Wexford Walk

Small town Irish shopping streets are not yet dominated by chains and clones - there’s still a place for small locally owned and operated enterprises. Design decisions are idiosyncratic and provide much employment for local painters and decorators and specialists in hand-lettering. Bright and intense colours are widely favoured along with strong contrasts - often extending to the upper floors of the building. More contemporary stylings can be seen but they’re outnumbered by traditionalists, content to select their fonts from ancient pattern books. UPVC fascias and vinyl wraps are few and far between and even then, an element of eccentricity is never far away.  These examples were all seen on a short walk around the town centre of Wexford.

 

Irish Extremities

Above is a photo from 2010 of the Seaview Tavern at Malin Head in County Donegal. It is described as the most northerly Bar, Restaurant and Guesthouse complex in Ireland. Below is a photo from 2017 showing O'Sullivans at Crookhaven, County Cork - serving the most southerly pint in Ireland. The third photo is Creedons at Top of Coom on the border of Cork and Kerry. This claims to be Ireland's Highest Pub at 1,046 feet above sea level – there are other claimants to this distinction but none of them are over 1,000 feet. The spartan appearance follows a fire in 2012 – as a result the entire pub had to be rebuilt. All that remains is to locate Ireland’s Lowest Pub.

Bridges of 2017

After last year’s bridge bonanza, 2017 was a very modest year. Just 3 to display – one from Mizen Head in County Cork, one from the Dortmund-Ems Canal and lastly from Berlin, the Oberbaumbrücke. Mizen Head Footbridge is a concrete through-arch structure that links the Mizen Peninsula with the island of Cloghán, at the south westerly tip of County Cork. It replaced a life-expired original with a visually identical new bridge in 2011.

The Lucasbrücke road bridge crosses the Dortmund Ems Canal at Datteln, near Waltrop. An earlier bridge, built in 1899 was destroyed in the war in 1945. It was replaced by this structure that had been built for use in the Russian Campaign and had been left unused in a factory in Duisburg.

The Oberbaumbrücke crosses the River Spree, connecting Kreuzberg to Friedrichshain. It’s a two-level bridge with an elevated railway on the upper deck, built in 1894-96 to a design by Otto Stahn (1859-1930). Architecturally, it’s a mediaevalist fantasy every bit as silly as Tower Bridge in London with two defensive towers, cousins to London’s absurd Gothic grandeur. Inspiration for the towers came from the Mitteltorturm in Prenzlau. The Wehrmacht blew up the central section in 1945 to obstruct the advance of the Red Army. When Berlin was divided between the allies it became a crossing point between the Soviet and American sectors. The bridge itself came under the control of the DDR and following construction of the Wall in 1961 it was reduced to a pedestrian crossing. After German reunification the bridge was substantially rebuilt after decades of neglect. U-Bahn trains resumed running over the bridge in 1995.

Cork Flooring

The High Altar in the apse at St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork rests on a mosaic floor designed by William Burges. Crustaceans, molluscs and amphibians in mosaic form share the space with artisans, scholars and parfait knights. The initial inspiration for this piscatorial fantasy came from St. Matthew, “.... the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind”. There’s a useful account of the mosaics in J Mordaunt Crook’s William Burges and the High Victorian Dream – Crook is well disposed toward the mosaics but clearly regards them as a minor aspect of Burges’s achievement. Crook tells how they were manufactured in 1877 by Burke & Co. in Paris by a team of Italian craft-workers from Udine using Pyrenean marble fragments. The imagery has a light and playful character that is not something routinely found in a High Anglican place of worship but one of Burges’s many redeeming features was an appetite for fun and a liking for puns. The latter inspired him to include bobbing corks (unfortunately not visible in this selection) in his aquatic fantasia.

Homeland Guinness

Malin Head, County Donegal

It’s no surprise that the name of Guinness is attached to so many bars and pubs in its country of origin. This selection includes several examples that are homages to the celebrated range of posters illustrated for Guinness in the UK by James Gilroy. There’s a strong tradition of hand-painted publicity in Ireland and while some are more or less transcriptions of Gilroy originals at least one example, photographed in the north of Donegal, close to Malin Head, has been specially conceived for its coastal location.

Skibbereen, County Cork

Gougane Barra, County Cork

Dungarvan, County Waterford

Enniscorthy, County Wexford

Buncrana, County Donegal