20 DUNDALK LIFE

Looking back TRIP at Dundalk's T past H , with ROUG former Democrat H TIME editor Peter Kavanagh

Couldsomethinglikethis QUESTION TIMEXXXXXX

happenhereinDundalk? What was the 'Flying he built a large extension to C a rlto n' ? the Iron Works. This was one of the first Older Dundalk people, showbands in the North East. especially those connected It was formed in Drogheda in with the railway, referred to 1938 as the 'Carlton Dance this as 'Manisty's Siding'. My first thought when I first that war was going to be B a n d '. heard of the terrible disaster something different from In 1948 the musicians took Where was 'Page's Clump'? in Beirut last week was 'Could then on. an Aer Lingus flight from This was a wooded something like that happen My father must have seen Dublin to Shannon to play at a ornamental feature of the old in Dundalk'? plenty of the horrors as a dance hall in the Limerick Dundalk House Demesne

The first answer that came result of conflict, including area and the name was built by the landscape to my mind was 'Probably the shooting of his own sister invented by fans. gardener Thomas Wright for not! After all, Dundalk is not on a street in her native town They officially adopted the Lord Limerick, James like the Middle East!' Then, to become one of the very first name 'Flying Carlton' in 1950 Hamilton, in the 1740s. on reflection, I thought, civilian deaths of our own and were advertised as such Page's Clump was unusual, 'Maybe not, but it is probable terrible Civil War. in the Dundalk Democrat in compared to the other something quite unexpected Somehow, however, he July of 1955. This band should features of the Demesne will occur near enough to knew in 1945 that this event in not be confused with another which survived into the affect us greatly!' Japan was something popular showband, 'The twentieth century, in that it

The news brought back to different from all that had Clipper Carlton' from lay on the far side of the me a memory of a day sitting gone before. Straba n e. railway line. It was beside the on a beach in Donegal almost I am not at all boasting The 'Flying Carlton' were Brickworks along the exactly 75 years ago when my when I write that, during the popular for dances in this Castletown Road, about father read out an account of course of my journalistic area and may well have where the Clan na Gael the dropping of the first experience, I have witnessed included musicians who Clubhouse now stands and at atomic bomb on Hiroshima many violent deaths and originally came from the end of a railway down to in far away Japan. The injuries, from bombings, The remnants of Hiroshima in Japan after the dropping of Du n d a l k . the Brickworks. newspaper report must have shootings and even road the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 been printed some days after accidents that could have Where was 'Manisty's Which Dundalk licensed the actual event, which been avoided. and that many of them have where many Dundalk people F iel d ' ? premises was once known occurred on August 6, 1945, I have seen great suffering been connected with are now living? This was part of the old as 'The Cavalier'? but what I do remember was and sorrow but realise that Dundalk and district. Some For that reason I feel that Demesne before it was This was the pub at 16, that there was a beautiful we here in Ireland have been of those service men and we should be very grateful to purchased by the Dundalk Clanbrassil Street, acquired summer's day and that I was pretty lucky so far when it women in the Middle East people like John Hume and Urban Council in the 1920s. by Michael Rice and, more not really interested in what comes to terrible. have been killed or seriously others who have devoted It was a place where recently, James McKeown, was happening on the other For that reason I cannot wounded while doing their their lives to try to bring horses that worked in the old R eady p e ny. side of the world. accept the view of some that duty to try to preserve world peace to places where there is Iron Foundry off the Market At the beginning of the

What my father had to say, we are now living through 'the p eac e ! great division! Square were grazed. This 20th century it was owned by however, has remained in my worst of times' because of the I have no doubt that what Who really knows what Foundry, established by Alexander Watters who also memory ever since. present Covid pandemic! happened in Beirut last week the future may bring, either Alexander Shekleton in 1821, owned the next door grocery

He looked at me over his To get back to current was the outcome of conflict as a result of war or was purchased by Edward p re m i s e s . old fashioned reading glasses events in Lebanon, I am aware and that, indeed, it could environmental disasters? Manisty in 1878 and he greatly and said 'I hope you will not that many of my readers may happen here. What is certain is that the expanded its engineering QUESTIONS FOR NEXT WEEK live to see anything like this in believe that it has nothing to Maybe not death and Doomsday Clock is ticking output, mainly of agricultural What was the last Dance Ireland during your lifetime!' do with us here in Ireland and injuries in Dundalk on the towards Midnight. machinery, to become one of Showband formed in

Now I was old enough at in Dundalk in particular. scale that occurred on the Perhaps the best anyone of the largest employers in Du n d a l k? the time to have learned I would ask them, docks of Beirut last week but goodwill can do is to try to be Du n d a l k . Where and what was the about some of the horrors of however, to reflect on the fact whose is to say that it could more friendly and helpful to Manisty was also involved 'China Bridge'? the Second World War which that over 30,000 Irish not happen in the nearby those with whom we come in in many railway contracts What was manufactured was then coming to an end soldiers have served in the crowded cities of Dublin or contact --- And to pray that it and built a special railway in 'Halliday's Factory'? but it was that report that Lebanon over the course of Belfast or even in places on is not you 'For whom the Bell siding from Dundalk Central Where was 'Lipton's really brought home to me the past quarter of a century the mainland of Britain To l l s' ! Station into the Field where Grocery' in Dundalk?

The ‘Greatest Challenge’ and Blackrock

DUNDALKHISTORYCCCCCC to go on to Refugee Centres chaired an emergency Was this just another case Satu rd ay. further south. The Town meeting in the Newsroom of of forgotten heroes? There were not as many An extract which appeared raids on homes in the Border rose magnificently to the the Town Hall that as had been common in in the 'Tempest Annual' of areas heightened tension task and, for a couple of days, afternoon which got things Blackrock on a those days of long ago but it 1971-72 which was published just before the storm caused hundreds of voluntary moving to help the refugees. sunny day was great to see so many, by the Old Dundalk Society by Internment (Without workers, both lay and Another piece of news Just recently I was including laughing children, has reminded me that it is Trial) broke on August 9. religious, looked after these that I did not learn of for walking along Blackrock enjoying themselves in rare now 49 years since Dundalk For a few days the North unfortunate people in many years afterwards was Village with a friend on a su n s h i n e ! faced it 'Greatest Challenge' was virtually cut off to schools and religious that the engine driver of the sunny day when I was struck There was one thing that of the Troubles In Northern travellers from the South institutions throughout the train which carried the by the numbers who had bothered me, however, and I rel a n d . and then refugees began to Tow n .' refugees from Victoria ventured to the seaside that was the lack of social

The extract was taken pour across the Border. What this extract does Street Station in Belfast that while full tide was up to the distancing, among many from the annual summary Dundalk faced its not report was a fact to day was sacked by his Promenade wall. who were queueing up to buy events of the past year greatest challenge on the which I can bear witness that employers, Northern The scene reminded me food and liquids from published in the 'Dundalk evening of Thursday August the late Dan Devenney of Ireland Rail for doing so. of the great crowds that used kerbside outlets. In fairness, Democrat' in January of 12 when over 700 women Blackrock and Crowe Street, Fortunately, I am reliably to flock to what Dundalk folk some were keeping the two 1972. Under the heading and young children from was the chief organiser of informed, he later got a used affectionately call 'The meter distancing but there August 1971 it stated – Belfast arrived at the the Relief of the Refugees on position with C.I.E. Rocks' on the traditional were few wearing masks

'Things began to “h ot-u p” Railway Station without that memorable day. Regrettably I do not recall local holiday of the 15th when seen to be entering this month --- British Army prior notice and did not wish I can recall clearly that he his name! August which occurs next and leaving shops.