The following is an extract from the C.Y.M.S. history which was published last year for their Diamond Jubilee celebrations. It would make an ideal Christmas present and is available from Cecil Drivers Barbers on Thorncastle St. It costs £5 and proceeds go to C.Y.M.S. The Sunday mornings were the best. Then Michael Byrne would take us to the C.Y.M.S. for table tennis training in the backhall. Jimmy, "Rallo", Benny, Larry, Martin and myself would be put through our paces, chipping and attacking retreating and advancing while Mick would put even our best shots back at us, and always with extra spin on the ball for good measure. This was in the early fifties, but my first memory of the C.Y.M.S. was in 1947 when the hall was used by Ringsend Technical School for physical training. We would be marched via the Park to the hall by Sergeant Travers to play ground ball and perhaps Swedish drill which was fashionable at that time. We were amazed one day when an irate Christy Keegan barred our way and despite all our protestations would not let us in. It seemed that the senior boys in 2E, some of them today pillars of society, had found Christys store of lemonade and chocolate. They had proceeded to gorge themselves on the goodies and then piled insult on top of the crime by selling the empty bottles! It is a wonder we Tech. boys were ever allowed to join the C.Y. in later years.

Ringsend in those years seemed, compared to today a much dirtier and sadder place. The Liffey end of Thorncastle Street had a lot of substandard housing and the "Products" was processing for tallow etc., the leavings of the citys slaughterhouses. The smell, especially on a Monday morning would nearly knock you off your bike. When the new lady clerk was moved from the refined atmosphere of the Town Hall Ballsbridge to Ringsend Tech. in 1947, she told me she nearly turned pale, as the miasma from the meat renderers assailed her nostrils the moment she stepped off the No 3 bus for the first time.

Some of the old boat yards were still in operation, Murphy's only closing down when O'Rahilly House was built about 1950. It was from slipways on the Dodder that the Ouzel Galley set sail in 1695 on its voyage to the Mediterranean and everlasting fame. The yards, courts and alleyways along Thorncastle Street were the favourite subject of the artist painters of Dublin. The famous Harry Kernoff painted a large canvas of Murphys' boatyard and made a steady income selling signed black and white prints of the same subject.

The long vanished shops evoke many memories. Kitty Whelans, where my mother would stop off after mass, was a superior type of habberdasher where buttons and bows for every occasion were kept in the hundreds of drawers and boxes around the wall.

Hatchells in Bridge Street where Annie Payne dispensed the black and white puddings. She was a large friendly lady whose manner was in contrast to that of the man in Haltons on the corner.
Perkin's the shoemaker at number 24 was where Dan Redmond worked and it was a sad day when his death prevented me interviewing him, the last living member of the St. Patricks Temperance Brass Band. The Band on occasions would go on a march throughout the district playing as it went. The late Jack Geoghegan told me the children of Ringsend would follow the band on these trips and he remembered that when Ballsbridge was reached, the band members would adjourn to a local hostelry for liquid refreshment. As he said, "Temperance Band how are yeh!"

Nelson's grocery, with redfaced Joe Nelson in his immaculate white apron, was next to North's Public House. Peter North, who won an All Ireland medal, playing Gaelic football with Isles of the Sea the local G.A.A. team, in 1901, lived until he was over a hundred. My team mate Willy Ronan who wielded a mean table tennis bat when he felt like it, helped to look after the old man.

The "Laragh" afterwards the Hibernian Dairy and Olin's were further down the street. Olin's had the last half door in Ringsend and unfortunately it was gone before I could photograph it.

The trams were fast coming to an end, (some of the track was uncovered only today at the corner of Thomas Street East opposite the library) and I remember being told by one old Ringsender that the time to alight from the tram was signalled by one conductor calling out "All off for the Holy City." This was because Ringsend was famous all over Dublin for its piety and processions. Corpus Christi was one of those times when the streets were bedecked with flags and bunting and the Blessed Sacrament was brought through the area accompanied by bands and on one occasion by a section of the newly formed Irish Army Band. When Rovers were in the Cup Final, and in those years it seemed as if they had a divine right to be there, the streets again would be in fete. Those going to the match would form up in Ringsend and headed by a horse and cart containing some of the more outlandish dressed supporters setting off for Dalymount. Once "Chunks" Reid attempted to ride a horse there but seems to have gotten only as far as Bridge Street. There is a photograph which shows "Chunks" prostrate" on the ground after being thrown by the horse. It is not recorded if he ever remounted again!

The Pawn shop, Rafters, especially on a Monday did good business and Byrnes shop next door sold cakes I can still taste. Mellons in Thorncastle Street opposite Cambridge Road were popular. Tommy, a son of the proprietor, hoped to be a jockey. But when O'Rahilly House was built the family moved on.

As I drive or cycle down those streets as I have done since 1947 I think of all the vanished people and places but I think especially of my old school friends, Jimmy Moran, Benny Gregg and Willie “Rallo” Ronan who all shared those training sessions in the C.Y. long ago and who are gone to their reward.