To Jimmy

This is a photo of Jimmy McLoughlin singing in a bar in Spain. A happy day for him and for all who were with him.

But on Tuesday 30th of October 2007 Jimmy left us.

Many from the Summerhill area drop in to read this blog, many who will know Jimmy. Bide a moment and remember him.

And to help you remember him, he lived at one time in 42K, right next door to Terry Kelly's pub which later became Hourican's. It stood at the corner of Lower Rutland Street and Summerhill. And Jimmy went to Rutland St school.

Jimmy, (or Jem as we used to call each other -- both of our real names being James) was a husband to Joan, a dad, a grandad, a brother, a brother-in-law...... a man of a big, loving family.... and a son still grieving at the passing of his dear mother May and of his father John.

He was a friend with an ever cheery word.. and I will miss that as well as the good natured slagging we sometimes shared when he regularly dropped by my home.

He shall be missed.

But a few words of a poem often help us ponder.... and to realise that...

There is no death!
The stars go down
To rise upon another shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine for evermore.

Jimmy loved music and song. He enjoyed the singing of Dean Martin and the tenor voices of Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti, a love of tenor voices I believe he inherited from his father who had a lovely tenor voice himself.

So I will leave you now Jimmy.... I will leave as Pavarotti the tenor maestro performs in a way that you loved.

Farewell Jem.... this is for you.....

A little Irish culture

It's now one week since I heard of the passing to her eternal reward of our friend from the GB, Sarah.

Sarah loved and was proud of her Irish roots.

So before I return to write again about the dear old mean streets of Dublin, and about my early life's experiences in those streets. I want to say a final farewell... adieu.. slán to Sarah (or Sally as she's known to her family)

This is not a mark of mourning at her passing, but a celebration of her life.

A piece of ceol agus rince.... always part of a true Irish way of bidding a final fond goodbye.

I think she would like this, it's the original Riverdance as it was seen for the first time here in Dublin.

For you Sarah.

Farewell Sarah

A guestbook, a shoutbox, the comments to posts in blogs. Who gives them much thought? Not many I'll bet. Most leave a note and that's it. Some don't even bother.

.

But you can meet some special people through writing in a guestbook. I and many others met such a special person.

If you read through one of my shoutboxes or many of the comments to my posts you'll see the name Sarah.

I first 'met' Sarah on another guestbook, the one for the Gardiner St Website Sarah was a daily visitor there, spreading her cheer and chat with the other regulars on that guestbook. Yes it's that kind of guestbook, one where people from all over the world meet, get to know each other and become friends. I chose a yellow rose here because in a recent topic on roses Sarah said her favourite is yellow.

Now Sarah has left us. She went to her eternal reward on 10th of this month.

This beautiful yellow rose is for you Sarah.

I offer my deepest sympathy to her family, friends and everyone who knew and loved her.

We will all miss you Sarah, but are comforted in knowing that you are in a better place. May God bless you and all who love you.

~Ár deis Dia go raibh a n-ainm.~

He's moved!

He isn't here at the moment. We're just minding some of this stuff that he has all parcelled up to move to the new blogger page.

We can't understand why he's moving at all, but who can understand humans anyway?

But he asked us to mention to anyone dropping in (he thinks we can talk too!) that he's working hard moving all the stuff from the old blog to the new one. Said something about the new one being easier because of something called elements.

Anyway, give him a few days to get everything sorted and he'll be back waffling about his time as a kitty... oops that should be a human kid.

Oh yeh, and he said the web address will remain the same.

He left a game for you humans to play with, it's at the bottom. Nothing for us though!

Anyone got a bit o' fish or something to donate to us minders? The parcels are comfortable to sleep on but no good for eating.... we tried.

Bye for now. (Right gang, lets see whats in that big square one... )

I'm on the move

But only to the new blogger.

The address will remain the same and none of the posts should change.

However the add-ins like guestbook, map and other bits and pieces should look neater by the time I've completed the move. At least I hope so.

The blog might look a bit different in a day or two, but please bear with me. Things can only get better. (fingers crossed)

Very soon I'll be back with my stories of growing up in Dublin's inner city.... I've been doing a lot of thinking and remembering, so drop back often if you're interested.... and even if you're not because you might become interested. And believe me, if you have even the slightest interest in old Dublin I have lots to tell you.

Seeya soon.