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Post by maryfarrell6 on Nov 20, 2009 7:34:54 GMT
Hi Jerry and all, I'm nearly sure it was 1972. Frank O'Shea was running the athletic club there at that time which was a big hit with a lot of us kids. So the fire came as a big shock and disappointment to all involved in the club. :(Frank had put so much work in training and encouraging everyone and there were some fine young athletes in the making emerging within the club. Franks two daughters were great 400m and 800m runners there were shot-putters long and high jumpers, all the track and field events were covered. The gym was well equiped with indoor track and and was a hive of activity on training nights. I loved it could'nt keep us away. So there were a few tears shed when we went to survey the burned out remains not a good day. It didn't only serve the curragh Art Nolan from Newbridge used to bring his son Paul a county runner to use the facilities and also to have 'pacemakers' to run with him. There were certainly plenty of the lads to take him up on that offer and needless to say he wasn't always first to cross the line! Because as I said we had some very talented kids there. I'm sure we used to train on a Tuesday night anyone out there who was part of the club? Best Regards MaryF
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Post by shamtheman on Nov 20, 2009 8:07:18 GMT
Hi all, Remember the fire, it being only across the road from home. Not sure of the year, but Ger Tobin's brother had got himself the latest technology in the form of a hand-held camera (video?) and recorded it for posterity. Be interesting to know if it survived all these years.
The gym was also the place where we would hold 24 hour soccer blitzes for charity,
Sham
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Post by mary carroll on Nov 20, 2009 10:35:38 GMT
Hi All I'm trying so hard to remember the fire in the gym but for the life of me I can't, and I only lived in Connolly Tce at the time, maybe it's the alcohol and loss of brain cells. I was also involved in a lot of the sport, although that was a couple of years later, couldn't run to the shop now. Oh happy days where have they gone?
Mary C
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Post by jerry on Nov 20, 2009 18:01:33 GMT
Mary, Many thanks for that left the Curragh in 1970 so missed the two big firesGym and the Cinema. Not much left of the Curragh that we grewup in mores the pity. Regards Jerry
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Post by Matt McNamara on Nov 20, 2009 22:06:15 GMT
Hi All
I remember the old gym well as I lived on O’Higgins Tce. I also remember one week to the night that it burnt down, my brother Donal and many more lads off the camp were playing a 24Hr Indoor Soccer Blitz as mentioned by Sham. After it burned down the ruin was a great place for a game of War or Hide and Seek. The roof of the burned side collapsed with the heat of the fire but did not break off from the other side. This was great because you could climb from ground level on to the roof and go all the way in the direction of Plunkett and over the remaining good section.
I don’t know what age I was, maybe 7 or 8, but I do remember also when the site was cleared many months later, I was walking across the now clear of metal but a lot of charred wood and bolts and nails. But as I was kicking my way across the black charred wood pieces I heard the distinctive sound of a coin. I looked where I was walking and spotted and old penny, it was too badly scorched and blackened to see what it was. So I put it in my pocket and headed home and showed it to my mother. Mam put it in a potato and left it on a shed roof out the back. I forgot about it for weeks and finally remembered one day and opened the potato to reveal a like new 1 penny coin dated 1897 with Queen Victoria’s head on the back. I still have the coin (Joey might say I still have my Communion Money), but I always wonder who lost it and how long ago.
Matt
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Post by kellquinn on Nov 22, 2009 20:36:27 GMT
Hi Matt and all. Remembering the old Gym. The Football pitch outside the Old Gym was actually laid and prepaired by the German Internees, interned in the internment Camp at the time, if you ever walked on it it was soft and springy and would be on par with Old Trafford. I remember the annual school sports held annually on that particular grounds, the free ice cream supplied by the Canteen board wheere every school going kid got a ticket for same. As for that penny you found Matt you might as well keep it and add it to you Communion Money,
Regards
Joey
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Post by kellquinn on Nov 22, 2009 20:50:46 GMT
Me again. I actually have a fourpenny ticket in my wallet for the matinee in the Curragh Picture House I honestly must have forgotten to hand it in, anyway I had it covered in sellotape and it could never be torn. I also have some of the coinage that was used in the Internment Camp in 1940, a 2/- (two bob) and 2 x 1d coins. Remembering when I got married in January 1971, Father Greg Brophy who performed the ceremony gave me a 1966, 50th anniversary coin to commerate the 1916 Rising as a keepsake it was the equivelant of Ten shillings at the time, and I also remember getting paid with them when I was in the School of Music, we found it very hard to cash them in Dublin at the time, however I still have that coin.
Regards
Joey
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Nov 22, 2009 20:53:52 GMT
Hi Joey,
Can only remember one school sports being held at the gym field, after that they were held at McDonagh, we still got the free ice cream though and Bridie Troy always won the slow bicycle race "Up Pearse"
Ellen Bolger and Monica O'Brien were usually in front when it came to the sack race "Up McDonagh"
Cheers,
Rose.
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Post by kellquinn on Nov 22, 2009 21:02:21 GMT
Hi Rose Yes I agree that the sports later transferred down to the Mc Donagh Gym Field, this was after the fire in the old Gymnasium. Pearse had the Long Jump winner for many years due to the prowess of long slim murphy, (2 all), "up Pearse" I often queried that sack race, as the sack used by Mons and Ellen were that large you could hold a barn dance in them. Regards
Joey
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Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Nov 22, 2009 22:06:57 GMT
Hi Joey.
When did the old gym go on fire, for the life of me can't remember.
I beg to differ re: the size of the sack, if thats the case the chain on Bridie's bike must have been rusted through.
Rose.
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Post by shamtheman on Nov 22, 2009 22:20:24 GMT
Hi All, The Gym Field was our Theatre of Dreams, where O'Higgins Tce. took on all-comers in the inter- barracks soccer leagues where there was never a crowning of Champions at the end of the season! We just went to the next popular sport.
O'Higgins Tce were by far the best, with legends such as Bobby Harris, Pabo Caffrey (always sniffing around the imaginary box), Paddy and Tommy Fahey, Mono Goff, the Whelans, the Flynns, the Coghlans, John Rochford and my brother Sean, who was later signed by Suncroft! The likes of Ceannt Rovers, Clarke Bombers and Orchard Park (the new kids on the block with Cagney Phelan as captain fantastic) tried hard, and had the occassional win, but the cream eventually rose to the top.
Summer holidays meant no soccer, so our close season was taken up by the goings on of the day. June/July was Athletics, and who can forget Eamonn Coghlan's escapades of Montreal'76, when what seemed like the whole Terrace was crammed into Goff's sittingroom to see him just miss an Olympic Medal. August was always Showjumping and the Aga Khan Trophy. Us kids were so imaginative that we had no difficulty being both rider and horse, and whipping the arses off ourselves with sticks in an effort to beat the clock. A great example of man and beast blending into one sporting machine. We built the fences with whatever we could get our hands on, but one year we found a discarded double mattress which became the landing ground for the biggest Puissance Wall we ever built.
Towards the end of school holidays, Gaelic Football was the thing. I remember us fetching balls for one Dermot Earley in his heyday, as he meticulously practiced his free-taking in the Gym Field. I certainly hope the roaring and shouting and jostling for position of us kids wasn't the reason for his being remembered as the Greatest Gaelic Footballer Never To Have Won An All Ireland! (and I sincerely hope Father and Son won't be remembered for it either!)
However, Soccer Was King. We our heroes as best we could, in our heads at least. We adored Giles, Crerand, Gordon Banks, Shay Brennan, Peter Hutchinson, Terry Cooper, the Charltons, Stanley Bowles, Paddy Mulligan and God Himself, Georgie! Matches could last for 10, 20 or even 120 minutes, depending on numbers, weather, rows (of which there were many) or whether the fella who owned the ball got the hump or got called in for his tea! One thing's for sure, with jumpers for goalposts, we never hit the post or got a rebound from the crossbar.
Seamus Heaney summed it up perfectly in one of his poems: 'Youngsters shouting their heads off in a field As the light died and they kept on playing..... In time that was extra, unforeseen and free.'
Oh Happy Days indeed!
Sham
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Post by maryfarrell6 on Nov 22, 2009 23:22:37 GMT
Hi Joey, Rose Sham and all. Joey I think the sports day moved to McDonagh a good few years before the fire in the old gym. Why I'm saying this is I'm the proud owner of an inscribed plaque which is dated 1968 I won this for the 80m sprint [unusual distance I know] also won the 60 and 100m sprints and that was at McDonagh. Now for several years before that Marie Brown and myself won the three legged race several years running also there, and we didn't do to badly in the relays either a few more to add to Pearse's total Another prize still in daily use today 31 years down the line is a set of green cut glass trifle dishes won the same summer not bad going. As well as the inscription theres a small raised carving of the water and clock tower on the plaque. Matt if you think it might be of any interest to the musuem you're more than welcome to have it. Regards to all MaryF
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Post by maryfarrell6 on Nov 23, 2009 7:03:33 GMT
Hi all, Oops sums not up to what they used to be, grey matter fading fast that should have been 41 years not 31[just a trifle out!!!] Regards MaryF
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Post by kathyo on Nov 24, 2009 11:40:53 GMT
hi tommy h as you know me and youre lovely mum were great friends growing up iremenber she had an older sister was her name called anglela any way when me and youre mum (rip) dident have anything to wear to the hop we (borrowed) her lovely dresess we always made sure to hang them back where we found them.she would have killed us .if she knew all the best kathyo
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Post by marykeane on May 19, 2012 22:01:05 GMT
Hi All,
I remember the Gala's in the Swimming Pool when the guys would come down from the Guinness Baths to compete with the like of Paul Hyland, Donal O'Connell a few of the Douglas Lads and there was a guy called Desmond Cullen whose Father was called Tommy Cullen (he was one of the instructors) including Pete Madden, Maxi Hannigan and ? Kelly.
The girls (meaning us) also competed Olivia O'Connor, Pat Coughlan, Kay Kehoe, Rose Mc, Maeve Douglas cant remember many more I know there were a few outsiders (Meaning they were not Curraghites) they were great days and if you won a prize it was better than winning the Pools!!!!
Does anyone remember the hops in the Wess? and before that the Irish Dancing?The Ceili's?
Mary K
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