DUBLIN CASTLE LOOKS LIKE GHOST CASTLE – WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE GONE
At times, because of Covid-19 restrictions, when I walk around the city I feel as if I am a ghost who has returned to discover that it is not possible to see people and also nothing is exactly as I remembered it. The other possibility is that I am alive and everyone else is a ghost. Sometimes I do see someone far off in the distance but their faces appear to lack features and as I begin to approach the keep moving away.
OLD WAREHOUSE ON SIR JOHN ROGERSONS QUAY PHOTOGRAPHED 17 APRIL 2017
Back in the late 1960s I was employed by the B+I [British and Irish Steam Packet Company] and while I was based on the North Side of the docklands I am almost certain that this was one of our warehouses if not then it is next to a building that was owned by the company [part of that building still exists].
In August [2020] it was announced that the construction of 216 will begin at this site and that B AM Ireland in the main contractor for the project which will be completed bu July 2022.
The block is part of a complex consisting of four developments including the Sorting Office, a 208,000sq ft commercial building recently sold to Mapletree for €240 million, Ropemaker Place, a new residential development with 56 high-end apartments sold to German investor Real IS for €46 million, and the Shipping Office, an upcoming 177,000sq ft grade A commercial development on Sir Rogerson’s Quay.
Last October, Google entered into talks to rent the ‘Sorting Office’ but have recently, because of Covid-19, abandoned plans to rent office space in the Docklands for 2,000 new employees. I am assuming that the employees will work from home going forward.
B&I was taken over by the Irish Government in 1965 about three years before I joined the company. It had ten passenger and cargo vessels, many built in the late 1940s. The new management commenced a major programme of modernisation, launching the car ferries MV Munster (1968), Innisfallen and Leinster (1969). The Munster and Leinster plied the Dublin–Liverpool route and the new Innisfallen out of Cork changed from Fishguard to Swansea in 1969. The company was also operating new freight ships.
On 25 April 1980 a jetfoil service from Dublin to Liverpool started but was withdrawn as it was not a commercial success. The company ran into major financial problems in 1981, this and labour disputes persisted into the early 1992 when the company was privatised and taken over by the Irish Continental Group.
I photographed this building in February 2017 not long before it became operational
More than 1,400 people work at the eight-floor North Wall Quay building and approximately 300 staff at Spencer Dock.
The Central Bank was based in the Dame Street Tower from 1979 until 2017. They also had offices in the nearby Commercial Buildings, on College Green and in Iveagh Court, near Harcourt Street.
When the Central Bank needed more accommodation, it examined various options including investment in their existing city centre properties. It was finally decided the most cost effective option was to locate staff to the Dockland district.
The Central Bank bought a partially constructed building at North Wall Quay, for €7 million in 2012. Spencer Dock was an office block building the Central Bank had rented since 2008. In November 2015 the Central Bank purchased this building for €104 million. All staff in the existing city centre locations moved to the Dockland Campus in spring 2017.
MET ÉIREANN BUILDING BUILT IN 1979 AND LOCATED IN GLASNEVIN
The Irish Meteorological Centre in Glasnevin is the headquarters of the Irish Meteorological Service. It was designed by Liam McCormick in an unusual pyramid shape with lots of windows to give the best possible view of the sky.
Actually the shape of the building was decided for two reasons. Firstly it doesn’t cut off the light from the houses just north of it, St David’s Terrace. The second reason is its shape and its many windows give the Meteorological Service the best possible view of the sky. The architect had to decide how to design a building that would help the weather forecasters. They told him “We like to look at the sky”. So he designed the building in that way, and even gave them a balcony so they could have fresh air as well.
He really wanted to use blue slate from another country but it was decided to use Ballinasloe Limestone slab instead. The front entrance area has limestone as well.
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