Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Dublin Street Characters

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Dublin Street Characters

    DAMNTHEWEATHER was a Dublin Street Character who roamed around the City in the 40's and 50's frightening people to death.
    A star in the world of Dublin street characters of his time, he was as well known as Bang Bang and as much feared Johnny Forty Coats.

    His pecularity was to creep up behind people in the street, especially window shoppers....scream out "DAMNTHEWEATHER" as he slapped both arms around his chest and stamped his foot on the ground...enough to give ye a dose of the skutters for a week.....harmless in all other ways....as a kid me and me Ma had our hearts put in our mouth many's a time when he struck.

    Unkempt and unshaven, he was a ragged looking fella, and looked a bit like his contemporary "One Eye Ball" (more later), they both had dark features and a hairy face. DTW wore a long faded tatty old black overcoat tied tight in the middle with a piece of rope, no hat and open necked shirt. He was unclean.

    In summer or winter he wore the same old cloths,like most of these old characters,but it's thought he damned the summer more than he damned the winter !

    Thomas Street and the Liberties was his favorite haunt and he used to dine with all his fellow characters in John's Lane Church beside the hot pipes.

    The hot wall in Bridgefoot St, where Thompson's Bakery ovens baked the bread on one side and heated the poor of Dublin on the other side was only used in the mornings and early afternoons.

    A regular line up at the hot wall included. J.Forty Coats,Hairy Yank,Hairy Lemon,Shell Shock Joe,and the Bugler Dunne.

    There were others down the years, and some I saw first hand and others my folks told me about, others I found in books.....they were;

    The No1 man...'BANG ! BANG !' later to become Thomas Lord 'Bang Bang' Dudley.....Zozimus....Endimion....The Bird Flanagan....President Keeley.......Tie Me Up.............Lino.....All Parcels ........Lillian Mc Evoy.....The Toucher Doyle..Jumbo No Toes.....Mad Mary....Jack the Tumbler Dan Donnely....Specs.....Matt Talbot...Siki 'Cyclone' Warren.....Billy in the Bowl...Dunlavin....Hamlet....Uncle...Rock...Prince of Denmark...The Blind Artillery Man...The Professor and Davy Stephens, to name a few..........Some of us have been down this road before, but no Dub forum would be worth it's salt without a mention of Dub's famous street characters, so if you have any experiences or knowledge of any characters jot it down here for the future. PS; have never found a pic of DTW.

    Summer's too bloody hot
    Winter's too bloody cold
    Spring is only for lambs
    and Autumn for cleaning trees
    Oh, Oh, Oh, damn the weather.
    We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

  • #2
    Hoyer Kelly and his dog Rusty.

    James Plunkett said he used the life of Hoyer to portray Rashers Tierney in Strumpet City.

    Rashers lived in a basement depending on the kindness of neighbours.

    Hoyer lived in a hallway (Corporation Buildings) depending on the kindness of neighbours.

    Both characters lived almost parallel lives. Both died in horrible circumstances, but in Hoyer's case poor Rusty was never seen after his master was found dead.
    'Never look down on a person unless you're helping them up'.
    .

    Comment


    • #3
      BANG BANG has to be next if not first.

      Bang Bang was an orphan who was brought up by the nuns in Cabra, and is recorded as having told Eamonn MacThomais "I had no mammy or daddy, I was born in the Rotunda, I had another mammy in Hill Street"

      His real name was Thomas Dudley, born in the Rotunda maternity Hospital 1907. For most of my childhood he was living in the ground floor room of a tenement house on the corner of Mill Lane with Newmarket. I remember tatty curtains and a broken pane of glass, and although he was very friendly, I would run past his place for fear of 'something' happening.

      He is known to have worked for a while as a kitchen porter in Rialto Hospital, he's better known as one of Dubs best loved and most colourful characters.

      He was reputed to have loved cowboy films and even had a free pass to one cinema.....he would ride on the trams and later the step of the open backed busses of te 50's and as the bus pulled away from a stop, anyone left in the queue was shot at with a big old fashioned door key as he shouted bang bang numerous times in succession until the bus was way up the street. One of his favourites was the No 54 which passed up Clanbrassil Street, as kids we would have great gas shooting back at him.

      It wasn't unusual for adults to join in a fire-fight with Bang Bang, hiding in doorways shooting away using their fingers as a gun, gripping various make believe wounds on their bodies and falling down pretending to be dead.

      One story goes that he met with Johnny Forty Coats around the Liberties and they played out their own long version of the OK Coral.

      As age and bad eyesight began to curtail his cowboy days, he reinvented himself as Lord Dudley, but was puzzled why people didn't call him Lord Dudley.....He told Eamonn Mac Tomais....."I don't use it much (his gun) now, not since I became Lord Dudley" as he drew out his key....and shot Eamonn with the familiar shout 'Bang Bang'.

      On another occasion Eamonn met him in Thomas Street in 1973 during the Liberties Festival on his way to the traditional concert of Irish music at St Catherine's ....he invited Bang along and later introduced him to the audience...Bangers as usual whipped out his key and proceeded to shoot everyone in the place. the audience gave him a tremendous reception and their faces were brightened up with smiles of affection for their one and only Bang Bang.

      Outside afterwards he thanked Eamonn for taking him in saying "Thank you, sir, for bringing me in, sir. They all know me, sir. They like me too, sir. It's a lovely church, sir. It's the first time I was ever in it, sir, and they liked me sir". Eamonn gave him a few bob for a jar, bang smiled, though his eyes were sad and weak, and he kept mouthing under his breath..." they like me, they like me, sir" He held Eamonn's hand in an iron grip for about twenty minutes and again went over his life story. "You know where I live now, sir, call anytime, just ask for Lord Dudley, sir". He let go of the hand and stood at the door of Ryan's pub....and watched until Eamonn turned the corner into John's Lane.

      Having lived out the later years of his life in an old folks cottage in Bridgefoot St, he was taken it by the Rosminian fathers at the home for the blind, and died there on the 11th of January 1981 and now rests in peace in St Joseph’s cemetery next to Clonturk House.

      I often wondered what happened to his famous key....and recently the key surfaced courtesy of a friend of Bang Bang's who was bequeathed the historic 'gun'. It was presented to a Dublin museum and is now on display in it's own posh case, a fitting tribute preserved for future generations to learn about a simple soul who became one of Dublin's very own unique superstars.
      Attached Files
      We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

      Comment


      • #4
        More tributes to Thomas Lord "Bang Bang" Dudley.
        3 With Eamonn Mac Tomais.
        4. In his room at Clonturk House 1980.
        5. I found this copy of a photo hanging on the wall by the bar in Fallon's Pub on the Coombe.
        Attached Files
        We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

        Comment


        • #5
          More bang Bang.......1. the 'gun' .......2. name etched into the steps of the Coombe memorial entrance.
          3. His final resting place St Joseph's Cemetry adjacent to Clonturk House.

          Attached Files
          Last edited by DAMNTHEWEATHER; 02-02-2013, 06:13 PM.
          We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

          Comment


          • #6
            God bless Bang Bang, a real character !

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Rashers View Post
              Hoyer Kelly and his dog Rusty.

              James Plunkett said he used the life of Hoyer to portray Rashers Tierney in Strumpet City.

              Rashers lived in a basement depending on the kindness of neighbours.

              Hoyer lived in a hallway (Corporation Buildings) depending on the kindness of neighbours.

              Both characters lived almost parallel lives. Both died in horrible circumstances, but in Hoyer's case poor Rusty was never seen after his master was found dead.
              Very interesting Rashers...never knew that...one of the best books I ever read. The Actor...The Writer....The Character.
              Attached Files
              We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by maire View Post
                God bless Bang Bang, a real character !
                He was that Marie. He would have made a good piano player. Our member Tommy lived in the same house as Bang in Mill Lane...and his ma and neighbours used to feed him and do a bit of washing. Tommy knew him as well as any.
                Attached Files
                We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by DAMNTHEWEATHER View Post
                  Very interesting Rashers...never knew that...one of the best books I ever read. The Actor...The Writer....The Character.
                  Change the face and height on Rahers and you have Hoyer, same coat and all. But Hoyer was a tall man, said to have been an ex-Irish Guardsman who came home from WW2 shocked, and then found that his girlfriend had married another.

                  You never saw Hoyer without his faithful Rusty at his side. Rusty was of indeterminate parentage, and looked just like Rashers Rusty.

                  Hoyer was a gentleman of the old school.

                  Later a story of him and my uncle Scotty. Scotty was one of the Don school that played at the Custom house.
                  'Never look down on a person unless you're helping them up'.
                  .

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Bang Bang Speaks and Shoots.

                    "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.”

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Rashers View Post
                      Change the face and height on Rahers and you have Hoyer, same coat and all. But Hoyer was a tall man, said to have been an ex-Irish Guardsman who came home from WW2 shocked, and then found that his girlfriend had married another.

                      You never saw Hoyer without his faithful Rusty at his side. Rusty was of indeterminate parentage, and looked just like Rashers Rusty.

                      Hoyer was a gentleman of the old school.

                      Later a story of him and my uncle Scotty. Scotty was one of the Don school that played at the Custom house.
                      Great stuff....Big Don and Little Don eh !.
                      We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I loved watching the Lady Who Danced on O'Connell Street

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          i remember bang bang very well.....we would run after the bus as he stood on the platform.....

                          being a cowboy was a very big part of a Dublin kids life in those days.....

                          My two claims to Dublin fame are.....being held (painfully) by the ear, by both bang bang and lugs brannigan.....
                          Here Rex!!!...Here Rex!!!.....Wuff!!!....... Wuff!!!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by bigby View Post
                            I loved watching the Lady Who Danced on O'Connell Street
                            Another great character Biggsy....I never saw her but have followed her progress and collected photos of her in action. Reportd to be still alive and kicking in her eighties. A hairdresser in her younger days, when age and her eyesight got the better...she gave up the dancing....Though sent a message of thanks to all her admirers in Dublin. She even has her own dedicated face Book page. Well worth a mention in this hall of fame.
                            Attached Files
                            We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by quinner View Post
                              i remember bang bang very well.....we would run after the bus as he stood on the platform.....

                              being a cowboy was a very big part of a Dublin kids life in those days.....

                              My two claims to Dublin fame are.....being held (painfully) by the ear, by both bang bang and lugs brannigan.....
                              I only got lugged by lugs. never stopped long enough for a bang offa Bang Bang....
                              We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X