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Dublin Street Characters

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  • #16
    Jembo No Toes

    Another integral part of life in the Liberties was Jembo-No-Toes.

    Poor old Jembo was a blind artillery-man, and he was called No Toes because he suffered with bad feet, and to get some air circulating around them, he cut the toe-caps out of his shoes.

    Patrick Street was his regular haunt,and could be see most days on his rounds with his toes stickin ouriv ezze boots and singing his personal signature tune;

    I don't want to go to the trenches no more
    Where the alley man's guns shatter and roar.
    Oh! my Oh! me, take me home over the sea,
    Back to the Liberties.
    We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

    Comment


    • #17
      Flower was another "Dapper" Gentleman,,,wore a flower on his suit coat,,hung around Patrick Street.

      Another Mad Mary, was to be seen in the Rathmines/Ranelagh area,,she would always had a slice of old stale bread in her hand,eating it and closing everybodys front garden gates,mostly seen on the Lower Mount Pleasant Ave.

      also Robin Hood,,,,lived on Lr Mt Pleasant Ave,,dressed in full RH Garb with Real Bow and arrows,,he was harmless.
      I'm a Freeborn Man of the Travellin' People

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      • #18
        Originally posted by tommie View Post
        Flower was another "Dapper" Gentleman,,,wore a flower on his suit coat,,hung around Patrick Street.

        Another Mad Mary, was to be seen in the Rathmines/Ranelagh area,,she would always had a slice of old stale bread in her hand,eating it and closing everybodys front garden gates,mostly seen on the Lower Mount Pleasant Ave.

        also Robin Hood,,,,lived on Lr Mt Pleasant Ave,,dressed in full RH Garb with Real Bow and arrows,,he was harmless.
        You've just tweeked my memory of Flower...and Mad Mary, but I didn't know about Robin Hood.

        The whole place used to be crawling with oul spunkers lyin in doorways and down alleys...everytime you'd take a short cut through the back lanes you'd see one and have te run like uck the opposite way, they'd frighten the bejayziz out of ye..
        Attached Files
        We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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        • #19
          or the Gypsy Lady who hung around the East Wall,,saw her one time early in the morning on me way to Lincoln & Nolans,,having a bath in a horse trough,,she drank in a pub close to New Wapping St
          I'm a Freeborn Man of the Travellin' People

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          • #20
            Originally posted by tommie View Post
            or the Gypsy Lady who hung around the East Wall,,saw her one time early in the morning on me way to Lincoln & Nolans,,having a bath in a horse trough,,she drank in a pub close to New Wapping St
            she was known as penny.......a great looking girl in her time...
            Here Rex!!!...Here Rex!!!.....Wuff!!!....... Wuff!!!

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            • #21
              the Paper seller,,think his name was Paddy Hackett,outside Searsons pub,,,Press,Hearld or Mailllllllllllllllllll.and the mute young lad who off sided him always wanted to fight us young lads
              I'm a Freeborn Man of the Travellin' People

              Comment


              • #22
                Thom McGinty aka The Diceman was a street mime artist on Grafton Street in the Eighties
                Attached Files

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                • #23
                  Does Mickser Reid get a mention elsewhere.
                  Attached Files
                  Old age and treachery will outdo youth and skill anyday

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                    My Great Uncle Mickser Reid.

                • #24
                  Originally posted by Sharkface View Post
                  Does Mickser Reid get a mention elsewhere.
                  Ironically Mixer was reputed to have later got a job as a nipper on the demolition of the Theatre Royal where he used to earn a living.
                  HAIRY LEMON
                  A Dublin City Dog Catcher...Hairy Lemon, was a Dub street character who frightened kids and adults to death just be the look of him. There's a Pub and a cafe named after him in the City. He was a raggedy individual,with wispy stubble on his face which was shaped a bit like a lemon.
                  We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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                    Mickser Reid was my Great Uncle. He got a part in a movie 'sinful Davey', starring Sir John Hurt. Our Mickser was also up for a part in Half a Sixpence but sadly passed away before this could happen for him.

                • #25
                  Hector Grey

                  Have to include Hector Grey here an account of his street trading on Sundays outside the Irish Woolen Mills on the north of the Halfpenny Bridge.

                  Hector was different in that he wasn't a poor street character, he had his wits about him when it came to making a bob or two. He was a larger than life character and it was a pleasure to watch him in action as he convinced his audience he was doing them a huge favour by reducing everything he sold to less than half price...truth was, his business plan was to make 100% on everything he bought and sold, and he did it.

                  Hector Grey was born Alexander Scott in Scotland in 1904. When he moved to Ireland he became a “turf adviser”, selling racing information outside racetracks. It was in this period he became Hector Grey, borrowing the name of a famous Australian jockey of the same name. In the beginning he used the assumed name only at racecourses, but later on when he became a successful businessman, he decided the name was lucky for him.

                  His was Dublin’s original bargain store. He bought and sold inexpensive light hardware, ornaments and souvenirs goods, travelling to Hong Kong and Taiwan to purchase his stock.

                  The actor Noel Purcell recalled meeting him in Honk Kong. “It very was funny to hear him doing business with a Chinese businessman from whom he was buying his novelties, bric-a-brac and ashtrays.” Hector Grey and Purcell became lifelong friends, often going racing together, including trips to the Grand National in Liverpool.

                  Hector passed away in 1985.

                  From the horses mouth.... Ian Scott.... Hector's Grandson;
                  There's no truth in the rumour that Ali Hewson, Bono's wife is Hector Grey's grand daughter.
                  Attached Files
                  We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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                  • #26
                    Hector's Memorial Plaque by the Irish Woolen Mills Shop Liffey Street.
                    Attached Files
                    We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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                    • #27
                      As we know Hector had three shops in Dublin under his name......his son Alex Scott Jnr ran the business.....Hector's Grandson Ian Scott is around and about and has given some very relevant history on his grandfather elsewhere on the net.
                      Alexander Scott aka Hector Grey an immigrant from Scotland born 1904, became a self made rich and flamboyant showman by ingenuity, hard work and stealth, as an adopted son of the city of Dublin we should applaud him.

                      Shop No 1 was at No 26 Liffey Street Upper, Dublin City.
                      Shop No 2 was in Mary Street.
                      Shop No3 was after the move from No 26 Liffey diagonally across the road going north at No 6 Liffey Street Upper.
                      Mr Scott was a Scott
                      Attached Files
                      We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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                      • #28
                        My World and Hector Grey

                        It seems the sale of No 26 Liffey Street Upper to Marks n Sparks or whoever it was at the time, worked out OK for Hector, and he moved to this premises (pic below) diagonally across the road to No 6 Liffey Street Upper, not sure when the posh shopfront was installed, but it looked the biz and the biz continued to boom for Hector.

                        This is the only Hector Grey shop I remember as a nipper, (pic below) and it was a true Aladin's Cave inside, all manner of things you'd never have dreamt of........pen knives with so many gadgets attached... enough to make any self respecting Swiss Army Squaddie throw his in the bin ........water pistols that could could hit the fella at the front of the class from the back desks.....only to fall apart after a couple a shots, leaving more water on yer hands and clothes that yid put into it in the first place....pure Hector Grey magic..... there was plastic flowers an 'dead on' pea-shooters, Y and U shaped plastic 'Gats' (sling-shots), so accurate they could castrate a Bluebottle at 100 yards,... and when used with one eye closed......guaranteed to leave the Gicknas (Dublin strain of a feral pigeon) not a cat in hell's chance of escape......as for cats ?..well .....I'm sure you'll believe me me when I tell ye we were far too well dragged up to be so cruel.

                        There was whistles and windmills, bottles of bubbles with the 'ugest' balloon bubs ye ever saw in yer loife.....not to mention the massive jig-saw puzzles that were so 'uge' it took ye six months to finish them, only to find to yer equally massive disappointment....that the very last piece was missing

                        Hector also gave Dublin the finest wood chisels money could buy in the whole of the northern hemisphere .......like the set me Da bought once, for what Hector convinced him, was a song. I can't quite remember the brand name now, but I'm nearly sure the Da always used to call them what in Chinese would be "Ó yēsū bàofā" though he used the loosely translated Dublinese version of 'ajaysizitsfeckinbrokeagain'.....

                        I pointed out to the Da one day that I could just about see a very small mark stamped into the stock of his chisel......not a 'kite mark' like the real expensive Sheffield Steel chisels, no no........."It's like a little birdie mark Da" sez I.....
                        "A birdie mark" sez he...."Yeh" sez I........cheap-cheap" and ran for me loife.........

                        Hector's memorial plaque outside the Irish Woolen Mills shop at the Ha'penny Bridge end of Liffey Street Lower is a fitting reminder that not only was he a self made man.....but one of the worlds best salesmen, a master marketeer, and a further reminder that if any man could have sold sand to Arabs, you can bet yer loife that man was Dublin's very own adopted Scottish son, the 'magical' Hector Grey.

                        Attached Files
                        We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

                        Comment


                        • #29
                          Hector Grey

                          Hector Grey was born Alexander Scott in Scotland in 1904. When he moved to Ireland he became a “turf adviser”, selling racing information outside racetracks. It was in this period he became Hector Grey, borrowing the name of a famous Australian jockey of the same name. In the beginning he used the assumed name only at racecourses, but later on when he became a successful businessman, he decided the name was lucky for him.

                          His was Dublin’s original bargain store. He bought and sold inexpensive light hardware, ornaments and souvenirs goods, travelling to Hong Kong and Taiwan to purchase his stock. The actor Noel Purcell recalled meeting him in Honk Kong. “It very was funny to hear him doing business with a Chinese businessman from whom he was buying his novelties, bric-a-brac and ashtrays.” Hector Grey and Purcell became lifelong friends, often going racing together, including trips to the Grand National in Liverpool.

                          In his book*Penny Apples, Dublin businessman Bill Cullen, who knew him well, recalls Hector Grey’s sales “spiel” on Sunday mornings at his pitch outside the Dublin Wollen Mill at the Ha’penny Bridge on the north bank of the Liffey:
                          “Yes indeed, me auld flowers, the finest soaps of the Orient … and there isn’t one bar of scented soap in this box, nor is there two bars, nor three, nor four nor five. You have, ladies and gentlemen, six different-bars of scented soap for the delicate skin. leave the carbolic and the Sunlight Soap for the gurriers and try the secrets of this Mandarin Soap for yourself. And the six bars are at half price this morning. Four shillings in Harrods of London but two bob here today. No, I won’t charge you fine people two shillings; let’s reduce it to one shilling and sixpence.

                          No I won’t ask you for one shilling and sixpence on this beautiful May morning, nor will I ask you for one and thruppence.” Hector threw the box in the air and gave three almighty claps with his hands before catching the box again, as he roared, “I’m only charging you one little shilling piece for this beautiful box of soaps. Six bars for one shilling – that’s only twopence each. I’m giving it away and who’s first for the bargain? Thank you sir,” he said as he handed two boxes to one of his sidekicks and took the two bob, which started the ball rolling.”

                          Bill Cullen adds: “Hector had a flow about him. A way with words. A laugh, a joke, a smile, all with perfect timing. A different spiel for every product. And Dublin came to watch and wonder and to buy.”

                          Hector Grey died in 1985, but lives on, even if faintly.
                          Attached Files
                          We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

                          Comment


                          • #30
                            Hairy Lemon was a frightful little character who adults and kids gave a wide berth to. He was a Dub city dog catcher. A raggedy individual,with a tash and wispy stubble on his lemon shaped face. There's a cafe named after him in the city.
                            Attached Files
                            We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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