It has taken me many months to find any information relating to this metal sculpture but a few months ago I discovered that it is “Cut Out People’ by Dan MacCarthy.
Danny McCarthy is a founding director of the National Sculpture Factory and of Triskel Arts Centre and is a director the Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh. He has also curated numerous exhibitions and projects including Sound Out (with David Toop), Bend It Like Beckett, Sonic Vigil, Just Listen plus many more.
I was unaware of Grotto Place until I was in the Booterstown area today and was also unaware of St. Mary’s Boys National School.
St. Mary’s was built in 1852 funded by a Board of Education Grant and local subscriptions. The granite building is still in use for educational purposes, currently housing a Montessori school and a Youth Club.
The first roll book of the school is dated 1861. The old school originally consisted of one room of 13 m. x 10 m x 7m in which children whose ages ranged from three to fourteen years were taught. Another room 4m x 4m x 2m was added later. It is interesting to note that in 1918 the average number of boys on the roll was 60.7, approximately one-fifth of the number at present attending now.
The present school building was opened in 1968 and continued to have an enrolment of approximately 300 pupils until the middle of the 1980s when it declined to 50 pupils. Since 1987, enrolment numbers have gradually risen back up to approximately 300.
Back in March 2022 this famous pub was put on the market as the O’Rorke [maybe O’Rourke] family were retiring from the trade after 40 years. To the best of my knowledge it was known as the Punch Bowl until 1996 when it was sold by Ken Featherstone who had acquired the Victor Hotel.
The Pub’s location was immortalised in the iconic 19th century ballad, ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’. whose name is reputed to derive from the very Rock Road on which the Punch Bowl stands.
This famous tavern, once the haunt of notorious highwaymen, was first licenced in 1779 when William Scully, the then landlord, served such patrons as the Fitzwilliams, Barons of Thorncastle and Viscounts of Merrion. The landmark location has seen more than its share of history and tragedy in the 200 years since it first opened its doors.
A tranquil November day in 1807 turned to catastrophe as The Prince of Wales’ transport ship was caught in a sudden northeasterly gale as it tried to leave Dublin Bay. In violent seas, it foundered on the rocks just south of Booterstown. The Captain escaped with his family and crew, but all 120 soldiers aboard perished. Their bodies washed ashore on Booterstown Strand and their bodies were buried in a quiet graveyard a five minute walk from the pub.
This tragedy was the impetus to the building of Dún Laoghaire Harbour, which was initially called “Dunleary”, then “Kingstown”, and now “Dún Laoghaire”. Dublin port was hampered by a sandbar, which meant that ships could enter or leave only at high tide. A solution, the building of the North Bull Wall, had been identified by Vice-Admiral William Bligh in 1800. If there was a storm, a ship would have to ride out the storm in the open sea, waiting for the tide.
“The bay of Dublin has perhaps been more fatal to seamen and ships than any in the world, for a ship once caught in it in a gale of wind from ENE to SSE must ride it out at anchors or go on shore, and from the nature of that shore the whole of the crews almost invariably have perished.” – Captain Charles Malcolm of George IV’s royal yacht.
A pier had been built at Dún Laoghaire, now known as the “coal harbour”, in 1767, but it had rapidly silted up. The early nineteenth century was unusually stormy. Dublin Bay was notoriously treacherous for boats. The remains of at least 600 vessels rest at the bottom of the bay.
Booterstown Marsh, a Nature Reserve, is located in Booterstown, County Dublin, between the coastal railway line and the Rock Road. It is an area of salt marsh and muds, with brackish water. It includes the only salt marsh, and the only bird sanctuary, in south Dublin Bay. It lies just outside the boundary of Dublin city, and just north of Booterstown DART station and its car park.
The marsh belongs to the residual Pembroke Estate, and An Taisce administer it, having acquired a lease in 1970-1971 and having designated it a bird sanctuary. It is part of both a proposed Natural Heritage Area (NHA) and a proposed Special Area of Conservation (SAC), and of the South Dublin Bay and River Tolka Estuary Special Protection Area (SPA).
The marsh is immediately adjacent to the Rock Road, the main coastal route from Dublin city to Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Dalkey, and close to the N11. There is paid parking at the DART station. Some Dublin Bus routes pass along the road also. It can be viewed from all sides, although viewing from the DART platform requires a train ticket, and there is a small viewing area with seating at the northwestern corner, opposite the end of Trimleston Avenue. An overhead view can be obtained from the footbridge across the railway line.
Oil spills in 1982 and, more severely in 1985, led to de-oxygenation of the marsh. The vegetation came to be dominated by Bolboschoenus maritimus, a rush that could withstand the salty conditions, though the re-discovery of a rare species of grass following some works on the drainage enhanced the conservation status of the marsh. In response the flap valves were removed, allowing a free flow of salt water that is rich in oxygen.
Aside from the formation of the two mud islands for birds in 2006, no major work has been performed on the marsh in recent years, although a viewing area was made on a small pocket of land just to the north.
There are three main habitats ranging from near-freshwater in the north-western corner to near-saltwater by the DART station, with a graduation between.
In recent years, the condition of the mud and water have improved, and birds have returned in large numbers. The scirpus growth has significantly reduced, and the many other species of plant occurring in the marsh have recovered. One of these, Puccinellia fasiculata, commonly “Borrer’s saltmarsh grass,” is protected, along with its habitat. Other flora include salt-tolerant species such as sea milkwort, false fox sedge, and sea spurrey.
The marsh area attracts moorhen, common teal, reed bunting, coot, mallard, sedge warbler, common snipe, little egret, northern lapwing, Eurasian oystercatcher, bar-tailed godwit, common redshank, dunlin, knot and brent goose. Additional species breeding in the marsh or visiting from nearby breeding locations include blackbird, dunnock and wren. Rarer visitors but sometimes sighted are grey heron, spotted redshank, ruff and little stint, Eurasian sparrowhawk and pied avocet. A short-billed dowitcher was present at the site from 2004-2005. Along the Nutley Stream kingfisher appear, and greenshank and water rail are seen in the south eastern corner. From the shore, common gull, herring gull and black-headed gull visit.
DAN MacCARTHY’S CUT OUT PEOPLE – PUBLIC PARK IN BLACKROCK
After many years, not having any details, I now know that this sculpture “Cut Out People’ by Dan MacCarthy.
Danny McCarthy is a founding director of the National Sculpture Factory and of Triskel Arts Centre and is a director the Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh. He has also curated numerous exhibitions and projects including Sound Out (with David Toop), Bend It Like Beckett, Sonic Vigil, Just Listen plus many more.
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