Proud to come from Tallaght

Ariel photo of Tallaght (c)
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056669235/2?

Aerial photo of Tallaght in 1997 © Jupiterkid via Boards.ie

In 1979, I was born, and thus my 37 years+ love affair with Tallaght began.
If anyone asks me where I am from, I happily tell them, Tallaght, and if they ask further, Dublin 24.
I can never get people who fake their address; People who live the far end of Templeogue, swear they live in Terenure, those who live the far end of Terenure swear they live in Rathgar, Rathgar folk swearing they live in Rathmines and so forth.

As far as I’m concerned, what matters is that you have good neighbours, the school nearby has a good educational ethos, and good transport links and shops are nearby.
If the area you live in has all of the above, does it really matter if it is Donnybrook or Donnycarney?

I think Dublin folk can be very pass remarkable, and have decided the chapter and verse of the type of person an individual is, simply by their accent.
I have worked with people who were born with very clipped ‘D4’ accents, who were the nicest kindest people you could meet.
And I’ve also met people who came from hard poor backgrounds, who now very annoyingly swan about the place in an over the top fixation at trying (and badly failing) to portray themselves as “Middle Class”.

(c) http://www.schooldays.ie/school/st-dominics-n-s-rollnumber-19950J

I have fond memories of attending Saint Dominic’s Primary School.
We had very little, and often in P.E. we would play uni hoc, or other sports using patched up equipment covered in masking tape, donated to us from some posh school somewhere.
Yes we didn’t have computers, or go on fancy outings like kids in the “better” schools did, but when you had great inspiring teachers, who’s ingenuity knew no bounds, it didn’t matter.

(c) http://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/1202/750693-president-hillerys-last-day/

Oh how disappointed and 8 year old I was, when President Hillary arrived at the school to plant a tree.
I had my hopes built of my being blown right back, as this fancy helicopter landed in the school yard, and a platoon of soldiers flanking him like it happened in The A-Team or McGyver.
Instead he just appeared out of nowhere (I found out later he had arrived in some big fancy car well out of eye shot of where I and my classmates had lined up)
I at the time though "I've endured Mrs Cotter’s forced imprisonment for hours on end in the school hall until we could all sing  Amhrán na Bhfiann, for this?"

(c) http://darraghdoyle.blogspot.ie/2007/01/day-i-met-boscos-mammy-for-coffee.html

 © RTE.IE and lambert Puppet Theatre

I had a happy childhood, and never wanted for anything (ok the expensive Bosco slippers sold in Nugents shop in Tallaght Village my Mother point blank refused to get me - despite my squealing - aside).
Many happy day trips were spent with my family, and myself and my friends would be out on the road for hours on end, playing chasing, football, and, usually around Wimbledon, we'd briefly re-ignite a desire to play tennis.
                                                      

I have very good neighbours on my road, and in other parts of my parish who would drop everything on the spot to give you a hand if you were in a spot of bother, be it a flat tyre, being locked out of the house, realising you've not got enough Bisto on Christmas morning etc.
How many people in Dublin 4 can say that?

I will admit straight out that everything was and is far from rosey in the garden regards Tallaght.
I can still remember the reverberations of shock when Packard Electric and later the Gallagher cigarette Factories closed in Tallaght, with hundreds of jobs lost.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/packard-plant-in-tallaght-to-close-with-the-loss-of-800-jobs-1.44286 © Irish Times Limited.
Quite a few of these people are still out of work, the Technological age, and the fact it's vital to be tech savvy to get a  job nowadays, passed these people by.
 

(c) http://www.echo.ie/news/article/amazon-re-submit-planning-application-for-old-jacobs-site

Jacobs Biscuit Factory - Another big employer who left the area
 

My Parish was also the area were sadly Garda Reynolds lost his life in 1982,and last year a man sadly lost his life in an attack beside the bridge to Tallaght Village, and there are a small number people who pop up quite a bit in the courts page in the Tallaght Echo.

But despite these few incidents of negativity, I invite you to pay a visit to Dominic's Community Centre, or the two Primary Schools in the area, and you will witness just a fraction of the goings on in my vibrant, united parish with a 'can do' attitude.

Ariel view of Dominic's Parish (c) https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.2836434,-6.3514138,931m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

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The Dublin Derby - 90 Minutes of hell

Bohemians v Shamrock Rovers

Players squaring up (c) http://www.irishmirror.ie/sport/soccer/soccer-news/drogheda-united-v-bohemians-stephen-5448474

Usually on a Friday morning when I wake up, the first thing I think is "Great, no college today, I can lie here and listen to Morning Ireland". 
But on Friday October 7th I woke up and realised THE day of reckoning had arrived.

I sat up in the bed, and a dread came over me. 
My beloved Bohemian FC were playing Shamrock Rovers that evening, a game with more history behind it, and more pulsating, than even a Leinster V Munster Rugby match.
There are many older men who will be in the stand tonight, who will NEVER forgive Rovers for nicking our best players in the early to mid 80's.  Over 30 years may have passed, but the scars are still as raw as a cold chowder of freshly caught fish.

There are men who for most matches sit in their seats like worshipper's at mass, arms folded as they look on.
But my how their demeanor changes when it's the hoops who've come to play!
They are now marching up and down, biting their nails like a husband in a maternity ward, screaming like a maniac because the Referee simply gave the throw in to the away side.

Entrance to Dalymount Park (c) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_F.C.

 

I will never forget the famous match in Morton Stadium where Bohs beat Rovers 6-4.  I met some lads on the 16 bus, who are now good friends of mine.  Or how I gloated walking round the Tallaght the morning after we beat 'the enemy' 4-0.  Talk about having bragging rights!
Nothing quite gives you that near heart attack feeling than witnessing a Shamrock Rovers playing taking a shot in a one on one with the Bohs goalkeeper. 
It is magnified even more for me, given that my brother is a big supporter of the arch enemy. Upon hearing that Bohs were playing Rovers the following Friday my Mother would announce she was decamping to my Aunts house on Friday afternoon, and would see us again on Sunday!  I would sit in my brothers car with his crestfallen hopped comrades, just sitting there grinning, whilst heeding the text I got after the match had just ended saying "If you say anything in the car you're dead!"  
In my mind there is nothing better than the feeling one gets after the ball hits the back of the net in the Dublin Derby. 

Ishmail akinade mobbed after socring against Shamrock Rovers (c) http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/three-goals-in-13-minutes-give-bohemians-the-bragging-rights-over-shamrock-rovers-31298904.html

But of course, us Bohs fans haven't always come away smelling of roses after a derby match. I still get knots in my stomach thinking of the 91st minute winner from a free kick, scored by Marc Kenny  1998.
I just wanted to get home,  curl up in the bed and die.
Even worse was seeing the Hoops scoop up the massive prize money from the Europa League in 2011, when we were barely able to pay players their bus fare to and from training. 
By this stage, we had psychologically become accustomed to being beaten, soundly in many cases, by the team we dreaded the most.  Rather like a child walking in the front door, knowing what their father was going to do with the belt he had in his hands. 

I could not think straight that Friday, often forgetting to do things, having to ask friends to repeat something that had said; my mind totally consumed by that evenings match.
I stepped onto the 77A bus into town and breathed a heavy sigh. I was finally on my way, and in less than 2 hour time, many of us will once again lose our sanity, and our reasoning, as we test our vocal chords, and blood pressure to the limit.

Dalymount Park (c) http://www.98fm.com/content/006/images/000041/53575_54_pages_06_26363_656x500.jpg

So on 15 minutes This happened, unleashing a scene of unbridled ecstasy in Dalymount Park. 
To me it was a blessing AND a curse.  I kind of hate it when we score early in matches like this. 
The other side are now forced to dramatically up their game in search of an equaliser, and my heart was once again skipping beats, as the Rovers forwards stormed forward in search of the goal that would draw the match level.
But thankfully it was not to be for the folks from Tallaght who had travelled to Phibsborough that night.  They walked home devastated at the result - Well all but two Tallaght people that is; Myself and the man affectionately known simply as "JumpJump" from Fettercairn (looong story) excepted - We were both heading to Tallaght with one hell of a spring in our step!

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