Remembering Tolka Row

Market Street, February 2025

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A Charity Shop Find

One of the great joys of shopping in charity shops is finding treasures like this.

There are thousands of Irish books published each year. They are often short print runs and when they are gone they’re gone. Every now and again a great one turns up in a charity shop. This is one such.

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Cora, My Little Footballer

This is Cora Darby, my granddaughter. She loves football, both Gaelic and Soccer.

When her team, Lakewood Under 14s, played Ballyouster of Kildare in the National Cup, Cora was captain for the game.

Lakewood girls Under 14

They won. Now their next game is against a Drogheda club and they have home advantage. I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile in Dublin…

Sean is in tennis action with his intervarsity team.

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Tolka Row

Tolka Row is an Irish television drama serial that aired on RTE One from 1964 to 1968, set in a fictional housing estate on the northsideof Dublin.^[1] Based on Maura Laverty‘s play of the same name, Tolka Row was first broadcast on 3 January 1964 and aired weekly for five series until it ended on 31 May 1968.^[2 Wikipedia

These two pictures were published in Ireland’s Own. The late Maura Laverty is also the same Maura who wrote Full and Plenty.

This scene from the soap depicts the the Nolans and their neighbours in the sitting room of the Nolan house. The Nolans and their neighbours, the Feeneys, were working- class Dublin families living in the North side of the city.

It was a very regrettable practice in the early days of Telefís Eireann, to wipe the videotape after an episode was broadcast and reuse the tape. So, only the final episode of the four year series is extant.

I loved the show and like me many others loved the glimpse inside a part of Ireland we never saw in real life. Before television, there was huge urban rural disconnect. Tolka Row and its successor, The Riordans, introduced city folk and country folk to one another. It was a great learning experience.

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If you have Money Problems

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Exciting Opportunity for “Mid- Career Artists’

St. John’s in February 2025

St. John’s Theatre, Listowel, Co. Kerry, and the Irish Arts Center, New York, are inviting applications for the County Exchange international residency for mid-career artists. 

Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Kerry County Arts Office, the County Exchange residency aims to connect artists from the experimental theatre, dance, and performance sectors in Ireland and New York. 

Seven selected artists (four from Ireland, three from New York) will spend two weeks in Listowel (19 May–2 June 2025) and one week in New York (January 2026, dates TBC). The residency provides accommodation, travel, a daily subsistence allowance, and a €1,000 fee. 

Interested applicants should submit a 100-word statement of purpose, contact details, a brief bio, and links to previous work by email to newyorklistowel@gmail.com by Monday, February 24th, 2025, at midnight.

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A Fact

The first Winter Olympic Games were held at Chamonix in 1924.

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