Calendar boys! I met Pat Healy and Sean Moriarty on Tuesday. They were both fully clothed!

 By the way, I hear that the calendars are selling like hot cakes.

I had my money on this fellow No. 13, Western Passion who just beat Western Star at the post.

Can you see the rainbow over the town? No pot of gold for their punter anyway.

The fence builders were taking a rest between races.

Love at the races!

This is the newly revamped Captain Christy’s Bar. Below is the interior.


The Parade Ring

 You could bet on the Tote without ever leaving your comfortable vantage point by the bar window. Tote employee, Mairead is seen here taking a bet from her former teacher. It did not win on this occasion.

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Clerys

Much talk and much reminiscing about this iconic Dublin store this week. I took the following from Wikipaedia

The history of Clerys began in May 1853 when Mc
Swiney, Delany and Co. opened ‘The New or Palatial Mart’ on the site of the
present store in what was then Sackville Street. In 1883, the premises was
taken over and renamed by M. J. Clery (d.1896), a native of Bulgaden, Co.
Limerick.[1]William Martin Murphywas also involved in the business.

Clerys was bought out of receivership in 1941
by Denis Guiney (1893-1967)[2]for £250,000. (Denis Guiney came from Brosna. ) The receivers were Craig
Gardner & Co. Denis Guiney died in 1967 and his widow, née Mary Leahy,
continued to be Chairperson until her death on 23 August 2004 at the age of 103
years.[3]

 Clerys
also owned Denis Guiney’s original business,Guineysat 79Talbot Street, and operates three
home-furnishings stores under the brand name “Clerys Home
Furnishings” – inBlanchardstown,NaasandLeopardstown. These stores are now
closed as of Sept. 18 2012.

Clerys was placed into receivership on 17
September 2012.  It is to be taken over
by U.S firm, Gordon Brothers who have promised that all existing staff will be
kept on.

Clerys Clock

A large clock with two faces hangs above
Clerys’ central doors on O’Connell Street (opposite thestatue of Jim Larkin).
“Under Clerys’ clock” is a well-known rendez-vous, both for
Dubliners, and visitors from the countryside,[5]and is famous in the city’s culture as a place where many romances begin.[6][7]In 1990, on the fiftieth anniversary of Denis
Guiney taking over the store, a new clock was installed.

The following is from the blurb of Denis
Guiney’s biography. A remarkable Kerryman indeed!

Denis Guiney

Denis Guiney (1893-1967)
was one of the most remarkable Irishmen of his generation, who exerted through
his business career a significant influence on the development of the economy
and lifestyle of modern Ireland. As a draper, he rose from working in small
country shops to become the owner of one of the country’s biggest enterprises,
the largest private company then in Ireland, the successor to part of a
commercial empire created by a series of earlier Irish entrepreneurs, which he
transformed to serve the ever-increasing and ever-changing needs of the
population of a new kind of Ireland. He is one of those whose lives have
materially contributed to the creation of the country’s modern prosperity. Many
talked airily of a ‘New Ireland’. Denis Guiney helped create it.

It is sad to see the Talbot Street shop that bears his name close its doors. It sold everything “from a needle to an anchor” and was a very popular shopping emporium until recent times when  it was eclipsed by multi nationals.


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Robin O’Connell of the Kilkissan Wrenboys in Listowel in 2001. Here he is on Jer’s video telling stories to Ned O’Connor. He is very proud of his 4 in a row at Listowel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h66Yz6IS__U&list=UUvu6UB8pWOY7MMn5MxCtj-w&index=34&feature=plcp

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Emigration: A good thought provoking video with some home truths and some myths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dgWnW6iyko&feature=plcp