An Inconvenient Truth

at

90352042 90352045 90352047 90352048

Ballsbridge, Dublin this afternoon.

Soon there will be nowhere left to go.

Mark writes:

“The closed “public convenience” at the junction of Anglesea Road and Merrion Road, across the road from the RDS. One of 70 public toilets, many having been built over a 100 years ago, that once operated in Dublin, stretching from Harolds Cross to Howth, including areas like Mountjoy Square, Glasnevin, Sandymount, Terenure, Dolphin’s Barn and Infirmary Road. These relics of a different time have a long history, their journey from use to disuse reflects how Irish society has evolved over the past 100 years. In the Ireland of the late 19th century not every home had an indoor loo – or even a toilet at all. This location was put up for auction by Dublin City Council last year but is now being demolished….”

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

45 thoughts on “An Inconvenient Truth

  1. Anna

    there’s nowhere now to pee that’s not privately owned. no wonder people are urinating on the streets.

    1. munkifisht

      There is a movement (maybe not the best choice of words, but still) to get businesses to take some responsibility for people pissing (or worse) in the street. There’s an open door policy in places that sign up to allow people to come in off the street and use the faculties.

      Then in Vaxhaull there is a urinal that is quite exposed, but the benefit being that people using it still feel safe and it can’t be used for nefarious activities.

      Balked at Marks “their journey from use to disuse reflects how Irish society has evolved over the past 100 years.”… eh, no Mark. They were shut down because they were hard to police and ended up being used by deviants and drug users. Has this evolution involved not needing to piss?

        1. Jay

          Isn’t there something about licensed premises that this is actually a violation of the terms of their license and that they must permit you to use them? LCD where are you?

          1. munkifisht

            No, there’s no necessity for publicans to let you use their toilets. Although if they’ve other people use them with out making a purchase in the past then you could argue they are being discriminatory to you.

      1. Spaghetti Hoop

        Yeah, that last paragraph of the post was indeed makey-up.
        We all know George Michael is to blame for this.

    2. Medium Sized C

      I met a girl in NZ who had been to Ireland.
      Her first reflection of Dublin was that there was nowhere to go to the toilet except Pubs and McDonalds and that all the toilets there were fupping disgusting.

      I couldn’t disagree.

      In some way, we are a shower of filthy feckin animals.

      1. Anna

        well, if labour stop shutting down every private space, or privatising every natural resource…..wait until labour’s water charges are introduced, the filth will increase.

    1. DermoMIO

      they managed to turn the one in Harolds Cross park across from Mount Gerome Cemetery into a Cafe without demolishing it, would of been nice if same was done with this

      1. cluster

        It’s a shame it couldn’t/hasn’t been retained – it was a really nice piece of Irish public architecture from a certain time period.

        Hopefully, somethng well-designed will go in its place. The planners seem to have little interest (or little power over) in good design quality

  2. andy

    It was actually a nice building I always presumed it was listed. How much did it sell for I wonder.

  3. rmc

    OMG, I can’t believe they knocked those toilets. Everytime I come home from australia the’re the first thing I see when I arrive in Ballsbridge. Always reminds me of home and my dead grandfather who used take the occasional shit there.

    They are a Symbol of this city

    Shame on you DCC. Shame on You Fianna Fail. Shame on you Bankers. Shame on you Israel

    1. munkifisht

      HAHAHAHAHA…. It is like you opened your mouth and glorious things came out, lets call it a glory hole.

  4. Wayne Carr

    Hopefully they turn it into one of those cool, modern structures with cheap, Chinese stone. They look really good, and are much better than the crap da Brits (or Irish under Westminster rule) put up.

  5. Simon

    It is great to see something is finally being done with this site. The old public toilet building was always a bit of an eyessore.

  6. Haroo von Haroo

    The last public toilet I was in at the start of the west pier in dun laoghaire in 1998. I noticed a boy around 13 or 14 and a man coming out of a cubicle. The boy went outside to sit on the bench. I rang the guards. They confirmed it was a spot for rent boys. If we had public toilets with attendants then maybe I could see them introducing them. The automated self cleaning ones are good but I think they are expensive to install so it’s McDonald’s , pubs and the alley for the future.

  7. Formerly known as @ireland.com

    They should have kept them, to remind us of our urological heritage, just like the need to keep the Poolbeg chimneys, to remind us of our industrial heritage.

Comments are closed.