THE BANDSTAND IN BLACKROCK PUBLIC PARK 23 FEBRUARY 2008
Blackrock Park is a pleasant green area overlooking Dublin Bay, in Blackrock County Dublin, and boasts a well equipped children’s playground, cycle path and trees. There is also a picturesque pond containing a small island, and swans can regularly been seen there. The Peace Fountain in the pond was constructed in 1986 to mark International Year for Peace.
As already mentioned I discovered that I had a disk with a large number of photographs from 2008 but for various reasons I could not access or process them until now [December 2022].
I do not remember owning a Canon 24-105mm lens and it is all the more annoying as I recently purchased a Sigma equivalent to use with my Canon 5D MkIII. I should explain, many years ago I purchased a Canon 5D camera and it was an excellent camera but I made the mistake of upgrading to a Canon 1Ds MKIII which proved too be a disaster because the camera was faulty. I returned the body to Canon a number of times but they failed to repair an inherent auto-focus problem so I gave up and decided to switch to Sony. I sold the 5D at a very good price and gifted some lenses to friends but no one was interested in the 1Ds.
About a year ago I decided that I was going to dump the 1Ds but discovered that it produced very good results in manual mode and as a result I purchased a number of second Canon and Sigma lenses.
Earlier this year my local dealer offered me an unused Canon 5D MkIII [it was a demo unit] at an amazing price and I agreed to purchase it providing a GPS unit was supplied with it. I was very pleased with the 5D and purchased a second hand Sigma 24-105 which can be attached to my Sony cameras via a Metabones adapter.
The Blackrock baths were provided for by the railway company in 1839 and were built beside the Blackrock train station. A special train ticket also permitted entrance to the baths. In 1887, the baths were rebuilt in concrete with a large gentlemen’s bath and a smaller ladies’ bath. In 1928, the Urban District Council bought the baths for £2,000 and readied them for the Tailteann Games. The baths, with a 50-metre pool, were well known for their swimming galas and water polo and could accommodate up to 1,000 spectators.”
Eddie Heron lived in Sandycove and is known for his achievement as 36 years undefeated Springboard and Highboard Diving Champion of Ireland. A plaque commemorating him is on the railway bridge that crosses over to the baths.
On 11 September 1891, Thomas Crean, while swimming with fellow students near Blackrock, helped rescue a 21-year-old art student named William Ahern. Crean noticed that Ahern was in trouble and together with a young solicitor named Leachman from Dundrum, he managed to bring him ashore. For his bravery, he was awarded a medal by the Royal Humane Society.
The decline in the use of the baths started in the 1960s when indoor heated swimming pools started to appear. Dún Laoghaire Corporation closed the Blackrock Baths in the late 1980s and by 1992, due to lack of maintenance, parts of the baths were dismantled.[ They have since been sold to developers Treasury Holdings.[18] In 2013, the baths were demolished due to safety concerns following a routine inspection by Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council. It was found that the diving platform had been significantly corroded and detached from the pool base.
You must be logged in to post a comment.