960s a younger squad started to emerge and, after 22 years, Phoenix won the John Player Senior cup in 1973; and in 1974 the club were the inaugural winners of the Wiggins Teape League. In 1975, Phoenix accomplished the Grand Slam (all three trophies and the only club to ever do it). During the entire decade the 1st XI relied on a hard core of 15 players to lift 6 cups, 3 league titles and 2 Wiggins Teape.

Phoenix Cricket Club continues to promote the game of cricket and provides competition and enjoyment for its members and visiting teams as well as providing free sport viewing for the locals and tourists in the wonderful Phoenix Park.

In the early 1860s The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, decided that public service employees needed some quality rest and recreation so he pushed a Bill through Parliament, granting Civil Servants a cricket ground in Phoenix Park, right beside the Dog Pond, where the Civil Service Cricket Club play to this day.

TALLAGHT CROSS AND NEARBY AS IT WAS

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PHOTOGRAPHED 17 MAY 2008

I used the LUAS to travel to Tallaght in May 2008 not long before M&S opened to the public at Tallaght Cross (19 July 2008). I had lunch at Captain Americas which opened its doors in 2007 and with seating on two floors for over 200 people and was the largest of all the branches. According to Google Maps and Yelp the restaurant at Tallaght Cross is no longer operational.

In August 2013 MARKS & SPENCER announced that it will close four stores in Ireland with the loss of 180 jobs. The four stores were in Mullingar, Tallaght, Dun Laoghaire, and Naas.

In April 2020, with the parent company going into administration, it was announced that Debenhams Ireland stores—which were already temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic—would be permanently closed.

Tallaght Cross East is a mixed use town centre development located beside the Luas Red Line and only a short distance from Dublin City Centre. Located in the heart of Tallaght, Ireland’s third largest metropolitan area.

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