BUCHANAN: Dublin Time Machine

It was the Irish HQ of Lever Brothers, which made Sunlight soap. The magnifcent glazed ceramic friezes were made in 1902 by Conrad Dressler in Buckinghamshire. Among the figures are donkeys , babies, women washing, and men farming and building an arch.

Sunlight Chambers on the corner of Parliament Street and Essex Quay is an overlooked masterpiece. It wouldn't be out of place in Renaissance Rome. But the beautiful artwork is 20th century and actually represents the history of hygiene!

SOURCES
* Gary Branigan, "Ancient and Holy Wells of Ireland" (2012)
* tcd.ie/news_events
* independent.ie/irish-news/history

One final bizarre legend: frogs were supposedly introduced to Ireland via this well! One story says they spawned spontaneously; another claims a Protestant doctor imported spawn from Liverpool and threw it in to spite the Catholics. "That'll show that pesky pontiff!"

In 1610, an English journalist sardonically noted that on St. Patrick’s Day, the water became "more holy" or the citizens "more foolish," as heaps of men, women, and children would run to the site to perform ceremonies and drink from the ancient basin.

A 12th century text claims St. Patrick created the fountain "Moses style" by smacking a rock with his magic crozier. Later, property deeds from 1592 mention it as a boundary marker for the local monastery, proving its long standing importance to the geography of the city.

Ironically, its fate was tied to the Vikings. Originally 40 feet deep, the well was partially buried in the 17th century when debris from the "Thing Mote" (the Viking Parliament mound) was spread along the lane. This pushed the well underground, reducing its accessible depth to just 4 feet.

In 2009, a structural survey was performed due to worries that Luas line construction could damage the ancient site. Unfortunately, the only action taken was to lock it up permanently. Despite claims from other sites, archaeology supports this as the primary baptismal well for Dublin.

This is the magical Saint Patrick's Holy Well. Once a famous pilgrimage site, it was even the subject of a satirical poem by Dean Jonathan Swift. When the well dried up in 1729, Swift mocked the Trinity students, jokingly implying their debauchery and alcoholism had drunk the well dry.

Look near the garden of the Provost's House at the Trinity Arts building entrance. From the roadside, you'll see a 1950’s crumbling concrete pillar. But from the Trinity side, there is a locked gate, Georgian red bricks, and steps leading down to an ancient stone basin beneath the street!

There's a 1,600 year old hidden holy well in a very unexpected place! There was even a cryptic clue to its location on a now vanished old street sign for Nassau Street. The former Irish name mysteriously said, "Sráid Thobar Phádraig" or Patrick’s Well Road.

That being said, it is wrong that we should romanticise the idea of Irish people slipping through the cracks towards homelessness and solitude, without the option for help.

His quiet individualism and stoic nobility impressed and inspired thousands of strangers and secured him a place in Dublin history.

The gentleman known as Moses passed away in 1986. He was buried in Dean’s Grange Cemetery, with assistance from local charities and the hospital that had stood as his nearest neighbour for so long.

Yet when the snow finally melted, there he was again. Beard rimed with frost, staff in hand, seemingly indestructible.

He followed his daily route from Merrion Road, down to the strand, sometimes as far as Blackrock. During the Great Snow of 1982 even in this tempest where cars were abandoned and pipes burst, the city froze locals were sure Moses couldn't survive it.

Aparently he lived on the stretch of green and marshy land near Elm Park and St Vincent’s Hospital, the so-called Green Fields, before development swallowed much of them. Locals remember him living in a type of dugout, a hollowed shelter hidden in reeds and scrub near the Merrion Gate

He sported a long grey beard blown wild by the sea air. Overall his epic appearance was weather beaten and like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings he always weilded a staff as a walking stick. He rarely spoke.

The gentlemans real name was Tom, or Thomas. His surname may have been O’Malley or something similar. However local reverently knew him as Moses because he had the look of an Old Testament prophet. And the aura. I will refer to him thus, and with the same great respect.

Moses once walked the beaches of Dublin. In the 1970`s and 80`s. A distinguished senior citizen roamed from Merrion Road down to Sandymount Strand and onward towards Blackrock.

Stephens continued training and performing with lions elsewhere until his tragic death in 1953, when he was mauled by another lion named Pasha during a circus act.

Stephens himself urged guards to shoot once she tasted blood and became more aggressive. Garda marksmen shot the poor lioness dead in the street.

Gardaí quickly arrived to the scene, with armed officers crouching behind walls and lampposts, trying to track this alien big cat. Tragically, there were no tranquiliser darts to hand or protocol for dealing with wildlife.

Front doors were slammed and children were yanked indoors. The lioness was later cornered in a nearby open area, where she bit Stephens himself on the shoulder as he tried to coax her back to the yard behind the cinema.

I can't imagine how traumatised that poor lad must have been. The lion tamer, Stephens, was hot on the escaped animal's tail and wrestled her off the victim. Word spread surprisingly quickly, as many locals were expecting an inevitable event like this.

The big cat quickly made her way onto Merville Avenue. Disorientated, Zalinka first startled people in a local shop, then pounced on and mauled a local teenager who was pumping up a car tire outside a garage, inflicting severe injuries.

We're not clear whether it was a faulty latch, human error, or simple brute strength that unleashed the panicked predator on residential Fairview. Children and cinemagoers were exiting the matinee showing in the cinema when the lioness appeared on the streets.

On the day of the escape, the Fairview Grand was showing the jungle adventure Jungle Stampede. You couldn't make it up. One of Stephens’s lionesses, named Zalinka, managed to break free from her enclosure.

It was totally normal by the standards of the time that Stephens kept several full-grown lions in cages just yards from terraced houses, tram lines, and a steady stream of cinemagoers filing in for matinees.

An escaped lion roamed the streets of Fairview on a quiet Sunday afternoon in 1951! Back then, the Fairview Grand Cinema backed onto a small yard belonging to Bill Stephens, an Irish circus lion trainer whose animals were hired out to visiting shows and travelling acts.