Show Notes
Today marks the 120th birthday of Samuel Beckett. Inspired both by this milestone anniversary and by the wonderful new exhibition of the work of photographer John Minihan in the National Gallery of Ireland, this episode explores sites that are important to the story of Beckett and Dublin. Some, like Trinity College Dublin, will be familiar. Others, like the family business on Clare Street where he wrote some of his collection More Pricks Than Kicks are unmarked today. Our journey brings us to places as diverse as Elvery's sport shop and Kennedy's pub, as we get to walk in Beckett's footsteps across a city he did love, despite the challenges it put before him.
More from Three Castles Burning
Vincent Browne's Magill magazine remains one of the most important publications of its kind in Irish history. Joined by Kevin Rafter (author of Fearless, a new history of the magazine published by New Island Books), we journey through some of its important Dublin stories and locations. From the heroin crisis in suburban Dublin to the failures of the Ballymun project, Magill reported truthfully and fearlessly on life in the capital. Available now from: https://thebookshop.ie/kevin-rafter-fearless-vincent-browne-magill-and-ireland-in-the-1980s-brand-new/
In the Victorian age, the entertainer Dan Lowrey created a truly special theatre, music hall and Palace of Varieties in the laneway of Crampton Court. Today, it has grown into the Olympia Theatre. The story of this theatre involves daredevil antics, the occasional tragedy and visiting celebrities. In this episode we meet characters as diverse as Peadar Kearney and the male impersonator Vesta Tilley. FÓGRA: The Dublin Festival of History launches this weekend!
Marking the passing of one of the most significant commentators on the past and present of Dublin city, this episode draws from a different discussion with McDonald from the one that featured in an earlier edition of the show. Reflecting on his own career and friendships, McDonald was in fine flying form as we chatted in Henretta Street. This episode is dedicated to his memory.
Albert Pierrepoint was a household name in his own lifetime, even penning the best-selling memoir Executioner. A hangman who followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle, Dublin was an important part of his story, including both Kilmainham Gaol and Mountjoy prison. In the years of the War of Independence, more than one plan was devised by republicans to keep his uncle Tom from carrying out an execution. In this episode, we look not only at the Pierrepoint family, but the strange history of capital punishment in Ireland.
In the early nineteenth century, Madame Tussaud spent several years in Dublin. Her waxworks and relics of the French Revolution proved a big draw for crowds here, packing out a gallery on Exchequer Street and touring the country. She would even create works honouring the leading Irish politician of the day. Her time in Ireland would shape her later world famous museum, and decades later it acquired a particularly gruesome relic connected to a violent day in Dublin.