Would you care to solve a Dublin mystery???

[Taidquest]

or maybe the other child on the pavement could be
their son,would be nearer the right age for your nan's brother James?
as for brick walls I 'd need a pick axe to knock mine down
                                                                      anne

[Cog]

Taid !

this is killing me because the photo was so big I didn't see the other child in the corner really LOL !  so how many other people are going to pop up, still giggling !

Seriously tho I think that you can count on the spooky face in the window as James, unless the Lawlors could afford to take staff on.  I still havn't figured out where I have seen this picture, I am sure it was in an Irish paper.  I asked my mom if she could remember where Lawlors was, she couldn't remember the name but said she remembers a shoemenders near the hospital - bet there were a couple tho !

Still cant get over the shock I got when I saw that other kid !!!!

Carol

[Bridget x]

ErrorSPAM REPORT THIS POST AS SPAM (Use 'Report to Moderator'). DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THIS POST. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS PERSON.]Carol, When you mention a "shoemakers near the hospital" what hospital would that be?  I think I have pinpointed the picture to about 1909.  The little girl standing in the doorway is the GRANDDAUGHTER of the couple, (my mother)  I reckon she looks aged about 5yrs. in the photo and as she was born in 1904 that would make the year 1909.
Mary, my G,Grandmother would then have been aged 58yrs  (b1851) and her husband William 60yrs.
(B1849)  I have changed my mind about the "face" being James their son. He was then aged 36yrs  (b1873) and most likely working for himself. As I look at the photo (yet again) I pray William will not raise his cap in greeting, nor Mary her apron to wipe the sweat from her brow as I fear another half a dozen children will pop out. LOL   Bridget[/color]

[Cog]

Hi Bridget

faces everywhere !

I am sure my mom said there was one near the Rotunda Hospital, not totally sure, I will be seeing her tomorrow and will pick her brains for you

Carol

[dublin1850]

In 1913 the average wage of a labourer in Dublin was less than one pound a week, making prices of 2/6 and 3/6 quite a luxury for the ordinary man, more so for women, who were paid less.

Even by 1947, the average wage in Ireland was only £2 10s.

[Bridget x]

Trish, Wow! Less than a pound a week! that is amazing. No pun intended, but I bet the folk who were unemployed were litrally walking on their uppers. Even those in some sort of employment would have stuffed cardboard in their shoes as 3shillings and sixpence was a huge chunk out of a weekly pound wage.  My nana Julia Lawlor, the daughter of the couple in the picture by a strange coincidence married a Patrick Lawlor (no relation) who was also a shoe/boot maker. As a small girl in about 1941 I watched him measure and make shoes/boots  for customers. He worked from a tiny closet just off the room in our tenement house. The shoes/boots  made from scratch. He would place the stockinged foot of the customer on a sheet of brown paper and draw a pencil mark around the shape of the foot and proceed from there, never getting it wrong! He was a gifted  shoemaker, also taking orders from a shop called "Barry's" in Capel St. This shop sold hand made shoes and riding boots to the very well off people at that time. I'm almost sure my grandfather earned £3.10shillings for making a pair of shoes. I can't remember how long it took him to complete each order, but a long time.  Bridget x

[Cog]

Hi Bridget

not much to report I'm afraid, it was the Routunda Hospital, but my mum cant remember the name of the shop.  So it could well be Lawlors !

One other thing I found out, the nickname for shoemakers was "Waxies" also most of the more fortunate waged business people would have an annual outing to Bray or such place, whereas businesses like the "Waxies" could ill afford such a thing, The Shoemakers of Dublin held their annual jamboree at Pembroke Street, Irishtown, because they didn't have the cash to go out to the real thing on the Dargle Road in Bray.  There is a stone there to commemorate this annual event !  Just a snippet I thought you might like, try googling "waxies" you never know ! (the name comes from the wax they used on the thread)

Carol

[Taidquest]

hi bridget,I can even get the smell of new leather!
sorry to have mixed up the relationships in your family,
the details have now sunk in.
I don't know about a bootmaker facing the hospital but it
would'nt surprise me.until relatively recent times there
were open air shoe stalls on parnell st just around the
 corner from moore st.
                                        anne

[Bridget x]

Anne, Don't talk to me about "Open air stalls" I got my first gym slip from Coles Lane much to the chargin of my sisters! Mum had her work cut out and her purse stretched with her family of eight! How proud I was going to school in the newly washed and pressed gym slip secretly hoping I would be mistaken for one of the well to do boarders.  No such luck! My odd blouse and whitened "runners" gave the game away. LOL  How well I remember the day we had the collection at school for the black babies. I can still remember my mums face when we four girls arrived home with instructions to return with sixpence each, two whole shillings! Ma wasn't in the best of moods, up to her elbows in suds and soap with the huge weekly wash. Innocently informing mum we needed money to feed the black babies she replied " B---er back and tell the nuns I don't have enough to feed the white ones"
Yours truly did exactly that when the nun, Sr. Paul came to collest the money!  Oh happy days!
Bridget x