Dear Madam Editor,
I run a busy Video Production Company in Dublin and in my childhood and early youth was a resident of Sandymount.

I well remember the Sandymount of yesterday and the number 3 bus laden down with families from the city and everyone disembarking at the tower for a day at the strand. Ahhh memories!!

Over the years, I have recounted many stories of the Strand and the village and was told on many occasions, “as you are in the movie making business, why don’t you make a movie of those years?” Well up to now, time was in short supply, but a couple of months ago I met up with an old school friend and this year we have decided to make that movie and in doing so we will require some help.
First of all, we would like to acquire some old photographs of people on Sandymount Strand etc. Also, any old 8mm film, Standard 8, Super 8 or 16mm, which we will transfer free of charge to DVD for any people who donate same and also credit them in the film.

The years we would like to cover are from 1940 to the present day. If anyone can be of any help in this project we would be very grateful.
L.J. Sheeran
(email: powervid@ntlworld.ie, telephone: 01 4560982

Dear Madam Editor
I found your website by chance while doing a search for information on The Theatre Royal. My father Bernard Baum is writing a book on the history of Irish theatre and cinema and the people that shaped it. His father was a well-known film distributor and ran many cinemas. I’m helping my father gather information and he would be most interested in getting in contact with Patrick Purcell about his wonderful article on his father, Noel Purcell. I would very much appreciate it if you could pass on any information to help me.
Regards
Shimon Baum

(We put Shimon in touch with Patrick Purcell and look forward to seeing the results. Ed.)

Dear Madam Editor
The over-reaction by RTE to a number of isolated events on St Patrick’s Day is typical, unfortunate and brings little credit on RTE. Thankfully it is as far removed from the reality of the majority of young people.

When will the Public Broadcaster start acknowledging the huge number of young people who daily participate in positive activity, community work, sports, youth groups, voluntary work? When will it start portraying positive images of the reality of young people in Ireland? When will it start giving young people positive role models?

I spent St. Patrick’s Day morning with a group of nearly two hundred young people within yards of the RTE studios. Among the activities of that group last year was the raising of funds to travel to Peru and to pay for and engage in the reconstruction of a home for single mothers. Was RTE there to cover that? Will RTE be there to cover the many other examples of young people as they live positive lives in this City and throughout the Country? The answer by their record is sadly crystal clear.

Yours truly
Councillor Dermot Lacey

Dear Madam Editor
I have been a resident of Sandymount and living in the same house off the Strand Road, which my parents bought in the mid-20s when I was five years old (work it out!) so I am the oldest inhabitant. There were just six houses in Lea Road on one side of the road then and building was continued up to the Strand Road. On the other side was a shrubbery with lots of large trees and shrubs. This side was not built up until the 30s. I had a school friend living up the road and we boasted we could climb every tree.

In those days there were green fields around. There was no Durham Road, only a large field. One side of Gilford Road was a field with sheep. The tide came right up to the sea wall on Strand Road where there is now a stretch of green. I used to cycle along this road and got many a shower bath when high tides came splashing across the road.

Our church was the Star of the Sea. The Parish Priest was Father Ridgeway, a convert and a member of the family furniture business, Anderson Stanford and Ridgeway. The curates were Fathers McSweeney and O’Toole.

There were no supermarkets then but we had Leverett and Frye and Findlaters in the village. Local kids flocked to Miss Paisley’s sweet shop where you could get a variety of sweets at one penny for eight.

Those were the days!
May Nolan, Sandymount

Dear Madam Editor
I am an expatriate Australian recently arrived in Dublin and living in Ballsbridge.

I suggest that we need to do something to clean up the Dodder. It is full of plastic and rubbish and yet ducks, herons and swans, yes beautiful swans, congregate there. I am sure that more locals and visitors would enjoy this quiet river if it was not so dirty and rubbish strewn.

Perhaps your publication could organise a Sunday once a year when volunteers could spend a few hours in gumboots and rubber gloves removing the detritus of our 21st Century. I would be your first volunteer!

The kind of volunteer Clean-Up-Day is carried out in many other countries (for example Australia) and is supported by community organisations, schools, politicians, etc.
All the best to you and your publication for the future.
Stephen Carter, Ballsbridge

(Such clean ups have been done before but obviously work needs to be carried out on an ongoing basis. Ed.)