URBAN EXPRESSION AND DEPRESSION

Street Photography That Highlights Urban Life

Nature

PIGEON PARTY – THERE ARE LOTS OF FERAL PIGEONS IN DUBLIN

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BUT I LIKE THEM

I have a friend from China who has lived in Dublin for many years. I once asked her what was the thing that stood out when she first arrived in Ireland and she said ‘all the birds … they are everywhere’.

The feral pigeon is very familiar, often overlooked and often despised by it’s human companions. At one time it’s ancestors were minding their own business on sea cliffs or mountainsides before being co-opted for our own needs. That they are simultaneously beautiful, intelligent and perceptive is often regrettably missed.

WINDY ARBOUR SOME LOCAL GREEN SPACES

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PHOTOGRAPHED 25 APRIL 2023

Windy Arbour, historically called Glassons, is a small suburban village in the Dundrum area of Dublin, Ireland. Situated between Dundrum and Milltown, along the banks of the Slang River (also Dundrum or Slann River).

The River Slang (Irish: Abhainn na Stéille), also known as the Dundrum Slang or the Dundrum River, a tributary of the River Dodder, is a stream which rises on Three Rock Mountain, County Dublin. It is in the jurisdiction of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

From Three Rock Woods on the northern slopes of Three Rock Mountain, the Slang flows down through Ticknock, passing Ballinteer north to Dundrum, where it (sometimes known this far as “Ticknock Stream” or “River Ann”) receives the Wyckham Stream, and then loops east, north, and west, coming to a mill pond north of the Dundrum Town Centre retail complex. The Slang then runs north via Windy Arbour and subsequently joins the River Dodder at Milltown, near the Nine Arches viaduct, now used by the Luas.

The small Wyckham Stream, joining from the west, is a natural tributary, visible on early maps, but was later connected to the Little Dargle River, further west, to take some of the flow of that river into the Slang, to increase the supply for powering of mills.

Today there is a walk made by the County Council from south Dundrum to Marlay Park, along part of the Slang, the Wyckham Stream, and part of the Little Dargle.

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