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| 3348 Dublin City - Palace Bar, Molly Malone statue and georgian doors |
Untainted, unspoiled and unperturbed by the passage of time - that's what makes The Palace Bar one of Dublin's best-loved original Victorian pubs. This priceless jewel provides a very important bridge between the 19th century Victorian pub and Dublin's great traditions of literary hostelries. During the 1940's and 50's this pub became the home of international fame and intellectual refreshment under the patronage of R.M. (Bertie) Smyllie, then Editor of The Irish Times. It was the social home of the Fourth Estate playing host to to newsmen, correspondents and compositors of Dublin's three daily papers.
The Palace was was built in 1823 and soon after was bought by a family named Hall. In the early 1900's The Ryan family from Tipperary took over the pub and The Widow Ryan sold the pub to Bill Aherne in 1946 for the sum of £27,000, a huge amount at the time. As The Irish Times offices are situated less than three minutes away it was inevitable that both establishments would forge close links and that is what happened. Irish Times staffers in the 40's, 50's and 60's would come into the snug and back room to compose articles and meet "sources".
Molly Malone (also known as Cockles and Mussels or In Dublin's Fair City) is a popular song set, which has become the unofficial anthem of Dublin. The song tells the fictional tale of a fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but who died young, of a fever. There is no evidence that the song is based on a real woman. The Molly Malone statue in Grafton Street was unveiled by then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alderman Ben Briscoe, during the 1988 Dublin Millennium celebrations, when 13 June was declared to be Molly Malone Day. In 2014, the statue was relocated to Suffolk Street.
It was 1970 around St. Patrick's Day that a colourful collage of Dublin doors appeared in the window of the irish Tourism offices on Fifth Avenue in New York City. There were so many requests for the poster that Joe Malone, North American Manager of Bord Fáilte at the time, commissioned the poster that has since become an icon of Ireland. All of these now-famous portals are found on the Georgian town houses south of the Liffey and are an established visual attraction in the capital.
If you've taken an escorted tour of Dublin you might have been told by your guide that the famous writer George Moore lived next to another famous writer, Oliver St John Gogarty, in Ely Place. Both were a bit eccentric and it’s said that Moore painted his door green so that the drunken Gogarty would not come knocking on it, thinking it to be his own door. Gogarty then painted his door red so that the drunken Moore would not come knocking on his door! And that' supposedly is what started the fashion. Unfortunately it is just a legend, and the truth is a lot less colourful, more precisely the former residents painted their front doors in order to set themselves apart.
About the stamp
The stamp is a SOAR (Stamps On A Roll) one, and was issued on May 24, 2018 to commemorate the body which reversed the decline in the popularity of the Uilleann Pipes, Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU), the society of uilleann pipers in Ireland, founded in 1968. In 2017 the instrument was recognised as an important and unique cultural heritage symbol by UNESCO. The uilleann pipes are descended from bellows-blown pipes that were known in Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Their modern name ‘uilleann’ is derived from the Irish word ‘uille’ (elbow) as the instrument is inflated with a bellows, rather than the player’s breath.
References
The Palace Bar - Dublin City Centre BID Company website
Molly Malone - Wikipedia
Who was Behind The Doors of Dublin? by Bridget Haggerty - Irish Culture and Customs website
Senders: Maria și Adrian Ilie; Anca și Marius Vasilescu.
Sent from Dublin (Leinster / Ireland), on 01.11.2019
Photo: Liam Blake
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