I made my excuses and left
Posted on May 1, 2006
Filed Under art, biking, photography, Rant, wet Wednesday rule | Comments Off
Went out for a spin on the bicycle this afternoon and headed off in the rough direction of Smithfield. I don’t know the area very well and thought it might be nice to have a gander at all the changes. It was also downhill from my house to Smithfield!! This was a very important lesson learned from the day, with the wind behind my back, I cycled out to Dollymount beach.
I took a detour halfway there because I remembered about the Black church and the little park at Blessington Street basin. I’m sure the church has a proper name but I’ve only heard the old wives tale that if you run backwards around the church 3 times during a full moon, the devil will appear. There, you’ve been warned!
Right beside the church is Paradise Place. More like Paradise Lost, if you ask me. What were the council thinking when they named the place? In my little dictionary, parados is the entry after paradise. It means, ‘back wall of trench in warfare.’ This might have been more appropriate considering the area’s history!
The third photo is ‘something’ displayed on the side of a house beside the church but I don’t know what it’s about. Is it art? Can anybody shed any light?
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The park at Blessington Street basin was very nice but a little down at heel. It would be a very nice place to have lunch if you worked in the area. I was quite surprised that there were no drunks or junkies hanging around. Makes a nice change.
Eventually made it to Smithfield. Kinda impressed but don’t know if I’d want to live there. There has been huge development and, on the whole, it looks pretty nice. But some of the architecture, like the council houses below, looked a bit iffy. Using my ‘wet Wednesday in November’* rule, these house can’t be considered a success.
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There was a certain charm about the place and I could well imagine that it would be nice place to live or visit during the Summer. But only if the drunks, junkies, street people and beggars are kept out of the area. At the bottom of the Plaza, there were three separate groups of people who were drinking, cursing, and making the whole atmosphere a bit wary/tense. Everybody walked through with grim faces, and quickly, with their eyes down, hoping not to be asked for money or to be insulted about their sex or race.
When I took out my camera, they started to stare at me. After a tense stand-off of negotiation via body language, I agreed not to shoot any photos of them and they agreed not to shoot any bottles or stones at me. I wonder if twentymajor was in the group? As they say in the tabloids, I made my excuses and left.
Wet Wednesday in November rule: In this instance it means what would it be like to live or visit here on a wet Wednesday in November?
